My Bridal Showers
I was lucky enough to have THREE bridal showers thrown for me! One by FI's family, one by my family, and one by my wonderful co-workers.
The first one was thrown my FI's two older sisters (who are also my bridesmaids), and the guests were all from FI's family. The shower was at one of the sister's houses. They just put in a new deck, so we had it outside. The weather was perfect for it too! They did such a wonderful job!
Here is me and FI's sisters together at the shower:
The first one was thrown my FI's two older sisters (who are also my bridesmaids), and the guests were all from FI's family. The shower was at one of the sister's houses. They just put in a new deck, so we had it outside. The weather was perfect for it too! They did such a wonderful job!
Here is me and FI's sisters together at the shower:
I unfortunately don't have any pictures from my work shower, but that was great too. :) We all went out to a restaurant and had some appetizers and cake.
The shower for my family was thrown by my mom and grandma. Both of them were a little overwhelmed by everything, so I offered to help out. I was put in charge of games and favors.
Now, I know lots of people aren't big fans of shower games, and most of them are pretty cheesy. But mom and grandma were adamant they wanted some kind of group activity, so I took on the challenge of making up some fun shower games.
The first game was actually a complete original. FI and I have done a lot of traveling together during the 6.5 years we've been dating, so we have a ton of pictures of us all over the globe! This gave me the idea to create a "Where in the World Are Mike and Carolyn?" game. I thought it was pretty clever. ;)
Basically, I just took a bunch of pictures of us, framed them with scrapbook paper to make it look more fun (and also because I needed to crop out some pretty obvious landmarks), and stuck them to a piece of foam core poster board. Then I numbered all the pictures. I know, it looks like a 5th grade art project, but I was short on time and I literally threw it together that morning.
The shower for my family was thrown by my mom and grandma. Both of them were a little overwhelmed by everything, so I offered to help out. I was put in charge of games and favors.
Now, I know lots of people aren't big fans of shower games, and most of them are pretty cheesy. But mom and grandma were adamant they wanted some kind of group activity, so I took on the challenge of making up some fun shower games.
The first game was actually a complete original. FI and I have done a lot of traveling together during the 6.5 years we've been dating, so we have a ton of pictures of us all over the globe! This gave me the idea to create a "Where in the World Are Mike and Carolyn?" game. I thought it was pretty clever. ;)
Basically, I just took a bunch of pictures of us, framed them with scrapbook paper to make it look more fun (and also because I needed to crop out some pretty obvious landmarks), and stuck them to a piece of foam core poster board. Then I numbered all the pictures. I know, it looks like a 5th grade art project, but I was short on time and I literally threw it together that morning.
I printed up game cards on card stock so guests could fill them in without needing something to write on. On the game cards, I listed all the possible answer choices (to make it a little easier) and left blanks for each number. If I was going to do this all over again, I would have made it a little easier by having a 50/50 mix of pictures that are pretty obvious and pictures that are a little harder, so guests could get most of it by process of elimination. I wanted to be sure to have a clear winner, so I was afraid of making it too easy. However, this was frustrating to some of the guests, so perhaps it was a bad idea. Overall, the guests loved it! We had it set up in the living room so as people trickled in, they had something to do rather than sit there awkwardly waiting for everyone else to arrive.
I also thought a simple "How Well Do You Know the Couple?" quiz would be fun. Since many of the people there don't know me very well, I decided to make it multiple choice so they could at the very least make a guess. I put in some funny answer choices just to make it more entertaining. When everyone was finished answering the quiz, I read the correct answers aloud, which led to some fun story telling. All in all, it was well received and seemed to be a good ice breaker!
As you will see, I designed the game cards and the favor tags to match. The colors also matched the shower invitations and the paper plates and napkins. Overkill, I know, but it was cute. :)
As you will see, I designed the game cards and the favor tags to match. The colors also matched the shower invitations and the paper plates and napkins. Overkill, I know, but it was cute. :)
Last but not least, the favors. I bought pretty soaps from an etsy seller, The Skin You're In. She was so great to work with! For just $0.50/bar, she customized the soap to the colors and scents of my choosing. She shrink wrapped them too and made these nice stickers to go on the bottom so guests would know what they were getting.
I went with green and pink soap. I picked out 3 shades of green and three shades of pink, each with a different scent. Then I stuck three bars from each color group together using glue dots. I attached a pretty ribbon with glue dots, and finally, used glue dots to stick the little "thank you" card on top. The card says, "Thanks for making Carolyn's shower so great. We hope you have a great shower too!" Get it? Because it's soap! Well, I thought it was funny. Luckily, so did the guests. :)
I went with green and pink soap. I picked out 3 shades of green and three shades of pink, each with a different scent. Then I stuck three bars from each color group together using glue dots. I attached a pretty ribbon with glue dots, and finally, used glue dots to stick the little "thank you" card on top. The card says, "Thanks for making Carolyn's shower so great. We hope you have a great shower too!" Get it? Because it's soap! Well, I thought it was funny. Luckily, so did the guests. :)
