Rosie's Tea Party Shower!

A couple weekends ago, I went to my friend Rosie's bridal shower. Her family decided to throw her a tea party themed shower... complete with hats Royal Wedding style! You can imagine my excitement! :) It's funny because I was going to a concert after the shower and decided to wear a new hat I got (a fedora, not a pillbox or anything), so I was already wearing a hat when I got to the shower. Rosie was like, "You can just wear that one." and I was like, "NO WAY - I will wear a fancy, fun, awesome hat!!" or, I was like, "No, no, I'll wear one." Pretty sure my excitement was evident. Anyway, I picked up the only hat with a veil (yessss), and was promptly pinned in. These hats were so fun! I believe it was her stepmom and stepmom's sister that made them. Look at the fun and ridiculous(ly awesome) things she put on them!

LOVE.

SDogg, I know you'd love this owl hat!

Yes, that is a chew toy with dog bone-shaped sprinkles, lol!

The shower was very laid back, with hats and gorgeous teacups (I'm assuming Rosie's mom collects them?), and tea party-esque snacks. It was a really nice afternoon, sipping tea with our fancy hats on! :)

The beautiful bride-to-be is never caught of guard! She smiles even when I try to take candid shots!

I only wish I had thought to make hats for everyone for my fancy hat shower! Such a cute idea.

Pinky up, ladies!

-C
xxx

Bonnie's Sew In Love Shower Hour

This past weekend was Bonnie's Bachelorette Weekend! Amanda knows someone with a Poconos house and she let us use it for the weekend and it was great! We basically just hung out at the house all weekend. The first night we imbibed a bit and Bonnie started her own dance party in the living room. I went to bed at 3am, and was told that it was a little shocking that I'd be the first to tap out. Ha. But I did, because I wanted to wake up the next morning and decorate for Bonnie's "shower".

Back story - Bonnie's family had a shower for her over Christmas in some other state, so we attempted to throw another shower for her (for us) but her fam was like "You crazies, we already had a shower for her!" or something not quite like that and we ended up cancelling but decided to roll it into her bachelorette weekend. Pre cancellation, we decided on a sewing theme (Sew In Love) for her shower, since she sews awesome clothes and stuff. Amanda and I (Amanda is one of her MOHs) had already been looking up fun sewing-themed DIY projects for the decorations. Even though we weren't having a shower, I still wanted to utilize these decorations because, um, do you know me? I love decorations. Anyway, I made these super awesome (as far as I'm concerned) button garlands and draped them around. I seriously could make button garlands forever. Remember Aunt Cheri's button jar? No? Well, while I was planning my wedding I needed buttons for stuff. Stuff like my bouquet and the men's boutonnieres. So Aunt Cheri basically forces tells me to take her big button jar that we have no idea where it really originated from. It may have belonged to my great grandma, or this woman we're sort of related to through marriage. Let's just call her Anne and leave the explanations out. Anyway, seriously, it's this huge jar full of buttons. I mean, this thing could have been from both my great grandma, Anne, and thensome. You know how when you buy something with buttons and they give you replacement buttons? Or when you buy buttons for something and they give you 800 of them in a pack (I'll never have to buy buttons). Imagine decades and decades of those just thrown in a jar. Then imagine my excitement of being given all those buttons that I actually have a use for! Then imagine Aunt Cheri's excitement of getting rid of this massive jar of buttons she didn't know what to do with. Ok, you probably don't know Aunt Cheri, so let's just say she was more than happy to pass them along. We also found more buttons in more jars, sewing kits, and spools of thread and all that good stuff while cleaning out my Grandude's house (and also some things my aunt had from Anne). I was like "Oooh more buttons!" and my mom and aunt were like "Great… TAKE THEM". I don't know why, but in my head, all I wanted to decorate with were old sewing things. I guess it's like that vintage, retro feel or something.

Spools via Google Image Search

If we were having a big shower, I think I definitely would have taken on some more sewing-themed projects - like these:

Yarn Flowers via A Subtle Revelry
(I would have done more toned-down, antiquey colors, but these are still fun) - check out the tutorial!

How cute are the utensil wraps?? Utensil wraps and cake below via LeslieSarna.com

Spool vases via LushLee.com

Test tube and spool bud vases - so cute!

Via TheHastackNeedle (photo originally via Rachel Ray)

Amanda was going to give sewing kits out as the favor if we had a big shower (so cute!):

Sewing Kit from DollarTree.com

But we were pretty much just having a little shower, aka "Bonnie's Power Hour Shower", so not too much decoration was needed. Confession - because it was small, I definitely had to fight with myself to keep it small. As in, restricting myself to minimal decoration.


(There are no pictures of any of us because basically I ended up decorating for breakfast. Meaning none of us had showered or put on any makeup. So you only get the decorations. Also, the lizard on the window is not part of the decor. He came with the house.)

I loved the garlands so much that I was determined to not throw them away. I didn't really know what I would ever use them for again (oh, hello, you're having a baby? Babies like buttons, right?? Lol), but I refused to trash them after spending so much time on them. As I was rolling them up (HINT: if you do button garlands, you should wrap them around a cardboard tube or something. These things tangle like WHOA and are pretty much impossible to untangle.), Bonnie asked what I was doing with them, and to my surprise, actually asked if she could keep them! Bonnie isn't really a "things" person, or at least not to the extent that I am (and yes, I'll admit, I'm excessive), so yeah, it was a bit surprising, not gonna lie. But I'm glad she wanted them! She said she'd put them up in her sewing room, which I think it perfect.

I also did button necklaces for us all for the weekend. We all had a different color. Guess what mine was.


Ooooh snap. I just found a "Cute as a Button" baby shower theme. Quick - somebody have a baby. Anyone but me. Come on. I have buttons. Will make garlands. Pick a color, any color.

-C
xxx

Photos that look like they're by me, are by me.

Bridal Shower Deets

I know I did a quick recap, but I think the details deserve some spotlight. Sorry it's taken a while, but I was waiting for pics to be posted by attendees! It was held at Roundtree Park in Falls Church, VA. It was a beautiful day! Ok, it was a little hot, but we were in the shade, and at least it didn't rain! There was tons of food - sandwiches, fruit salad, veggies, and, most importantly, mimosas! Everything was green :) green table runners, green solo cups, and all the little details MOH Cassie made were green, too! How did she know?! Lol. Check out all the details!

Such a cute area! Even though we didn't sit at those little tables out there, they were still cute (it was too hot out there).

Mmmm Mimosas.

She made this He Said/She Said shower game, using the same green print I used for my invites. How cute are the little sillouhettes? She even wrapped little pencils and attached them to each sheet!

And she made drink stirrers!

I don't know if you can tell, but she sewed fabric on the side of a pop up hamper and it says "Wishing Well"! That's where people put green glass they brought for me. In case you're not aware, I collect green glass, and it was such a great idea for her to have everyone bring me a piece! I don't think anyone really understands how much that excites me, lol.

She even sewed together a banner - which is amazing and I hope FH doesn't mind me hanging it in the house somewhere... only half kidding. :)

Me and my super cool ribbon hat. Oh, and balloons tied to my sash. I walked around with those on for quite a while, wondering why people outside of the shower were staring at me...

No, I'm not angry here. I have like 80 gumballs in my mouth because we were in the midst of playing the infamous gumball game (where they ask you questions about your FH and if you get it wrong you have to chew a gumball, and keep them all in your mouth til the end). I did pretty well, but Bridesmaid Amanda made sure to get the big gumballs. I was glaring at her for this reason. Lol. And probably stumped on a question... But I did really well, I swear! They were just really big gumballs...

And another little DIY project from the weekend for lil ole me? MOH Ryann had her friend Chelcia made me a fun bachelorette fascinator! It had a silver base and hot pink feathers coming out of it and was awesome. It stayed on all night! I actually kind of forgot it was there... but that would be how people knew I was the bachelorette!

-C
xxx

Weekend Recap

So - my fancy hat shower was this weekend! Here I am (center) with almost all of my bridal party in their hats! I highly, and I mean HIGHLY, enjoyed getting to wear a fancy hat! That dress was awesome, too, and I also wore green shoes :) (of course I did!). Check out the banner behind us that MOH Cassie (to my immediate left) sewed together herself! Yeah, she's not crafty at all... SIKE! I was amazed by all the little details she created for the shower. I wish I had a picture of the he said/she said game everyone played. Super cute! I really can't thank you enough MOH Cassie, Bridesmaid Amanda, Bridesmaid Lela, S-Dogg, Bonnie, LeighAnn and anyone else who helped with set up as well! Above and beyond!


Later that night it was off to my bachelorette party! We had some drinks at one bar, then went on to another one that no one would tell me what it was but I could tell it wasn't just any normal bar! Turns out... it was a drag bar - complete with drag queen show!!

It was HILARIOUS!! I think everyone had a really great time - myself included!! So thanks to MOH Ryann for planning my awesome party and everyone else who came out to make my night so FABULOUS!

I did make MOH Ryann do one wedding project while she was here (and she was thought she'd get away without doing one!). My favors are done - yay! They're mini candy scoops for people to take to the candy bar (aka candy buffet). I even sent them home with MOB to be stored for the wedding. I get great joy when I have things done and can take them there. That way I can't look at them or change them!

Here's hoping I can get rolling on some more projects in the next couple weeks (ummm since I only have less than 6 weeks left!!!)! I think I've just about reached a stage in my unpacking (from moving) where I'm just going to stop so I can get projects done. Unfortunately that means there's still going to be boxes everywhere for a while! Only visitors helping with wedding projects (or unpacking) are allowed from now until the wedding date! :)

-C
xxx

Shower/Bachelorette Party Weekend!

Sorry I've been MIA. This whole "moving" thing is cramping my style. I couldn't even go near any wedding projects until a huge chunk of the boxes were unpacked. Mainly because I A- couldn't find them and B- wouldn't have room to work on them anyway! Who wants to make pretty corsages with boxes towering all around them? Not this girl. So, since no wedding projects/planning have been going on, and lots of other stuff going on in my brain, that equals no blog posts. But guess what! My bridal shower/bachelorette party are this weekend!! I honestly cannot believe it's here already. August 7th seemed soooo far away not too long ago. And I don't feel like I've been engaged for almost a year either! Boy, time sure does fly.

As promised, here is a pic of the dress I'll be wearing to my shower this weekend.


And Bonnie came by on Saturday to finish off my hat box! This box used to be a floral hat box my Meamaw had. I really wanted a hat box to carry my hats to my shower in, and decided to use hers, then decided to cover it in green fabric (it was a bit of a "dated" floral pattern, plus I'm not too big into floral patterns... which I'm realizing is funny because my shower dress is floral, lol), then had Bonnie do it for me. :) I promise it's not as neon and stupid looking as my camera makes it out to be. (Yes, I tried with both flash and no flash. Seriously, my camera hates me.)



Here are all the hats I'm bringing to the shower! There are 4 hats in this box - a yellow one in case someone needs one, the black one MOB called dibs on, and the two hats I'm wearing.



My first hat was one of Meamaw's hats. BRIDESMAID AMANDA had the bright idea to add a peacock feather to it. I think Meamaw would approve.



And here's the green one that matches my dress!

Next up - bachelorette party dresses! I know absolutely no details about my bach. party. All I know it's in DC somewhere. I asked that people wear dresses, pretty much just so I could wear one. :) However, I have TWO dress possibilities, and I need your help! Check out the pics below - which one do you like best? Sorry I'm not wearing them. It was another moving-related errands/unpacking/organizing/setting things up sweaty gross day, and I was not about to put any of these dresses on and post pictures of myself looking like that. Oh, yeah, and I didn't want to get them dirty either. So use your imagination for the shape (first is flowy), but I'll tell you that they both look good on me. I'm not one of those "everything looks good on me" type of people, whatsoever, but would I really post two dress options if they didn't both look good on me? Nope. I'd probably just wear the one that does!

Two very different looks - both green (well, the second one is black with different greens in the middle). Come on, would I really not wear a dress without green in it??! :)

So what's your vote?

-C
xxx