Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - Kiss the Groom Game

As I mentioned yesterday, I put together two games for the "Welcome to the Flock" bridal shower I threw for my sister-in-law-to-be. The first one was called "Kiss the Groom":



A few weeks before the shower I borrowed the disc of engagement photos the happy couple had taken and picked out a nice close up. I uploaded them to costco.com's photo site and printed the largest size - 20" x 30" - that they offer - for just $8.99! The game is played like "pin the tail on the donkey", but instead of tails you use kisses - which I got in the form of stickers at Michael's (really cheap too! I think it was $2 for 3 pkgs!).

We hung the poster up on one of the large windows in the party rom and covered the surrounding area with saran wrap to protect the windows in case someone was REALLY off on their sticker placement - I didn't want to spend the afternoon chipping adhesive off the windows. If you want to re-use the poster, I suggest you cover that with wrap as well - the industrial kind will stick to the window on its own, you don't even really need tape.

I used a thin sharpie to write names on each kiss sticker, and guests spun around 3 times and then tried to stick their kiss on the groom's lips. I brought a mask, but it was just easier to have people close their eyes since we had over 30 to get through :) No cheaters as far as I know!


The winner, very pleased with her performance :)

It was really fun to watch everyone play, so it was a fun social game for a shower and the photos give it a very personal touch. I gave prizes both for the closest kiss and booby prizes for the farthest away (cute little travel sized sanitizer gel from Bath & Body Works in all sorts of fun scents). This is a really easy, cost effective, and fitting shower game I'd definitely recommend.

Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - prizes

We played two fun games at the shower, so I needed to have a few prizes on hand. I came across these adorable bags on Etsy and fell in love with the design, but I didn't realize quite how small they were till they arrived. So I took the bags into my local Bath & Body Works and walked around like a lunatic fitting little things into them to see what worked and what didn't, and I ended up going with some items from their aromatherapy line (shower gel, lotion, and a candle) in three different scents. I tied each set of 3 bags together with some bright colored ribbon I had on hand, curled with the scissors, and voila:

Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - Goodie Bags!

I've professed my love for goodie bags before, so you know I had to have them for this shower :) They turned out very pretty!



The glittery baskets were from Target, I found them on clearance and bought every one I could find - well before I had a use for them! But the colors were PERFECT for this event. I filled them with shred from the Dollar Tree, jewel toned eggs I scooped up at Walgreens after Easter and filled with Hershey and Reese's candy. Then the main favor was a birdseed heart from Etsy. The hearts turned out great, but I wasn't super happy with the communication from the seller, so I'm not going to link to the shop here.

The final piece of each goodie was a note of thanks. I made these with my Cricut, the Straight from the Nest cartridge (I think I set it to cut 6 per 12"x12" sheet - still learning how it works), and then used an acrylic stamp I had on hand to add the simple message in a handwriting-esque font.

Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - Tablescape

I had so much fun with place settings at this shower! Unfortunately, I didn't get any great shots of the whole tablescape before people came in and started sitting down, so bare with me. There were two long tables for guests to dine at, for a total of about 35 attendees, and of course I was rushing around setting things up until the very last minute!



The beautiful bouquets were from the St. Paul Farmer's Market and arranged in vases I already had. I re-purposed one from Halloween that I got to hold an octopus in the voodoo shop, I wish I had gotten a better photo, but here's sort of the back of it:



I found the green glittery bird picks at Setzer Pharmacy, I wish I had gotten a close up! We did a drawing at the end for the large arrangement, and I sent the two smaller ones home with each of the mothers.



The birdcages were a small craft project - they originally looked like this:



but I de-cluttered them, sprayed them solid gold, and adorned them with a bright pink feather pick.



I ordered bright tablecloths on Ebay. The strips of lame came on on a roll I found in a bargain bin at JoAnn's - I got green, orange and pink, not sure what I would use them for at the time. They were perfect! The pink faded on top of the purple linens, but the green and orange added a great little strip of contrast and shine.

My favorite part were definitely the place settings:



The large bright napkins I happened upon during our impromptu trip to IKEA, and the clear plates are from Costco (I also got clear dessert plates and soup bowls). The silverware (also clear) are rolled in napkins, and I could have sworn that my local party store carried the little sticky strips you use to secure them, but they didn't, so I improvised with a brand new package of colorful children's hair ties from the Dollar Tree. They worked perfectly, came 30/$1, and were quick to loop on. The crowning touch was clearly the little feather bird on each set of silverware :) They also came from The Dollar Tree, and each had a wire sticking out the bottom that I threaded into the silverware pack.



I love having menu cards! Maybe it's just because I'm a picky eater, or maybe it is because the midwest is the hotdish and casserole capital of the world, but knowing the choices before going through the buffet line is a big help to me. And menu cards are adorable :) I used the same design as I had created for the invitations including punching the corners and matting on bright cardstock.

Tablescapes are fun and some of the best places to spend your decorating budget, since people spend most of their time at these events EATING! (or maybe that is just my family?). You just have to remember to get some good photos of your hard work before the party starts - someday I'll have an event where I'm ready in enough time to get all the photos I want!

"Welcome to the Flock" Bridal Shower

My little brother is marrying a delightful young woman (AKA "The Other Heather" or "Brett's Heather")this fall, and months and months ago I volunteered to host the shower. Somehow that time just RACED by, and before I knew it the day was here! I chose a "Welcome to the Flock" theme, both since I love puns and because the guest list was mostly "our" family, the one she was marrying in to, so it seemed very appropriate for the occasion!

Unfortunately, I was so busy I didn't get great photos, and taking pictures of a lot of things all together, but hopefully I can share a few projects. I'll be labeling everything with the "bird theme" label (see bottom of post), so if you want to see all posts on this event, click on that. Now on to the projects, starting with:

Invitations! (click to enlarge)



The bird cage clip art came from a google search, and the font is my current favorite, "Harrington" downloaded from 1001Freefonts.com . I laid the card out in Powerpoint, printed in color on white cardstock, and trimmed & punched the corners so that I could mount on this colorful card & envelope set from Target. The bling are self-stick jewels from Michael's, and each one had a slightly different design. I even mixed and matched each of the envelopes so that they were a different color than the invitation. I loved the bright color palate, and it became my inspiration throughout the rest of the shower planning.



I made address labels using Microsoft Word, and another bird image found online, and paired them with some really bright return address labels some charity sent out. I don't get guilted into donating by free address labels, but I feel no need to throw them in a landfill - so I gladly use them up!

I even got really cute stamps to match the mood, if you'll remember this post (guess I didn't get a photo of the final product). Invitations are tricky business, while it is fun to make cards (or was, back when I had time) it often ends up WAY more expensive than buying, and if you need special postage the cost can really escalate quickly. When you start stamping, layering, and otherwise papercrafting, you can burn through materials and time before you know it. For this party I knew I wanted to stick to a budget AND that I wouldn't have a lot of time for crafting. I was able to meet both criteria with a single pane, standard size invite that was modern and bright.