the bridal shower

I'm going to start with a disclaimer.  I realize that most pictures of parties on Pinterest are put on by professional party planners, people who do this all the time, with budgets that are much higher than ours was.  Pinterest can be so good and so bad at the same time.  It can cause people to compare, feel unworthy, and get carried away by trying to impress.  But it can also be an amazing resource for ideas and inspiration and can help creativity come alive!

My goal was not to have a Pinterest-worthy shower.

My goal was to work my tail off for someone I loved dearly.  To create an atmosphere to honor her and make her feel so special and loved and to leave her with memories for a lifetime. This can be done in SOOOO many ways.  Putting on a fancy shower is not a necessary way to do that. 

But in this case, for this friend...this was what I chose.  I wanted her to walk in and feel like a princess.

I wanted my love to pour out into the details.  So these are the ways I chose to do that.

But love can be poured out in so many ways.

 Invitation designed by Tabitha at Whimsical Stationary.

My plan to be doing as little as possible at the last minute was a God-send. 

When normally my list would be 10 miles long and I'd be sweating bullets until the very last second,

I was instead facing this huge event 48 hours out and my baby being admitted to the hospital for a bacterial infection in his joints/tissues that caused him to stop walking.

My world kind of stopped.

I now had no idea what the next 2 days would look like, but I was so thankful my list of things left to do was only about 5 hours long.  Which was about the same amount of time it took for Daddy to get Gavin to the hospital, checked in, and into a room.

So it worked well for me to stay behind and finish and join them at the hospital later.

Things went well at the hospital and after the first day, we realized he was going to be just fine.  We started taking turns at the hospital and worked out a plan for me to still make the 3 hour trip for the shower.

3 hours there,

3 hours of set up,

3 hours of the shower,

2 hours of clean up

and then 3 hours back home to relieve Dave at the hospital and take the overnight shift.

But I was so thankful it all worked out for me to be there.  If I hadn't, there was a entire truck bed of supplies that would have had to make the 3 hour trip without me.  I was thankful for family who offered to drive it there and for friends who were helping with the shower willing to do whatever was needed.

I was kind of a nervous wreck.  Everything was done and packed up to go, but I had NO idea how it was really going to end up looking.  It's so hard to plan an event like this in a room you've only seen in pictures.

I knew that once I got there, if things didn't start coming together like in my head, there was nothing I could do at that point.  So I just prayed really hard.  And was blessed to have my sweet bible study praying about it too.

I forgot to tell you that in the chaos of a baby in the hospital, our family plans to go to KC together getting cancelled, and trying to figure out if I'd still be able to get there myself...

my friend Rachel decided she could go with me!

That sure made leaving at 4am a little easier. And really ended up being the BEST THING EVER!
We called her my little "Cinderella", but I hope I was much nicer to her than the step-mom.
But seriously, she helped me carry in loads and loads of boxes of supplies, she helped me make last minute decisions on some of the details, she got me this and that, and ran all over the place until the shower started. She became a helper to all of us hosting the shower.  She cleared dishes from the table as ladies finished eating, and had almost all the dishes done before the shower was over.  That saved us at LEAST an hour of clean up in the end.
  Even just making the ride with me and being there for me helped me hold myself together in such a whirlwind.

She was a HUGE HUGE blessing to me that day.

I had a "practice" table set up in my basement for months before this and changed things, added things, took things away and had several friends offer input through the months.

I started searching our local thrift shop for mismatched tea cups and then someone contacted me to say they were selling a bunch they used for a wedding for 25cents a piece. Definite score.

When I priced the cost of buying nice disposable plastic plates from Party City, plastic champagne flutes, and all the other tableware...we found out we could save money renting real stuff.

Score again.  Because I really didn't like the idea of having some real stuff (tea cups and saucers) and the rest plastic.

It just meant a lot of dirty dishes.  (enter clearing my throat sound)

That's where our little "Cinderella" saved the day.

Chargers - borrowed.  (except for the 5 being sold on my local FB swap site for $1.  I really felt bad only paying her $1, but that's all she asked for).  Another score.

Gold silverware - borrowed.  YES! YES! YES!!  My favorite.  And now I want a set of gold silverware myself.  I just don't know what I'd do with it.

We had each guest write their marriage advice down on the cute advice cards and then attached them all to a big metal ring for a keepsake.

I realize that I took on a huge task of doing the decorations alone. But that meant that these ladies took care of all the yummy food, helped everywhere else I needed them, and helped bring the whole thing to life on the day of.  I could have NEVER done it without them.

The sunglasses were a little party favor Jenny brought us because we hadn't been able to be at her bachelorette party in Palm Springs the weekend before.

4 Pi Phis, the bride-to-be, her mom, and two aunts.

.

 It was a joy to pour out my love and honor my friend on this day.

I was so thankful for this opportunity because I just don't get normal every day opportunities to do that anymore.  She is dear to me.  Her parents are so dear to me too.

It was a lot of work.  Don't let those Pinterest pictures make you believe otherwise.  The hours and sweat and stress and coordination and communication and every last little thing that has to be remembered...it was a true labor of love. And it required way more hands and heads than just mine. 

But it was all worth it.

 I was honored to have a part in celebrating her and the marriage she was about to enter into.

Oh yeah, my kids made the 3 hour trip with us too.  They were devasated when our plans to stay with some friends in KC were cancelled.  So with Dave in the hospital with Gavin, they obviously had to go somewhere.  So our sweet friend suggested I still bring them along.  They lived on the way to the shower venue, and she even met us right off the interstate to get them.  They were ecstatic.

Before we hit the road for home, we ended our "fancy" day with some gas station hot dogs.

Because sometimes you need friends that you can get fancy with, and sometimes you need friends that you can eat gas station hot dogs with.

 

Sources:
Black and White table runner  - Hester and Cook
Advice Card - La Belle Studio
Invitation, food tents and place settings cards - WhimsicalStationary
Tablecloths and coral napkins -  Linen Tablecloth
All other table decor - vases, candlesticks, etc - thrifted or borrowed
Tea cups and saucers - thrifted

Taylor's 7th Birthday {a "glamping" party}

It has been one. crazy. month.  About a week before Taylor's birthday, we weren't really even sure yet what we were doing We hadn't had any time to even think about it. But maybe you know by now that I work best under pressure.
 She talked about not doing a theme at all because she couldn't think of one.  I was totally fine with that.  But then she started throwing out some ideas...but nothing was sticking for her.  So I got online to show her some ideas. I've seen camping themed parties before and always thought they looked fun.  We love to camp.  And we have kids that love to camp.  She loved the idea of it and we decided to go with a girly twist.  The actual term is "glamping" (glamorous camping).  I don't know if that's a real word, but there are definitely lots of references to it online.
We had already decided that we'd let her have her first slumber party, so we thought this theme fit perfectly with that!

I think this was the most fun cake yet!  But I think I've said that before.  I got almost all of my ideas from a mixture of online "glamping" parties and google images.

 

 

We had a gift station that had their pillowcases and fabric markers to decorate,

Seconds before we lit the candles, Nana and Papa, and our Michigan family called in to Facetime.  So they got to help sing 'Happy Birthday' and watch her blow out her candles.  She was enthralled at the campfire on her cake.

Later, after all of our non-sleepover guests left, and Mason headed off for a sleepover with his cousin, we did smores...

decorated pillow cases...

watched movies and made a god's eye yarn craft...

The tent was definitely the highlight.  We put up a canopy that we use when we camp, and then just started clothes pinning fabric and sheets all over.  We added mini bunting, Christmas lights, streamers and hanging ball lanterns in the center.  It came complete with the stench of campfire smoke leftover from our bluegrass weekend in September. 

Taylor was the first one asleep.  About an hour and a half later the rest of them fell asleep about 1am. I really hated to tell them they really needed to get to sleep, but at 7 years old, with church the next day, I didn't think I should let them go until they wanted to. 

It was pure joy watching these girls together.  3 of them are from her class and her cousin fit perfectly in with all of them.  They got along sooooo well and were so excited about every little thing.  They did each other's hair, played dolls, Daddy served them popcorn, and they were all so polite and sweet.  I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from a 7 year old sleepover, but we enjoyed it so much!