Today I co-hosted a bridal shower for my very dear friend Cara. Cara, Liz, and I have all been friends since high school. I have been so happy and honored to be apart of this special time in her life. This shower was the second of two bridal showers. The first was held in downstate NY for the grooms family and friends. Though today’s shower was a bit smaller, I am pleased to say it turned out quite well! We kept the decor very simple, but charming. The center pieces consisted of a charger plate, mason jar with wild flowers, tea lights, and pictures of the bride and groom throughout the past five years of their relationship. We were able to get all of the pieces fairly inexpensively. The Christmas Tree Shop sells all of the items at half the cost you would normally pay. The flowers we were able to purchase in bulk at the local farmers market for a fraction of the price at a florist. The MOH also came across a pretty heart-shaped wreath that we decorated with some of the flowers. We used this for the back of the brides chair as a small, inexpensive touch.
Yours truly baked the dessert, vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. The wedding favors were DIY as well. We packaged cookies into a cellophane decorative bag and tied it together with a handmade flower and bow.
We organized two games for the ladies to partake in, as any traditional shower should. The first was “Finish the Song Lyrics”. I had printed versus from various love songs and left out a part of the lyric. The woman with the most correct answers at each table was awarded the floral center piece! Also, naturally, we had bridal BINGO. By using the centerpieces as the prizes, not only were we able to get rid of 8 vases of flowers that neither Liz nor I wanted to truck home, we were also able to keep spending minimal by not having to buy additional gifts to give away.
I feel that any event, in this case a bridal shower, can be completed on a budget. We were able to cut costs by doing a lot of the details ourselves. Be creative! There is a whole world of ideas out there by just simply searching the world wide web. When in doubt, scroll through Pinterest to get your wheels turning, then let your creative mind do the work.