My Iced Tea Bridal Shower Recap on Mel’s Monday

Yay! I am SO excited about today’s “Mel’s Monday” because I finally get to share some kind of recap from my own pre-wedding events! I’ve been dying to share pics from my Iced Tea Bridal Shower that took place over the Fourth of July weekend. My wonderful sister, Lydia was an amazing host and brought out the Martha Stewart in her to create a truly unforgettable and most perfect bridal shower day for me. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. My mom was there as she always is to help be the “creative team behind the scenes” as I like to call it, helping with set-up, special props and other creative elements. I LOVE that we get our creative streak from her and I’ve already warned Mr. Oceanside that I do plan on passing down the gene to our future children so he should just go ahead and be prepared for future family weekends to be filled with paint, glue, stencils, hot glue guns, felt, card stock, stickers and rubber stamps! Lol.

Anyway, no further delays, let’s dive into the fun weekend we had…

My sister made the most unique bridal shower invites that welcomed the guests to the “Iced Tea” themed bridal shower. She home printed the invites,  cut out the little paper tea cups by hand and assembled the card stock invites that included a layer of lace and an adorable little “tea bag” made of fabric and thread that shared our registry information. Creative don’t you think?!

Haha, my silly bridesmaid Dominique is all about “photo opportunities” and saw one using the props! Lol…this is me and the host, my beautiful sister Lydia.

Although this took place on a warm Georgia summer afternoon, I LOVED the outdoor set up. It was so perfect!

Mmmm, mmmm…my mom’s chicken salad croissants and Asian lettuce/chicken wraps are amazing!! Trust me.

The games were so fun!! I was super shocked and overwhelmed with excitement by one game my sister came up with.  She found a way to incorporate my blog- The Oceanside Bride! She printed these amazing cards with a snapshot of us, the blog homepage, and the game instructions. In case you have a friend who blogs and want to incorporate it somehow in her pre-wedding events here were the instructions for the challenge:

Blogging the Big Day!

The Oceanside Bride is about to be married but who will blog HER story? That would be YOU…well sort of.  Since the big day hasn’t actually happened, it would be hard to write about it. So you’re challenge today is to create a blog TITLE for the happy couple!

Directions: With the ladies at your table, combine your creativity to come up with a blog title that reflects Mel and Mark’s relationship and love for each other.

Use this sheet to brainstorm, write, and re-write. When you think you have the perfect title, write it on The Oceanside Bride’s blog page (in the blank box).

The game was played throughout the shower and teams had to turn in their final titles before gifts were opened.

The fun part? I got to review all the creative “anonymous” blog titles and choose the winner. Once I read the winning title out loud, my sister revealed the team members who won the grand prize!

We had a private table for two…my Matron of Honor {and cousin} Katrina flew in from California to be a part of my day. =)

Family & friends working hard on their blog titles…ha ha!

Loved this window pane of tea cups that my mom made!

Favors were cute cups filled with little packets of cookies and tea!

That’s a pic of me (above) opening up one of my favorite gifts from my youngest sister, Stacy and her hubby. It is seriously the most unique salt and pepper grinder I spotted at a Georgia state fair I went to with my mom and sisters for Mother’s Day. I wanted it so bad but being on a wedding budget, didn’t buy it.  Somehow Stacy and my brother in law (who were there at the fair) bought it behind my back when I wasn’t looking! Sneaky, sneaky….

Don’t ask me what the paper napkins/doilies are for (first pic above)…I still don’t know. My sister had me leave when she explained the object of these to the guests. I’m assuming I’ll find out soon though, lol! =)

And since we had a destination wedding and some of my bridal shower guests were not attending the wedding, I decided to leave out my wedding guest puzzle that served as our guest book. Although they wouldn’t be at the actual wedding, all of these people have been in my life for many, many years and have still contributed their time, love and support throughout our lives and wedding planning so I felt it was important to capture their presence by signing a piece of our “guest book” wedding puzzle. As I put it to guests at our wedding in Cabo, each and every one of these people are a “piece” to our puzzle and without them we would not be complete.

And I love this last picture we took at my shower. These are some of the most influential, strong and independent, encouraging, nurturing, and loving women in my life.  In this picture are my moms, mother-in-laws, sisters, cousins, middle school, high school and college best friends, old co-workers turned friends for life, cheerleaders, support system, shoulders I’ve cried on, will cry on, and hands I promise to hold should they need a friend. The women in this picture, blood or not, are family.

An even greater blessing is that I have more amazing women in my life who were not able to be there physically but who were there in spirit. It’s such a blessing to have so many wonderful women (and men) who are always in my corner and I thank God every day for these gifts.

All photo credits go to my step-sisters, Christy Browne and Jamie Grant. =)

A Couple’s Shower in Never Land

Now although this couple’s shower was not held oceanside, I believe we can still classify it as being destination. It was held in Never Land after all!

My sister Lydia was obsessed with Tinker Bell growing up and her husband Richard’s all-time favorite Disney movie is Hook.  So when it  came time to host their couple’s shower, I couldn’t think of a better idea than to create a Never Land fairytale for their special day. With our parents in agreement to using their backyard for the shower, along with a little imagination, I got started on designing their Never Land invitation…

“Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock”

I hosted an “Around the Clock” themed shower to go with the infamous Crocodile’s ticking clock.  After being assigned a different hour of day, each guest brought a gift corresponding to the time they were assigned.  Confused? I don’t blame you.

Here’s how it works: Grandma Sue is assigned 9:00 am.  She may choose to buy a coffee maker.  Cousin Katrina is assigned 12:00pm. She may choose to buy the couple a picnic basket for an afternoon lunch date at the park.  Best Friend Mary is assigned 8:00pm. Her gift may be a cocktail mixing set for an evening of entertaining.  You get the idea!

The long Labor Day weekend was the only weekend the couple had free before their big day in November, so we took advantage of the extra day and hosted all their pre-wedding events!  On Saturday we hosted the couple’s shower and later that evening the ladies and gentlemen went their separate ways to enjoy a fun Bachelor and Bachelorette night!  We spent Sunday afternoon kayaking down the Broad River with a group of 20 and Monday was a day of recovery.

Because there were several events, I had to create a invitation that allowed me to share individual event details and RSVP options. I’ve seen other DIYers use perforated paper cutters for other fun projects and I couldn’t wait to use mine! I created a small RSVP card for guests to tear and return.

BIG kudos actually went to my Fiancé, Mark for the idea of printing a pirate’s map on the back of the kraft paper envelopes. He’s truly a genius- just one of the many reasons why I love him of course! I added a dotted line from the pirate’s ship and a heart “marked the spot” right on top of the state of Georgia, where Lydia & Richard live.

The final invitation included five sheets of card stock alternating in colors yellow and white and cut to create a cascading look.  My mom and I used a small hole punch to loop twine through to hold the pages together.  Divine Twine had an amazing selection of colors for me to choose from!

I was excited to celebrate my awesome sister and her sweetheart and I hope I was able to create a memorable shower for the both of them!  Lydia and Richard are a fun loving couple and truly big kids at heart. I believe they secretly hope they really never have to grow up just like Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.

Shower Me with Etiquette

So I got a call from my best friend Denise who had a Bridal Shower dilemma.  She was recently asked to serve as a host for a friends wedding. Although not really close with the bride-to-be, she accepted the invitation nevertheless. With the role comes buying a new dress the bride has asked the hosts to wear and is splitting the costs with the other bridal party members for other upcoming bridal events.  The bridal shower was one event Denise recently had to miss.  Her question was whether or not it was proper etiquette to still buy the bride-to-be a shower gift or would buying a wedding gift be enough since she is helping to foot the costs of some other wedding related events/attire?

Here are a few different opinions posted on Askville:

“You are never required to give gifts.  They are obviously a nice way to show thanks, or appreciation, or just simply “thinking of you” but one should never feel required in any event to give a gift.”

“It is acceptable to give a large gift at the shower as both a shower and wedding gift.  If you want to give the couple something very special from their registry, this is OK to do.  If your budget is modest, don’t feel obligated to spend more than you can on gifts or on giving a generous check.  The amount you spend should be determined not only by the closeness you have with the bride, groom, or both, but also by your own budget.  You’d probably want to do more for, say, your best friend on the planet than you would for a college friend you’ve only spoken to a few times in the past ten years.”

“Typically the shower gift would be for the bride. Something like lingere, a photo album, something personal. The wedding gift would be for the couple or it could be money.  It is a lot but weddings are very expensive.”

I’ve never found a defined answer for this etiquette quesion, but how you feel about this issue?