A couple of months ago I had the honor of hosting a family wedding shower for my soon to be sister-in-law, Allie! Allie and her fiance {my brother-in-law, Jay} both love to cook, and most of the gifts they registered for are kitchen and cooking related, so a "Stock the Kitchen" shower seemed like a perfect choice!
Years ago, my mom gifted me a recipe box filled with recipes from all of our friends and family! It is a prized possession of mine, and I wanted to do the same for Allie! I found a very cute kitchen shower invitation on Shutterfly, and {after much searching} found some adorable recipe cards on Amazon. I included three recipe cards in the envelope with each invitation, and added a photo and note to the back of the invitation asking family members to fill out the cards and bring them to the shower to add to Allie's recipe box.
Invitees who couldn't attend the shower mailed the cards to me in advance, while the other guests brought their recipe cards with them to the wedding shower. I purchased a stylish, clear acrylic recipe box and used colorful scrapbook paper to make quick and easy recipe dividers. {Click for the
tutorial on these five minute recipe box dividers.}
I wanted to carry the kitchen theme throughout the rest of the shower as well, so I came up with some fun kitchen-y games and decorations! Today I'm sharing lots of photos from the shower, and tomorrow I'll post the details of the three kitchen shower games that I came up with.
Ok, so let's take a look around the party, starting with my favorite detail - the flowers. Flower arrangements in my blender and my food processor, to be exact!
I look my blender and food processor to my favorite Denver flower shop {
The Ruffly Rose} expecting them to look at me like I was crazy, but they totally went with it! The plan was to have the flowers arranged directly in the glass cup of the blender, but it turns out that my blender doesn't seal properly {not sure how I never knew that before?!}. Since the blender wouldn't hold water, the florist ended up putting the flowers in a teal mason jar and sat the jar inside the blender's cup. Obviously the look would be even better if the flowers could have been directly in the blender {as they are with the food processor} - but you do what you have to do!
I sat the food processor flowers on the entry table, together with the recipe box.
I know I'm not the only one who had a major crush on the
Oh Joy! for Target line of party decorations this spring {and summer, and fall...}. When I saw some of the spring line go on clearance, I snatched up the tableware, along with a handful of paper lanterns, which I hung from the ceiling of the living room.
To tie the colors of the Oh Joy! lanterns throughout the remainder of the party, I made 60+
tissue paper tassels in a shades of pink, orange, yellow, and teal, and mixed in a few metallic gold tassels for some added bling.
The tissue paper tassels were easy to make, but making LOTS of them was more time consuming than I anticipated! Click here for the full
tutorial on making these tassels, but just heed my warning that these shouldn't be a last minute project. :)
I strung some of the tassels up and hung them from the painting above the entry table, and hung the rest behind the food table in the kitchen.
The shower started in the middle of the afternoon, so I didn't serve lunch, but I did want to provide plenty of healthy snacks, including veggies, berries, pita chips and pretzel crisps, and a variety of dips.
I labeled the food using the same pack of scrapbook paper that I turned into
recipe box dividers.
I also used the same scrapbook paper to label the beverages.
Those adorable two-toned cups are part of the Oh Joy! for Target spring collection,and the water pitchers and beverage dispensers are also from Target {purchased last year}.
I continued the kitchen theme by writing out a recipe for a happy marriage on our
kitchen chalkboard wall.
I read a lot of marriage "recipes" online, and then modified them to come up with one that I thought was well suited to Jay and Allie's relationship.
For dessert, I stocked up on some crazy delicious cookies from
Azucar, the Peruvian bakery in our neighborhood.
I filled the coffee table with a variety of macaroons, dulce de leche cookies, and meringues - and at the end of the party, not a single cookie went uneaten!
I wanted to send each of the shower guests home with a small favor to thank them for helping to celebrate Allie's upcoming marriage. I purchased two dozen 5 inch long mini wire whisks and placed them in a bowl with a little note.
Tomorrow I'll be posting about the three kitchen themed games that we played at the shower. These games were simple to put together, great for guests of all ages, and would be fun for any wedding shower, regardless of theme - so be sure to stop back by for the details!
UPDATE: Follow these links to read all about the three quick and easy
Kitchen Themed Games that we played at the shower, and for instructions on how to make the cute
tissue paper tassel garland!
Let's get social!
Labels: decor, entertaining, flowers, party, recipe, wedding shower
