with the house properly decorated and the guest sufficiently stuffed, we moved on to the party games. depending on the shower, the games can add to the fun or just add to the misery. i was determined to make sure this event was the former.
first off, we created a small book of newlywed advice for jacki. i printed up a set of 3×5 cards with designs i borrowed from paper source and mounted them on 4×6 sheets of scrapbook paper i bought at michael’s [cut from 12x12 sheets]. we asked people to write out a note of wisdom/advice as they arrived and at the end of the shower, we presented jacki the album filled with the notes.
i covered the front and back of the album because i didn’t think florescent kitties quite fit the theme.
our first game was “decorate a cake.” jacki’s mom very kindly supplied the sheet cake [to make the mini wedding cakes] and all the icing for us. we had twelve cakes and intended to have the group break into teams of 2 – 3 people except no one paid too much attention to us over the excitement that they’d be decorating the cakes. teachers…they’re the worst at following directions. the group turned out to be super competitive and creative. it was hard for jacki to pick just one cake so she picked 3 winners.
the second game was the classic “what would [insert groom’s name] say?” earlier in the week i had recorded ed’s answers to a few questions and burned it onto a dvd. we upped the hilarity factor by stuffing bubble gum in jacki’s mouth for every wrong answer. people were laughing out loud at the video and jacki was none too pleased…especially after getting 13 questions wrong.
a couple years ago i had the pleasure of planning and co-hosting my best friend’s bridal shower. and boy did i stretch my creative muscle for that. at the time, jacki and ed were planning on going to hawaii for their honeymoon so i thought a luau-themed shower would be perfect.
i started with the stationary. i printed them at home from design-her-gals [i had signed up for their at-home service about a month before for my christmas cards]. i went through several revisions of the invitation but finally settled on the wording with help from my dear friend google, who introduced me to aloha friends. they had quite the handy cheat sheet of hawaiian phrases.
i also included a business card with the registry information along with a few 3×5 index cards for the recipe box we were going to present her with at the luau.
jacki’s sister and moh, becky, found all of the decorations at a trip to the wishing well in sacramento. she found all of the serving platters and other fun decorations to put around the house as well as the leis, which she and the other bridesmaid nicole made cute nametags so everyone would know who everyone else was.
for decoration, i made several tissue paper pomanders in two sizes to hang around the house and deck. i was quite pleased with myself because i felt like i had thwarted martha stewart who was selling her pomander kit for $20 to make 7 pomanders when i made 16 [one large and one small in each color] for only $7! there’s no reason to buy the kit; especially not when the tutorial is already posted online!
i made them a week in advance and fluffed them out once i got to the house. i do like the smaller ones a lot more than the larger ones. oh, and a tip for anyone else attempting these, it’s easier to cut the ends if you do them in sections. it’s quite the obvious thing but it took me till about my fourth one to figure that out. and another tip, tissue paper is delicate.