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.

we gave away 2 sets of prizes: 3 sets of different stationary sets i found at the dollar tree [we included a pen set, magnetic notepad and a picture frame] and a cute gardening bucket including gloves, a hand rake, mini hanging lavender plant and a small canister of sunflowers that i found while shopping at target [of course] in the dollar section. oh thank goodness for the dollar stuffs. but they all looked great. even the gift bags and ribbon were from the dollar sections [i already had the ribbon...it's just a coincidence that it matched]. we spent a total of $5 on every prize.

my pride and joy of the entire luau were the favors. after discovering a website with sand dollar sugar cookies, i decided i wanted to put together buckets with cookies in them. while i liked the cookies, i wasn’t quite sure about the taste and didn’t want to go through the expense of buying and shipping them. it seemed like an easy enough thing to diy so i started looking for sand dollar cookie cutters and found a nice one on the little fox factory.

in an effort to simplify my life, i ended up opting for pre-made sugar cookie dough and went from there. lindsey gave me another great idea of using sliced almonds to stand in for the oval parts of the sand dollar. it took a couple tries before figuring out how best to adhere the almonds to the cookies. i ended up letting them bake for a few minutes and then attaching the almonds and sprinkling a little sugar on it and letting them bake the rest of the way. after they had cooled, lindsey and i coated the bottoms of the cookies with ghiradelli white chocolate.

i bagged those cookies with a white chocolate chip academia cookie i bought from the patron saint of desserts [gregory’s gourmet desserts - they’re so good i helped myself to a cookie as soon as i got the boxes into the car. which is exactly why i ordered an extra dozen] and tied them with ribbon. i randomly came across the perfect size buckets at target for all of 99 cents and snapped them up [along with the stock in two other target stores] the round labels were also from from design-her-girls, like the rest of the stationary. they turned out super cute and the other hit of the party.

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.

the traditional hawaiian lunch plate inspired our menu. becky brought fruit and vegetables for the snacking and her dad made the macaroni salad to pair with my mom’s steamed vegetables [a delicious mix of sweet peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and bell peppers], rice, korean-style bbq chicken and, of course, spam musubi. my friends made fun of me for lugging over a rice cooker but hey; it’s the best way to keep the rice warm!

but the star of the food table was the cake. it was made and decorated by jacki’s mom, and quite possibly was one of my favorite things about the luau. it looked awesome and was insanely huge. so much so that it actually fell over after half the cake was gone! she used gummi sharks, those gummi peach rings for lifesavers, a huge jawbreaker for a beach ball, and the sand is a mixture of raw and brown sugars. did i mention she decorates cakes for a living?

next post: games and favors!