Pretty Party Ideas: A Blue Bridal Shower, Louboutin style

The shower I gave for Christina is starting to look like a bride at the end of her bachelorette party, because baby, she gets around. You go, honey. Here’s my most famous bash, as featured on Hostess with the Mostess (thanks, Jen!), in AZ Magazine, The Arizona Republic, and blogs galore.

The inspiration: Christina’s something blue — a pair of killer Louboutins that I borrowed for centerpiece duty.

Next, I assembled every blue treat I could imagine, like mini lemon-blueberry cupcakes (on stacked Tiffany boxes as a cake stand).

At right, parmesan truffle popcorn in paper cones sealed with monogrammed stickers I made at home.

Mini milkshakes are my party trademark because people freak out when they appear and they’re ridiculously easy. How to make: go through the drive-through, and order two large vanilla shakes to go. Yup. Works every time.

I found the shot glasses at Big Lots a few years ago, $1.99 for three. To decant: pour the shakes into a large ziploc bag. Cut off a corner of the bag and pipe into the glasses like frosting. The straws are from Smeeks. I cut them in half. Also sold online here.

Below, I served fruit and cookies in cupcake liners (also from Smeeks) and ice cream in nut cups complete with blue sprinkles (find in Arizona at ABC Baking Cake Decorating).

Also on the menu: Greek salad, grapefruit mimosas, and mini bottles of water with personalized labels.

We had the party at one of my favorite shops, Domestic Bliss in Mesa. The space has been re-imagined by the Bliss folks as FOUND, and I still think it’s a great place for a party.

No shower games here: we shopped, noshed and did a craft: peacock fascinators for our hair. They did double duty as activity AND party favor.

Lucky location:  Allison Tyler Jones‘ AMAZING photo studio is across the hall, and she opened up to play photo booth with my guests.  (It was Domestic Bliss owner Kristin Alber’s idea, and it was brilliant. So posh, and so much fun.)

It is impossible to play shy around Allison, who had each of us thinking we were totally Tyra Banks. She’s one of the best portrait photographers I know (and I know a lot), so it was a privilege to play with her. (She does babies, families and engagements, too. Drool.) The cute blue props? Her idea.

My mom and sisters came to the shower to help me play hostess. Thank you Mom, Heidi, and Kapri. Thank you, Allison, for this photo that became an instant treasure.

Decor: Martha Stewart tissue paper flowers, (dying) roses tucked into the lid of a Tiffany box lined with plastic and Oasis, and Christina’s wedding announcement, created by my friend Andrea Heser, the local letterpress goddess of Featherpress Design.

I made the shower invites: simple postcards that went out in the mail.

On the back, small die-cut envelopes held a card with all the important info on it.

Photos in studio by Allison Tyler Jones, photos of party by Jill Richards/The Arizona Republic and me.

By |2010-08-15T17:00:12-07:00August 15th, 2010|Parties|1 Comment

Hubba Hubba Heidi Lingerie Bridal Shower

When my little sister was about two, she’d walk around the neighborhood in these puffy pink dresses and her little two-year-old boyfriend would call her “Hubba Hubba Heidi.” The name kinda stuck, so that was our shower theme: corsets, pink and black, and H monograms wherever we could add them. My other sis, Kapri, humored me and rubbed H’s onto each plate, soup cup, and glass . . . she really loves me now. (Actually, she’s just as insane in the head as I am.) So here it all is, complete with links to my fave recipes and sources. Note: all good photos taken by Kapri (thanks for sharing). All bad photos taken by moi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can order the rub-on monograms from wongerfulgraffitiwedding.com. My mom created these crazy chic floating flower arrangements – cut the buds short and nestle them in glass vases until you’ve packed them tightly enough that they stand upright.  We were doing this four minutes before people walked in the door, running around, crazed and cursing our OCD selves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite new party trick, learned from my friend Nat’s fancy fab wedding: mini milkshakes. People swoon for these, girls — positively go silly with joy. Here’s my little cheater trick: the milkshake is from McDonald’s — drive-through, get three large shakes, decant them into pretty mini glasses and dress up with chocolate straws. (I charmed the AJ’s pastry chef into letting me buy these.) And here’s the pink corset cake that my mom made (she rocks). She also went to the store for more icing four different times. That’s love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Napkins: we are nerdy overachievers and used real linens, and I cutout 800,000 paper corsets from cardstock, and tied them up with ribbons. The party favors are custom cookies from Favorz, which gave us the whole corset idea in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mini cups of potato leek soup that Kapri made, from scratch, garnished with rosemary, from her garden. And right, our cute crudites we culled from Martha: hollow out portions of baguette, fill with your favorite veggie dip, and tiny veggies. In the end, the guests can eat their bread bowl, already slathered with dip. So smug, but in a very satisfying way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The buffet, left, and the monogrammed plates, right. (And color-coordinated jelly bellies: a staple of our parties just because they match. Did I mention that we’re nuts?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even her gift from me matched. (Those are feather-covered boudoir heels on top.) Isn’t she lovely?

 

 

 

 

 

 

By |2010-01-15T20:15:16-07:00January 15th, 2010|Parties|1 Comment

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