A Delicate Affair

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? – Unknown

One of my best friends, C, got married two weekends ago. C isn’t the first of my girlfriends I’ve seen off into this new chapter of life, but she is one in my little trio. I’m the only one left – it’s not as tragic as it sounds, I’m quite happy with my life as it stands. Of course, before the special day there are parties to be had and memories to be made. I love parties. I love having parties more than I like attending parties. I like having people over at my house and decorating and everything that comes along with being a hostess, right down to the paper invitations. Yes, some of us still send real invitations.

A few days before the wedding, I threw C a lingerie shower. Now, you know I can’t divulge all of the naughty tidbits, but I do want to share some great ideas not only for a lingerie shower, but any get together you may find yourself organizing. Throwing a party to remember isn’t something that has to be grandiose – it’s the details that make it worth remembering.

The Decorations

Crown

I’ve seen the expensive, yet still plastic tiaras they sell at places like Party City and Hobby Lobby, but come on… who doesn’t love a great $0.99 tiara? I happened to have some toile in my craft box from a previous party, so I snipped long streamers of the toile and tied it around each crest of the crown. This was able to function as a decorating welcoming piece to the party as well as something functional for the bride-to-be during our night. C loved the tiara so much we carried it along with us to her bachelorette party and she was a great sport and wore it all night, until some overzealous cowboy took it off her perfectly styled head and put it on his own while he did some sort of distorted country jig. He ended up breaking the crown in his activities which prompted my bridesmaidzilla to scream at him, “You broke my friend’s crown!!!” and shake the broken pieces in his face. I digress.

Pennant Banner

I think pennant banners are the cutest – you can use them for so many things! They’re nice because they can be incorporated into any party – whether it’s a children’s party or something more grown up, such as our lingerie shower. I found a template and used cardstock grade scrapbook paper I had in my crafting supplies. By hole punching the corners of each pennant, I strung each one together with a texturized string in an in and out fashion. The texturized string gives the paper something to grip to so you can separate them if you need and they don’t all slide together. I put some tape on the ends and taped them behind paintings I had on my wall for a clean look. The letters were freehanded, but there are several free templates for print and cursive letters you can find on the internet.

Delicate Decorations

It’s a lingerie shower, so there has to be lingerie, right? Well, this was lingerie for decorative purposes only. There are several things you could do with this idea – a couple are:

1) Get each guest to bring one of their unmentionable items to hang up – the bride-to-be must guess which item belongs to which guest.

2) Have the bride-to-be open each of her gifts and hang them up as she goes – afterwards, take a picture for her to remember the evening by.

I chose to use some lingerie to use as part of the theme of the shower. All you need are clothespins. I decided to pin these from the blinds – it made for a good backdrop during gift opening time. Although, two males ended up coming by my house before the party (they didn’t come inside, but they both asked the question – “Are those bras hanging in the window?” Yes. Yes, they are.

I can’t have a party post without my fellow hostess, Grace Kelly. As you can see, she was very busy resting for the night’s activities.

A Memento

This was really the only purchase I bought, aside from the gift itself, that was a part of the party I didn’t do myself. I found this “adult sippy cup” at Hobby Lobby. The mustache is an inside joke and my friend, C, loves her bling and her adult beverages – this cup screamed her name. I think it’s important to have a couple of items that are very personal and that show you spent more than just a few trips to the Dollar Tree. It’s small gifts such as this one that tie together a memory with the fact that there will always be a part of your friendship that has grown and lasted through several phases of life.

Unfortunately, I was trying to snap pictures of everything in between baking/cooking and getting dressed/doing my hair/makeup, so I missed a couple of decorations. But, I have lots of links for these ideas, so hopefully that will suffice this time. I had a standard 4×4 folding table I bought one year at Rite Aid (of all places) that I used for the drink bar and gift drop off. I bought a standard white tablecloth ($1!) To pull the space together, I made several Pom Poms in various sizes and in the colors black and white – to match the invitations, of course. Pom Poms are suuuuper easy to make and not only that, they’re fun. Most of all have some tissue paper lying around. I suspended the poms from the ceiling using dental floss and white thumbtacks so they seamlessly suspend. Like I mentioned, I didn’t get a picture of my whole setup just because I was already trying to get everything together, but I was aiming for a look like this picture I pinned on Pinterest. And, I do think I succeeded. Perfection.

The Menu

♥ Chocolate covered strawberries are a no brainer – they’re sexy, they’re easy to make, everyone loves them.

♥ A Taco Mix Up

          I didn’t want to make anything too complicated, but I wanted to have a substantial snack. I put several chicken tenders in water in the crockpot the morning of the shower and put them on Low for 9-10 hours. Once I drained the tenders, I shredded them using a hand mixer. In several bowls, I put out the shredded chicken, refried beans, shredded Mexican cheese, sour cream, and tomatoes. Instead of using taco shells, I bought tortilla chips. Simple, less messy and there is no wrong way to put these toppings together.

♥ A Cheese Ball!

          I love cheeseballs, guys. They’re so easy to make, people love them, you can throw all kinds of stuff together and it works great. Can’t go wrong. I looked through several recipes and just couldn’t find one that I liked, so I made my own. It’s extremely simple. Like 3 ingredients simple.

1 package of 8oz cream cheese (softened)

1 cup of shredded cheese (your choice, but I used Mexican)

2 tbsp. of garlic salt

1 cup of chopped pecans

In a bowl, use a hand mixer to mix the cream cheese and shredded cheese together until well blended. Add garlic salt and mix with hands. Shape into ball and roll in chopped pecans. Let chill for 30 minutes before serving.

♥ Grapes… with love

          If you have cheese (and wine), you have to have some grapes. But, classy grapes in a heart shaped glass bowl.

♥ Chocolate cupcakes with Buttercream icing

          I used the same recipe for my chocolate cupcakes that I used to make the Mochaccino Cupcakes – except, I left out the coffee. These cupcakes are so dreamy and I loved the recipe so much I wanted to use it again without the extra kick of coffee. For the frosting, I used this simple but delicious Vanilla Buttercream frosting recipe – the chocolate cupcake recipe looks pretty amazing, too. That might be next on my to-try list.

 The Drinks

Most showers will consist of whatever adult beverages your bride-to-be enjoys, but I also wanted to include a menu of drinks for those that wanted other options. I had been dying to try Sugar Rimmed Mason Jars for sweet tea and this was the perfect opportunity. Instead of corn syrup, I mixed together sugar, a few drops of lime juice, and fresh strawberry juice (squeezed from the strawberries that didn’t make the dipping cut) onto a rimming plate.

 Isn’t it pretty? Love!

I also made water bottle labels with C’s initials on them. The template can be downloaded a PDF or Word document and they were very easy to work with. I printed them out, cut them, and taped them on the water bottles with packing tape. I also imposed peacock feathers on the labels since C’s theme was peacocks. Super easy.

After everyone had gotten some snacks and we opened gifts, the bride-to-be was put in the hot seat to play a few games. There are several games you can find online to play at showers, but I settled on three.

♥ The Question Game

          So. Much. Fun. For this game you have to do a little preparation ahead of time. Send several questions to your bachelorette’s fiancée and have him send his answers back to you. For example: “What is one piece of clothing (the bachelorette’s name) wants you to throw away?” On the night of the shower, ask the bride-to-be these questions… now, this is the fun part – for each one she gets wrong, she must take a shot (or put a piece of gum in her mouth.) Depending on the number of questions this game could escalate quickly. So, be prepared.

♥ Two Truths and a Lie

         Most women have played this game at least once in their life. It’s a fun game to get all the guests involved and swap some crazy stories. The guest with the most points (to guess which story is the lie) at the end of the game is the winner. This is a good time to incorporate a gift, if you so choose. I decided to have a gift wrapped and ready for the winner. It doesn’t have to be expensive – votive candles, body wash, nail polish, a gift card… use your imagination.

♥ Memory Lane

        Have each guest write down one or two memories she has shared with the bride-to-be and put them in a jar. The hostess will read each memory out loud and the other guests should guess which bridesmaid/guest shared this memory with the bride-to-be. Or, you can just read the memories out loud. This game opens the door for all kinds of story telling.

Throwing a party or shower is a lot of hard work – especially if you are like me and want everything to be perfect. No matter if you are on a budget or the sky’s the limit, remember that the memories are in the details and the more personal touches you put into your decorating and design, the more special it is.

The End.