In today's The Bridesmaids Write post, my absolutely wonderful best friend and Matron of Honor shares what all went into planning my fantastic bachelorette/personal shower weekend. As you saw in previous posts, it was one of the most incredible, beautiful weekends of my adult life, and I owe it to this lovely lady!
Jordan’s bachelorette night/personal shower was by far been
the best event I’ve had the privilege to plan. Everything went so smoothly
and turned out so much like we wanted it to! I must have actually made a good plan, which is pretty
rare for me most of the time. Jordan can attest to this, but as I’m getting
older planning is becoming a part of life I have to learn.
I honestly
could not have done it without the bridesmaids--Lizz, Rachel, and Kali. They
were so very helpful making sure we had everything and also helped disperse
some of the expenses.
For you future shower throwers of any kind, I just want to go
over some of the main areas of planning the bridesmaids and I discussed to
create such a wonderful weekend!
Theme:
This is probably my favorite area so I’ll start with
it!
Establishing a theme and sticking to it will help any event have a focus
and leave guests feeling good and, most importantly, comfortable. When Jordan
mentioned she wanted to do some
glamping and then a
flower potluck, ideas
starting flooding my mind--I was so excited! Since we had the bachelorette
party and shower in Fayetteville and I live in Tulsa, Jordan sent me links to a
couple of cabiny places where we could potentially stay. One of the places she
mentioned was a cabin in the same state park she is getting married, and to me this
was the perfect place so we could all walk around and visualize the wedding day
with Jordan.
When we got to the cabin we were so excited because it was so adorable. The outside was made
of stone and the inside had wood floors, a fireplace, a little bedroom, a kitchen
and living area--it completely fit in with our glamping theme.
The night was filled with
roasting hot dogs, making smores, lots and lots of chatting, and a few
unwelcome critters (they were NOT part of the theme).
The flower potluck was pretty self explanatory as far as
theme:
flowers, flowers, and more flowers.
We also only had 8 girls there,
which I recommend to brides really wanting to spend some quality time with
their best gals. It made it easier to talk with each other and created a super
casual atmosphere.
For both of these events a common theme we stayed true to was handmade. This mainly showed up in the decorations, but we also brought
our own food and visited the farmers market to support local farmers by buying our flowers from them.
Decorations:
Okay, I lied… this is actually my favorite area.
I love working with my hands and crafting. There are so many cute and easy
things you can make to fit any theme. My recommendations would be to think of
inexpensive materials that will make a big impact in a room and try to come up
with unique ideas (maybe use Pinterest as a guide rather than an
instruction manual).
My current favorite material to use is paper. For Jordan’s
shower I found an old book and cut out heart shapes from the pages. I took the
hearts and lined them vertically and sewed them together into a strand. I made
several strands then tied them around an embroidery hoop to make a hanging heart
mobile. This decoration made a big impact in the room and cost me nothing since
I already had a book, embroidery hoop, and sewing string! Poster board,
cardstock, newspaper, or any type of paper would work, and you can find them in bulk for next
to nothing.
Saving money is important to me and I know Jordan really
appreciates the sentiment in taking the time to make something rather than buying it off the shelf. She and I are very much alike in this area, and it makes the
shower and wedding planning process A LOT of fun.
Food:
The food was delicious! I’m not going to go in depth
on food because you have so many options, but I can say that it was really important to make a list and
have the hostesses/bridesmaids make a dish or two to put together a complete spread.
This was super helpful and also saved us all money. We all made something at home beforehand and brought it with us to Fayetteville. The only thing we bought already made was a delicious cheesecake (Jordan's favorite) from Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville.
Games:
What shower or bachelorette party doesn’t have
games?!
The game I most recommend is the Newlywed Game. I'm sure a lot of people
think it’s corny, but I just love how the groom gets involved. I asked Daniel a list of questions before the
shower and then asked the same questions to
Jordan at the shower to see if she would get the same answers as Daniel. By the end of the game, we all
got to know Daniel a little better and also saw how perfect Jordan and Daniel
are for each other.
There are a lot of other types of games out there for personal showers, but we preferred not making everyone uncomfortable by playing
something raunchy, which Jordan appreciated. We established our theme as laid back, handmade, but still intimate with a small group and good conversation.
I love showers!
They do take a little time to put together, but afterward you have awesome memories that may not have happened
if you didn't take time to plan.
Thanks for taking the time to read and please don’t forget
to donate to help out Daniel and Jordan’s goal to help as many people as possible by their
wedding date--October 26th!
Helping others is so simple and we have so much to give!
-Nataley
