A Lights and Vintage Bridal Shower

This past Saturday we planned a Bridal Shower for one of my best friends. She is going to get married in a month and I am so excited for her.
The interesting thing with this party was that lightning didn't hit and inspiration came like it usually does but it happened in the process of just bringing some things together. But once the invitations were set the whole thing started flowing and we were able to create a beautiful shower for Tanja. The goal was to make it look beautiful for her, to honor her and set an atmosphere that she would like.

Tanja loves vintage things and second hand clothes and simple, natural decorations. The most important thing for her was for her best friends to come together and share food. Of course we wanted this to be in a nice setting.

As usual the invitations had to give you and overall idea of the direction to the party. So I decided on a simple chalkboard design with lights strung across it. We put these cards into brown envelopes and painted the lights on them as well. These lights kind of became a theme for the whole party.

We used vintage suitcases as decorations and to put the favors and presents for the bride to be in. The favors were navy colored bobble hats.
In an old vase we put simple branches where we hung pictures of Tanja with us, just her or other people. On top of that we made cards where guest had to write down a memory with Tanja and she had to guess who wrote it. The two elements created somewhat of a look on the past, where she had come from and her journey to where she is now.
On a chalk board we wrote down beautiful character traits of her and in an old vintage typewriter we inserted a letter from her fiance.

Every party needs something of a photo wall to remember moments of that night and to add to the vintage touch we used the instax mini 8 to make Polaroid pictures. They turn out so nice and it is a lot of fun to take pictures with it. We kind of did it the same way as in this bridal shower. Guests then pasted these pictures into a book and wrote some nice words to the bride to be.
It was a beautiful, very relaxed bridal shower with good food, friends and some nice little details that added to the overall feel of it.

I believe we don't always need a ton of decorations or the most fancy things. Anything that is done with love, a little thought and a concept that is thorough will look beautiful.

A nice party is about making the guest feel loved and welcomed. The main ingredients for that are good food, nice lighting and just the right background music. Add to that mix some decorations and you're set.

As usual feel free to pin and check out some other Events here.

xoxo

Ramona

A pink vintage bridal shower

Yesterday we threw a bridal shower for one of my very best friends. I am also planning her wedding so be prepared to find picture of her wedding here soon also.
The funny thing with this shower was that I already knew exactly how it was going to be and what we were going to do in February. It was one of those moments when I feel hit by lightning and in one creative power hour plan the whole thing through from invitations to decorations to food to favors. So all the planning was basically done already months before we threw the actual party. Her maid of honor brought in some amazing ideas too to make the whole thing perfect.
When I plan parties for other people one of the most important things for me is to make it perfect for them. It is not about me or how I would do it but about them and what they would love. That approach of course does not diminish the work, the creativity or the pursuit of excellence in the planning.
My friend Clarissa loves all things vintage, cute pink or pastel pink and she loves writing letters. So we definitely had a theme here.

As you know from my last post I put a lot of effort into the invitations to set the tone for the rest of the party. For the invitations I chose a design from Wedding Chicks and turned it around a little bit for our purpose. I printed it out on creme lightly structured paper that you would use for writing letters and put it into pink envelopes. When it comes to the font I tried to do a mix between typewriter like fonts and something a little more girly, handwritten.
For the decorations I really didn't want to go too overboard and stuffing it because the apartment we did it in was already filled with so many cute decorations that we could keep it simple and nice.

I had asked a few a her friends to make the streamers which we hang all over the living room. They were done in the same colors as the invitations and looked great with the white walls and brown ceiling.
In the guest room of the apartment we had a little station where we put my mom's old typewriter that had paper in it saying "I liebe Dich..." (German for I love you). That station was part of the photo booth we created. We took Polaroid pictures which guest could paste into a book and write a personal note for Clarissa. That was Tanja, the maid of honor's idea.
For the photo booth we had used this idea from here and also used the same colors as the invitation. It looked perfect and everybody loved it!

It was a ton of fun and the photos turned out amazing.
Now for the food and the favors: We actually had the food catered by one of our very good friends. She is for me the most creative and amazing cook and delivers more than food: love, passion, creativity, hospitality. She is amazing and the food was so great. We had pink lemonade (recipe taken from here) with cute paper straws and re-used the bottles from my birthday party. Then we had savory food and after the presents some amazing dessert with cakes and what not.
For the favors we just stuck with the theme and prepared little letter writing kits. I got the idea from Terrain (a pretty awesome shop if you ask me) and turned them around for us.

It was such a beautiful celebration and we were able to really honor Clarissa not only with presents but by getting together, by putting some effort into making the shower something to remember for her. These are the last couple weeks as an unmarried woman and to be part of her life and her journey is amazing. At the end my pastor prayed over her and blessed her for her coming marriage.
Clarissa loved it a lot and we hope that she will pick up that book we made her many years from now and remember those beautiful moments with her best girlfriends and important women in her life.

And again with this event it wasn't about the decorations and the favors or making it the perfect little party. It was about creating an atmosphere, about creating moments which she will never forget. The whole planning and crafting and creating and baking and making was all part of creating that atmosphere. It was the framework in which memories happened.

I believe if that is our attempt at hosting a party and throwing a party for somebody else than it will always turn out amazing because you put your heart and soul into make it something beautiful for somebody else.

xoxo

Ramona

PS: you can always find more inspiration and event ideas in my Event section of this blog.