Adventures of a HOH, Part One: Down the Rabbit Hole

Mandy's bridal shower was yesterday, and I held off from really posting any details about it here on my blog because I didn't want her to know the theme of the shower ahead of time. This is my story about the planning and execution of her shower. It truly was a labor of love.

Back in January, I found out that Mandy and Paul had decided to get married in May instead of November, and that sent me into a bit of a panic for both financial and logistical reasons. I immediately began thinking about her bridal shower and called upon the monkey and Kim for ideas for a kick ass bridal shower. The monkey suggested afternoon tea and provided me with some links to tea places she'd heard of/frequented. That got my brain working, and somehow I came up with the perfect theme for Mandy's shower: Alice in Wonderland. I would give Mandy a very merry unshower, and we would have tea, scones, sandwiches, croquet, and zaniness.

The first thing I did was secure a venue. I knew I needed a fairly large backyard, and Melinda was happy to let me use hers. At that point, I hadn't seen her backyard yet, but once I did, I knew it was the perfect spot.

I worked with Stacia, who did all the paper products for my wedding, for the invitations and thank you cards. Here's the invite design:



I chose that particular picture because it incorporated quite a few aspects of Alice in Wonderland, which I thought was cool. Here's the thank you design:



The next thing I began thinking about was cake. I really wanted a cake like these:




But with the complicated design, I couldn't find anyone who would do it for a reasonable price. Instead, I settled on red velvet cupcakes but again ran into issues. Finally, I said to myself, "Screw it! I'll make the cupcakes myself!"

By this time, Kim and Melinda were pretty heavily involved in the planning of the shower. Once the date was set for March 29, we planned on getting together the night before to make the sandwiches, cupcakes, and cookie favors.

In the meantime, I ordered a croquet set and cookie cutters in the shape of the card suits and began thinking about games and sandwich recipes. One of my co-workers offered to make a giant papier-mache mushroom and told me that I should dye the grass purple. I thought those were really great ideas, but it all just seemed way too complicated. It also quickly became apparent to me that Melinda, Kim, and I would be in way over our heads if we were going to make the sandwiches, cupcakes, and cookies the night before. Luckily, my friend Jessica from work has a sister named Heather who runs a bakery business on the side. After speaking with Heather, we decided that she would do the cupcakes and cookies, leaving us novices to take care of the sandwiches - and for me to obsess over other details.

A couple of weekends ago, I met Melinda and Angelina for lunch, and naturally, the conversation turned to the shower. We ended up going to Goodwill after lunch, and we found a huge amount of tea cups and saucers for the shower for a good price. Angelina also suggested buying the tea for the shower at Clark's, so that is what I did. And with the (almost daily) help of Melinda and Kim, other details of the shower, such as sandwiches and games, were firmed up.

The point of this whole blog entry is that this shower really was a group effort, from its inception to its end. This group effort played in even more heavily during the preparations the night before and the shower itself. Both of those recaps are coming soon!

*****

On an unrelated note, I want to say thanks for responding to my scary mole post. I realize that I am overly paranoid, and that is definitely due to the melanoma blogs I have read. I did get in to see the dermatologist this past Friday, and she is going to remove the mole at the end of April. She didn't seem overly concerned about it, as it is probably a benign lesion. But, as I have very fair skin, there is no being too careful.

Also, I am way behind on my blog reading, so if I haven't commented on your blog in awhile, that's why. I do plan on getting caught up sometime before the end of 2008.

Lastly, my Spring Break officially ends on Tuesday. I will be in school four nights a week this quarter instead of my usual two. I am going to, once again, be one busy mofo. For this reason, I am so glad the shower is over!