My Cute and Creative Bridal Shower :)

I wanted to share with you all some of the pictures from my fabulous bridal shower last weekend. They truly did an amazing job hosting it. Every little detail- the decorations, food, games, etc. It was so great! I had so much fun at the shower with friends and family. I feel so so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. I must say, I have a very creative family. :)

The party planners are in the picture below... my cousin Heather, my aunt Terri, my grandma Diana, my aunt Karen, my sister Chelsie, and my cousin Kayleigh (who sadly couldn't make it).

They made this super cute fabric curtain/banner. They cut out strips of fabric and tied them in knots to a rope and hung it on the fireplace. It is something that could be reused again for another party like a baby shower or you could use them as curtain, etc. I think I am going to hang it up in my room! :)

I liked the decor on top of the fireplace too. They put up some fabric Anthropologie letters "M" for Mandy and "J" for Jon on top of the mantle. They also stacked antique books with little teacups and flower pots on top. So cute and creative!

As you can also see they decorated my "throne"- the place where I sat at my shower. They covered it in tule and my sister made really cute little felt birds and hearts that stuck to the tule. On the bottom right you can see they even put out my grandmas antique umbrella for decoration.

Here is the shot of the other side of the room. They made tissue paper pomander balls and hung them from the ceiling. So cute and really easy to make!

Look at these yummy cupcakes! They were amazing! They even made a few gluten free ones for me and they were delicious. Can you see the sparkle on the cupcakes? Love it!

My party planners also made these adorable signs to place near the food so everyone would know what they were eating. They bought little flowers and glued them onto some card stock. For the base they actually cut little styrofoam balls in half and covered them with fake moss. Great idea!

This was a really cute idea too. They made a jar that said, "Words of Wisdom" and asked everyone to fill out a card with some wisdom about marriage/life for me. Thanks everyone for all your advice! I really loved reading them. :)

They also did a cute game in which everyone had to unscramble the words that Jon uses to describe me. Very fun idea! They also filmed Jon secretly a week or two before the bridal shower and asked him questions about himself. At the shower they would ask me a question about Jon and play back the video with his answer. They kept track of how many I got right. It was so funny! And it was a great way to incorporate Jon into the shower too.

And here's a picture of Jon and I before everyone arrived for the shower. Jon left to go hang out with the guys shortly after this. :)

DIY Wedding Arrow

In between writing thank you notes, cleaning the kitchen, putting away gifts, and getting new carpet put it, I wanted to show you a wedding project I made last week. :)

It's an arrow sign to put up at our wedding to direct our guests on where to go. This was a really easy project and didn't take much time. I had a lot of fun making it too.

I started off with just a plain wood sign I bought at Michaels.

I painted the entire sign with some brown acrylic paint for the base.

After the brown paint dried, I painted over the top of the brown with an antique white acrylic paint.

After the white dried, I took a piece of sand paper and sanded it down so that the brown underneath showed through where the wood grains are.

I also bought a set of stencils from Michaels and used them to sponge paint on the letters in brown.

And it was finished! I still need to screw in some hooks in the top and tie some ribbon on it so that we can hang it at the wedding. :) Hope you like it as much as I do! Thanks for reading!

Handmade Hostess Gifts

I feel like there are a million things to talk about because I have been so busy lately with wedding planning. Sorry I have gotten so behind on keeping you up to date!!

Today I would like to show you the gifts I made for the wonderful ladies who put on my bridal shower this Saturday. By the way, the shower was so much fun. I feel extremely blessed to have so many wonderful, generous women in my life. Oh and the decorations were so adorable. My two aunts, two cousins, grandma, and sister all took part in the decor and they did an amazing job. I will post pictures later.

So... how did I make these hostess gifts? I wrapped Anthropologie candles up in the fabrics I am using for our wedding. I tied them shut with some twine and a little note thanking them for all their hard work. Simple, easy, and fun!

My Friend's Pink Mountain Resort Wedding

On February 12th, 2011 my good friends Katy and Chris got married at Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite, CA! It was a beautiful wedding. Lots and lots of pink.... and so Katy! :) Here are a few pics from the wedding I wanted to share with you.

The happy couple walk back down the aisle after being married.

My friend Bekah made this adorable seating chart. I loved this idea! I think she took pink lace and wrapped it around a board, then criss crossed pink ribbon across the board to create the diamond shapes, and then printed out the table names and glued them onto the centers of each diamond shape. Katy had the fun idea of making each table the name of a song and when that song was played during the reception that table would have to get up and dance to it.

This was a great idea too. For their wedding favors they ordered little heart shaped cookie cutters that said "Truly Cut Out For Each Other" and they were tied with a cute pink ribbon.

I loved their dessert table. It was really pretty with all the roses and hearts that were hung from the ceiling above it.

And here is a picture of Jon and I with Katy and the Chris, the wonderful bride and groom.

It was a fun and beautiful wedding. Jon and I are so blessed to have such wonderful friends in our lives. :)

On a side note... we went food tasting at Wolf Lakes on Saturday! All the food was delicious and they have so many things to choose from. It was fun because we got to taste food on the same day as everyone else who is getting married at Wolf Lakes this year. It was funny because we ran into 4 different couples we knew that are also getting married there this year. Wolf Lakes truly is THE place to get married in the Fresno area. It is beautiful!