Southern Charm Bridal Shower Wrap-Up

The long and VERY overdue Southern Charm Tea Party wrap-up is finally here! As a heads up, this is photo-heavy post but it kinda needs to be for you to get the full event experience, right? RIGHT! :) 

"Soon to become Mrs. T, come shower the bride-to-be.
Hats, gloves and tea party wear, we're sure Tamara would love to see you there!"

Let's just walk through the space first, shallllll we?  Here's what guests saw as they arrived:

  

I lined a walkway with pinwheels and made the floral T (for Mrs. Tamara TURNER-to-be).  Want to know how I made it? Check out the post here.

Flowers? Yes, of course! I used arrangements for both decor and gifts as it was Mother's Day Eve (don't even give me the side eye like you don't stretch your holidays out... I have a birthday eve, a Valentine's Day eve, an Anniversary eve...).  I purchased white pitchers and filled them with floral mixes to match the decor.  Who needs more random vases? Get creative and put flowers in anything that can hold water! Aren't they fab?

Tammy's Grandmother's Arrangement.

I got a lot of questions about how to achieve the look of sliced fruit in such a wide vase.  I recommend, the vase inside of a vase technique(I bought a dollar store vase).  The closer the vases are in size, the easier to achieve a neatly stacked look.

Groom's Mom Arrangement



Bride's Mom's Arrangement.

The pergola was built BY the bride's MOM... OMG! IT HAD TO BE A FOCAL POINT... We hung tissue paper poms and I made a pillow case pennant banner to give it some drama. This area housed the large teapot-shaped planting pot (guests signed it as the guestbook), the recipe station (guests brought yummy ideas for the bride-to-be) and the gift/card area.  

 

That fabulous card box is a planter I "borrowed" from her mom's garage and placed lavender tissue paper in the bottom.  She used it for the wedding because it was really THAT beautiful!

Other decor items:

Dessert display centerpiece.

Food was kept on the balcony close to the house.

 Let's talk food, shall we?  We kept to theme by offering southern comfort food in bite-sized portions. So, mini mac-n-cheese, sweet cornbread muffins, fried party wings, chicken salad sandwiches, and so much more was well received.  We also created a dessert display with mini eclair pies, mini sweet potato pies, mini chocolate pies, sugar cookies, cupcakes, blueberry bread, etc.

Sweet tea was served from my Wal-Mart drink dispenser and placed on decorative columns.  The columns are for more than just wedding aisles folks and cost $15 at your neighborhood craft store.  Also, guests LOVED the Mason jars I splurged on for drinking... i made an easy tulle topper to ensure guests had their sweet tea bug free! Wanna know more about it? Click here. 

Bottomline, it was too much good food not to put guests in a great mood for loads of fun. 

Yes, Munch is dressed like a piece of decor, what of it?! LOL.

 

Speaking of fun, let's get things started.  First the bride's entrance...

She LOVED the floral letter!





 Time for games...

Game 1. Bridal Walk off.  I made up this game to keep with my recipe for successful events.  SHAKE SOMETHING! So, Tammy isn't our average bride and will not have our average walk down the aisle. It was up to our guests to come up with a diva-appropriate walk for our bride-to-be.  We blasted Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and I demonstrated first:

 

Guests lined up and got ready for fun!

That's my mommy starting it off!

Our top 3 finalists - My mommy, Jamica and Munchface (you see her arms and face).

AND THE WINNER IS??
 ZION!!

I love this picture by the way, OMG. Who was on camera duty? O wait, it was me!  LOL.



Can I just say she was SO excited  Here's how it went ALL that night around our house:

"O mommy, did you see me? I was doing this *pose* and THIS *pose* and *face* and *pose*" Then she'd runway walk her naked butt to the bathroom for her bath.

Of course the bride had to walk the runway to show us how it was REALLY done... Note: this game made for a fab photo-op for all of the guests. I made a small collage of each guest's walk for the bride.

Game 2. Are You an Avid Learner About Mr. Turner.  10 questions about the groom were asked to guests and the bride. For every one the bride got wrong, she had to hold a Tootsie Roll in her mouth.  The guest with the most correct answers won a prize.

Game 3. Do You Know It All About Ms. McCall? 10 questions were asked about the bride and the guest who had the most correct won!

Game 4. Name that tune: Bridal Edition.   After playing snippets from 8 songs, the BONUS round started.

Me: "OK, we've done the title/artist and given a point to whomever could sing the next line but do you know the moves to THIS SONG??"

*insert cha-cha slide* and guests got up dancing... So cute. Auntie was into it so I had to cut the music right at the "how low can you go?"  part.

2 of the guests tied so we had a bonus dance round. Next song? R.Kelly's "Step in the Name of Love"... SINCE they couldn't do it alone, they did it together... Please note, the bride was supposed to be judging but couldn't sit still - LOL.

Game 5.  Tulle Kit. I split the group into 3 teams, handed them a bag of supplies and they had to come up with a diva veil for the bride.  Note: we combined this game with the toilet paper dress game.

Other activities included: mingling, giggling, dancing, eating and...

POSING! We set-up a photo booth area with boas, glasses, wands, hats and even a hoola hoop.  As you can see, Munch was ready to GO with her pose.

Finally, the affordably delicious CAKE:

Wal-Mart bakes their own cakes (if you didn't know...). I had 2 layers of each size baked and frosted for around $25.  I added the ribbon and fresh flowers right before the event started. It was gorgeous and really gave the simple southern elegance I was looking for.

All-in-all, this was a TYPICAL Tabby event... Equal parts fun and fabulosity for all who made it.  I don't just make my events pretty... I make them pretty awesome!  P.S.  I got a little conceited and I admit to toot-tooting my own horn... Every now and again, I have to be my own super hero and if you don't do that, you're missing out.  Nothing like being able to make yourself feel good :)

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