Pink and girly Bridal Shower

So before we launch into the blog post that ate our blog aka Hawaii 2007, I wanted to report on the pink and girly bridal shower we threw for our friend RootBeer. Rootbeer's been a dear friend for ages (coming up on a DECADE) and helped plan our wedding. Because the actual Bridesmaids were all out-of-towners, we volunteered (read: insisted) on throwing Rootbeer a DC bridal shower. This took a month of planning and the help of Auntie Em and Writergirl. J actually planned 99% of the activities that went over like a bang.

The Decorations
Ok. I have this thing for those paper accordion wedding bells. They are totally cheesy but I insist on them at every wedding event I get to plan. J got those and went to town with wedding theme streamers and a daisy and ladybug theme. The true kicker was having professionally arranged floral arrangements all over our house courtesy of Auntie Em and Writergirl. The shower was on the Sunday of Labor day weekend so Auntie Em, Writergirl and J and I went to our CSA to get our fill of flowers. We went to town getting armfuls of sunflowers, Indian Summers, cosmos, zinnias, bright red Mexican Sunflowers, and flowers from chive plants, basil, and garlic chives. This ended up making six arrangements artfully placed throughout the house.

The Food
Luckily I made a lot of the food ahead of time. It was girly finger food with a bit o'Southern flair. So on the menu were:

Thai chicken meatballs and Thai vegetarian meatballs with satay dipping sauce

Pesto and goat cheese mini-quiches

Roasted pepper mini quiches

Tomato and feta mini-tartlets

Lemon bars

Mac 'n cheese (baked southern style)

Deviled eggs

Sugar cookies

ANNNNND .... The Steel Magnolia Style Grey-Icing Armadillo cake complete with sliced almond scales. Rootbeer made one for our wedding shower and we had to return the favor. The red velvet cake came from a box and we used the same football cake pan for the body of the armadillo. For the feet we used two small aluminum loaf pans that I expertly cut in half widthwise and cut toes out of (HIRE ME Charm City Cakes!). I did make my own frosting (basic buttercream with tons of vanilla).

Drinks included lemonade, iced tea made with Good Earth tea (the best in the world!!!), and a champagne punch that included champagne, ginger ale, and frozen strawberries and raspberries. The future mother in law let me know it tasted good but packed a punch (no pun intended).

The Favors
J is from the south and therefore he gives out favors at parties. As the favors he made a marshmallows with cherry puree, turning them a pale mauve and a hot pink set with lots of vanilla. He cut them into little squares are put them in adorable silver bags.

The Fun
J did most of the work on this side. My one contribution was to set up a station in our basement for people to put handprints on tablecloth we would give to Rootbeer as a present. They turned out great.

But J made a DVD with photos from all of Rootbeer's friends. An uproariously funny mad-lib that ended up reflecting the groom's Jewish heritage (place - JERUSALEM, holiday - PURIM!). And a stick the ladybug on the daisy (kind of like pin the tail on the donkey), complete with prizes.

It was a great afternoon to celebrate our dear friend's impending nuptials. An interesting thing is that many of the gifts were cooking related, which meant we'll all be enjoying the gifts for years to come.