Black, White & Purple Bridal Shower

One of my good friends is getting married in July, so, of course, we had to shower her with love.  Here's a picture of the "Hostesses with the Mostesses" and the Bride-to-be!

 I was so excited to start planning all of the details.  First, was the invitation.  I am a very DIY type of person.  I try to do everything myself (at least once ;).  I am becoming very skilled at making documents (invitations, favor tags, water bottle labels, etc.) in Publisher. I think the most difficult part of creating the invitation is deciding what fonts to use.  There are just so many to chose from!  You can view the invitation here: invitation  All of the paper items (invitations, food labels, water bottle labels, favor tags, fingerprint tree, etc.) were printed at Office Depot.  Definitely cheaper than a color ink cartridge!

Since the bride had a large guest list, we thought serving brunch would be the most practical way to feed the most amount of people.  Pinterest was definitely an inspiration when planning this shower.  I can't tell you how many pins were on my "Bridal Shower" board!  Some of the delicious pins included donut hole kabobs and coffee punch - YUM!

 I also made the cute food labels in Publisher. 

We served two types of mini-muffins, mini-quiches, fruit, pancakes, chocolate cream cheese berry bites, oreo truffles, donut kabobs, and blackberry and cream cheese dip.

 Beverages included strawberry lemonade, coffee punch, mimosas, and bottled water.

Another Pinterest inspiration was the cute "Soon To Be Mrs. T" banner.  I used my Cricut to cut out the letters and heart and attached them to floral patterned scrapbooking paper.  I hole punched each corner and tied ribbon to link the squares together.

I also wanted to do something a little more unique than a sign-in book, so another Pinterest inspiration was born!  I was able to download the tree from weddingwire.com.  I copied the image into Publisher and added the title at the bottom "Stephanie & Steven 2012" using one of my new fave fonts called "Digs at My Hart".  You can download a tree here: WeddingWire.com  Guests used the ink pads to stamp their fingerprints on the tree and a sharpie or a similar pen can be used so they could sign their names.

 
Last, but not least, are these cute favors.  Using my Wilton cookie cutters, I made these wedding cake and dress shaped favors.  I was so excited to use my new Pampered Chef decorating kit.  I always make a mess with the piping bag and this kit made it so easy and mess-free!  What's great is that I can use the piping tips I already have with the decorating bottles in the kit. 

The favor tags were made in Publisher. I used a scalloped hand punch to cut the flowers using purple, black and floral cardstocks leftover from the banner.