the bridal shower.

My sweet friend Lauren's bridal shower was last weekend, and luckily it went off without a hitch. Since planning and executing a shower was so much more work than I ever imagined it to be, and I had a bunch of people offering their help, I decided to focus on just a few things that I sincerely wanted to take charge of, like theme and decorations and desserts.

Since Lauren is an avid horseback rider and has been since she was little, I decided to do an equestrian theme, with horseshoes and saddles and tiny horse figurines. Here's the invitation:

I set up this welcome table as a main point for guests as they arrived, with a chalkboard message (chalkboard paint spray painted onto a piece of plywood, with tiny horse shapes in the corners), framed photos of the couple, a glass pitcher of flowers, and a basket of fill-in-the-blank letters for guests to give to Lauren.

I can't even count how many hours I spent making these tissue paper pom poms (a la Martha Stewart, naturally), but it was so worth it. I cleared out every surrounding store's stock of pink tissue (even dying some white tissue myself in the backyard) and had a smorgasboard of pink-colored poms adorning the party tent. I wanted it to look whimsical and girly, and it totally did.

I left to pick up and Lauren and she arrived in all smiles, seeing old family and friends and all our hard work! We dug in immediately.

To go along with our equestrian theme, I made these cupcake flags out of cardstock and toothpicks, with sayings like "Lucky in love" and "Gettin hitched." They were a hit!

I hope everyone had fun, and I hope Lauren loved her shower as much as I did. Happy wedding shower, Lauren!