Maria's Bridal Shower - June 2012

A few weeks ago I attended my friend Maria's Bachelorette party! Chris is the best man to her fiance, James, and their wedding is this September!! We are both really excited to celebrate with them on their big day! 

Maria arrived at The Coral House, looking gorgeous (as usual) in a white dress, perfect for the bride-to-be! It was a "pseudo" surprise, as she was told about the shower only two days before!

Everyone received biscotti favors with stickers that say "Maria's Bridal Shower, June 24, 2012"

We also got individual wine bottles with customized labels with James and Maria's engagement picture, and wedding date!

Champagne punch was served:

She had SO MANY gifts! Take note of the clothesline of underwear hanging above it.

Her bridesmaids recited a funny poem that went along with each pair of underwear. Each piece is to be worn at a specific point in their relationship....I'll let you guess when this one should be worn.

 So on and so forth...until you come to the rather large "granny panties" at the end of the line!:

We were served a 3 course meal, and everything was really yummy! I ordered the Salmon Filet with Dill Sauce as my main entree. Of course, when it arrived I was too excited about it to remember to take a picture! But this penne ala vodka was very good!














For as common as the "wishing well" is, this is the first shower I've ever been to that has actually had one! This adorable wishing well was literally overflowing with gifts!

We played a bunch of games including a "How well do you know Maria" game, and the newlywed game! For every question she answered differently from James, she had to put a piece of gum in her mouth!

And then, there was cake!

And chocolate pops!

Posing with the bride!

Maria opened up her gifts literally in what has to be the world record of gift opening. To look at the huge pile of gifts she had awaiting her, we swore we would be there for 2 hours watching her go through everything. Her bridesmaids set up an assembly line of gift opening that can only be described as nothing short of spectacular. Maria opened up dozens upon dozens of gifts in 30 minutes!!

And what shower would be complete without the ribbon hat? This hat was awesome because it was an actual white "bride" tophat as opposed to the "paper plate that never stays on anyone's head"! I've never seen that before, but I must keep it mind if I am ever planning a shower!

Maria's shower was a beautiful afternoon, setting the precedent for her beautiful and elegant wedding she has coming up in under 2 months!! I can't wait!

Molly's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party

Last weekend was Molly's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party and I had so much fun being with her and getting to know/reuniting with many of her Bridesmaids. She has a great group of girls, and we are going to have a blast at the wedding!

Molly had a beautiful corsage to wear for her shower, that her mom and MOH had asked me to pick up. I was very pleased with how this came out.

Molly and her mom

Molly with her "MOH" Katy, her mom and the house host, Sally:

We had a champagne toast before Molly started opening her presents

Maid of Honor, Katy, gives a toast

  And then it was present time!

And of course, she had to model the gift ribbon hat!

Molly with each of her bridesmaids

 

Of course, I have to highlight the desserts. These lavender cookies, homemade by Molly's mom, stole the show. She used fresh lavender's from Sally's own garden!

Our favors were wrapped mini jars filled with honey from a local farm in Pennsylvania. Attached to that was a tea bag. Molly's dad hand-wrote each of the labels on the honey jars:

Molly was so lucky to be surrounded by such a great group of loving, supportive people in her life who were all there to kick-off her wedding festivities!

Mark was very overwhelmed when he arrived and saw an entire room filled with presents. Like a good fiance, he diligently packed up the car and then posed for a few pictures. After-all, he's going to have to get used to this soon enough!

The future Mr. and Mrs.!

That night, we went out for Molly's Bachelorette party. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in PA, Melt, for dinner and then up to the rooftop bar afterward.

One more month to go until their big day!

Kerry's Bridal Shower + a GIVEAWAY!

This past weekend I attended my friend Kerry's SURPRISE Bridal Shower! (If you remember, Chris and I are both in Kerry and Mike's wedding this coming September!) All of her bridesmaids had a hand in planning this party, but I have to hand it to her Maid of Honor, Alyssa, and her bridesmaids Lindsay and Amanda for pulling out all the stops when it came to planning this event. They put a lot of work into making Kerry's "Tea-Party" shower personalized and very special  for her.

I arrived with a caravan of bridesmaids at 2:00 to help set up, and we were put right to work cutting up cheese, putting out tea sandwiches and mixing drinks!

There were so many beautiful, handmade details placed throughout the party.
The centerpieces were DIY tissue paper flowers, a framed different engagement picture on every table, a plant and bird figurines on top of a serving platter and floral table runner:

 There was a wishing tag area, where we wrote our wishes and advice for Kerry before she becomes a Mrs.

 Then we hung the tags on a clothesline with little clothespins:

 A Kerry and Mike banner:

There was lovingly spiked lemonade, and iced tea sweetened with honey from the farm that they're having their wedding!:

 Her signature drink was the "Mikerry" sangria:

 The backyard tent was warm and inviting with these DIY tissue-paper poms!

Kerry arrived thinking she was attending a teacher party she attends every year! She had NO.IDEA!! But I think she quickly caught on as soon as she walked into the backyard!

She had given her Maid of Honor her "bridal shower" dress a few weeks ago so when the time came, she could change into it. I loved her gorgeous anthropology dress:

For dinner there was shrimp cocktail, baked ziti, zucchini casserole, roasted potatoes, chicken cordon bleu, chicken and rice, ham and tossed salad. Everything was sooo good!

After dinner, Kerry started opening her crazzzzy, huge pile of gifts!

 Her bridesmaid Amanda made a fabulous ribbon bouquet for Kerry!

 Kerry and her bridesmaids:

Then it was time for dessert and these AMAZING coconut cupcakes!

The favors were adorable: tea-bag with tea-bag rest tied in green tull, with green ribbon and a personalized "Kerry's Bridal Shower 7.9.11" tag!

We also had white-chocolate mini wedding cake favors homemade by Mike's mom and Aunt!! These were white-chocolate covered oreos, in the shape of a three tiered wedding cake with yellow sugar-floral decoration. Simply AMAZING! This picture (with Anna as my model) does NOT do it justice how cute these are. I will try and get a better close-up picture of it to post later.

The last gift that kerry opened was a poster size painting of one of their engagement photos. Her mom and dad sent away for this and her dad handmade the frame. This is certainly an awesome keepsake for them to have.

 

I'm so excited for Mike and Kerry as they are now in full wedding mode at the 2-month mark! Lots more festivities to come!

Now for the GIVEAWAY! Uprinting.com is giving away one 18" x 24" Poster for one "Saying 'I do'" reader!! This can be a Semi Gloss / High Gloss poster and has a 1 business day turnaround! The poster can be of anything: Get an engagement or wedding picture blown up, or order something for your upcoming wedding! Uprinting.com does customized Poster Printing, has downloadable poster templates, and many different poster sizes to choose from.

uprinting.com

To Enter:
*For 1 Entry: Leave a comment below telling me your favorite detail of Kerry's Bridal Shower!
**For 2 Entries: Like UPrinting on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter and leave me a comment telling me that you did so.
***For 3 Entries: Follow LwoodsNY on Twitter and leave me a comment. (If you already follow, leave me a comment saying so)

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm on Monday, 7/18 and the winner will be announced on Wednesday 7/20! Good luck to all!

Restrictions: Limited to US residents 18 years old and above only.
I have TWO more fantastic giveaways lined up for the next month so stay tuned for more giveaway fun coming soon!