How to Plan A Bridal Shower ~ Tiffany Theme

Weddings are very exciting and fun! Not to mention all the little celebrations leading up to the big day. Planning a bridal shower was very new to me but it turns out to be so much fun. Let me show you how to plan a bridal shower. Trust me it easy and fun!

I really enjoyed planning and creating this bridal shower for my little cousin. She looked so beautiful dressed in white and I hope it was memorable for her as it was for me.

My cousin requested a Tiffany & Co. theme bridal shower it was very fun to plan and Pinterest had many inspiring ideas to admire. I enjoy creating vision boards for myself to have an idea of where to start. Which is super fun and exciting because the possibilities are endless on Pinterest.

Before I got too carried away with all of the limitless ideas on Pinterest. I needed to create a plan to make sure I carried out her vision so that it went smoothly.  I can honestly say that I learned a lot from hosting her bridal shower.

Two important factors are to PLAN and ORGANIZE

Make A Plan:

Budget – For Decorations, Food, Favors, Game gifts, Facility (Tables and Chairs depending where your event may be located) and table linens

Menu – Plan your menu; ask the bride if she has a preference or plan according to the budget you set aside.

Games – Traditional games, check Pinterest for tons of games ideas

Favors – Candy, keepsake trinkets, bubbles, (I chose a nail polish, something everyone can actually use in the future)

Stay Organized:

To get a visual I wrote down what I needed and the cost of each item. For her shower, I used an event planning book I had from Michaels. It has different pages such as Event overview, to-dos, notes, budget, food, and guest list. This was helpful in keeping everything organized. I am sure you can find some free printables online, maybe Pinterest has a free printable, use an Excel spreadsheet or simply just a plain sheet of paper will do the job and list each category.

My favorite is to just use your planner and sheets of notes paper or make your own binder. Whatever helps you keep everything together and orderly.

Once you start to shop for your items a week or two before begin to lay everything out and take an inventory of what you have. Take note of what is left to get and what you have to still order or shop for. Allow time for them to arrive. The worse thing ever is not to have something to complete your event look. That is why I love, love Amazon Prime. It saves time and money with 2-day Free shipping.

Keep everything in one location so that you will not have to go looking all over to find your party items. Nothing worse than searching through a closet, bags or totes of stuff and you just knew you had it. Now you have to repurchase something because it is missed placed. Leaving things in bags sometimes can get thrown away.  How awful is that when it may have been the very last item or it was custom made from Etsy, for example.

Let me share with you what I did for her bridal shower.

The first decision I had to personally make is where I wanted to have the shower. My comfort zone was, of course, my home but I had to calculate how much the cost of tables and chairs that I needed for 22-25 people excepted to arrive. The tables and chairs were $9.00 and $2.00 each. The price of renting them both certainly went up since we had our housewarming 6 years ago and a birthday party for my oldest son. To rent the room at the community center was $15.00 to $20.00 per hour depending on the size of the room.

Other factors I had to think about was the clean up before and after guests arrived, if I had the shower at my home. I would have had plenty of time to set up for the bridal shower in my home versus at the community center, which I had to pay for additional time for set up.  In the end, I went with the community center because the cost of renting chairs, tables and delivery was another factor that I didn’t want to handle or pay for.

If you decide to go with a facility or local community center make sure to ask when their hours of operation are. Many have closing times that you have to be out and have everything cleaned up. Our time that day was 4:30 pm so we had about 1 hour to get everything back to normal.

 

The day I went to our local community center and placed the deposit. I made sure to take pictures of the room so that I would have an idea of the space as I was planning down the road.

In addition, I had to make a decision to rent or purchase my table linens. I love the look of fabric linens versus plastic tablecloths depending on the event. If it is a kids birthday party or something casual I don’t mind plastic tablecloths at all but in this case, I had to go with fabric. I also figured out that it is the same price or cheaper to just purchase them online versus renting them from someone.

I like to use tableclothsfactory.com they have a large variety of colors and designs for a great price. If you throw a lot of celebrations it may be helpful to just purchase them for later use or rent them out to others.

I made an outline of how I wanted the tables to be arranged, took video and pictures of the room at the community center to reference later. I was nervous when I realized that the community center had more 10-foot tables than 8-foot tables that I am used to working with. So, I had to factor that in when I was ordering the linens and setting up the room to save time and money.

 

With the food I was trying to keep it simple, which is hard for me to do. Normally I order a cake from Wal-Mart and cupcakes are really affordable there. They are tasty and have a lot of different options to choose from. WalMart had these cute diamond cupcake picks that I thought complimented her theme really well. I also like that you can order from them a little as a 2-day notice. But if you want a certain cake kit do not wait too close to your date to give them time to order it if need be.

 

The dessert table was a result of running out of time. When the guest arrived but it housed the perfect number of cupcakes. My other little cousin, Sharice that helped me out, purchased a variety of pound cake slices for more choices for the guest.

 

My family helped me a lot with setting up the food and I am so grateful for that. If I had time I would have arranged some items a little differently but overall, I still love the setup. Looking back at it I would have added the colorful foods in with the light-colored foods for more eye appeal. I served tuna and chicken salad in the white tier bowls. I froze those white bowls so that the food would stay cold during the bridal shower. That really worked out great!

The food that was served was: Spaghetti, Toss salad, Rolls, Chicken Salad, Tuna Fish Salad, Deviled Eggs, veggie tray, sweet tea, cupcakes, lemon pound cake, and cinnamon swirl pound cake.

This event was totally outside of my comfort zone! I was not sure where to have the shower at my home or at the local community building. But after talking it over with my Mother it was best to have it outside of my home. I am so glad that I did!  Once I did other people begin to call me to plan their next event with me. Having two offers in one day was so shocking, exciting and awesome!

This quote that I heard from Bishop T.D. Jakes “ Your Passion is Your Purpose!” and “If it doesn’t scare you; your dream is not big enough!”

Nervous and certainly out of my comfort zone but am so glad I did it!

Thanks, Momma!

If you are nervous about planning an event for the first time or in a different location, do not be!

Remember you can do anything you put your mind too!

My favorite scripture when I feel doubt setting in is: “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me” Philippians 4:13

I hope you reach out of your comfort zone and make your passions and dreams come true! You will be so glad that you did!

There Is Always Hope!