Jessie's Bridal Shower

I think I've mentioned before how Miranda and I threw our really good friend Jessie a bridal shower last Saturday morning. Well it turned out great and of course I want to post all about it and share the pictures.

So first of all, we thought it would be more fun to have a theme, especially one where we'd all dress up. And my friend Nicole told me about a bridal shower she threw once where the theme was "Good Housewives" so I quickly adopted that theme and Jessie's bridal shower became a "1950's Housewives Bridal Shower." To get the girls excited for the party, I wanted to design the invitations to incorporate the theme, but not be so blatant and say "wear aprons and wear pearls, etc." So here's what I came up with:

I also wanted the theme to really focus on the 1950's Good Housewives Rules that were published in Good Housekeeping in 1955. Needless to say the rules are completely absurd and talk all about how women should do everything in their power to make their husbands comfortable, and never complain, and never let the children act rowdy in front of the husband, etc. A little outdated? I think so. But that was the fun part about the bridal shower--to be able to dress up and play a part. So in order to incorporate these rules into the party, my mom suggested setting up little vignettes all over the room to symbolize the typical 1950's Housewife. And that's exactly what I did--I had each vignette represent one of the five duties of the 1950's Housewife: Cooking, Cleaning, Raising the Children, Keeping up her Appearance, and doing Chores. For each vignette I also designed a little plaque to go along with it that gave the rule and showed a picture of a 1950's Housewife. Here's how they turned out:
Cooking Plaque:

Cleaning Plaque:

Raising the Children Plaque:

 Keeping up her Appearance Plaque:

Chores Plaque:

 In fact, all the decorations turned out great. For the Cooking Vignette we used three of my vintage cookbooks, and about 6 or 7 of my kitchen utensils. For the Cleaning Vignette we used an old bottle of Comet, a scrubbing brush, and rubber gloves. For the Raising the Children Vignette we used my picture of a silhouette of a mother and child, some books, and a vintage game of Pick up Sticks and Tic-Tac-Toe. For the Appearance Vignette we used an apron, tons of pearls, red lipstick, curlers, and some Dippity Doo Hair Gel (which was a staple back in the 50's). And lastly, for the Chores Vignette we set up an ironing board in the front entrance way with an iron on it and a wicker laundry basket of clothes underneath. We had all the guests put Jessie's presents on the ironing board, which made for a really cool effect.

We also set up a photobooth area! We had the party at Miranda's in-laws in Orem and it was perfect! They have a library off to the side of the living room, which is where we set up the photobooth area. We hang a backdrop and brought in some stools, and then collected lots of props that the girls could choose from. We also put out some umbrellas and boxing gloves that were also an option (but didn't fit in the suitcase).
The backdrop with stools set up (the whiteboard for people to write messages to Jessie):

Miranda trying it out:

A look at the props (in the prop suitcase of course):

A closer look at the props (including mustache sticks, hats, scarves, Luna Lovegood sunglasses, black ski mask, light up sunglasses, lace gloves, and lots and lots of pearls):

And not to mention the set up of our table looked so good! I was really happy with how it turned out. My Aunt Debbie was so so nice and let us borrow a ton of platters and other food displays which helped to make the table so pretty! My Granny also donated to the table: she let us use her lace tablecloth for the food table, her card table for the drinks, and her white lace table runner for the drinks table. And then we used big and small scrabble tiles to spell out and label each food. For the drinks we used my Aunt Debbie's punch bowl and matching glasses plus my Granny's tea cups and saucers.

Once the girls all arrived we ate brunch and then played some games. Of course we played the classic "How well do you know ___?" Game and it was pretty funny. I had previously emailed Jacob (Jessie's fiance) a list of questions to answer about himself. I then read the same questions to Jessie at the party to see how well she knew Jacob and to see how many she could answer correctly. For each one she answered incorrectly, she had to stuff a gigantic marshmallow in her mouth and not chew it. She did really good -- but still ended up with a mouthful of marshmallows!

After games everyone played with the photo booth and chatted.

And finally it was time for presents and rainbow cake!!

Everything went perfectly and I really think the girls had fun. And I'm especially glad that Miranda and I planned everything out in advance so we had time to gather everything we needed to borrow (and I had time to practice making the rainbow cake because the second time was soooo much better!) So now it's over and it's time to return everything to the rightful owners! And to everyone who let me borrow something for the party: Thank You!!