Love Grows-A Bridal Shower Theme

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     Do you see that beautiful girl in that picture above?  That is Rachel and she is soon to be my daughter-in-law! We are so excited to have her in our family! Since she is from out of state, where her family threw her a bridal shower, we decided that she needed to have one here in her fairly new home state of Arizona, so Maddy took the lead and planned a shower for her, with Lindsey and I helping. It turned out so great!

      Rachel's favorite color is green, so Maddy went with that theme and labeled the shower "Love Grows,"  used a plant/boutique type theme as the plan.  It was so beautiful and relaxing and the food was delicious.  I'll share everything we did so that you can use the ideas yourself if you would like! 

The Food:

•  Bruschetta was Maddy's first idea and Rachel loved it! She came up with 3 kinds and they all tasted terrific! Because Maddy has a part time job at Panera, aside from her main job, she was able to purchase the bread there for the bruschetta, all sliced!  That was a time saver! 

1. First we did a Caprese Salad Bruschetta with mozzarella,  tomato slice and basil, drizzled with oil.  Classic! After toasting the bread, we put the cheese on the bread and melted it slightly before adding the thinly sliced tomato and the chiffonade basil.  Then we drizzled everything lightly with a good olive oil. 

        2.   Next we did a spreadable cheese, like brie or even Laughing Cow, fig jam and an apple slice bruschetta.  It was so delicious and was probably the most popular of the day.  We used my homemade fig jam on them and I can't tell you how good it was! 

       3.  The third flavor was an artichoke-jalapeno spread topped with bacon bits.  Very tasty and great for those who like a little kick, although it was more flavorful than hot.  The artichoke spread that we used was purchased and so were the real bacon bits.  We put the bacon bits in a skillet and browned them up and rendered more of the fat off before using them.  This was also a fan favorite! 

• We brightened things up with fruit kabobs! 
• Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches.  Rachel doesn't like celery, so I replaced the celery with apples.  Plus, I always love grapes in my chicken salad and a touch of curry!  This salad came out really good.  Here is the recipe, click for the pdf.

We used mini croissants. We found them at Walmart!

• For Dessert, we had chocolate cupcakes made by Lindsey.  She frosted them green to keep with the theme and topped them with little pearl sprinkles.  Here is the link to the cupcake liners. 

• We also found heart shaped macarons at Costco that we served!  They were probably only out for Valentine's Day, but I know that Costco usually carries multi-flavored round macarons that would also be delicious!  Lindsey offered to make the macarons, because she makes good ones, but we saw these at Costco and decided that the time savings would be worth it.  (Plus, they were heart shaped, so...)

• We offered 2 things to drink, water with lemon and Peach Cranberry Juice spiked with a bit of Sprite! Both were so refreshing!

• Lindsey ordered a bridal shower kit from Amazon that went with the theme and contained the plates, cups, napkins and plasticware and a tablecloth.  

Games and Activities:

• Lindsey ordered a kit of  invitations, thank you notes and activities that were very cute and kind of passive and nice for the most part of the shower.   It included a game for when the guests arrived that had them guess the number of chocolate kisses in a jar. 

I like how nice it looks, including the cards to write the guesses on. We simply provided the jar and the kisses.

      That same kit also included advice cards that guests could write their advice to the bride on.    Even my 5 & 6 year old granddaughters wrote her some advice, which are the favorites in the bunch!  

We loved that even though they didn't collaborate on their answers, they both mentioned sleep as being important!

• Rachel had brought back leftover little rings from her shower in Idaho that were used for a game.  Everyone was given a ring when they arrived. (This was a good job for the little girls!) You could wear the ring, but you were not allowed to say the words, "bride" or "wedding".  If you were caught saying those words, someone could take away your ring.  The person with the most rings at the end won the game. 

• One last game that we played with the entire group at once was one we came up with called "Wedding Scatter."  Years ago we threw a baby shower and created Scatter Baby, based on the game ​ Scattergories.   For the bridal shower, we created a new version.  It is easy to play.  Everyone gets a game card and a pen.  There is a list of categories to think of a word to fit, plus at the top you write a letter that each word needs to begin with.  When everyone is ready, someone sets a timer for one minute and says go.  Everyone writes and tries to fill in all of the categories.  Then, everyone compares answers and crosses off ones that match with someone else.  Whoever ends up with the most answers not crossed off wins!  We gave prizes to the winner of each individual line and to the highest combined score.     Here is the card for you to print: 

Of course, we used the letters "R" & "J", for Rachel and Jacob. Click the photo for the pdf

• Maddy found little bags at Dollar Tree for the prize bags.  They were seasonal for Valentine's Day, but Dollar Tree is a great place to look for bridal shower accessories and prizes to keep from breaking the bank! 

Here is what we put into the prize bags:
   *Hershey Kisses
   *These cute cactus notepads and pens
   *These cute plant scented hand lotions

Party Favors for Everyone!

•  Maddy's first idea for favors was to give everyone small succulent plants.  Unfortunately, those were pretty cost prohibitive.  But, I did find these cute little succulent votive candles on Amazon. 

• We also decided that it would be really cute to give the guests seed paper hearts that they could plant later on along with a note that said the theme "Love Grows."    You can find the directions for seed paper hearts all over Pinterest.  One tip is that you need to be careful using paper from your shredder for these.  You may have plastic envelope windows in there, or shredded fake credit cards.  I mean, I'm just saying'...well this may or may not be from experience!   

     * I used my old food processor to make my paper pulp.  I used green paper to get the color that I wanted.  You simply tear up paper into the processor or a blender and cover it with water and blend!
       *  Make the pulp, then drain it through a strainer.  Keep it wet enough to mold together, but not so wet that it will sprout your seeds too soon! 
      *  After your pulp is ready to form, add the seeds and mix well.  I used a wildflower mix from Dollar Tree. 
      * I used a cookie cutter as a mold for my wet paper and seeds.  Mush it all together tightly and then lay out on a screen or cooling rack to dry.  It may take a few days depending on how thick you make them. 

     Here is the card I created on Canva to attach to the favors. 

     We also had Chapstick left over from the Idaho shower that we added to the favors.  Here is how they came out. 

To attach the card, we punched a hole in the paper planting pot and used ribbon and tied it through a hole punched in the card. Below the candle and the heart, we put some candy kisses. They added needed height and are a welcome treat!

     Everyone seemed to love the favors and we were so pleased that they did! Thanks to Maddy's splendid planning, the shower was a huge success! We hope that there are ideas here that you can glean for your own bridal shower plans! 

Opening gifts!

The Spread!