Beautiful Bridal Shower

So remember the bridal shower invite that I showed you a while back? This one:

Well the bridal shower was last Saturday. My sister-in-law, Cheryl, planned, organized & orchestrated the entire party (her nickname is "The Party Planner") & it turned out really, really nice. My sister-in-law, Beth, & I helped out too. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. As a side note, I've known my niece, Alisha, who this shower was for, since I was 16 years old & she was only 6. So I got a little emotional with this one {tear}. I have so loved watching her grow up into the beautiful woman she's become. And I can't believe she's getting married! I keep saying, how did she grow up when I haven't gotten any older? ;)

So anyway, I wanted to share some photos with you of the shower & some of the things we made for it. These are the thank you cards that I made for her that match the invite:

And here's a guest book that I made for people to write a little message to the bride & then we recorded who gave her what in the back. I have to say, I LOVE how the cake turned out! Don't you love it when you have a vision in your mind & it turns out even better than you though?

Here's the awesome dessert table. My SIL wanted an elegant dessert table & it definitely was! And filled with all sorts of yummy stuff too-cupcakes, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels & lots of candies!

I had seen cupcake holders like these numerous times online & I thought it would be a perfect way to display the cupcakes at the shower. It was so easy to make too! I went to my local packing supply store & bought 3 square boxes in different sizes so that would make it look like a 3-tier cake. Then I covered the boxes with some pretty wedding wrapping paper. Then I wrapped some ribbon around it & topped it with some fresh hydrangeas on top. I was going to put the ribbon bands around the bottom of each layer, but with the cupcakes there it wasn't going to show. I thought it looked beautiful! Way better than I imagined! And it's the perfect way to display cupcakes. Yes, I got to practice my cake decorating skills again too! I made half chocolate & half vanilla cupcakes in silver foil liners, topped each one with a swirl of bright white buttercream & then added a small lavender fondant flower on top. They looked pretty & tasted yummy too!

My SIL, Beth, made these adorable heart-shaped butter cookies with her cookie press. I have to say, these cookies are so good they are totally addicting! But look how pretty they are & the way she displayed them was so cute!

My SIL, Cheryl, wanted to have some takeout boxes that people could fill with candy from the dessert table & take home with them as their party favor. So we decorated a bunch of these cute takeout boxes to match the invites. Another reason I love my Big Shot!

And here's a photo of the brunch table just because it looked so awesome too! And everything was delicious!

And here she is, my sweet niece Alisha! Soon to be Mrs. McLeod!

*Oh and don't you love that vinyl sign too? My friend Anya makes them. You can customize them any way you want. They are wonderful gifts! Check out all of her vinyl creations at Stuck Anya-Vinyl Lettering & More.