Tea Party Bridal Shower

My sister-in-law's bridal shower was this past Saturday. Her best friend and I worked hard to make it special and fun. We made it an "afternoon tea" and incorporated her wedding colors into our decorating. She and her soon-to-be-hubby are extremely untraditional. They're having a Beetlejuice themed wedding, and her wedding dress is black. Totally different from the norm...but who says you have to be normal to have an amazing wedding?? :) Here are some pictures of what we did.


These are "hanging paper flowers," and I got the design from Martha Stewart's website. They are SUPER easy to make. All you need is paper bags (I got mine in various colors from Michael's). Check out her instructions to make your own here.

I wanted to personalize the prizes, so I took the labels off the candles I bought and decoupaged their names and wedding date on!

The finished product :)

Baking some gluten-free black and white chip cookies (regular chocolate chips and white chocolate chips). I adapted this recipe to make it gluten-free for my little sister-in-law and mom-in-law who have Celiac's disease. I also replaced the macadamia nuts with regular chocolate chips because macadamia nuts are so ridiculously expensive, and the black and white matched our colors. This was the first food item I made. By the time I was all done, it was 1am and I just wanted to sleep...so I forgot pictures of all the other baked/cooked goods. 

The finished product. They were an absolute hit and sooo delicious! A little crumbly though, so I'll add more xanthum gum next time (gluten-free baking/cooking can be a little tricky!). 

Food tags

A banner I made. I bought some gorgeous twine from Whisker Graphics in red and white. I hung the paper hearts and wallet-sized pictures using mini clothes pins. 

Some of the hanging paper flowers and gifts.

The food table. A heart garland made by my mom-in-law, more hanging paper flowers, red and white daisies (her fave) in mason jars, heart doilies (make them using these instructions) and all the yummy food! Plus, of course, the tea :). I forgot to get a close-up of the teas and cups and saucers before everyone got there, but they were all a bunch of mismatched teacups and saucers from thrift stores that we collected for a couple weeks before the shower. 

And the invitations I made. I know it looks weird and you're not getting the full effect. I had to blur out last names, addresses, and phone numbers. I tea-stained the invite and let them dry under heavy books to keep them flat. Then my wonderful and talented hubby designed the text layout and I printed them at home. After that, I stamped them and stuck a bag of my sister's favorite tea in the envelope (vanilla chai). I also pulled the tea tag off (the one on the end of the string) and replaced it with a heart that I wrote "C&A 9.10.11" on. The tea bags in the envelopes made the invites smell delicious!

Sorry for some of the poor quality pictures. I don't have time to edit them right now but I wanted to get this posted before I forgot about it. I'm heading out on a mini 2 day vacation to see one of my best friends in the Portland area while my hubby is traveling for work. 

The complete food list included mini tea sandwiches, veggie sandwiches for my vegetarian sister, gluten-free lemon sugar cookies, a gluten-free minted fruit salad (another big hit and SO easy to make), gluten-free almond ricotta lemon cake, and chocolate dipped strawberries (in addition to the gluten-free cookies pictured above). I also brought raw organic sugar, organic half and half, and some blackberry honey from the local farmer's market to use for the tea (I'm kind of all about organic stuff in case you can't tell). 

The favors were candies wrapped in red, white, or black with a coordinating bag of tea. 

I think that about sums it up! It went great, and I think my sister had a wonderful time :)