Wine Themed Bridal Shower
I was so honored to throw a bridal shower for my friend Erika last weekend in our home town. Together with her mother-in-law, step-mom, and my mother, we hosted a celebration of her upcoming nuptials — with wine, cheese, and presents!
Framed photo credit: Nicole Smith Photography
Erika and I went to high school together in Scottsbluff, a town in the Panhandle of Western Nebraska. Since then we have moved away, started jobs, made new friends, but always make sure to stay true to our roots of “ScoBlo”. To top things off, Erika is engaged to a wonderful man that also calls ScoBlo home. He graduated a few years ahead of us, was friends with Erika’s older brother, and then somehow fate brought Jeff and Erika together in their current city of Denver, CO. It wasn’t long till they were engaged and planning what is sure to be a bash of a wedding this July.
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Knowing Erika would have plenty of family and friends to celebrate with in Scottsbluff, I offered to start planning a shower, even though I live across the country. Hey, nothing can keep me from throwing a party!
She got some wonderful gifts! Many were wrapped in boxes, but some where of the card variety. Since she and Jeff registered on www.travelersjoy.com, people were able to gift pieces of their Hawaiian honeymoon. If you are planning a wedding and haven’t heard of this site, go take a look! It’s really cool. My shower gift to her was a sunset cruise, her sister-in-law’s gift was a romantic sushi dinner. What a great idea, right?
Sister-in-law and bridesmaid Ann got to work on a lovely ribbon bouquet for Erika to carry at her rehearsal…good thing my mom remembered to find a paper plate, because I almost forgot!
I had so much fun making all sorts of fun decorations in the wedding colors of red, orange, and other rich “winey” colors. It started with the invitation (inspired by finds on Etsy and Pinterest but made by me using InDesign and free fonts from FontSquirrel.com), and continued through the flowers, signage, games, pom poms, and food.
I went a little nuts at the olive and deli area of Whole Foods which resulting in “antipasta skewers” — my most favorite appetizer to date. I started with some inspiration from Pinterest (go figure), then just kinda went with it and ended up with “bouquets” of yumminess. Each skewer included olives, salami, basil, cherry tomatoes, tortellini, mozzarella, and prosciutto. They were a hit and looked beautiful on the table.
Bruschetta, mounds of cheese cubes, nuts, brie wedges, oreo truffles, and chocolate covered strawberries pulled it all together.
One of the biggest hits of the party were our chalkboard glasses! Even if a guest requested iced tea in lieu of wine (common! it’s wine party!!) they got it in a personalized wine glass.
**Update: I bought the glasses at Dollar Tree (for, go figure, $1 each) and painted the bases with two coats of chalkboard paint. When each guest arrived, I chalked their name onto the glasses.
We encouraged guests to take their glasses home, along with some scrumptious oreo truffles made by my mom.
Orea truffles sound good, right? Well, they are amazing. I’ve been passing the recipe around for years, always shocking friends and family with the ingredient list: oreos, cream cheese, and melted chocolate (yes, they really do only have three ingredients). In fact, my friend Lara won a holiday baking content with them last year! I have to give credit to Sweet Life Kitchen blog, where I found this peculiar recipe many moons ago. Make them!
Though I’m not typically a shower game person, we played two fun “games”. One was a Knot.com find that asked guests to give marital advice through Mad Libbs. We got some great answers!! I bound them all together with ribbon after the shower and gave it to the bride as a little “guest book”.
Purchase this design at my Etsy store!
I also took a suggestion from Craftaholics Anonymous and played a round of Staches and Crowns (it’s actually tiaras instead of crowns, but I think crowns has better alliteration)! Weeks before the event, I asked the bride and groom a set of questions, collecting their answers separately. To begin the game, I handed out props to each guest.
I then read a question, and gave one of the answers. Guests had to guess who’s answer was read, then denote their guess by holding up a “stache” (for Jeff) or a crown (for Erika) or both! Not only was it funny to watch everyone play with little paper props, but I think we all learned something new about the happy couple.
If you want to play this game at your next shower, download my questions (I added a few to the original CA list) and my outlines for staches and crowns (if you, like me, don’t own a silhouette that cuts them out for you).
As you can see, the game was a big hit with the kids. Ava had perfect “stache” positioning, where as some of the adults were too shy to really “get their stache on” and just kind of held them up instead. It’s more fun to get that stache right under your nose.
Kids really do make a shower more interesting. They play the games, eat the food, and have a blast taking presents to the bride. Even Ethan escaped Grandpa’s clutches to get in on the fun! (He thought these pillows were pretty great.)
Overall, it was a successful event! Everyone seemed to have a good time and the bride had a blast. It was so nice to be able to host at my family home…especially since I was only in town for about a day and a half to prepare (and recovering from the rip-roaring bachelorette party just two days prior). Mom was a huge help!
I can’t wait for the wedding in July!! All that’s left to do is find Ethan a tux. He is the ring bearer after all! OMG is he going to look cute.
It was a great shower. Nothing better than having good friends. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.
I came across your blog while searching for fun ideas to help me put together a wine themed bridal shower for my best friend.
I pretty much have everything organized and all my ideas coming together but i can’t explain how excited I was to come across your mad lib idea. I am thinking of incorporating it into a guest book, something fun for the bride to go back and look at in the future.
If you can send me the link that you found this exact template ( perfect for the theme) for the mad lib that would be greatly appreicated.
Any questions or comments please let me know
thanks
Raelene
Hi Raelene! So glad you like the Mad Libs. I actually took inspiration from The Knot and created this template myself using InDesign. I don’t have an easy solution for customizing the color/names/wording unless you have InDesign (in which case I could send you the file but the fonts), but I will email you to get something worked out. :)
Hey Becky,
I too just came across this blog searching for wine themed shower ideas! Thanks Becky for all of your suggestions – looks like it was a great day from your pictures! Raelene, one thing we’ve done a few times is a ‘Countdown Box’. I only think of it for you because you mentioned you were looking for something for the bride to look back on. Depending on how much time there is left between the shower and wedding, I took 30 index cards (so the bride had one for each day a month up until the wedding) and decorated them with stamps, ribbons, whatever, and numbered them. We had them at the shower and asked people to write a message to the bride; anything from words of wisdom on marriage, jokes to keep her relaxed, a story they remembered about her, etc. We made sure to have the groom-to-be write a note to her on the “0″ card, to give to her the morning of the wedding. My bridesmaids made one for me, and I LOVED reading one each morning as the special day approached. The one from my husband was so perfect to receive the morning of, and my Mom, sister, and Mother-in-law had the few right before the wedding day. I still read them every once in a while! Sorry I rambled, just thought I’d share the idea.. :) Have fun!
Great idea!! Sounds very fun and special. I’ll have to remember this for my next shower!
I ran across your bridal shower post while searching for a wine tasting bridal shower I’m planning on hosting! Lots of great ideas – I’m going to have to steal your mustache/crown game!
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Thanks!! I’m sure your shower will be a hit!! If you want any help, I sell the Mad Libs game design on Etsy, check out my shop< \a>, I do custom orders too :)
Could I ask where you got the wine glasses or how you made them? I love them!
Sure! I got the glasses at Dollar Tree for $1 each and painted them with two coats of chalkboard paint. Then I just chalked on the names when each person arrived! It was not only cute but functional too…I learned everyone’s name very quickly! Good luck with your party!
Thanks for your question…I can’t believe I didn’t write this info in the post! It’s in there now. :)
Can you tell me how you made the sign with their name in it its awesome!!!
Thanks Melissa! I made it in InDesign. I actually sell this design on my Etsy store as a custom listing for $10 if you are interested! Just email me.
I absolutely LOVE the invitations and I have been looking for something exactly like this! any chance you could fill me in on how to do it!? I know you said InDeisgn, but I have no idea how to use that program nor do I have it at the moment but I am in the process of getting it now. They look great!
Hi Christina! I’ll email you with more details. :)
Also, for the mustache and tiara game, did you do prizes or was it just for fun? I love the game but I am trying to figure out how to keep track of who gets what right
We just did the game for fun, I did not keep track of the answers and don’t really think you could with a big group. It was just hilarious seeing all the ladies with mustaches and tiaras on their faces/heads…we were giggling the whole time. Great ice breaker!
WOW I am truly impressed by the invitations and have been looking for a wine themed bridal shower invitation for the LONGEST time!!!!! I am throwing a friend of mine a shower this summer and can’t decide if I wanted a wine theme or recipe theme mainly because I just don’t have that much for the wine theme! I saw a comment you made that said you sell different products on your etsy site but I didn’t see the invitations… How much are they and do you actually make them or just provide the file?!
Thank you Stephanie! I do sell invitation designs on my Etsy site but this one isn’t up there. I’ll email you to talk about working something out for your shower. :)
Sounds good thank you!!!!
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