Summer’s Shower: Food, Games, and PRESENTS!

This certainly has been a whirlwind week of showering. And not the clean kind- actually, in the rush of things, there’s a strong chance I skipped a shower or two. #whoops

If you’ve been with us this past week, you know we’ve been showering Summer with tons of love and congratulations to honor her upcoming wedding in June. PS. If you’re new around here, welcome! Glad you stopped by! Feel free to poke around and get to know us a little bit… you can find the cliff note version of the “who are these Leslie and Mitch people??” here. Okay, back to Summer.

So that gem of a girl is marrying my gem of a brother.

HOWEVER, I feel obligated to give you a more accurate depiction of these two goofballs…

By the way, word on the street is that BOTH of the above photos were used for their Save-the-Dates. The first went out to some people and the second to others. I’ll give you one guess as to which showed up in our mailbox… curse them for knowing that there’s no way we’re distinguished enough for the “fine china”. Can’t pull one over on anyone around here. 🙂

Anyway, we showered them (Ok, well her. Beau was out playing golf with all the guys that weren’t invited to the shower.) with a library-meets-coffee shop-meets-garden PARTAY! It was a blast.

On Monday, I gave you a behind-the-scenes exclusive to all of the lying and deceit it took to pull off the big surprise and yesterday, you got a glimpse of all of the (many) details that made the event special. I highly recommend reading those first- otherwise you’ll be more lost than I get when my Waze app decides it cannot connect to the server. And darnit if it’s not always when I’m driving in a city made of only one-way streets.

Today, friends, is party day. We’ll be enjoying a delicious lunch together, playing a few games, and watching Summer open Mount St. Present. And, as a bonus for hanging in there like a champ this week, you’ll get to see Summer don a silly hat, get a look-see at what we bridesmaids cooked up as a gift for her, AND watch a video of my brother answering trivia questions about his bride to be. So stick with it- good things come to those who wait party on. 🙂

THE FOOD

As our party occurred over the lunch hour, we decided to serve a meal to our lovely guests. Close friends and family graciously offered to bring the makings for the lunch and in the end, we had plenty of food. The menu consisted of chicken salad, sliced baked ham and cheese to make sandwiches, a variety of salads, some chips and dips, and a few other sides to round things out.

For dessert, we served cupcakes, brownies, and cookies, but also scattered bowls of M&Ms and Junior Mints (Summer’s favorite) around the room.

In addition to the munchies, we rigged up a drink station and Coffee Bar. This was Ally’s brain child and she did a great job dressing it up in frames, flowers, and pearls to help continue with our theme. Here’s a shot of it during set up:

Since Summer likes a good book and cup of coffee (extra cream and sugar please!) more than most things, we decided it would be fitting to pay tribute to that. This quote from C.S. Lewis tied it all together beautifully: You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.

In the end, it was one of the most personal elements of the set-up and guests enjoyed getting to have a “grown up tea party”. Books, a framed tea bag, flowers, a picture of Beau and Summer, and personalized coffee syrups (the bottles came from the Dollar Store and Ally just used black paint and a white paint pen to label them) really made the table special.

THE PRESENTS

Summer had a TON of presents to open and we worked hard to help keep things moving so that people were not sitting around for too long. In fact, part way through, we took a break to play a game and this ended up being a great way to re-energize people for the second half of gift opening. It was really fun to see all of the neat things she got!

The bridesmaids decided to go in on a gift together… we ended up assembling a basket full of helpful, fun, and silly things for Summer and Beau to enjoy.

This was one of my favorite parts about planning the shower- shopping for the gifts (you may remember Mollie and I racing in and out of stores to find all of the “pieces”). In the basket- the adorable metal bin from Home Goods being part of the gift itself- were a few “collections” of things, each with their own mini-theme. We did a “night at home” bundle with a frame, candle, a 4 pack of the most adorable mugs I think I’ve ever seen (also from Home Goods), and a gathering of succulents in a planter for their new house (Summer LOVES succulents).

Also in there were a few funny things like two of the “Dummies” books… Shakespeare for Dummies, for Beau to keep up with Summer’s love of reading and classic literature and Photography for Dummies, for Summer to keep up with Beau’s love of all things photography.

Shameless plug alert: Beau’s work is ah.mazing. And I’m not just saying that because I’m his sister… but I AM shamelessly plugging his business because I’m his sister. 🙂 You can check out his website here. Shameless plug over.

Oh, and we also threw a stress ball in there for good measure. Annnnnd to outweigh the goofy, we added a gift card to a favorite restaurant of theirs (it gets a shout out in the upcoming video) and their favorite candy bars.

Finally, we put together a DIYers dream kit (yes, I pushed for this one)- some painting supplies, a gift card to Home Depot, and a few paint swatches that were in some of their favorite colors. Some of the colors we chose for the color, and some of them we chose because the name of the color had some sort of connection to Summer and Beau. Fun!

Oh, but WAIT- my favorite part of the gift was the journal (you can see it in the basket a few photos up). On the front it said “dream, inspire, create” and inside we wrote the following note:

Summer, We wanted to give you a space to jot down your thoughts, memories, funny quotes,  and special moments of your first year together. Life can fly by so fast, so we want you to have a place to remember all the small moments. We love you and Beau and wish you the best! Love, the girls

The journal was meant to give Summer a space to record all the memories of their first year of marriage and we even got her started by dating and signing the first page… her bridal shower!

THE GAME

We chose to only play one game- the space and amount of guests in attendance would have made any games that required movement virtually impossible. The game we ended up doing was so much fun and a really great way for guests to get to know Beau and Summer a little bit more.

Now, Summer, you may be interested to know that while you were blissfully opening your gifts, we were busy having a small panic attack out in the hallway because we couldn’t get the video to play through the projector… but it all came together in the end, so we figured- the less you know, the better. 🙂

Here’s how it worked: Beforehand, we gave Beau a list of questions to videotape himself answering. He then sent us that video to use the day of. When it came time to play the game during the shower, Summer was asked the same questions first and she had to guess what Beau’s answer was. After she guessed, we played the clip of what he actually said. It was a riot. Want a little glimpse (that’s a lie, it’s 11 minutes long) of the action? Here ya go:

A few things to note:

• That sassy comment about Beau not having any annoying habits… yeah, that was me. 🙂 Just a little sisterly love!
• Apparently losing one’s keys is a family affair
• “Aside from my gentle soul”… he’s a charmer, huh?
• We’ve already contacted TLC about the possibility of a new reality television show… 93 Kids and Counting is the title that’s on the table. 🙂

THE FUN

We wanted our guests to have some fun of their own (even though watching Summer and Beau play the trivia game was entertainment in itself), without breaking up the flow of things to introduce another game. Instead, we encouraged guests to fill out a homemade and unique-to-Summer-and-Beau Madlib (as a nod to all things words and “literature”).

That way, guests could participate in some type of game and Summer and Beau ended up with something fun to read down the road to help remember the shower and those that came to show their love and support. And humor. 🙂 Let’s just put it this way: I seem to remember wishing them “a lifetime of happiness, love, and Michael Jackson.” After all of the gift opening, we made Summer wear the obligatory hat ‘o bows (I will refrain from making the obvious pun here, Beau. You’re welcome.).

Very becoming, Summer. 🙂 Then we all gave one more cheer for the bride-to-be as we brought the party to a close.

Well, friends, that about wraps this week of partying up with a ribbon and a big ‘ole hat of bows! Thanks for tagging along for the ride! In the end, the shower was a success and Summer has said more than once that she felt so loved and honored by all of the people who came out to support her and Beau as they get closer to the big day. Yes, there were tears at the end… and not just from Summer.

Now just in case you were getting a little sad that all the fun is over… WAIT, there’s more. Tomorrow I’ll be back with a few lessons we learned and tips and tricks we picked up along the way of how to throw a great bridal shower. And survive to tell the tale. 🙂 Stay tuned!