bridal shower success!

after weeks of moaning and complaining, my sister's bridal shower went off without a hitch. I was a little nervous..I've never done such an elaborate table setting and since I couldn't go home and test it out I just had to trust the vision in my head that everything would look good together. and it did! it was a complete and utter success..the food was fantastic, the table looked great, and the weather was perfect. I wish I could have gotten some better shots (for my portfolio) of the table before everybody came in to eat, but I didn't have much time because there was a lot of last minute food preparation. Everybody kept complimenting me on my work and even Elaine said how it turned out to be a lot more "classy" than she expected. score! exactly what I was going for.

Things shown here (left to right, top to bottom)

• a singular place setting. Each setting had a placemat, a white plate, fork, knife, spoon, a handmade cookie jar with handmade cookie labels and handmade placecards attached, a wedding recipe booklet containing memories and recipes from my mom and andy's mom, plus one little white plastic swan.


• a long shot of the table. i wish had one from above, but I forgot argh! we had approximately 16 guests so it was a challenge to get enough tables/chairs


• Close up of the wedding recipe booklet


• the flowers I got from the flower mart. I was really afraid these were going to die on me. They're really pretty, but seem like the type of flower that would die really quickly. The man at the flowermart told me to put them in warm water, which I've never heard before. But he was right, they've lasted more than a couple of days..they only looked slightly peaky on the day of, and I don't think anybody noticed except for me. I even wrapped these ikea candles in a matching print.


• our food spread! we had an ENORMOUS amount of leftovers. we clearly overestimated how much people would eat! but it looks delish, no? My favorite: the smoked salmon with capers on top of a piece of bread with a light creme fraiche/shallot spread. It was my first attempt making it and it turned out wonderfully. My second favorite: mancheegggoooooooooo


• a closeup of the cookie jar favors. Everybody thought these were super cute, unfortunately I can't take credit for the idea..I saw it on somebody else's website.

ah I'm so happy that it's all over.