"She's Getting Hooked!" Bridal Shower

My trip to Charleston this past weekend was so much fun. In addition to a relaxing (if a bit rainy) afternoon walk on the beach with JiT, lots of Wii golf, silly laughing and junk food with my sis and BIL, consuming more seafood in two days that I thought possible, we was had the bridal shower for my sister's best friend Jen.

I had SO much fun putting this shower together and I think my sister did too. And, from what I could tell, Jen and all of the guests sure enjoyed it.

As I mentioned in my preview post, the theme was "Jen's Getting Hooked," which we chose because it was a pool party on the ocean and the bride loves orange. This theme was a great way to use orange (goldfish) and blue (water)!

Decor included plates and napkins in various shades of orange and blue, table runners cut from orange and yellow wrapping paper (so easy and affordable!) and the favors....my favorite part: I found tiny, plastic fish bowls on a pet store website for $2.25 each. We filled each with various colors of blue tissue paper, then a layer of gummie fish and red hot hearts, which matched the party invitations. With an orange ribbon around the top these were perfect. The guests oohed and ahhed.

We also made a cute welcome sign that recalled the heart-on-a-fishing pole theme from the invitation. We cut a large heart out of red poster board, then poked the wire hook from a coat hanger through and added a piece of black string. On the front we wrote "Reely Glad You're Here," to welcome our guests, and on the back it said "Jen + Charles" (the bride and groom).

Finally, the food. Keeping in theme, we served a menu of easy-to make seafood favorites, including:

• Store-bought (incredibly good) lobster dip, served with veggies and crackers
• My tropical mango salad and store-bought crabcakes (since this is Charleston, the seafood counter at their local supermarket makes to-die-for crabcakes to order)
• English muffin crab bites...this is one of my mom's recipes. Total junk food but also totally addictive
• Canteloupe cut into the shape of goldfish, strug with strawberry "hearts" on bamboo skewers
• Goldfish crackers in every possible flavor
• Drinks included glass bottles of orange crush (perfect color!) and bottled water, along with Jen's famous "Lemonade Surprise" (the surprise is the vodka)
• Feather-light vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, decorated to look like goldfish.

I can't believe I forgot to get an up-close shot of the cupcakes! I was really nervous, since I've never done decorating that intricate. I'm no pastry chef, but they came out pretty well for a first decorating attempt. And...they tasted great. Based off of my snickerdoodle cupcake, the cake comes out light as air and still moist and delicious. I'll share the recipe later this week.

All-in-all, this was a super fun event to plan and even more fun to attend. I really enjoyed meeting all of the girls and spending time with my sister and Jen. For the record, the pic I've included shows my sister on the right, Jen in the middle (knock-out!!) and little old me on the left.

How was everyone else's weekend? I "reely" hope it was as fun as mine (couldn't resist)!