I threw a tropical (honeymoon) themed DIY wedding shower for my brother in law this weekend and it turned out great! His favorite color is baby blue so the blue and orange color scheme worked out really great.
There were lots of details to this DIY wedding shower, and with lots of help from family we were able to have an amazing shower!
I hand made the sign and monogram out of cardstock and used string and push pins to attach to the wall. I used 12 by 12 card stock in orange pattern and in blue glitter from Michaels. For the triangles I simply cut 3 inches off the bottom of the 12 by 12 card stock and made the width of each triangle 6in and the point in the middle (3in). So I was able to get three triangles from each sheet of card stock. For the letters I cut the blue glitter card stock into 3x2in rectangles and cut the letters out by hand using a scissors and an exacto knife.
For the decor over the fire place, I made the fans out of blue gift wrap paper from the dollar store and hand traced a starfish outline and cut out on copper cardstock for a more tropical feel. I then spray painted some wooden letters from Hobby Lobby in copper for the monogram. The sand arrangements were done by Aunt Cookie and it was a mixture of blue and white unity candle sand from Hobby Lobby.
After pouring she used a scissors to push the blue sand into the white sand on the sides
She let the twincesses help pick seashells 🙂
Gorgeous!
Each one was different but all were beautiful!
For the drink table Aunt Cookie worked her magic on the arrangement again.
Because it was a drink table and liable to get spills we placed paper towels under the mesh ribbon. You couldn’t tell it was just paper towels and it went with the color scheme. Great idea Aunt Cookie!
Food
BAM! can you say FABULOUS! Uncle Herman produces these amazing fruit displays that are nothing short of amazing! And yes that is a working waterfall right in the middle of all that fruit.
Edible Art
Chocolate covered Strawberries!
In addition to fruit I did a mashed potato bar. I am seriously going to be doing this at every party I throw! It is so easy and it feeds a lot of people economically. Serving the mashed potatoes in the martini glasses really makes this idea go over the top! I went with real martini glasses because they can be used over and over again and I got these at…..wait for it….dollar tree! yip for 1 buck each! that’s cheaper than some of the plastic martini glasses and definitely much cheaper than anywhere else for glass martini glasses.
Don’t just dollop mashed potatoes in the glasses either! I used a 1M pastry tip and made rossettes of the mashed potatoes to match the rosettes on the cake.
Lots of fixings are the key to a great mashed potato bar. We had:
Jack Daniels shredded beef (sams)
Chicken (cut up a rotisserie chicken)
Bacon (the real stuff no bacon bits!)
cheese
chives
butter
sour cream
I also planned to do broccolli but ran out of time
Additionally I wanted to do mashed sweet potatoes (would have brought in more orange colors) with toppings of cinnimon, brown sugar and mini marshmallows)
I did these little frames to describe everything we served. Cousin Wendy did the gorgeous monogram!
These pinwheels were delicious!!! chicken, bacon yumminess!
Mexican spinach dip a la Cousin Wendy! delish!
And of course there is CAKE! I am really proud of myself for trying something new! This was my first attempt at a 2 tier cake and it certainly wasn’t perfect but I think it came out great!
The cake topper I made for my own wedding and am now passing down to my brother in law. Its a wooden D and i added swarovski crystals for some bling. Who knew I would still be using this 5 years after my own wedding 🙂
Now first of all I thought you just placed the top layer on top of the bottom layer and iced it all up. Thank God i watched youtube before I attempted this LOL. I placed 5 wooden bamboo dowels (from Micheals) in the bottom layer so they would hold up the top layer. You have to place the stick in and cut each one to size. I then placed the top layer on a 6″ cake circle before placing on top.
When I saw this blinged out ribbon at Michaels I had to have it! I had no idea where I would use it but I got it anyway. And finally I thought, Hey why not bling out the cake!
To attach the ribbon I used T Pins from Staples
Really I didn’t need the pins, I wet the icing a bit and the ribbon stuck to it well. I only used the pins for my peace of mind and because I knew I would be the one cutting the cake. So I could take out all pins and take off the ribbon before the cutting! Safety first!
You can barely see the pins on the ribbon but i placed this at the back of the cake just in case
Up next my favorite rosettes! super simple a 1M tip and swirl!
Another tip: I use Viva paper towels to smooth out icing. I use the Viva brand because they don’t have a pattern so no imprints on the cake just a smooth finish.
And voila!
With the topper the cake looks great as the centerpiece!
Favors:
For favors we used these gorgeous little blue boxes and tied them with orange ribbon. Wendy designed a great monogram in orange and we stuck that on the top of the box. Inside were hershey kisses. Notice I used that orange mesh ribbon everywhere for table runners it add alot of punch of color (Hobby Lobby)
And there you have it a happy Bride and Groom to be!
Excellent ideas, now I know how to plan my own wedding.