Kate's alphabet bridal shower

You saw the invitation, and now I'm back with photos from Kate's bridal shower! It was truly a group effort -- my Mom planned all of the food, and my sister, cousins, and aunt were a fabulous day-of and day-before prep crew.

As I discussed before, we planned an alphabet shower, based loosely on Rebecca Thuss'. Kate loves words and word games (even though she's definitely the logical, math sort), so we figured an alphabet theme would be appropriate! It worked out perfectly.

The shower was held on my family's back deck, and we lucked out with a beautiful day (a little overcast at first, and by the end we could have used a bit more shade, but I won't complain!). About twenty guests joined us (split almost half and half between family and friends), including a surprise appearance from one of Kate's best friends from childhood whom she hadn't seen in years.

Most of the food was set up on one main table, with muffins scattered around the deck, and we nibbled and mingled for the first hour or so. Our menu was as follows:



--chocolate raspberry muffins
--blueberry peach muffins
--fruit kabobs (K)
--angel food with strawberries (A)
--bacon and onion tarts (T)
--deviled eggs (E)
--chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting
--mimosas and lemonade

As you can see, we chose to feature foods that corresponded with the first letters of Kate's name:





We kept the decor fairly simple, since I was carting most of it with me from North Carolina to Connecticut in a few checked suitcases (just thinking about that makes me start panicking about transporting wedding items...).

The main attraction was the paper bunting, which was super simple to make! I just cut triangles from scrapbooking paper, punched two holes in the top of each, and strung them on twine.



Similar to my NOEL letters, I also painted K-A-T-E in the day's colors. The cardboard letters are about $4 each at JoAnn, and stand up perfectly on their own.



The plates and napkins were from Walmart, and the beautiful variegated tulips were from the grocery store!





One other super simple detail: a "We heart Kate" banner strung across our old playground, fluttering in the background throughout the party.



After about an hour, we sat down and Kate started to open gifts. The letter gift option made for a fun opening experience! It took some of the eyes and "pressure" off of Kate, as guests laughed about the ridiculous ways others had fulfilled their letters (a guest who had the letter "O" gave her an orange... along with some towels!).

We also played Bridal Bingo, with custom cards based on the items on K + C's registry. Sadly I don't have a picture of it in action at the shower, but this is what it looked like:



We gave out packs of seeds as favors (kale + kohlrabi, arugula + asparagus, two types of tomatoes, and endive + eggplant -- get it?), and Waste Not Paper note cards and Le Pens as favors.





I loved that some of the guests got creative with their packaging. A "T":



And an "O":



Kudos to the guests!

So now it's full steam ahead to the wedding. My shower gift to Kate was outside-the-budget detailing for the rehearsal dinner -- you've already seen a few possibilities here, but look for some more details, and possibly even a few crafts, soon!

I'm also now in the throes of planning another bridal shower. I'm almost done with the invitation for that one, so keep your eyes peeled!

P.S. Sadly I didn't get photos of the cupcakes, with their adorable cupcake flags, nor the mimosas, complete with striped paper straws. Use your imagination pretty please, mmmkay?