DIY Bridal Shower

One of my younger sisters got married in May, and I had the privilege of organizing a SURPRISE bridal shower for her! (I was so thrilled that we pulled off the surprise!) I love planning parties! You can see my posts about my daughter's first birthday party here (and I will soon be posting about her second birthday party so stay tuned!).

For this party we rented out a back room in a local coffee shop that I know my sister enjoyed visiting. It ended up being incredibly affordable and was the perfect space for what we needed. I enlisted some family to help put the food together and it was all incredibly delicious.

Behind the food table was the Cupcake Bar we created so that everyone could decorate their own cupcakes with an assortment of sprinkles and candies.

I used cupcake wrappers to hold the toppings.

I was quite proud of the bunting banners I made to decorate the party. I spent hours cutting out pretty paper in the shape of triangles and stringing them onto pretty string. Below are a few close ups of the longest strand. Long strands are much more difficult to string than shorter ones, but I knew we had a long space to fill so I went for it.

I made a template and then used scrapbook paper in coordinating colors to cut out the triangles. I used a paper piercer to poke holes in the corners for the string. It made less of an impact and was less visible than using a hole punch. Then I strung the triangles onto green and white striped string that I found at Michaels in the dollar bin. I've also seen similar string, which seems to be popular now, at the Target One Spot.

I used single-sided paper because I knew it was going against the wall. If you need to string a bunting through a room I would recommend double sided paper. I got a lot of compliments on the banner and was told that the triangles were the perfect size, so I wanted to provide a template for anyone else who wants to try making their own! Follow the link below the photo to download the simple template. Print it and cut it out, then use it to trace onto your choice of paper. If you use 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, you should be able to line the triangles up in such a way that you can get 3 triangles out of one sheet of paper.

Click here to download this printable bunting banner template!

Another super fun thing we did at the bridal shower was a photo "booth" complete with props. I hung a shorter strand of bunting across an area designated for photos and gathered a bunch of things to use as props like a giant frame, lots of colorful beads and funny sunglasses. I also made paper props on sticks which are super fun and silly!

The coffee shop had built in shelves perfect for displaying all the fun photo booth props!

I found 12 pages of prop templates from Kensie Kate. Go here to download the template to make your own! The template includes a huge assortment of lips, mustaches, hats, etc. I didn't use all of them, just a small selection that I thought worked for our party theme.

Here are some of them closeup, before I added the sticks.

I cut the props out of scrapbooking cardstock that had a bit of texture to it. It gave them a little bit more depth. You can see in the photo that I also added some bling to some of them. I added rhinestones on the hat, silver studs on some of the glasses, and some of the props were cut out of glitter paper just for that extra little special detail. I hot glued them to wooden skewers and they were a big hit!

My mom and me having fun with the props at the party

We just played one game during the party, bridal shower bingo. This is the game where you have guests fill in a bingo card with presents you think the bride will receive and then mark off the ones you guessed right as she opens her gifts. First to bingo gets a prize! I used this template, but there are lots on the world wide web to choose from!

The party was a great success, from surprising the bride, to all the food and fun, finished off with awesome gifts to help the bride start her new life with her new husband! How about you, what are your best bridal shower ideas? Will you use any of the ideas or templates featured here for your own party? Comment below and let me know!