Garden-inspired Bridal Shower Party (for my little sister)

You guys, my little sister is getting married….!!! AND I was lucky enough to host her Garden-inspired Bridal Shower.

I’m one of those traditional gals and still believe in the concept of getting married… it’s really just a big party to celebrate the love you share and the beginning of your happily-ever-after. Of course, there’s no rules and I respect everyone’s approach to their relationship BUT when your little sister gets engaged and picks you to be a bridesmaid – it’s kind of a big deal around here! :)

Me and my hubby are coming near to our 11th Anniversary! (here’s a pic of us kids on our 10th in Paris) It’s a crazy ride, this marriage thing, but we couldn’t be happier with how things are right now… in sickness and in health, two kids later and nearing our 20th year of being together overall ~ I feel like saying we’re ok. ;)

But enough about our crazy life… there’s young love to be celebrated…

I’ve been teasing a few shots from my sister’s Bridal Shower on my Instagram and I’m finally ready (which means I’ve finally gone through all my 200+ photos) to share some of the highlights with you.

My little sister Kasia is 5 years younger than me and we’re very close. Although she lives in Chelsea Quebec now, (works in Ottawa) and I don’t see her as often now, we remain really close and I am super excited that I will be her Bridesmaid in their wedding in August! :)

Of course her fiancee, Pete, is quite the catch and I knew they were meant for each other the moment I saw them together. He’s just the coolest future brother that we’re lucky to have. The kids adore him!! :)

I was excited to host this beautiful Bridal Shower at my little house in the burbs, just west of Toronto. I was lucky that my mom and Kasia’s best friend were helping me out a lot to pull this off.

This Bridal Shower turned out so beautiful…. I went all out with the decor to be extra matchy to make my theme really pop! I even matched my tabletop guys!! What host goes out of her way to do that? (laughs hysterically at her own silliness) I haven’t even seen Martha Stewart do that! ;)

I fell in love with the Kate Spade theme of black and white stripes with bright florals ~ so that was really the theme of this party which I call Chic Garden Party!

We were really hoping for a real garden party in the backyard, but the weather didn’t cooperate and it was actually 13 degrees celsius and raining that day (but what do you expect for May 1st, in this city?) But at least inside, it was pure happiness with lots of bright blooming flowers and a chic contrast of black and white took this party to the next level.

This was the invitation template I sent out to the guests, which really set the tone of the party. (which by the way, can be downloaded for free here)

This post is very photo-heavy (as you can see) and I’ll add some details on the menu, decor and a few games/ entertaining ideas below. But I just want to say that although this party was beautiful it was extremely difficult for me to multitask as the host bringing out the food, doing last minute things and trying to take pictures of the tables. We asked the guests to start eating the food before I got around to taking the photos – so my coverage of the food tables isn’t as picture perfect as I would like it to be… but people had to eat.

Our whole menu was Plant-based Pescatarian. This means that it was mainly vegan with the addition of fish.

There were a lot of gluten-free and grain free dishes and overall light meals. A few pasta salads (veggie and pesto pasta), a spinach and quinoa spring salad, a kale/ cabbage cranberry salad, a sushi platter (ordered from our favourite sushi place), hummus with an array of crackers and flatbread (I also made home baked crackers from my cookbook Cut the Sugar which were gone in minutes (see those empty holes on that plate with the hummus below? Those crumbs are from my delicious crackers! I didn’t even realize they were so well received until I saw this photo and saw them gone first! :)) There was another hummus served with a big plate of veggies. And we also had a tray with smoked salmon with capers, garlic-stuffed olives and a bowl-filler cherry tomatoes ;)

There was also a cheese platter with three types of cheeses and some grapes. A classic apparently :) Overall, all the food complimented one another and the ladies loved it all! It was light yet filling – perfect for a spring brunch menu.

Later on, my table turned to a Sweet Table and it was even more gorgeous!

The first row of desserts were all the treats I made which also meant that they were gluten-free and vegan and unintentionally paleo too.

My older sister made a Berry Mint Fruit Salad which was beautiful and delicious!

A simple dessert that received a lot of compliments were my Dark Chocolate Cups filled with Berries and topped with a little whipped coconut cream.

But the star of the dessert table was definitely my Raw Vegan Raspberry Cheesecake Slices – it was a burst of flavour and just gorgeous to look at too! (I hope you agree) Next to those, I made a platter of Chocolate Nut Balls and a platter of Coconutties.

The row in the back had some flower sugar cookies my sister made, a dessert my mom made and more cookies my sister made.

A bowl of fresh strawberries added a burst of colour and acted as a space filler on my platter next to the cheesecake too – and it really helped to make the table look more spring-like.

The day went on and we nearly forgot that there was cake in the fridge!

So the Sweet Table didn’t include the cake because we forgot to get that out at the same time. (One of the biggest challenges I mentioned at the beginning of this post was the multitasking – so as you see, it’s not easy to stay on top of things) But it worked out, we sorta saved the best for last!

The Vanilla Buttercream Cake was baked by my mom and decorated by me. I was going for an ombre pink shaded look which is very subtle on the photos but showed up better in real life. The top is pretty much white, then the shades turn to a darker pink near the bottom. This cake was a classic vanilla sponge cake with a buttercream frosting. Our mom is a great baker and it was lovely for her to make the cake for her sixth baby to get married! :)

Because our Sweet Table already got eaten from before the cake made its appearance, this looks a little sparse… just some of the desserts remained and as you can see, the Raspberry Cheesecake was all gone! :)

The cake however was lovely. Simple but beautiful. I created height for the cake to sit on by inverting the baking pan onto the serving dish. Then I literally hot-glued the artificial pink roses around. You can’t even see all that DIY craftiness but it’s there :) It created a beautiful show-piece and my sister loved it!

Of course you can’t have a party without a bar!

This was a really fun DIY’ish bar idea that I made up from something you would never think of… I used Mia’s change table (LOL) for the bar! Yup. I didn’t have a bar and I wasn’t planning to buy something just for the party and realized just a week before that this would be just perfect. And it was!

My sister’s BFF, Tonia, (the maid of honour) thought it would be fun to cut the tablecloth to fit the shelves – and I loved that idea. It was beautiful, stylish and practical for all our drinking needs :)

Of course, when I brought my bar in – it didn’t match my brown frames so I completely re-made the art wall to have more reds, pinks and anything else that would fit into the theme. It was basically art I already had but moved it from other rooms. (the perks of having too much stuff or what others call being a hoarder).

The drink of the part’ay was a Raspberry Mimosa with frozen raspberries which also kept the drink cold without watering it down.

I also made Raspberry Ice Cubes for others to put into their drinks (not pictured though).

The big highlight of the party was this awesome Flower Crown Bar!

The credit for this idea goes out to Tonia who supplied all the flowers and accessories to make the crowns. The ladies loved this so much and everyone looked even more cute with fresh flower crowns – this was ah-mazing!

I turned a wreath into a chalk-board – inspired sign which is really black construction paper written with white chalk. The illusion looked like it was wood but way easier to find and get done than having a custom-fitted round chalkboard painted sign put in. Another DIY success!

Below the sign, my daughter drew these adorable Heart canvases which I later framed. These were especially made for the party (her little contribution) but are still up on the wall and are true keepers for ever and ever :)

We also made a Flower Wall to act as our ‘photo booth’ which was really adorable and added more fun to the room and made our photos really fun – as you can see….

This is me with my beautiful daughters – and see my heart in a puddle on the floor?…. it melts every time I realize what a lucky mama I am to have these amazing kiddos in my life.

Last but not least because it made my sister tear up… is this lovely feature photo wall with my sister and her fiancee’s pictures from their travels and just life… simply adorable and it was a conversation piece (among many things).

Tonia printed the photos, while I already had the frames, later the happy couple took these home as a gift (although I fought to have them stay on my wall forever). The ‘love’ print was from Mia’s room so this really came together easily.

Other details in this room were pretty much staged – I grabbed some black and white striped things at Ikea and the adorable heart pillow at Simons. The pink made this room come to life (sadly, the pink and black and white accessories are all gone now (all back to the other rooms in their place).

Here’s a recap with more photos of the guests at the party. I think everyone had a great time and although I forgot to eat all this delicious food and make a flower crown on my own – I had a blast too!

Now I can’t wait for the Big Day! Did I mention I’m a Bridesmaid? :) I am so excited and just can’t wait for this magical wedding to happen (which will be on the beach!) I will probably share about it too…. because I have a blog and my readers will LOVE seeing wedding photos, no? ;)