With Spring upon us, wedding season will be here soon enough. And for those of you who are hosting a bridal shower (or baby shower, or tea party, or Kentucky derby party, or whatever) here are some ideas for you! I threw this shower for my friend Kathy, who I grew up with my entire life. This was back in May of 2018, but the tea party theme is still a hot one!

Pick a date and venue: For my BFF Jenna in Cali, we hosted her baby shower at a golf club she belongs to because she had a larger group of ladies coming. For Kathy though, we knew it would be a more intimate group, so I just hosted it at my house.

Pick your theme: Kathy doesn’t drink so I wanted to pick a theme that was fun but focused on her. I went with an English Tea Party theme. I went all out….I spent hours making homemade sugar cubes in different flavors, ordering a ton of different teas, making decor, looking up and testing out recipes for scones, and all that beautiful bullshit. It came together really well and while she enjoyed fancy teas, I also had a mimosa bar set up with fancy juices, fresh berries, and champagne for the other guests.

Send out invites: Have the bride give you the addresses of her guests and pick out invites that match your theme. You can also do digital invites through evite.com, paperlesspost.com, or greenenvelope.com. You should send invites out somewhere between 6-8 weeks prior to the shower.

Decide on your menu: Food to me is the most important part of hosting. The guests won’t remember the colors or the plates, but they’ll remember if they ate fucking well or not. I wanted to really steer into the whole tea party theme, so for our menu I made the following: Croissants with ham/brie/green apples, cucumber dill cream cheese tea sandwiches, deviled egg tea sandwiches, veggie quiche, bacon and cheddar quiche, a fruit platter, a veggie platter, chips, orange cranberry scones, lemon poppy seed scones, caramel toffee scones, coconut chocolate macaroons, mini cream cheese and strawberry danishes, and the bride’s sister and mom brought the cheese platter, pasta salad, chili cheese cake, and mini cherry cheesecakes. And I had cupcakes as the main dessert. We had a fucking feast. If you are wanting some great tea party recipes, check out this cookbook.

Plan appropriately. I’m OCD and believe in lists on lists on liiiiiists. I wrote out the times I needed to put quiche in the oven, make the sandwiches, and set out the trays I had arranged the day before of fruits and veggies to make sure everything was ready to go right when the party started. So once you know what time you are starting the party, work backwards and figure out when you need to cook and prep each item. Which brings me to what I find to be the most important tip.

Feed those fuckers, and feed them promptly. My mom is from Oklahoma and my dad is Italian, and while they both have different backgrounds, both of their families always focused on the food. And something my mom instilled in me at a young age was that you have food out for your guests right when they arrive. I sound like a real bitch saying this, but I think it’s nuts to invite a bunch of people to a party and not have food ready for them. At my wedding, the minute people walked away from the ceremony into the reception hall, we had a shit ton of passed hors d’oeuvres, gazpacho shooters, and mac ‘n cheese to tide people over until their main course was served. At my kid’s birthday parties, I ensure there’s a ton of food, not just food for the kids. And Kat’s shower was no exception. As soon as the guests showed up, I told them to start eating even though the bride herself was running late. I just feel like if you host a party, you feed your guests, and you feed them well. If you have a catered event and are intentionally waiting to serve the main dish until after the event has been going on awhile, you better fucking have some snacks – charcuterie boards, fruit plates, dips, anything that will tide your guests over until the main course.

For the tea station, I sourced vintage tea cups that used to belong to my Grandma Susie and Great Grandma Launa. I also borrowed some from my mom and bought a few of them at Home Goods to ensure we had enough pretty cups and saucers.

Add a personal touch. As I mentioned earlier, I made sugar cubes in different flavors for the tea. I got the flower molds off of Amazon and got the flavorings and food coloring from the grocery store.

Even if the bride doesn’t drink, I think it’s still a good idea to offer some sort of cocktail. (Unless of course the guest of honor prefers you don’t, then make festive mocktails instead!) I got orange, mango, and blueberry pomegranate juices, put them in cute pitchers and carafes, and then tossed some fresh as fuck berries into small bowls. I also found a printable online that said, “Mimosa bar” and framed it to tie in the theme and colors even more. And then I bought some champagne and let each guest make their mimosa as strong or weak as they pleased. This decoration kit is a cute one to get if you are planning on setting up a mimosa bar. I am also all about chalkboard signs, food pick signs, table scatter, and all of those extra touches.

For dessert I got cupcakes made with green and pink frosting to match the shower decor colors. I arranged them into the shape of an engagement ring and then downloaded a printable online that said, “She said yes!” I then scattered fake gems around it for extra bling.

Decorate: For decorations, Party City was my BFF. I needed a couple more pops of the shower colors spread around our main floor, so I made pennants using craft paper and jute rope, blew up some balloons, and wrapped crepe paper around the railings of our banisters. I also printed photos of the bride and groom and spread them around to add a personal touch.

Plan Shower Games: I’m not big on games at showers – be it baby or bridal. But I did enjoy when I asked the groom questions about the bride beforehand, and then at the shower she was asked the same questions and we compared her answers to her groom’s. It was hysterical! I found the game on Etsy but was not going to pay $5 just to have 20 questions printed on craft paper when I could make my own for free. So I retyped the questions into a word document below for you.

If you’re like me and fucking hate shower games: I used an old school trick from showers I went to as a kid. Put a sticker on the bottom of a couple different paper plates. Shuffle them into the stack of plates people are using for their food. Whoever gets the plate with the sticker on the bottom wins the prize. Both the bride’s mom and my mom won haha! And they were all relieved to not play games the entire time. Sometimes people just want to eat and visit.

Guest Book: You can toss aside traditional guest books in lieu of something more creative. I found this frame at Target where you sign little wooden hearts and put them in a shadow box. For baby showers, a copy of the mother-to-be’s favorite children’s book makes a great guest book. Another idea is to print an engagement photo of the bride and groom and have people sign the frame of it. (The inside border frame or mat, not the actual picture frame itself.)

Favors: I know for weddings favors may not be a big thing anymore, but I feel they are a nice touch for bridal and baby showers. Kat’s favors were special because she actually made them! She has an soap shop on Etsy and she made engagement ring shaped soaps that turned out really cute. Then I just bought some net circles and “thank you” stickers from Party City and wrapped the soaps in them. I added a sign saying, “From Kathy’s shower to yours” since I’m all about the fucking puns, and it was a nice way to get the word out to her guests that Kat has a soap shop.