Full of Pinsperation

So earlier this month, I hosted my very first solo wedding shower!  I usually have the help of my wonderful Momma, but since this shower was out of town, I was on my own.  I was ridiculously a little nervous about being able to pull it off on my own.  I took to Pinterest for inspiration on many of my projects and hoped for the best.

Not only was this my first solo hosting gig, but it happened to be for one of my diamonds in the rough.  The friend that has always kept me swimming, and one of the ones that makes me laugh harder than anyone.  The one that taught me to spend more time focusing on the present instead of worrying about the future.  The one that never even mentioned the idea of a future with a potential boyfriend in all of our years of girl talk.  So when she told me he was the ONE for her, it was hard to contain excitement waiting for him to pop the question and start the celebrations. 

With my Pinterest account in hand, I wanted to try the peppermint trays to have ready for all the cupcakes and fun treats on the table.   These were actually more of a pain in the butt little bit harder than I thought they would be.  My first attempt was a complete disaster.  When the instructions say don't cook something too long, don't cook it too long.  The design warped and attempting to fix it shattered the entire thing and sent pieces flying throughout my kitchen.  A few tries later (the morning of), we did finally get a few that looked someone acceptable. Sadly, I didn't get a good picture of the ones that turned out, but I did get a photo of one I screwed up!

Ally
's house is so quaint and cozy and utterly gorgeous.  She had it perfectly decorated for us. All that was left to do was prepare food and set it out on the tables!

  

One of the other fun Pinterest ideas I found for a Christmas party was serving hot chocolate and coffee in a crockpot! It was an extremely easy way to keep it warm for a couple hours at a time and make enough to serve multiple people. 

The gorgeous bride-to-be with her mother, and another shot with yours truly

Jason is a true rock-star.  He was such a great help all morning getting things ready, chasing Ethan, and getting ready for our fun surprise for all of Ally's guests.

Some mingling shots...

One thing I had my heart set on was a special visit from Ethan to the shower.  Ethan and Ally have a really special bond, and I wanted him to come love on her as well.  Plus, one thing that was requested of me was not to make everyone play silly shower games, but still have some sort of ice breaker since there would be so many people there that didn't already know each other.  So Jason and I went on a very long, and thorough hunt for the perfect costumes, and Santa Claus made a visit with his best elf to deliver some party favors.

Jason and I went hard at work to make some really fun tile coasters for favors (another great Pinterest idea) and had them ready for delivery when Santa rang the doorbell!

Of course, we made all the guests pose for a shot with Santa before he headed back to the North Pole.

Ethan tried helping Ally open her gifts for a while, but quickly lost interest.  We decided to make this shower an ornament shower, a really fun way to build up their very first Christmas tree for next year.  I was amazed at the thoughtfulness that everyone put into finding the perfect ornament to give them some personal, sentimental touches to their tree.

Our gift to her was an Etsy find, turned into a DIY project.  Jason helped me with the design on these, attached some silver bails and felt to the back, and voila! 5 personalized, dated vintage-y ornaments.

These ornaments were probably my personal favorites from the day.  A friend of hers from law school presented her with four clear ornaments, each with a tiny picture of the bride and groom and other lovely decor items, and tied them with ribbon. They were absolutely gorgeous, I definitely have a new idea for gifts for future brides!

Allyson has a very close relationship with her golden retriever, Bogie.  Since Bogie lives with Allyson's mother, Bogie sent a very special ornament to make sure he wasn't forgotten on her tree as well.

Our little elf kept popping up everywhere.  To say he tried to steal the show would be an understatement of the year.  Thank goodness it was a group of women that love babies!

A group shot...

And last, but certainly not least, a shot of the bride and groom after he came back home.  He escaped to a basketball game during all the festivities, but came home near the end to say hello.  These two are quite perfect for each other, and I cannot wait to stand up there with them when they become Mr. and Mrs.