Summer Showers

In June 2006 my mom & I hosted a friend's wedding shower in my mom's backyard. This was the first wedding shower I had ever planned & it turned out to be a great success. My mom is a huge gardener, so her lush greens and flowers in the backyard offered a beautiful setting and the weather was beautiful (not too hot). Summer is upon us & I thought these photos might offer some inspiration for upcoming outdoor events.

This was the invitation that I designed for the shower. The bride's colors for her wedding were black, white, and red. I stuck with that theme for the invitation, but then added some canary yellow into the scheme at the event.

This was our set-up. We rented the black wooden chairs, white market umbrellas, and linens from Baker Party Rentals in Costa Mesa. The small tables we had. They weren't all the same, but it didn't matter since we covered them with the polka dot linens. We placed small votives in clear glass cups on the tables.

This was the beverage table. We served a delicious sangria (unfortunately I don't have a photo) made by my mom in a large glass bowl with lots of fresh fruit mixed in. The sangria was the hit of the whole party. The guests stayed far past the end of the shower and kept having more & more. It was a lot of fun! The table, linens, and glasses were also from Baker Rentals. The bright yellow roses on the table were my favorite touch, which really brightened things up & added to the drama. We purchased all of our flowers at Costco the night before the party.

This was the cake table, which we placed in a nice shady spot. One of the other bridesmaids brought the cake from a bakery in Anaheim. We used the square black and white plates (also from Baker Rentals) for the cake and the wide selection of appetizers that we set-up inside the house (no photo of this either). We found the black & white "V" napkins at a local party store.

Yummy!

The bride on her wedding day.