Throw a Fabulous Bridal Shower Brunch

My cousin Julia is getting married and myself, along with her sister (Maid of Honor) and her other wonderful bridesmaids had the pleasure of throwing her a bridal shower this past weekend. If you know me, you know I live for this! Planning fun themed parties is kind of my thing. Check out the Lingerie Bridal Shower I planned for my best friend last year.

For Julia's, we all agreed on a brunch theme many months ago. A few of us got together and came up with a bunch of ideas. Since then, we have been editing that list and slowly getting items here and there until we had a final plan of action. In the end, I think we were all really happy with how everything turned out. Below are our ideas on how to throw the perfect bridal brunch. Enjoy!

We didn't do much in the way of decorations. We got a beautiful bouquet of purple flowers for the centerpiece on the table. Then we put some smaller vases of hydrangeas around the room. The mailbox had one purple and one blue star balloon on it. The bridesmaids gift was also a nice centerpiece itself. See below for that. My aunt also works for Longaberger baskets so she had a beautiful array of baskets for a variety of different things from utensils to muffins to tea. I also loved the idea of labeling the food with mini chalkboards so we implemented that as well.

We asked everyone to bring a recipe for Julia and set up a scrapbook table with stickers and recipe cards for people to put their recipes in. This made a great gift for Julia as well as a fun keepsake from the shower.

Julia's sister and Maid of Honor, Jess, made the most elegant lavender cupcakes. I found the cupcake tier at World Market and it was the perfect way to display Jessica's masterpieces. Lavender is a unique flavor so it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I thought they were fabulous and delicious, and most importantly, so did the bride! You can't tell in the pictures but they were the most beautiful shade of purple which fit in perfectly to our purple and blue colors. Get the recipe here.

We had a basket full of mini cereal boxes and tied purple spoons to them with blue ribbon. We served these with a carafe of milk and bowls. They weren't the most popular item on the table but I think they were super cute.

What's a brunch without mimosas and bloody mary's? One of my favorite things we put together for the shower was a mimosa bar complete with a pitcher of Bloody Mary's. The mimosa part of the bar had carafes with juice in them, peach, strawberry and orange, sparkling wine (and cider for those that didnt want alcohol), champagne flutes, strawberries and peaches for garnish, and fun swirly straws. Then on the end of the bar we had a pitcher of bloody mary complete with Absolut Pepper vodka, and celery sticks for garnish. The whole bar looked fabulous and people really enjoyed the beverages.

My other favorite part of the shower was our yogurt bar. We offered two different kids of yogurt, plain greek and low fat vanilla. Then we had different kinds of fruit and honey to make parfaits. We also had cute little parfait cups that were perfect for the yogurt bar.

Other food options included mini cinnamon rolls, spinach and feta triangles, purple and blue deviled eggs, fruit kabobs, french toast sticks in syrup cups, little hot dogs with honey mustard dip and coffee punch. My aunt also made a delicious sausage, egg and cheese casserole.

Every shower needs some fun and games. We played the classic toilet paper fashion show game, a wedding movie quote quiz that I created and a "How Well Does She Know Her Groom" game show. The prizes we had were a margarita gift basket, a baking gift basket and cute mini coke glasses paired with glass coke bottles.

We asked everyone to bring a kitchen themed gift and I think the bride may need to add more to her registry after all these gifts. The decorative gift from the bridesmaids that I mentioned above was made up of some items from her registry to look like a cake. Look how fabulous it turned out.

We were also able to make Julia a hat and a bouquet out of all the ribbons and bows she received on her gifts.

Denan's popcorn made the perfect favors. They were able to make us purple and blue vanilla popcorn in clear bags. I made custom labels on Sticker You that said Julia's Bridal Shower with the date.