Burlap and Lace Bridal Shower

In a future life (I don't really believe in reincarnation :) ), I would love to be a party planner. It is so fun to choose a theme and plan a shower, reception, or party around it! Not only is it fun to formulate a theme and see it come to fruition, it gives me great satisfaction to do so on a budget. I am a firm believer that less can be much more. Having a party that is decorated nicely doesn't necessarily mean spending a lot of money. With a little research, creativity, and craftiness, a pretty party is possible.

I was privileged to help plan a bridal shower last weekend. The son of family friends recently asked his sweet girl to marry him, and I am grateful I got to be a part of the shower of love our church hosted for them.

The hostesses decided on a decor theme of burlap and lace, and I immediately got on the wonderful world of internet to searched for ideas. Don't you love the resources we have available to us on the internet? The ability to share ideas and tutorials so easily is amazing.

After finding and pinning my favorite ideas to a Pinterest board, I created an inspiration collage of ideas.

A lady in our church agreed to make the cake. We chose the one in the collage above with frosting roses. She did an awesome job making a southern pound cake with strawberry jam between the layers. This was her first time to make the frosting roses, and we were extremely pleased with her results. The base was created by her husband out of a tree and beautifully complemented the theme.

(And in case you are wondering, we wouldn't dare step on the Goddess's territory when it comes to beautiful cakes! We live too far away from her and probably couldn't afford the 650 mile delivery.)

Adding burlap to the decor was a lot of fun. We placed squares of it on top of white table cloths at the food table and the guest tables. I also painted symbols and letters on burlap to create centerpieces and a pennant banner.

I found the idea for the pennant banner at Style Me Pretty and a tutorial for making it at My Love of Style.

Dear Lillie showed me how to use burlap on a vase to make an adorably personalized centerpiece. We added baby's breath and votive candles as well.

I really wanted to use some mercury glass at this shower too. But, when I asked the other hostesses, no one owned any. That meant I had to get my crafty on!  I followed Interiors by Kenz's tutorial to create faux mercury glass . I rounded up some unused vases from under my sink and purchased a few votives from a thrift store and painted them according to directions in the tutorial.

All of these elements helped create a sweet, romantic burlap and lace bridal shower. The food was delicious, the decorations cute and the bride-to-be was radiant.

Is a burlap and lace themed party in your future? Follow the links in this post to some great ideas, and do a search of the internet for more. So much crafting and planning to do, so little time to do it! Have fun partying!