Bridal Shower Part 1: Food and Drink

My Bridal Shower was a couple of weeks ago and I've been so busy, I haven't had time to blog about it.  I don't want to say that I'm anal, but I know what I want and I'd rather do things myself so I know that things are done right.  So I basically planned my entire shower.  It should also be said that two out of four of my bridesmaids live out of state and wouldn't be able to make it to the shower or help out.  Also, I had originally told everyone my shower would be June 7th, but then for whatever reason, decided to change it to June 14th.  June 14th happened to be during my 3rd bridesmaid's step-daughter's class trip to Chicago so she wasn't going to be there either.  I felt bad, but I did it to myself-- that's the price you pay when you want to do it all on your own.

We had the shower at my parents' house.  They live in a nice area with a 4 car garage and they also have two large canopies that they put up for parties.  The Weather Channel was of no help the weeks before the shower.  One day it would say 72 and party cloudy, the next day 82 and rainy -- sometimes the weather forecast would change in the same day.It was very frustrating and the final forecast was in the 80s with thunder showers.  The day was extremely muggy and the sun peaked out about an hour before the shower and made it extremely hot and sweaty out.  Just before the shower, it began to pour which made it a little better.  We ended up hanging large s-hooks on the poles of the canopy so that people could hang their umbrellas to dry once they came.

Anyway, on to the food and drink portion as promised.  We expected about 35-40 people to attend the shower.  So we ordered a variety of sandwiches from the grocery store: one ham and cheese slider platter and two pita pocket platters (for people who don't like ham/pork).  In retrospect, we should have ordered two of the ham slider platters and one of the pita pocket platters.  The ham was a hit.

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For sides, we had potato chips, pita chips with hummus, a Caesar salad and a pickle tray.

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For dessert we, of course, had a cake as well as a brownie platter.  Originally I wanted to order a half sheet Costco cake, but I wanted a marble cake with buttercream frosting, but Costco doesn't do either of those things so we just had to order it from another grocery store.  It was delicious though.  I found the silhouettes on the cake by googling free clip art and then the people at the bakery improvised the air brushing.  I thought it came out pretty cool. 

 We also had a brownie platter just in case there were people who didn't want cake.

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As for the beverages, we had my fiance's family's punch that they make for all special occasions.  It's very simple to make: mix a can of frozen orange juice, a can of frozen lemonade, two and a half bottles of seven up and a fifth of Southern Comfort together.  Then add a jar of maraschino cherries.  It's delicious.  

We also had Raspberry Vodka Limeade Slush.  Here's a recipe http://www.thekitchn.com/quick-cocktail-raspberry-limea-59664  -- we left the vodka on the side so that any little ones could try it too,

The last alcoholic beverage we served was moscato sangria.  I just bought it in a bottle and added sliced lemons, limes and oranges.  Surprisingly enough it was not as big of a hit as I thought it would be.

With all of the alcohol being served, we, of course, served bottled water.  I'd seen an idea online where you wrap the bottles in duct tape to give them a personal touch.  We chose mustache duct tape and pink zebra stripe.  Originally I was cutting the labels off of the water bottles and wrapping them in duct tape but then I felt it was just tedious and time consuming.  Duct tape isn't transparent anyway and it was thick enough to cover the water bottle labels so I just stopped cutting the labels off.

And that's about all we, well I, did for food and drink for the shower.  You do, of course, need ice to keep everything cool.

Next week will be all about favors and decorations. :-)