A Bridal Shower

When you're stuck in a 40-foot bus for six or seven hours on end (no doubt driving through the fields of some Midwestern state), you find interesting ways to occupy your time. Yes, some of those times were taken up with music practice, other times spent keeping my husband awake while he drove...and still other times I was on Pinterest madly planning my cousin Callie's Bridal Shower!

Of course, she wasn't getting married until June. Oh, what? Yes, I said June!

Why of course I was going to do a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers theme. Callie was getting married in June! When we were younger (on many a sleepover night) we would watch Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, and of course Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!

Of course, months of planning were all well and good until it was three days until the Sunday it was to be held and oh-my-goodness I have to bake how much bread!?

Lets worry about the bread later, the first thing we needed to do was decorate! And by 'we' I mean myself and my dear friend Avery. This is what we started with:

The downstairs of my church has been used for lots of things from parties to potlucks. Unfortunately, it isn't the prettiest spot for a Bridal Shower. Armed with my mother-in-law's linen closet and half the decorations in my house, Avery and I set to work to transform the room into a garden party picnic!

Six hours later (and after so much ironing!), tables and chairs were in place, and all that was left to do was make the food!

The menu I had planned had been carefully thought over for several months. Things tried and true and some new things added as well for a bit of excitement. Some wonderful ladies in the church had also volunteered to bring things like salad, chips, and veggies, so all I had to do was worry about the main course, dessert, and refreshments!

I was inspired by a photo on Pinterest to bake bread for sandwiches in bunt pans. I had never seen anything like it before, and the bread (a Tasha Tudor recipe that is in her cookbook, but you can also find it here!) turned out amazing!


I would be lying if I said it was easy. Saturday, the day before the Shower, I awoke early and started what is now the busiest and -- hottest day -- of my life so far!

My tiny gas oven put off so much heat on an already very hot day that I found myself several times outside on the shady porch for relief!

Tasha Tudor's bread recipe makes four very large loaves of bread, and I made it once in the morning and again later that evening for six bunt-shaped loaves of bread. Phew! In this picture here you can see four of them. Before this endeavor I only owned one tiny bunt pan, but thanks to a trip to a local thrift store I acquired two more -- the perfect number for a batch of bread.


Besides the enormous amount of bread I made, I also achieved making a three tiered wedding cake! For Quinn's birthday party one year I had made him a six tiered rainbow cake, but a wedding cake's tiers are so much bigger (and much easier to accidentally break in half!). I used a recipe for a Victorian Sponge cake from this lovely video here, and it turned out amazing! I also used the same frosting recipe and talk about yum! I chose to frost my whole cake though, mostly because my tiers weren't as golden brown as the ones in the video...oops. The cake I was proud of most of all:

Did I mention the fact that there was so much cake batter that I didn't have a big enough bowl to hold all of it? Thankfully, my biggest soup pot came to the rescue and the cake turned out amazing!

I would not have been able to organize this giant party if it hadn't been for the help of my Love and friend Avery. Here they are in the final minutes before the party started, preparing the sandwiches:

Quinn was nothing but supportive of all my crazy ideas. Ideas like: "What if I hang branches with hearts hung from them?" or "I want to have a photo booth. Can I borrow your nice top hat?"

He must love me so much!

And yes, in case you're worried, the Bridal Shower was a big success! 

The sandwiches turned out wonderfully, everyone agreed (and they couldn't believe I had baked it all myself!).
I woke up early Sunday morning and gathered wildflowers from the tide flats to put in all the vases I had brought from home.

I only took this one picture after the Shower was winding down because I was so busy!
The present table in the corner had been full of presents, but they were all opened with much excitement (Callie asked me to make her bow bouquet for her -- she'll use it at the wedding rehearsal). 

My Aunt Freddie, Callie --the Bride!-- and her younger sister, Melinda.
All three have the most lovey singing voices, and I love to hear them sing together at church.

I had so much showering love on Callie, and I don't think I would be overstating it to say that everyone who attended the Shower was rather shocked at how much work I had put into it. Haha! 

My Aunt Freddie (Her full name is Fredrica! Isn't that lovely?) gave me lots of hugs and kept saying how lovely it was; that was my favorite part. Or maybe it was when Callie passed the record player and heard the songs from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers playing: "Where did you get this!?" she asked. Or again, maybe it was the photo booth...

Here's Callie with the bow bouquet I made
from all of her presents! 

Melinda, Callie, and Miranda all being
flirtatious behind their fans.

Regardless of what the best part was, I'm just so joyful I got to plan the Shower and even more joyful that it turned out so beautifully. Callie will make a lovely bride, and I'm so excited for her and her soon-to-be husband Robert!