With spring in bloom, I thought I would share some pictures from my bridal shower/bachelorette that took place around this time last year. My mom and my sister brilliantly pulled together a truly enchanted tea party with so many thoughtful details.  They made me feel so special by including things that I love, like flower capped sugar cubes, eclairs, painting, and tea time.

Photos by Shireen Dadkhah

Moscato d’asti with tiny scoop of sorbet was served as guests arrived and made their way to the gardens in the back yard. A vibrant raspberry rim sugar was the perfect colorful touch to the vintage glasses.

The rim sugar as well as many other delightfully delicious are made by Dell Cove Spice Company on Etsy.

My sister gave an incredibly sweet toast.

I feel like I should add this, just because it’s funny. This post could also be titled “The Many Faces of Mallory.”

Apparently, I’m a very expressive person:

 

The Details

 

Each guest knew their seat by a card with their name written on the envelope that was tucked behind. Everyone wrote a little note with words of love, encouragement, and marriage advice. It was such a sweet surprise to get these cards at the end of the day. They totally made me cry. I’m a crier. I can’t help it.

The framed pictures serving as part of the centerpiece were made by Dotty Dictionary. Definitely check out her Etsy shop 🙂 She prints her whimsical images on pages of books from the 1800’s.

Flavored teas were served along with mimosas to drink throughout the day. I’m so in love with the sugar cubes. I think they were one of my favorite details! I mean, listen to this: the sugar cubes melt in your tea, but then the little flower floats on top in all it’s adorable glory. I CAN’T EVEN GET OVER HOW FREAKING CUTE THESE ARE. If you are as obsessed as I am, or just like them a normal person amount, my mom bought them from SweetSpecialties on Etsy.

The first course was a creative spin on fruit skewers. My favorite fruit dip, which is simply a block of cream cheese blended with a jar of marshmallow fluff, was served in vintage tea cups. Rather than your typical bamboo skewer, my mom and sister got creative and used new paintbrushes as a tribute to me as an artist. Tea bag shaped almond cookies dipped in chocolate with string, tag and all, accompanied the fruit and dip.

But that was just the beginning. The tea party was a progressive meal. Between activities, we enjoyed the savory and, frankly, magical flavors of quiche from Eggshell Bistro. Served with a small spring salad topped with grilled asparagus and a single deviled egg, it was absolute perfection. Later on, we had chocolate covered strawberries and eclairs bursting at their seams from Taylor’s Bakery. I. Love. Eclairs.

My sister and I have been a part of an event called Art vs. Art. It’s like our sister thang that we do together. The basics of the event: You go and pay a small fee for a canvas, paints and paint brushes. You have 4 hours exactly to make a painting. Then you shamelessly promote your painting anyway you can for two weeks and get people to vote for your painting online. Then the main event takes place, usually at the retro cool space called the Vogue.

Ok, so the main event goes like this: You arrive and the top 16 of all the paintings are set up on easels on the main floor. These 16 are the top ranked from the online voting. It is a surprise to artists and guests alike. Then each of the top 16 go head to head in several rounds to get to a winner. The painting that lose each round either get auctioned off or get the wheel of death and are totally destroyed (they are only 4 hour paintings after all).  Sound like a lot, but you can read and see more in a post that I’ll make soon just about Art vs. Art. Stay tuned!

What’s super cool is that my sister and I have both made it to the main stage and we’ve made it to the top 16 every year (THANK YOU to all the friends and family that voted for us)! To represent us, we had a mini paint session with all the guests, painting whatever struck our fancy. I’ve kept all the paintings (don’t worry none of them were subjected to the wheel of death).

They planned on doing a fun photo booth style shoot with all the guests……Then it started to rain.

But that did not stop us 🙂

As a favor and thank you for our amazing guests, flavored sugars were on display for the taking. And that’s the tale of the enchanted tea party bridal shower/bachelorette.

The end.