A Tailor-Made Bridal Shower

The bride-to-be, and our cousin and aunt look through our grandma's wedding planning book-it was so sweet!

A couple weeks ago, I helped host a shower for my cousin, D. I went with a tailor-made theme, including lots of little sewing details to go along with the idea that the bride and groom will stitch their lives together soon! I live pretty far from the rest of my family, so it required a lot of helping hands and a little conspiracy to get this shower off at my aunt's house 600 miles away! 
You may remember my last blog post where I showed the coordinating invitations.

I found this metal wire dress form at Hobby Lobby, then dressed her up with some lace I had leftover from another project. It made the perfect centerpiece on the bar with buttons in coordinating colors scattered around.

For the table decorations, I rounded up some of my great-grandmothers old sewing notions, like lace, embroidery thread, bias tape, buttons, and spools of thread, and put them in antique mason jars. Then I used a Cricut to create little scissors, dress forms, and spools of thread to sprinkle around the table in the bride's colors. I also picked up a few sewing kits and specialty Singer notions, like needles and measuring tape, to round out the look. The coup de grace was the five pincushions I handcrafted, with help from my blessed mother, using a sweet fabric with sewing notions on it, and adding fun colored pins. They were a coveted prize for the games we played after lunch.

A close-up of one of the pincushions. So cute right? The red tomato looked like a pincushion, but was actually a timer we used for a game. While the bride opened gifts, we set the timer for about 5 minutes. When the timer went off, the person who gave the gift the bride was opening at that time got to pick a prize! It was really fun!

You had to know the food would be just as thoughtful as the decor. We did a trio of salads: Caesar, Spring Greens with Strawberries, and  Melon and Prosciutto Pasta Salad. We served sliced grilled chicken breast for guests to add to any or all of the three salads. The recipes for the salads are at the end of this post. I made little table tents to label each dish, and decorated them with dress forms and spools of thread. Because many hands helped, I added the name of the person who brought some of the special dishes, like the breadsticks from my grandma, the cheesecakes from my aunt and cousin, and the punch from my aunt.

Melon & Prosciutto Pasta Salad: I adapted this recipe from a recipe that appeared in Bon Appetit last summer
Also, I quadrupled the recipe to serve 16, and we had about two servings leftover when served along the two other salads.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
• 4 ounces orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta) or medium shells
• Kosher salt
• 3 1/2 tablespoonsextra-virgin olive oil
• 2 1/2tablespoons Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
• 2 cups 1x1x1/4" pieces peeled melon (I've done a combo of cantaloupe and honeydew, and just cantaloupe)
• 1/3 cupcoarsely chopped fresh mint, divided (for this party I used basil because the store was out of mint)
• 3 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion (about 2 scallions)
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1ounce crumbled feta

 Preparation

• Heat oven to 350°. Arrange prosciutto in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake until brown and crisp, 20–25 minutes. (Alternatively, place prosciutto on folded layers of paper towels on a microwave-proof plate and microwave on high until brown and crisp, about 5 minutes.) Let stand until cool enough to handle, then break into bite-size pieces.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta in a medium pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain pasta; run under cold water to cool. Drain and set aside.
• Whisk oil and vinegar in a large bowl. Add half of prosciutto, and all the cooked pasta, melon, half of mint, scallion, and red pepper flakes. Toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle remaining prosciutto and mint over. Garnish with crumbled feta.

 

Spring Greens with Strawberries:

This isn't so much a recipe as a list of what goes with what to make this easy-yet-eye-catching salad.

 

10 oz. Spring Greens mix

1 lb. strawberries, hulled and sliced

4 oz. feta crumbled

1 small can mandarin oranges

4 oz. (about 1/2 cup) sliced almonds

Raspberry vinaigrette (I used a Panera one found refrigerated in the produce section)

 

Place greens in a large salad bowl. Top with sliced strawberries and feta. Serve mandarin oranges and almonds on the side (the oranges can make the salad soggy, and nuts on the side in case of allergies). I also served the dressing on the side.

 

Caesar Salad

Read closely: this is challenging.

 

5 oz. bag chopped romaine, or about 1 head of romaine (washed thoroughly)

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (not from a can)

3/4 cup Caesar dressing-go for broke on the highest quality one you can find

Croutons.

 

Toss all the ingredients. Eat.

 

I hope you enjoyed hearing about this fun, sweet party!