For Love & Adventure Bridal Shower
Let’s Party
So full disclosure, this post is a few years old. Yes, years. I hesitated to share it since the photos aren’t my best work (I was obsessed with the depth effect when the iphone 7 plus came out, weren’t we all)… but ultimately I’m still proud of the custom designed invitations I made for this modern boho backyard shower, and the creation of the theme for the day.
I recently reconfigured the invites I made a bit to sell semi-custom designs on Etsy! More on that soon, but to accompany the listing I wanted to share the shower inspiration from beginning to end to help adventurous brides with a comprehensive shower game plan. You can also scroll down to the end for my bridal shower checklist for hostesses!
After hosting quite a number of showers now, my refrain is this — an awesome bridal shower doesn’t need to be overly complicated. Especially if your bride is the easy-going type.
My basic outline as a hostess is this:
Find a nice venue that doesn’t need much decorating (saves time and money!)
Pick a theme that the bride will love and design invites accordingly
Plan food, drinks, a few simple games, and light decor to match the theme
When the party starts, be ready to welcome guests and get them engaged right away — whether that’s with a get to know other guests game or by handing them a drink
Be present and enjoy each moment!
Here’s how I hit each of these points with this Love & Adventure themed shower.
THE VENUE
I’ve been lucky to host for so many brides (and mom-to-be’s) whose families have beautiful yard spaces ready to go. For this shower, we actually turned to my mom’s backyard for a party venue that would be in between where most of the bride’s friends lived and her family down south. I love outdoor spaces because it means the decoration work is minimal! Let nature do its thing and focus on the tablescape, drink station, and a few special touches.
THE THEME
The bride, a dear friend of mine, is an outdoorsy, fun loving girl who loves walking around barefoot, camping, and hiking. She has long, flowing rapunzel hair and is one of the most easygoing people I know. My co-host and I knew we needed a theme for this shower that touched on adventure to match her personality. And isn’t marriage one of the greatest adventures of all? We landed on the phrase “For Love & Adventure” after searching for some inspiration on Pinterest.
Often, one simple phrase is enough to spark loads of ideas! We came up with picnic type food ideas, envisioning a ground level, cozy seating plan. The star of the show would be a campfire in order to make some s’mores. How many bridal showers do that?!
THE INVITATIONS
I was able to watercolor and hand letter the invitations to set the theme for guests right away. We wanted to highlight the unique aspects of the shower, and came up with the phrase “let’s toast the bride with drinks and s’mores” — clever right? :) You can see more of my original post about the invites here. I loved the clear vellum envelopes and how they give you a sneak peek at the watercolor borders inside! If you’re interested in ordering a customizable invite, you can do so on my Etsy!
THE PARTY SETUP
We dreamed up an intimate tablescape with a low to the ground base so that guests could feel like they were on a picnic, relaxing on blankets, throws, and pillows. I set up three 6 foot folding tables (with the legs collapsed) on top of a few bricks to slightly elevate them. We covered them with white tablecloths and created a runner of greenery and lanterns down the center. The lanterns were leftover from my co-host’s wedding — we’ve learned to never throw decor away if we can help it! Our growing collection of vases, candles, fabric and more has come in handy for countless parties.
Next we arranged pillows and blankets around the table. I was careful to put down towels first so that the blankets wouldn’t get too dirty on the grass. Half of the pillows were from my house, the other half were purchased at IKEA. I knew I wanted extra velvet textures and blues and greens to match the color scheme of the invites.
In the time that has since passed, I’ve learned a thing or two about bringing certain hostess toolkit items, like a steamer…the tablecloths in these photos look like a nightmare!
Fortunately, once covered in plates and cutlery y0u couldn’t really tell :)
We did make sure to have additional seating on the patio for the moms and grandmas, who we figured wouldn’t want to sit on the ground. It ended up being a nice balance of places to mingle and eat.
I usually try to do a large sign that doubles as a photo op for guests. I have several interchangeable banners on hand, like this gold lettering that we used to spell out our theme, “For Love & Adventure.” Everyone wanted to take pictures with the bride in front of it!
We also hung up a photo booth station with a white lacy curtain as a backdrop. Simple decor is the best decor!
THE FOOD
If there’s one thing I believe in for any party, it’s that the food needs to be amazing! We took over the kitchen in the house for the day to make picnic/camping inspired bites. Blackberry brie grilled cheese was the star of the show, surrounded by fresh fruit, caprese salad skewers, apple tarts, and other treats. We poured orange muscat sangria and the wine was plentiful.
A trick I picked up from my co-host is to tuck flowers and greens into the food/dessert/drink displays! It helps make it feel extra fancy. She also varied the heights of the stands, which both helps to save space and make the display more visually interesting.
THE DETAILS
Most people I know going through the wedding/baby shower season of life are tired of the same shower games over and over again. Whenever I’m hosting, I try to keep the games minimal and snappy so that we don’t lose anybody’s attention! If possible, choose games that will be fun for the bride. Often times I see brides getting embarrassed by awkward question games about the groom, or feeling left out if the game is about them and they can’t participate. Steer clear of those and make sure her special day is catered to her personality!
I do like a good “get to know you” type game as guests arrive — it’s a helpful ice breaker to get people talking to each other and gives them a reason to approach guests they don’t know. I’m also a fan of “what did the groom say” because the bride gets to participate. My favorite game to date has to be bridal mad libs though, it’s hilarious for everyone!
I didn’t snap any pics of the games because I was participating, but you can also find customizable templates on my Etsy that match the invites.
A special favor we did take photos of were goodie bags of granola for guests to take home! We baked several large batches of the best granola (a secret recipe from a local favorite coffee shop) and packaged them up with designed thank you tags. The perfect hiking companion is a delicious granola snack, after all.
S’more Love
Ending the evening wrapped in blankets by the fire was a perfect way to celebrate our friend’s upcoming marriage! The goal is always to make the bride feel seen, understood, and appreciated and we hope we did just that with this themed shower.
As promised, you can download my free bridal shower checklist! Everything you need to think about from the start of planning to the night before…make sure you didn’t forget anything essential! Happy party planning.
