When one of your best friends plans her wedding in a little under 8 months, along with excitement, many thoughts fly through the bridal party’s mind, budget being one of them – especially for the Bridal Shower. Our bride loves anything simple and anything country. Considering the only country thing I know of is the Dixie Chicks (god did I love that song Goodbye, Earl), this became a new topic to research. So…to Pinterest I went. Turns out this is huge theme for all things wedding. Yes, if you are reading this and asking yourself this question… I do live under a rock.
How do you go Country Chic without being too chintzy or too theme-y? I found mason jars appearing in almost any scenario for a country wedding. I really loved this idea. This paved the way for our Bridal Shower favors which I will get to a little later. Sunflowers also appear pretty often which worked out perfectly since this is our bride’s favorite flower and will be in her bouquet on the big day. We decided on ivory lace (like her dress) and twine. Our ‘theme’ colors? Yellow, ivory, and taupe (because ‘taupe’ is the new brown…….). And, of course, we decided on DIY. Purchasing country decor (that doesn’t look like something out of a rodeo) would cost a pretty penny.
Budget: Here’s that important word again. After all the invitations were in and we were able to figure out how many mason jars we needed (for decorations and the favors), I started googling the cheapest way to order mason jars in bulk. Kmart! There is a way you can order as many cases as you’d like and have them sent to the nearest store for pick up – this way you don’t have to spend any money on shipping. Some website wanted around $150 just for shipping. WHAT? Everything else was purchased through Michaels. They always have great coupons online. We also wanted a different kind of glass bottle to place some faux flowers in. Since everyone in the bridal party (myself included) considers one wine bottle the equivalent to one glass of wine, there is no problem getting this type of glass. Plus we could make it go along with the theme.
The pictures of the mason jars seen above were very simple to make.
Twine ribbon, Lace ribbon, Mod Podge, Votive Candle or Floating Candle. That simple.
The wine bottles were also very simple. We didn’t have to bother with taking the labels off since they would be covered by large burlap material. Hot glue worked better for this. The faux flowers also cut down on the expenses for our decorations.
Wine Bottle, Burlap Material, Lace Ribbon, Twine Ribbon, Hot Glue, Faux Flowers.
What goes along with a country themed party? Cornbread. Honey Cornbread Muffins. The bridal party decided on this for a favor to take home. We found yellow and white polka dotted fabric at a local fabric store that we cut into square tiles. The recipe cards were made on Photoshop, and printed on ivory card stock, then hole punched so they could be tied onto the jar with the twine ribbon.
They were displayed on a table with a wooden box (purchased at Michaels) placed upside down to create depth. I hand painted a sign on a found piece of wood in my basement with brown and yellow acrylic paints. I sanded the sides after painting it to make it appear worn.
Faux flowers are very difficult, you really have to dig through the ‘clown pins’ (you know…the flowers attached to clown suits that spray water when you go up to sniff them) to find ones that appear life-like. Unfortunately for us, there were no good faux sunflowers. I had to come up with another way to incorporate the sunflower into the decor.
I created all of the Bridal Shower game directions on Photoshop. Here is where I placed the sunflowers – as well as the banner on the gifts’ table, and the sign that was hung on the bride’s chair.
These were all printed on card stock, then cut to size. They were then hole punched with twine ribbon thread between them and tied with bows so they could be hung.
Though there was much time that was put into creating all of the decorations and favors (the bridal party may have wanted to torture me after all of this) it was well worth the outcome. We created a handmade, unique, memory for our bride that wasn’t so hard on our wallets. When you create things like this on your own, you can pay attention to and change every small detail.
But wait..where was the dessert?
Hand made by our bride’s aunt, of course.
This is so cute! I wish I was this creative!
Thank you, I am sure you are! Pinterest helps!