Bridal shower planning project - get the exclusives here!

Are you thinking of planning a Bridal shower for your closest friend or relative?

Does the thought of planning and cost has you feeling frightened or overwhelmed? Posh Parties has you covered with our exclusive DIY bridal shower project!

Over the next four Fridays, we will be providing you with free (yes, you heard correctly!) DIY goodies from my Lovebird Party "Feather Collection." The simple and chic style of this collection was inspired by the soft romance of feathers and is ideal for hosting a small, intimate shower for the bride's close family and friends.

This week we are providing you with printable bridal shower invites from the Feather collection (oh so fab!). With these adorable invites, there's no excuse not to start your bridal shower planning this weekend! Get those invitations finished over the next couple of days and check back with us next Friday for another freebie (oh la la!)!

Welcome letters for Guest Out-of-Town bags

When looking for the perfect venue, my fiance and I decided that an optimal thing to have would be hotel rooms for our guests.  We had a few people from out of state and we knew we wanted an all night open bar.  This way if we had a location with hotel rooms, guests had no excuse 1. to drive home drunk and 2. mooch off of relatives by crashing at their house.

Many brides are now opting to make the experience of their guests extra-special by providing a mini-concerge package for guests staying overnight.  It's a really nice and thoughtful way to provide for those people that had to trek a long way to your wedding.

What's an Out-of-town bag (a.k.a.  OOT bag) and what's included in it?

An out of town bag can be geared towards one goal or cover all your bases.  Some brides want the basics;  water bottles and snacks.  With the basic option, guests don't have to raid the mini fridge and get charged $10 for a bag of peanuts and a water.  Brides sometimes include relevant location items for guests convenience.  So if you were having a beach wedding, you could include sunblock, aloe, local maps & postcards of the area.  Another popular option is a Hangover kit.  Some brides provide things like asprin, tums, eye masks and ice packs.  You can pick and choose special things you and your fiance share to be included and a special note is always nice.

What's in your OOT bag?  Thanks for asking.  My OOT bag will include:

- water (with my custom DIY labels)

- snacks (nautical themed foods)

- local maps & discounts

- a welcome letter with our favorite restaurants, cool things to do, important phone numbers & photo information.

- Our wedding party will recieve a hangover helper kit in addition to the above.

Vintage Love: Pretty handmade packaging & Free Tags



image source: wedding wire



Looking to do something nice for your hard-working Bridesmaids?

  Reward them with a thoughtful gift and pretty packaging.  My inspiration here was Shabby Chic and I just loved these sweater wrapped gifts.

doiliesTo  make a similar gift for my bridesmaids I used pink and white tissue paper to wrap the gifts, small , twine & made tissue paper flowers. 

I embelished the flower centers with rhinestones for a bit of bling.  To tie the entire vintage shabby chic look together I made these pretty tags to go onto the gifts with a note that reads,

"as you get ready today and put on your jewelry, make a wish.  let it remind you i am so grateful for your presence in my life.  thank you for standing with me on this special day, as you have so many times before!".  I hope my Bridesmaids will love opening their gift as much as I enjoyed making them.

What's the surprize inside?  Swarovski earrings for the girls.  I'll give my gifts to my girls during our rehersal dinner.

Want to make your own tags for your bridesmaids?  I've created a template for you.  Just add in the names of your bridesmaids and Maid of honor.  Punch a hole in the top and attach with a pretty ribbon.  Please remember that this template is for personal use only and is copyright posh-parties.

Diy super-cheap Shoe bling

As you know I've been going wedding shoe crazy. I first didn't want white shoes because I felt, "where the heck will I ever be able to wear white shoes again?" and, "colored shoes would be so fun!"

So I bought two pairs of Nina Shoes (elke) in Navy and Fushia.  The fushia I returned immediately because they were quite purple.  Not even close to the super hot pink I imagined.  The Navy I loved, but was concerned with the heel height.  I still have them, not sure if I should keep them or return them.

Then I heard the screaming from my mother and grandmother.  OMG I can't believe you're going to wear colored shoes, how: ugly, aweful, disgusting, terrible, horrible (insert adjective here).

So I decided to go on another shoe shopping journey to find the perfect shoe.  I ended up falling in love with two more pairs!  (There goes my wedding budget)  The first I loved because it was practical.  It looked like a shoe I could wear with multiple outfits and not look "wedding-like".  That was the Nina Evelixa.  It was Ivory, but I was concerned it would be too light for my dress.  I then found another shoe that I loved in gold.  It had fluffy fabric flowers on the side of the shoe with bling centers!  It was made for me.  I brought both home and the ivory ones matched perfectly, while the gold was, well... too gold.  But I am keeping the gold ones because they are awesome.  How can you say no to a shoe with fluffy flowers with bling centers?

To jazz up my shoes for the wedding I looked online for shoe clips.  Not only are they expensive, they didn't have anything I loved.  I did want a temporary solution to just add the bling for 1 day and didn't want to spend a fortune.  Then it came to me.....

I had recently made a trip to Michaels craft store for some rhinestones and found some cool embelishments in the scrapbooking section that had adhesive backing on a strip.  I had bought ones that had a mix of pearls and rhinestones, but you could get all rhinestones, all pearls or colored rhinestones if you wanted.  The brand I used is called recollections.

Each package cost around maybe $2.  You would only need 1 package to do a pair of shoes.

Simply open the package, pull off a strip of rhinestones/ pearls and place across the center ruffle of your shoe.  The adhesive is sticky enough to feel secure and hold on the shoe for about 1 or 2 uses, but not permenent enough to be stuck on forever, being the perfect fix for ANY pair of shoes you want to spruce up for an event, but don't want it to be permanant.  You are also able to reposition if needed.  Now you can purchase these rhinestones and even wrap you heel with them!

Remember to remove the stickers after you are done with them.  I'm sure that while not permanent, the adhesive could leave a discolored mark on your shoes after a bit of time.

Beautiful ceremony backdrop

I saw this beautiful ceremony backdrop at my florist shop. I thought It would be great inspiration for anyone looking to do something different at their ceremony.

How-To

Use a pergola or an archway of some type for support, and attach manzanita branches to the top.

How to make a 1-tier "poof" veil

If you've been to any bridal salon, it can seem a bit crazy how the shops can charge hundreds of dollars (even thousands) for a piece of fabric that sits on your head.  (At least I thought so). 

I found myself going through racks and racks of veils thinking, "How do they get away with charging $150 for this short piece of fabric, and it's not even what I want or like?



Point D'Esprit fabric in Ivory



I decided to observe how they were made and figure out how to make my own.  There are several types of veils out there.  The most common that I saw was the 1 tier "poof" veil.  What I mean by this is that the veil sits on top of your head and goes straight back and has a bit of a poof on the top.  It doesn't sit flat on your head.  The amount of "poof" can be adjusted based on how tight your stitching is of the fabric.  I did a very small poof on this fabric. 

I used ivory point d'esprit (it's got little "dots" on it) to match my dress.  After doing the 1 tier poof veil below, I decided I wanted a mantilla style veil that drapes over my face (another tutorial on that later) so I ended up undoing everything below and completely changing my veil.  I originally did this because I didn't think I'd find ivory lace to match my veil.  I ended up finding the perfect lace on the cheap!  I was so excited.  If you do want lace on the edge of your veil, make sure NOT to attach it to the top part of the veil where the hair comb is.  It will not sit correctly.  I recommend placing beading, sew-on flowers,etc. on that part instead.

What you'll need:

- Fabric in a length you like. (elbow, shoulder, waltz, chapel, cathedral, etc.)

- sewing needles

- thread that matches your veil color

- a hair comb that's clear or matches your veil color

- any beads or embelishments you'd like for the top of the comb or edging of the veil

- scissors

- pins

- a rounded edge (a dinner plate works fine)

step 3

Step 1:  Your fabric will most likely be a straight peice of fabric.  If you want it to have rounded corners or be a rounded peice of fabric you should lay it out flat and iron on the lowest setting if needed.  If the fabric is long or extra wide, fold it in half and have the edges meet up. Pin in place.

Step 2. Take your dinner plate or round edge and place in the open (a.k.a not folded) corners.  You can mark with a piece of chalk or just carefully cut along your rounded corner.  Discard your excess fabric.  You may only want to do this to the bottom of the veil and have your top be straight.  the amount of "roundness" is completely up to you.

Step 3.  Unpin and unfold your fabric.  Take your top edge and gather it into an accordian fold.  Place an elastic band around it if you need to hold it in place securely.

Step 4.

Step 4.  Take your hair comb and align your gathered fabric to where it will be sewed on.  Wrap your fabric around the comb top for easy stiching.  You can also pin in place if needed.



Step 5.



Step 5. Begin sewing your fabric around your comb.  Matching thread ensures that you don't notice the stiching.  It's also good practice to make small stitches.  If you don't have matching thread, you can use clear thread(fishing line), however this may have some reflection to it.



Step 6.



Step 6. Your veil should look similar to the step 6. picture. 

The comb will be placed on top or slightly back on the head and the tight poof at the comb will be softened as the rest of the fabric falls around your face. 

If you would like to add beading or embelishments to hide the stiching or just to add interest to the top of the veil, it's recommended you do it now.  Again, small stitches are key to a professional looking veil.  I did larger so you could see how the veil wrapped around the comb.