Bridal Shower ideas

I'm writing this post full well knowing I run the chance of receiving a stern talking to from MOH/Cousin, Bridesman/BFF and Bridesmaid/FSIL for even talking about bridal shower items - since I am not suppose to be even thinking about it. But I *had* to because I happened across a few great items throughout these 8 months that I had to share with you. First off here is a link to 15 tips for planning a Bridal Shower. If you need help with a suite for the bridal shower invitations and games, check out this cute carnival themed one from Style Guide it has an Invitation, Game Card (shown in pic above), Name Tag, Drink Label and Striped Paper. I blogged about a few other available through Style Guide back in October, so check those out *here*  
Two ideas I absolutely think are great for a bridal shower are recipe cards and shower notes. 


For the recipe cards the guests can share their favorite recipe with the bride and this way after the shower the bride to be has a lot of great recipes. I love love love sharing recipes! My favorite recipe card was this one shown below, it's also by Style Guide.

{Source 100 Layer Cake }

I think the shower note is such a cute idea from 100 Layer Cake, it's been on my bookmarks since July! The Bridal Shower Notes from Mika78 come in 4 color variations. I love the detail of the "with love" but it's in a heart symbol. I think I would want to tweak the questions a bit since, some people may be at the shower that the bride may not know that well (especially if it's on the grooms side)  

Here is what it currently says....

DEAR ____,

It’s been _____years that we’ve known each other and if I remember correctly, the first time we met was_____

We’ve shared so many times together, but my favorite memory of you has got to be_______

I think you and your husband-to-be are perfect for each other because_________

If I could give you one piece of advice on marriage, it would have to be____________

with love,

Here are some more recipe cards from two very talented and creative bloggers Leo On The Loose and                                    Creature Comforts}

{Source Leo On The Loose}

                                                     {Source Creature Comforts}

Who knew there was a differance between bridal & wedding registry?

Who knew there was a difference between bridal & wedding registry?! Well for sure not me! All the (4) bridal showers I have gone to there was not a bridal registry, people mostly bought lingerie or some cute kitchen items.  Luckily my FSIL/Bridesmaid gave me the heads up about the difference between a bridal & wedding registry and took the time to write up the many registry items that are available. I'm sharing the info she gave me because when I googled bridal vs wedding registry, I could not find any straight answer.  So here it goes:

Option #1: Have 2 different registry's - bridal and wedding.

• BRIDAL - in this case the bridal registry would be fun stuff for YOU (because you are the bride) and for your honeymoon ie, travel guidebooks, maps, lingerie, or could you also include prewedding stuff likegift cert for pedicure or facial or massage at a local spot you like to go to.  

• WEDDING Registry - for all of your wedding needs.  Keep in mind this is the only time in your life you can ask for things such as towels (a nice full set for both your bathroom and your guest bathroom), flat ware, dinner ware for dinner parties, bedding - stuff that you will want when you get a house.  No one will ever buy you this stuff ever again - your wedding is the only time it is appropriate.

Option #2: Only do one registry.

• Just let people get you whatever they want for your bridal shower - you might get some weird things, but you also might get some really cool stuff that you didn't think of. Moms and married peeps are really great with these kinds of gifts.
  

• For your Wedding registry - register at a place like Macy's or Bloomingdales that has multiple sections and once you get everything you can return whatever you want and get something you really need. 
  

Option #3: Don't do a registry at all and just ask that people make a donation to the charity of your choice.

• You will need to provide all of the relevant information, but then people can just give in your name.
  

Option #4: Create a Honeymoon website and have people contribute $$ to your honeymoon.

• You put the excursions you want on there and the dollar amount (there are sites that can do this for you did it), you can put your airfare on there and hotel and then people basically chip in and help pay for your honeymoon.  

We decided to go with option #1, I rather be surprised & already felt weird making a wedding registry. But I did add this cute Jessie Steele Red and White Polka Dot Bib Apron to the wedding registry just in case someone really wanted help with deciding what to get me for the bridal shower. Did you have a bridal AND wedding registry,  or jusy one or none?

Wedding Chicks Giveaway! head on over there NOW!

AH!! Wedding Chicks is having a giveaway ! Included are 5 stylish cards for asking your bridesmaids and 5 signature wedding chicks gold necklaces designed by blue poppy designs
What a perfect way to ask your bridesmaids and let them know how special they are to you! love it! Check out the giveaway details *here*

Thanks to MOH and Wedding Chicks, I redeamed myself!

Before I got engaged I had never evened opened up a wedding magazine, didn't even imagine what I would want in a wedding & I had never been part of a wedding so I had no idea of all the things that went into wedding planning, including but not limited to how to ask your bridesmaids. I figured you just asked them, plain & simple. But nope! I learned 3 months in that now a days brides ask in some special way, with a homemade card, or what not. When I learned about this, I felt bad I had not done anything special. Luckily for me, my MOH has my back! Unbeknownst to her when she blogged about the tshirts on the weddingchicks.com she gave me an idea of how I could redeem myself! I ordered each one a special t shirt with their name on it & with their favorite color.  The Wedding Chicks shop has a cool feature for the t shirts that allows you to preview how the colors would look together, I spent way too much time figuring out the perfect combo for each lady but had a lot of fun doing it. Their shop as so many cool items, especially the canvas bags! love love love them! Amy from Wedding Chicks was such a sweetheart, she helped me out with my order and answered any questions I had right away. So here are all the shirts & bags. Unfortunately they did not have any men's shirts so I will have to find my bridesman/BFF a shirt somewhere else. I can't wait till we get an opportunity to wear the shirts out! They are very stylish, have a flattering fit and the cotton is so soft.

Congratulations to the Top 100 Wedding Bloggers

My name is Westside Wedding and it's been 25 days since my last post ...

So sorry for being gone so long! As you can see by the picture I took of my google reader, I have a lot of reading to catch up on! Over 1K! and that's all wedding related, since my personal account is under a different account. I have a lot of posts to catch on,Happy New Year everyone!! and also to congratulate the Top 100 Wedding Bloggers! I follow many of them through google connect and also through my google reader. I wanted to say congratulations to the real brides I follow & congratulate them for being on the list!

With This Ring
The Relentless Bride
A Practical Wedding
Truly Engaging
The Bowie Bride
The Broke-Ass Bride
Bride On A Budget
Mason Jar Bride
Polka Dot Bride  

Thanks to this list I am now following these real bride bloggers!

Bride Chic

Tulle and Feather 

A.Mountain.Bride

Slightly Obsessive Bride
Pink Galoshes
 A Brides Brain

How To: Do Dress Measurements

I found this video to be extremely helpful when taking my dress measurements for Westside Wedding. Check it out:

Would YOU Say Yes?

It’s no longer cool enough to propose on Twitter. That’s been done before. Several times. So Alex Marsh of Raleigh-Durham decided to take it up a notch.

Full article on Mashable.com

Dress Shopping Part 9: Bridal Elgance 2

Ever since NaBloPoMo ended I have not been able to find the time to blog or read blogs, luckily during my week hiatus my MOH/Cousin JT has been blogging & also taking videos & posting them on Westside Wedding. December has proven to be a very busy month, as I am sure it is for everyone but I will try my best to keep blogging this month! Ok, so I still have so much catching up to do in regards of how I finally decided on a dress... luckily it will only be 3 more posts!

We continue our story with Dress Shopping part 9. After realizing that I almost made a mistake and decided on a dress that was not everything I wanted, I spent a whole Sunday making a plan for deciding on a dress in one week. I wrote down style numbers, called bridal stores to make appts and had a deadline of the following Sunday. I decided that my first stop was going to be Bridal Elegance, the first place that I had gone to for dress shopping. Although it was not that big of a place it had a lot of affordable options under 1K. My bridesmans was a trooper and came with me...thank goodness he did because if it wasn't for him I would not have realized the solution to my problem with finding a dramatic mermaid dress. I tried on a few dresses but again my problem was that so many dresses mix fabrics or patterns, I tried on two Casablanca dresses and although I loved the shape they didn't scream out at me. The one thing I kept telling every bridal store I went to, which by now was over 12 who knows I have lost count... was that I wanted a dramatic mermaid shape and not one single person at these bridal store was able to provide me the answer I had been looking for, lucky for me I have my bff/bridesman looking out for me & when he saw the mermaid dress & heard my issue he asked the sales lady, isn't there something like a slip that she can put to give her more of a shape? um YES! cue in Etta James song At Last...

I put the mermaid crinoline on two of the dresses and BAM! there was the shape I wanted...too bad the dresses still were not the one, but hey I was another step closer!

Westside Wedding Does Downtown LA

Our first Westside Wedding video blog post! Thanks to WW + beau for the flip for my birthday! I was trying out the flipshare video editing software (hence the musical backdrop). In case you were wondering about the soundtrack it's super mashup super star "Milkman - Tribute to Ms. Lonely"

NaBloPoMo is over

what what I did it! I can't believe I actually posted every day, it wasn't easy especially during the holidays, because some days I would almost forget to post. I wanted to congratulate everyone that participated in NaBloMo, I think they all made a great achievement whether or not they blogged for 10 days straight or 30 days because at least they tried & that is an accomplishment in itself.
Congrats to Chic n Cheap Living, Soon To Be Mrs. Beever, The Less Than Domestic Goddess, Cheap Wife, and Shooting for a $3,000 Wedding!  Also, I'm excited to read my MOH/cousin/co-blogger's post on her blog , she is participating in the December NaBloPoMo!  yay for MOH!