A sunflower bridal shower

How is it that my baby brother is getting married in just a few weeks?!  Super happy for him and his soon to be bride.  We hosted a sunflower themed bridal shower for her a couple weekends ago, and i think it came together really well.  The wedding is being held in a barn, as they all seem to be these days, so we wanted to go with that rustic, ball jar, low key sort of feeling.  I also did something rather bold for me, and me as a blogger; i reached out to the owner of Wild Herb Soap Co. and asked if we could partner on the favors.  And i was truly shocked when she said yes. So in full disclosure this is not a sponsored post, but rather a partner post about her Etsy store.  And of course, i wanted to share the details of the shower with you all.

Does this invitation (also from Etsy) say casual and rustic or what.  We had the image printed on top of the cake, too, but it didn't come out that great. Perhaps stores who offer such services should then package the cake without material to smudge the icing of the image one carefully selected. Just saying. 

 

This was the display when guests entered, to drop off their recipe cards and to lay out the fabulous favors.  We used clip art of a giant realistic sunflower, printed with the words "Thank you for showering Julie with love" and then the soaps-the delicious smelling soaps-displayed in the box next to it.  Also a good saying would be "From Julie's shower to yours" but that one just gives me visual images i'd rather not have.  So "showering" with love also makes sense with soap, and doesn't give anyone mental images of Great Aunts they'd rather unsee.

I wish this was scratch and sniff.

From the moment we opened the box, they smelled  Hea.Ven. Ly. Heavenly.  They are bundled together with raffia, and come in flavors like Citrus Explosion and Green Tea and Aloe.  Individually, they smell and look amazing, but together is like Wow.  And the shape/size is absolutely perfect for a favor.  They are packaged with 3 handmade slices, 1.5 ounces total, nut oil free and soy free.  There was a slightly smaller option, but i would absolutely recommend the size we got as any smaller would be too small.  We opted out of customized tags, but you can go that route, too. I love the scalloped edges on some of them, and the color variation.

The recipe cards had the same image as the bigger invitation, and the wood box was perfectly sized for guests to deposit them for the bride. We also encouraged guests to share a recipe for a happy marriage or a date night idea, and they were placed in two Ball jars.



The gift table early on, with more Ball jars, and more sunflowers.

To add some extra wedding-ness, i stuck these cake tooth picks in some of the desserts and hung the lanterns from the dining room chandelier. 

White paper lanterns mean instant festive feeling.

We were lucky to have great weather, and of course everyone had a nice time and loved their soaps.  Who wouldn't.  Seriously, i can't recommend Carol and her handmade soaps from Wild Herb Soap Co. enough.  She was super to work with, going above and beyond (like when i had a question but was leaving for vacation, so i asked her to email my mom instead) to make sure the customer was satisfied and up to date.

Please visit Carol's Etsy shop www.wildherb.etsy.com  or go directly to www.wildherbsoap.com if you'd like to order or find out more info.

Now let me ask you about some wedding etiquette-My cousin got married 9 months ago, when she learned that she was pregnant.  So she and her husband were married, in front of immediate family, by a rabbi, before she had the baby, who is now 7 months old.  She had a baby shower, as one should, for their first child.

Well, now i'm invited to her wedding.  But she's married. For almost a YEAR she's married, but, you know, i'll give her that and attend the wedding and buy a wedding gift (even though she chose to get married before her daughter was born, did i say that yet?).  But then-i get a bridal shower invite.  And here is where i draw the line and get all capital letters on you.  YOU ARE MARRIED! YOU DON'T GET A SHOWER!  I'm sorry you got pregnant and then had a shot gun wedding, but that is what HAPPENED and you have been MARRIED for almost a YEAR.  You don't get to go BACKWARDS and pretend you're NOT MARRIED and get MORE gifts and then MORE gifts!  Or is that just me?  I joked to my mom that i'm not married-nor am i engaged-but apparently there are no rules.  So with these no rules, even though i'm not engaged and not married, i'm gonna have me a "we've been together for 17 years SHOWER" and everyone can BUY ME PRESENTS.  How's that for ya?!

Am i being crazy to think this is just a ploy for gifts?  What would you do?  I'm not going and i'm not sending a gift.  This just bothers me to my very core. Tell me your thoughts on it. 

All opinions are 100% my own, i received a percentage off the favors in exchange for blogging about the store.

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