It was such a great day and I’m excited to share the details with you here.

This bridal shower weekend was all about quality time together, and we honored that priority from the moment we started planning, to the end of the night barefoot with wine. When I’m talking with my coaching clients about their important life events or experiences, we talk about what values they want to honor. We explore what’s really important to them, why they event want to have this event, and what they want the experience to feel like. And from there, that’s the place all choices stem from. It can be so easy to get lost in the “to dos” of prepping for something, that you end up creating something way off the mark of what’s right for you.

When you first think about the event you want to host, I think the first thing to do is sit down and think, what do I want the experience of it to be? What’s important to me, and to the person we’re hosting this for? And that answer is your guiding light. For us, it was quality time, legacy, and specialness. We wanted it to feel like the magic of getting my sisters most loved people together. 

Once you do this – it means you hold this vision up as you make every choice in planning, and it helps steer what you say yes to and what you say no to.

For this shower, it meant we decided to host a small event on my front porch rather than renting a restaurant or venue, to keep it private, custom and relaxed. Prioritizing quality time, legacy and specialness also meant we kept the group small, didn’t add in a bunch of wedding games, and created a lovely tea party all seated at one table. 

Family and Legacy

Our family has a tradition around important milestones and tea parties, and it’s one of my favorites. Every 10th birthday, we all go out to afternoon tea together. All women in the family who can make it, aunts, cousins, siblings, get together, dress up and head to an afternoon tea party, usually at a hotel. I have fond memories of my 10th birthday all dressed up in my cousin’s pink coat (we even took a limo that year! I felt very fancy), my grandmother’s 80th, and many more. So for us, the legacy of sharing with the women of the family together over tea felt so right for my sister’s bridal shower. It was all about togetherness. We each brought a handwritten recipe card which we compiled into a recipe box for my sister, including some from saved from previous generations in their handwriting.

Catering

From the moment we decided to host the shower at my house, we knew we’d outsource the food. It meant we could spend more time with everyone, rather than buzzing past them focusing on timing recipes. I wanted to be able to be so present that day and host and was glad we could have catering to create that.

For the food we had catering by Katie Heath and Hambys Catering. Hambys is a local caterer that does large and small scale events, and conveniently has a market where you can order online and pick up the day of. The tea we served was local to Charleston, from the Charleston Tea Garden.

We couldn’t find fresh scones, and that places really only offered biscuits as an alternative, and so my cousin baked delicious fresh scones in our kitchen that morning. Lucky us!

Table Touches

We went with a garden party theme, so incorporated tea, flowers and garden notes wherever we could. We used a mix of family china, Williams Sonoma plates, etched water glasses, and after a long search, I found some beautiful three-tiered cake stands. I feel like one of the first things you think of when you think of a tea party is the multi-tier dessert stands, and yet I had the hardest time finding ones to buy. And surprise, surprise, Amazon & Etsy pulled through.

We went with a blue, white and peach color scheme for our table scape. We worked with a local small business owner, Markey Mossman of Hatch Cove Designs, to create the place cards and I love the way she painted them with such sweet little flowers. I always feel like place cards make me feel so included when I go to a party, and love to include them when I host. I was always the kid growing up that would arts and crafts place cards for holiday dinners. Our napkins were this beautiful blue design (my sister’s favorite!) by Julia Amory, and I have to say their customer support is top notch. When our shipment was delayed they generously mailed us a replacement overnight, and were incredible to work with.

Flowers

I picked up the flowers from Trader Joes and Whole Foods on Friday when their shipments came in, and Saturday evening we had fun arranging vases with my aunt and cousins. We also experimented with some flowers to inspire her centerpiece designs for her wedding. While she has a florist for the wedding, we wanted to have some fun playing around with concepts to share with her as inspo. It was so fun to spend this time as women together in my kitchen – chatting, having wine, getting creative, and surrounded by beautiful flowers. The centerpieces were arranged in Amanda Lindroth rattan vases.

After the shower my mom and I drove around and dropped of the vases at a handful of my girlfriends houses to spread the love and let other houses enjoy these beautiful flowers. We had a blast driving around town and popping in with these sweet surprises.

After the tea party, as it got dark, we headed up to the top porch, brought some bottles of wine and settled in for a cozy night of stories and laughing. My cousin and I grabbed a bunch of candles, chips and hummus, and throw blankets to share. Over glasses of wine and lit by candles, we talked love languages, told funny stories, and shared the magic of togetherness.

I’ve found that planning an event from resonance, from what values you most want to honor and what is most important in how you want the experience of the event to be, you can make sure you plan something that is true to what’s important to you. Nobody wants to drown in details to create a beast of an event that starts to look nothing like you and what you care about. I’ve found for myself and my coaching clients, that designing from a few important values, makes choices easier, and everything more authentically you.

Cheers to my sister, her wedding, and the specialness of time with women we love.