Hello friends. This last weekend was "Bridal Shower" weekend for my daughter, Bethany. She had two bridal showers, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. This post will tell you about the Southern Belle Afternoon Tea Party shower, which was held on Saturday at the home of my next door neighbor, Penny.
Penny planned a lovely, elegant, yet relaxed shower with fabulous finger sandwiches, delicious hot tea, and a lovely (and yummy) cake. Penny borrowed my tea and sandwich server sets for the guests to use. The dishes are some what old fashioned, the tea cup sits on the little plate along with your finger foods. This shower was perfect for my vintage themed bride!
(Bethany and Penny posing for a photo)
I crafted quite a few items for this shower, beginning with the banner pictured below. You might recall the banner from THIS blog post. The pennant sections feature Southern Belle Secrets.
The center pennant panel on the banner defines a Southern Belle. Some of my very southern friends liked the definition! They thought it was much better than "simpering female"!
Being me, as well as being the mother of the bride, I decided to embellish my gift bag to match the theme of the wedding. I used a cut file from the Silhouette America store, though I added a second layer behind the teapot and teacup.
I used an Anna Griffin embossing folder and embossed the top layers before adding foam tape strips to the back of the cuts to adhere them to the gift bag.
And again, because I AM ME, I crafted my gift card to again match the theme of the shower. I used a dress shaped card and inserted a large hat into the cut file. I then added extra flowers and other details to dress up my Southern Belle card.
I was especially pleased with the way the hat inserted into the file. I cut a top later for the hat and did a bit of shading with markers before adding the band and flowers. I finished the card with a lovely stamp which reads "True love stories never have endings". That is my wish for Bethany and John.
Other than the dinner plates and salad plates to her place settings, I also gave Bethany an extra little gift. It came wrapped in a brown gift bag with tissue and ribbons, so I only had to craft a card for the gift.
I found this fun vintage sofa cut file in the Silhouette America store and thought it would be PERFECT for Bethany. I copied the background of the sofa, duplicated the cut a second time and welded the two pieces together, attaching them at the top back to create a card base for this sofa.
I used three colors of card stock to cut the card/sofa elements. I used an Anna Griffin embossing folder to emboss the upholstery pieces before assembling the card.
I finished the card with ribbons, pearl brads and a Happily Ever After stamp on the back of the sofa.
The final bit of crafting I did for Bethany's Southern Belle shower were the party favors. I had intended to use organza gift bags with tea inside and attach Love is Brewing gift tags. Cute idea, huh? We it was all good until I opened my South Carolina Plantation Tea and found the silk tea bags were in envelopes far larger than I had expected.... And of course I made this discovery the night before the shower! Yikes!
I had already created the tags (above) for the bags using the "print and cut" feature on the Silhouette, so I just switched gears and created a new gift packaging. I took an SVG purse card pattern and made a few edits to create a simplified version of the purse. I cut the purses in three pieces: the basic top opening card piece, the handle/flap piece and the little banner piece.
The purses came out beautifully once the tags were attached. And inside? Two special silk tea bags for an afternoon tea party favor!
Below is a photograph of the lovely - and delicious - cake that Penny served. The writing on the cake reads, "Showers of Joy, Bethany"!
I confess that I forgot to take photos before we ate so I missed the full table effect - and all of the pretty dishes, but I did snap a photo or two before we cut the cake.
Below is a blurry (read "soft focus") photo of Bethany and I.
And finally a photo of Bethany and her future mother-in-law, Kathy Ross.
I cannot thank my neighbor enough for hosting this beautiful shower. And also thank you to the wonderful ladies who attended "showered" Bethany with gifts and love!
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