Lissa in Loverland

Looks like it’s going to be wedding week here on the blog…

Like I mentioned on Monday, my best friend Melissa got married!!  You know us gals couldn’t send her down the aisle without a proper bridal shower.  Non-traditional showers are more our style and we love to throw parties the people will never forget.  I think Liss’s shower exceeded my expectations.  Heather and I have known well before Melissa was engaged that we were going to throw her a Alice in Wonderland themed bridal shower except we put our own spin on it and with the help of the rest of the bridal party created Lissa in Loverland.  A very un-bridal bridal shower.  We had the party at Melissa’s parents house, they have the absolute perfect back yard and really let us come in and run with our vision.  Love them to pieces   Everyone worked really hard to pull this party together and never have I ever been to a better bridal shower.

All photography is by Nicole Verna, I took the day off

An Alice in Wonderland party wouldn’t be complete without a full list of characters.  We encouraged all of the guest to dress nonsensical!  Check out the bridal party!

The bridal party had a great time coming up with clever tea party food.  We gathered over 100 tea cups and saucer from all over and used them for the favors and decor.

Dessert table!!!

It’s not a party without Cake Lady cake!

I made these tea sandwich cakes and honestly they were adorable…very cute presentation however cutting and serving was not as pretty.  Next time I’ll need to consider serving during construction.     The cake on the left is chicken salad, lettuce and tomato layered on ficotta bread.  I combined mayo, creme cheese, fresh cilantro, little S&P and spread it on like icing then garnished with more cilantro and tomatoes.  I just love cilantro.  The cake of the right was a big BLT, same icing but I used basil. I also just love basil.

Have you ever heard of the tradition of paper cranes?  Folding 1001 paper cranes has evolved out of Japanese legend. Cranes were thought to live a long life and the construction of 1,001 paper cranes for the bride & groom symbolized good fortune, fidelity and longevity.

(yes, there is 1001…count them)

Everyone wants to know what it was like …well…our girl Kasey came through and folded 500 by herself, which was amay!  And folding the remaining cranes was a process but we had a lot of help and fun folding them.   I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Melissa used the cranes in her cocktail hour decor and it looked great.

We did a formally set tea-table where each guest had a place setting.

Craig and I added layers of vases, flowers, lanterns, signs, feathers all the way down each table.

Queen of hearts Royal Court, completed with painted rose bushes…

Card Guards!  Loved this project!  We made these with sturdy poster board, construction paper and wooden dows to make them stand.

The suits on the fence are painted poster board and Melissa’s Aunt and Uncle had all of these PERFECT flamingos.

Heather drew these awesome characters and Craig and Tom painted them.  I had some doubt in this project and boy was I wrong, these were amazing!  You got to have the Cherish Cat and the hookah smoking caterpillar

Can’t have a Alice in Wonderland Party without a hookah station!  We had flavored tobacco and plenty of cackles.

We took a pool float and made a floating table….loved it!  And, don’t you love that tea set?  It belongs to the one and only Birdlady.

Melissa’s Dad found this for her, it was so perfect!

There are more details to go…check back tomorrow pals

PART 2 HAS BEEN POSTED – CLICK HERE FOR MORE ALICE IN WONDERLAND BRIDAL SHOWER