Thursday, July 17, 2014

An evening in Italy {Italy inspired Bridal Shower}

This past weekend my sister in laws and I threw a bridal shower for my lovely sister in law, Carly. Carly studied abroad in Italy so we knew the theme would have to be an evening in Italy!
We had the shower at Drew's family cabin, but we definitely transformed it from woodsy and rustic to Italian dinner party for the evening. For decoration we knew we needed fun lighting to make it feel more Italy inspired. The larger string lights pictured above are from Target and it completely changed the atmosphere.
Each table had fresh flowers from Trader Joe's and we wrapped them in floral patterned cones (thank you Martha Stewart) so the guests could take a bundle of fresh flowers home. We used galvanized containers to put fresh herbs in, got carafes for water, each table had a bread basket and of course we had candles lit and Italian music playing!
My sister in laws and I made all the food for the evening including: Caprese Salad, Bruschetta, Crostini, White bean dip, 2 different pasta dishes and a few amazing italian inspired desserts.
We wanted to do something different so we served the food family style. Each group of 7-8 guests had their own pasta dishes and salad to pass around. Dishes were delivered and wine was poured by my handsome husband and his best friend. (You know you have an awesome husband when he is willing to do something like this on his Saturday night AND actually have fun with it!)
We worked so hard to make it a fun evening and fun was definitely had by all. I am so glad we were able to shower Carly with love and make her feel like she was back in Italy at least for one evening.

11 comments:

RachaelA said...

Wow this looks beautiful - what a wonderful idea!

Anne said...

Such a fun theme! Love the lights, and of course it's easy to have success when you get to serve yummy Italian food and wine :)

Rach said...

Ahh! I love it all!! I want to have an evening in Italy! You guys did a great job with this. And Drew is such a sweetheart. :) Also, I love your sweet baby bump! You look great, friend!

Brittany said...

Those lights really do change an atmosphere instantly. I love them. Also, that food looks too good to be true. I'm almost always dreaming of caprese salad.

Erin LFF said...

Absolutely GORGEOUS, and I love that it's a theme unique to the bride-to-be :) You can throw me a party anytime, btw! You rock at them!!

Becky said...

I agree with Erin - what a great and unique idea for a bridal shower and feel free to plan a party for me anytime!! :P

Anonymous said...

It's so sweet that you put so much thought into this! It looks like a great night for everyone!

Jenna Griffin | Gold & Bloom said...

This looks so amazing, Allison! I love the lights--we had those same ones at our wedding! And I spy an adorable baby bumppppp!

Anonymous said...

This is so classy and elegant!! Great job to the hostesses! It looks like it was a success.

-Amy

Anonymous said...

Oooh so very pretty!! I've always loved Italian culture/food/music.

That is just beautiful.

Unknown said...

Good to know about this bridal shower event and quite sure that this party was a grand success. I am searching for lovely venues Chicago for arranging my sister’s tea party. Hope to find best venue for a grand party.