Amanda's Retro Bridal Shower: The Food

Pink Lamingtons, Vanilla Mini-cupcakes, Chocolate-Coconut Truffles, Cocoa Truffles

Chocolate-Covered Cherries, Chocolate-Coconut truffles, Pecan-Linzer Cherry Cookies, Marzipan

Rice Krispie Treats & Jordan Almonds

The Spread

Tea cups, saucers & handkerchiefs set up for guests to choose from as a parting gift. We also used teapots and teacups as vases for the flowers and placed them around the house (Great idea, Mom!)

Amanda's favorite gift, Hello, Cupcake! (Thanks, Kellie!)

The dolls in their aprons: Fallon, Berkelee, Amanda, Fallon & Me!

This past Saturday I threw a bridal shower for my very best friend, Amanda. She's getting married to a wonderful man named Garrett and I couldn't be happier for her. I wanted to throw her an amazing shower that she and all the guests would remember. I researched online for a while and loved the idea of a tea party, but knew Amanda wouldn't want something so prim and proper. So I thought a good way to make a tea party fun would be to add a theme, and since I love all things kitsch, of course I went retro! We would all bring our favorite aprons to wear, gossip, and remember the days when feet got sore from standing in front of the stove all day. I bounced the idea off a few people and received good feedback so I started looking for recipes for classic party foods. I decided to go with:

• Ambrosia
  
• Cheeseball & Crackers
• Bon Bons
• Deviled Eggs
• Cream-cheese filled Celery sticks
• Veggie Platter
• Rice Krispie Treats
• Lime Coolers
• Pecan Linzer cookies with Cherry Jam filling
• Pimento Sandwiches and Olives
  
• Jordan Almonds
• Marzipan &
  
• Fruit Kebabs

I remembered to take the close-ups of the treats after everyone had already grazed, so just know I didn't set them out half-full like the pictures suggest. Also, sorry the pictures are so blurry, my sister, Kellie, did a great job photographing the shower, but the lighting was difficult to work with. We got a lot of great shots though, and there are more on flickr.

Anyway, all of the food was homemade (just like they would have done in the 50's) except for the Jordan almonds, Marzipan, and Chocolate-covered Cherries. My mom and sister were lifesavers and stayed up with me all Friday night to help make my vision for the shower come to fruition. And I think we really pulled it off. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, which is all that really matters. And Amanda seemed really happy with it all. She was especially happy that she got to take all the left-overs home! :)

We played some really cute games too, and hopefully I'll have pictures and links for those soon.