Category Archives: Bridal Shower

Lingerie

All right, we’re going there, ladies. Lingerie for the shower. The first thing you’ll learn when you start shopping is that good lingerie—you know, the delicate kind with lace—is expensive. I mean, it can be really expensive. Bras can run your $60 easy. I think there are two gift approaches when going into a lingerie shower. Option 1: Team up with another guest to get the bride one really nice set, something she would never buy for herself and may very well use to seduce her husband (but don’t think about that part). Option 2: Go for a more affordable everyday item, something in cotton or jersey that’s cute and comfy and that she’ll wear all the time. This post addresses option one, though I’ve tried to keep things reasonable. Seductive and admittedly beautiful Agent Provocateur pieces will set you back $200 for one bra…not a proposition I’m personally willing to entertain.

To me, black and lace is the ultimate in classic sexy. It will never go out of style. This gorgeous Espirit set comes in at only $60 for the bra and panties, or swap out a chemise in the same pattern for $50.

Though black is the ultimate in sex appeal, every bride does need some wedding white.

 I love the intricate details on this Elle McPherson bra ($60) and panties ($34).

Or what about this bralette from Only Hearts, currently on sale for $40?

Want some color? I cannot get enough of these dotted bralettes and boyshorts from Madewell ($53 for a set).

Or this emerald lace set from Anthropologie at $44.

And I can’t help myself…elephants (for $65)! There’s even a bit of mesh to show a little skin for her guy.

A Year of Date Nights

Today on Ultimate Bridesmaid we welcome guest poster Tara from Spotofteadesigns.com. I was totally inspired by Tara’s super-creative shower gift—A Year of Date Nights! See how she pulled it off below.
Hello UB followers! My name is Tara and I’m the T of Spotofteadesigns.com! Since 2010, I will have been involved in 6 weddings as a bridesmaid, maid of honor and a bride-to-be for my upcoming September wedding. Needless to say I’m in full-on wedding mode these days! As a bridesmaid, I’m used to the plan to chip in for an expensive item off the bride’s registry, but in one particular case, all the big ticket items were already taken. We came up with another plan.
As a big Pinterest user, I was very excited to come across this post from Shannon Brown’s Life in General Blog. She gave her husband a Christmas gift that included 12 envelopes of planned dates for the full year. I loved this concept and used it as inspiration for my bride’s group gift, which we nicknamed A Year of Date Nights.
At her shower, Allie, the bride, was only able to open a large box containing all the wrapped gifts you see above, and a descriptive poem explaining the concept. Each month after their wedding, Allie and her hubby, Tim, are allowed to open that month’s gift. Upon reading it, they’ll be able to pick a day on their calendar to enjoy the date. Since the couple only wed in May, as of this post only 2 gifts have been opened that I can share.For June, Allie and Tim opened a mini pizza box containing an empty frozen yogurt container. Inside they received gift cards for dinner and dessert at their local pizza and froyo locations.
For July, they opened a handmade card with a gift card to Wegmans. They were instructed to buy some steaks and trimmings, then enjoy a sunny BBQ for two on their backyard patio.
Not all her gifts had to do with food, but I can’t reveal the rest until they open the gifts as the months pass.
Below are a few suggestions for other bridesmaids who might want to make their own Year of Date Nights gift: Continue reading →

Design*Sponge City Guides

Planning a destination bachelorette party? In a city you’ve never visited? I’ve been there. But scouring travel sites and reading reviews on Yelp can get overwhelming and exhausting pretty fast. May I recommend Design*Sponge City Guides as a great starting place for curated food, shopping and entertainment recommendations? I love these guides because they’re written for a young female demographic by local writers. The recommendations tend to include vintage stores, cool cafes and off-the-beaten-track finds. They’re by no means extensive, but that’s what I like about them. You’ll get a good feel for the area and a baseline list to get you started. Need a B&B in Napa Valley? A bakery in Charleston to order some delicious cupcakes? Check out the full list of the guides here.


Q&A: Handling a Huge Guest List

Q: My bride wants to invite 20 people to her bachelorette party! What are my options for throwing a big party on a reasonable budget?

A: Accommodating a huge guest list is definitely a challenge, especially when you want to keep the cost low for both yourself and your guests. Here are a few party ideas that work well for large groups and won’t cause you to have a breakdown.

  • Host a girl’s night in at your house: The ultimate in easy party planning, throwing the party in your home or apartment will definitely lower your stress level. You can keep it simple with delivery or take on a home-cooked meal. The only downfall to hosting the party at your house is that you’re more likely to spend a lot of money yourself on food and drinks. Make the party a potluck and assign each guest a category: appetizers, side dishes, alcohol, mixers, desserts, or paper products. Then take on the main dish yourself. Turn it into an old-fashioned sleepover party complete with sleeping bags, truth or dare and kareoke.
  • Rent a house at a beach, mountain or lake: Everyone loves a getaway, and with this many people you’ll be grateful for the space of an entire house. If you add $5-$10 to the cost of the weekend per person, you can stock the kitchen with cereal, yogurt, and sandwich fixings to keep breakfasts and lunches easy. Sites like vrbo.com and Homeaway.com are great sources for vacation rental homes all over the country. A few words of advice: Finding a house that sleeps 20 people is going to be very difficult, so be sure guests know they may have to sleep on blow-up mattresses or couches. You’ll probably have to quote a lower number of guests to the property owner since many don’t want parties larger than the house actually sleeps. Be sure you’re going with a group of people you trust to leave the house in one piece—the last thing you want is an angry owner with your name on the agreement. As long as you know your group will clean up after themselves, go for it!
  • For the sporty bride: How about a kickball game and picnic at your local park? Some parks have rules against alcohol, but many are lenient if you don’t bring glass bottles or get too rowdy. Personalize “Team Bride” shirts with the guest’s names on the back (Old Navy has a tee that you could personalize yourself or this site will personalize them for you).
  • Bar crawl: Skip fancy dinners; bars are much simpler and better for big groups! Start with appetizers at a local brewery, then progress to cocktail lounges, dance clubs, kareoke bars, strip clubs—whatever best suits the group. Make sure you choose bars that are within walking distance of one another, or arrange for transportation in the form of designated drivers, taxis or a limo.

One of the hardest things to do with a big group, in my opinion, is have dinner at a restaurant. Here’s why: Continue reading →

Signature Drinks: Raspberry Mint Limonata Cocktail

No celebration is complete without specialty cocktails. For a bachelorette party or bridal shower, you can come up with a drink that honors the bride, or turn mixology into a theme and ask each guest to come prepared with a cocktail recipe to teach the group. This weekend while at a rooftop BBQ I tried a variation on a Tom Collins that would work beautifully at a summer bridal shower. It’s the perfect combination of sweet, minty, fruity and bubbly. All my favorite things! Here’s what you’ll need:

Gin (or substitute vodka if you don’t like gin)

Diet tonic water

San Pellegrino limonata

Raspberries

Mint

Ice

Mason jar (optional)

Fill glass halfway with ice. Muddle 3-4 mint leaves and raspberries together. If you don’t have a muddler, just rip the mint leaves into little bits and crush the raspberries before you drop them in. I added a few whole raspberries as well because they are pretty and yummy.

Add one shot gin, about half a can of limonata and top with diet tonic water. Stir and serve (preferably in giant Mason jar).

The limonata provides the sweetness, but it’s mellowed out by the tonic water. The mint is super-refreshing and you will knock yourself out trying to fish out the raspberries (which also give the drink its pretty pink color). If you don’t like gin, this would work just as well with a smooth vodka. Enjoy!

Bachelorette Party Favor: Mix CD

I entered adolescence in a very specific era: after cassette tapes but before mp3 players. We were the children of the “compact disc,” with our portable CD players and giant binders of CDs. Sure, there was a time when I had to queue up a tape if I wanted to record a song off the radio (God, that was hard! And you always missed the first two or three seconds of the song!), but when the mix CD came along? WOW! Let’s just say that high school was filled with CD exchanges and mixes specifically tailored to long road trips. In homage to the era of the mix CD, I decided to make one as a favor for Marisa’s bachelorette party. I emailed the attendees to ask for songs that reminded them of Marisa and then put together a mix.

I started off with songs that would remind us of specific events—when Justin and Marisa met, when he proposed, our girls’ weekend—and then added songs that I knew Marisa loved from different eras. I wanted to include a lot of “love” songs as well because I know sappy love songs annoy her, so I chose upbeat, peppy ones with the word “love” in the title. It turned into a ridiculous mix of songs, but they are all personal to her.

Then I bought some jewel cases and CDs (man, that took me back) and set about creating a CD cover. I am by no means a graphic designer, but I do know how to use InDesign, so I created my case there. I stuck with polka dots, typography and a color palette of pink, black and white, because I felt like I couldn’t screw that up. I bought some pretty polka-dot ribbon on sale at a local craft store. Ribbon can be expensive, so look out for deals! I needed almost 15 yards for 15 CDs—about a yard a CD. Then once we checked into the hotel, I left a CD on each pillow so the guests would find them when they arrived.

Lingerie Shower

When it’s time to pick a theme for the shower, lingerie is going to come up inevitably. And it can be a really fun idea, but only if a couple very important factors line up. First, make sure that the bride will be comfortable with it. Not everyone likes the idea of handing out their sizes to their guests and unwrapping unmentionables while everyone looks on. Second, I recommend limiting lingerie showers to groups of girlfriends of around the same age. Chances are your bride will have at least one shower thrown by a parent or friend of the family and ladies of all age groups will be present. Some women may only know the bride through her mother or a relative. A lingerie shower in that instance is just going to get awkward.

If points one and two are met, full steam ahead! My friend Amanda had a lovely lingerie shower at her home in Atlanta, thrown by her amazing maid of honor and sister, Emily. Amanda’s shower was part of a combination bachelorette/bridal shower weekend since many of her close friends and bridesmaids (including me!) are spread out over the country.

The food theme was sweet and a little sinful (to fit the lingerie). While Amanda left the house to go for her hair trial, all the bridesmaids pitched in to prepare the food and decorate the house. Hosting the shower at home helps to greatly cut down the expense and also lowers the stress level. We were able to pump some music as we melted chocolate for chocolate-covered strawberry and fondue.

Emily broke out their family’s beautiful silver punch bowl and put together a family-favorite punch. The scoops of ice cream made it look a little crazy at first, but it tasted like heaven and as the ice cream melted it all came together.

Before Amanda arrived, a few of the bridesmaids decided to run to Wal-Mart for a few last-minute gag gifts…like the biggest Granny panties we could find in the store! We also picked up a little something for the groom—a pair of camo boxer-briefs and a matching camo bra for Amanda.

After all the gifts were opened, we strung them up on a clothesline for pictures. All the lacy things looked so cute hung up together (though we took them down before the groom got home—we wanted them to be a surprise!).

As for where to find bridal lingerie, I always try to skip Victoria’s Secret. They have some great pieces, but since it’s such a popular lingerie destination, you run the risk of ending up with duplicate gifts. Continue reading →