Katherine's Bachelower, the Gifts

Over this past weekend, we bridesmaids threw a "bachelower" for our friend and bride-to-be come one month and a day from today, Katherine. It was a combination shower and bachelorette party in three parts: rooftop shower in Long Island City, dinner cruise around the island, karaoke back in Manhattan. I cannot take credit for much of the day—my co-hosts were amazingly organized and thorough party planners, for which I am so grateful—but I was more than happy to make a few contributions to the day that were portable enough for me to carry them from Iowa.

Above are hair clips that I made for Katherine to wear during the day so that everyone would know that she was the one getting married (which turned out not to matter so much since screaming "You're getting married!" was a popular thing to do). I picked up the supplies at Michaels, managed to get feathers all over my house, and was only finished with these when I had spray painted them with silver glitter. That was key.

You may remember the book that I made for Virginia for her scavenger hunt bridal shower, and if we go way back, you'll even remember the one that I made for my sister Katie last December when she got married. Making scrapbooks to give at bridal showers is a big tradition in my family and while the style of this one (and Virginia's) are very different from the ones my relatives make, the spirit of it is the same. We were making a lot of the food we served at the shower ourselves and much of it was southern in theme (Katherine is from Atlanta and is getting married in New Orleans), so the book was a combination of traditional scrapbooking, some notes from her bridesmaids and her mom, and pages with slots for recipes in the back.

Here's the cover that I made using her save the date postcard and paper from Jess Gonacha's 2009 calendar. (I actually told Jess I was going to use it for the book since I felt a little badly about cutting it up, but she was all in favor of my giving it a second life!)

This is the second page, images and words that speak to the couple, along with some purple rhinestones just because a little sparkle is always nice.

For the main part of the book, I sent around a questionaire for each of the bridesmaids to fill out. It included questions like "If Katherine was a flower, which one would she be? What's your favorite Katherine-ism?". Everyone did there's a little differently and it gave us the chance to talk about some of our favorite memories and traits of K, which was fun. And it made her cry. Which we also like since she does it so much when she's happy and is so good at it.

Check back tomorrow to see some of the food and decorations, and for the best red velvet cupcake recipe I've tried to date!