Party On

This weekend a friend and I hosted a bridal shower for a dear young woman who will be married in November.  The day started off cloudy and dreary, and we'd planned to have this shindig outside; luckily it was warm enough to proceed, since the coast is normally pretty cold on dreary days, I was a little nervous. I love giving parties as evidenced by some of my books.  The menu, flowers, and table decorations all have to have some meaning, otherwise, it's not a lot of fun.  

For this party, a brunch, we decided to keep it simple, a savory bread pudding with veggies (the bride is vegetarian)  Mojito Fruit Compote (yum) green salad with orange and balsamic vinaigrette, with assorted muffins and cinnamon rolls. 

Since the bride-to-be doesn't like cake (I don't hold that against her) we made Key Lime Pie with raspberry coulis and whipped cream. 
Her choices for flowers for the wedding, are dahlias, and other fall flowers, in peach, orange, yellow tones, and I did a few table arrangements as a prelude for the wedding.
Another idea that I have been using at the table have been quotes that relate to the theme of the party.  When I was in France teaching I used quotes that related to food, wine, and dessert---we started off the day with the quotes, and it got the conversations started---each one is a bit different in tone, some funny, some serious and some you have to think about--leading to great intelligent conversations. For wine tastings, I will do quotes about wines, and food.  For this shower we used quotes about love, marriage and weddings---since many of the people at the party only knew the bride, it was fun to share the quotes, at the table rather than play silly games.

Party favors are always a struggle, especially when you have a range of ages attending.  I always want people to go home and have a little something to remind them of the event.  For this party, I found cute little leaf shaped sauce dishes in fall colors --put a votive candle in them, and wrapped them in cellophane with a Barcelona candy bar (dark chocolate, almonds and sea salt) and tied them with fall colored raffia.  They also served as place cards at the table.  Instead of candles I could have done tiny soaps and that would have worked as well. 
Here are a few photos from the day.  I hope you are enjoying the fall weather wherever you may be.