Dressing up a shower

I love throwing showers for my friends, whether they are getting married or having a baby. It is so much fun to celebrate with them. With food, decorations, flowers, and favors, the total price can add up, so here are a few helpful tips to have a pretty shower without breaking the bank. ;)

Pick your color scheme. Always try to use what you already have. So, if you have simple white dishes, use those and then dress it up with some pink or blue accents.

I went with turqoise and lime since those are hot colors right now and I already had some glasses with those colors. And since my friend Julie was having a boy, I thought blue and green were still within the "boy colors."

If you go to any party store, you will pay about $3.99 for a pack of 16 napkins. I found mine at Homegoods- 20 napkins for $1.99 AND within my color scheme. :) So, MORE napkins and half the price at party city.

So, keeping with my color scheme........I picked out this paper from Paper Source, then bought a roll of lime green ribbon from Michaels to dress up my vases. Ribbon can be expensive, so when it ever goes on sale, I always will get a whole bunch of different colors because I use ribbon for everything. Favors: Everyone loves mason jars. Atleast I think everyone loves them. I do. You can get mason jars almost anywhere, print on a label (I got mine from paper source) and then tie a ribbon. Pretty. I let them fill up their mason jars with colorful candies. (For the candy, I used gourmet mints and jelly bellys. Delicious and so colorful.)
I filled up my apothecary vases with the candies and I loved the look. BINS BINS BINS! Whenever I am in any home store, I go straight for the clearance and see what kind of fun finds I can get my hands on. I love clearance bins. I got these beauties at Pier One for $1.98 a glass. Perfect for a shower or brunch. OH! and I think this glass looks very similar to THIS glass at anthropologie......(since everyone knows that is my favorite store.) At anthro it is $8.00 vs. my $2.00 a glass. Again, more clearance bin finds. :) Birds are a huge hit right now, and I found these bird napkin holders last year at Z Gallerie for $1 each on sale when they were originally $5 a pop.

Urban Outfitters has AWESOME home stuff. Months back, I was meeting up with one of my girlfriends in Richmond. We stopped in Urban and I saw these turqoise and lime milky glasses for $1 per glass. They were originally $8. I would have bought more, but they only had 10. bummer.

The table runner is an Amy Butler fabric for $6 a yard. I purchased 3 yards of this fabric from fabric.com. Since I dont know how to sew, I just folded the fabric and then ironed it. No one will know it's not a real table runner:) I made sure the fabric matched my glasses. It went nicely.

Yummy colorful food

It looks like everyone had a nice time. ;)

Ok, so please don't label me as "cheap." Ha. I swear I am not and I will go all out for my friends. Flowers and Food, for example, I will splurge on because it is important that the food tastes good and to have fresh flowers, but I refuse to pay tons of money for decorations when you can have it be just as pretty and half the price. Ok, that's all.