Engagement Party Gift for the DIY Bride

The holidays have come and gone... which means one thing is for certain. Someone (everyone?) you know just got engaged. An engagement party or six are probably in your future. Now, to be clear, bringing a gift to an engagement party is NOT mandatory. However, if you're here... you've probably decided you're not showing up without a liiiitle somethin'. So how 'bout dis:

The Ultimate Wedding Planning Portfolio for the DIY Bride

This gift is fast, easy, and inexpensive but exudes loads of thoughtfulness for your pal the Bride-to-Be. I purchased everything here from Target on the way to an Engagement Party. (Hey, I was pregnant--planning anything other than a nursery ahead of time was not on the agenda.)

The portfolio packaging itself was a plain white magazine holder. I embellished it with some die cuts, a label holder, and alpha-stickers. The die cuts and the stickers were all found in that little discount spot when you first enter Target. While this same stuff will no longer be there, you can nearly always find a whole suite of similar matching "stuff" there. After the bulk of the gift is unloaded your bride can use the portfolio to store wedding docs like venue contracts, etc. 

Here's what I included:

Note Taking Essentials

• A Clipboard & Thank You Notes
• The well-organized bride is going to meet a lot of people and may need to do a lot thanking. It's easier to thank as you go, so having thank you cards on hand is a good idea. A matching clipboard never hurt nobody.

• Sticky Notes
• It's easy to forget thangs. Sticky note all the things!

• To-Do Lists
• Let's be real: this is to help micro-manage the groom.

• Unlined Page Notebook
• Why explain to the florist what you really mean by cascading waterfalls of flora when you could just draw it?

• Pens
• Well, obvs. 

Stress Management & Inspiration

• Stress Reliever
• What I would have given to find a stress reliever that matched everything else... Sigh. I was a pregnant woman on a mission with very little time to spare. Hopefully you'll plan this a bit further in advance for your bride and she'll be impressed with your coordinating skills.

• His & Hers Socks
• For cold feet, duh! (Plus, they matched everything else so how could I not?)

• Thermal Travel Coffee Mug
• But first, coffee.

• On-The-Go Water/Tea Cup
• Gotta stay hydrated.

• Wedding Mags
• Try to find some local mags if you can.

PS, Don't forget the card!

First of all, a card with a gift is always a nice touch. But the real reason for the card is to outline piece-by-piece how clever this gift is. She'll need to know how put together you are when it comes time to pick those bridesmaids. 

Lil' Critter Woodland Baby Shower

About three weeks after I found out I was pregnant, one of my besties Jessi found out she was too. Double the hormones, double the ice cream & taco bell, and, of course, double the baby showers. Jessi had been instrumental in throwing my own baby shower and there was no doubt I'd be throwing hers as well. And, I'll tell ya, I thought it would be a real struggle planning this while super pregnant, but in real life everyone loves helping preg chicks and it really wasn't too bad after all.

(Planning a client's wedding while pregnant and then putting it on after baby is born, with baby in tow, however--that's a bad time. I don't recommend that. Post on that coming soon.)

Jessi wanted a woodland theme and because I had already put together this Elegant Woodland Wedding, I already had much of the decor on-hand. Additionally, because I had just helped to put on my own baby shower--I just recycled some of the general ideas to use again at this shower.

Cake

Let's start with this cake. A member of Jessi's church's youth group made this cake and the coordinating owl and mushroom cupcakes. She's only 14 ya'll. Whaaat? All I did was decorate the space around them and add a little paper bunting to the main cake.

Food

The ladies of Jessi's church volunteered to bring food. I am accustomed to being an overachiever and therefore like to be realistic with my expectations of other people. I expected them to bring "normal" lite fare: cookies, mini sandwiches, that sort of thing. Sure, there was some of that, BUT I was blown away but how creative the bulk of their food choices were. They really went with the theme and got everyone involved. Like I said, I didn't create any of this food so I don't have tutorials for you, but where I can I'll link to similar tutorials on Pinterest.

Porcupine cheese balls.

Strawberry owls in nests.

Deviled egg Owls.

Hot dog snakes.

Hedgehog cookies.

Ants on a log celery sticks & caterpillar fruit kabobs.

Dirt cake.

Teddy grahams. Lulz this never would have occurred to me but duh! What a simple and applicable idea.

Strawberry rose garden dirt pie. OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS? I don't know who made this but it was truly edible art.

I created the Lil Critter banner by using a Paper Source woodland animal mask kit as a template and plopped the letters on paper acorns that I hand cut.

Flowers, Favors, Decor, and Fun

Flowers were carnations, button mums, and hydrangeas that I arranged myself in milk glass vases.

Party favors were little bags of chocolate kisses and vanilla wafer acorns with paper squirrels attached to them. I hand drew a template for the squirrel and traced and cut the rest of them.

Paper hedgehogs were from a Paper Source kit.

I designed the "Jessi's Lil Critter Bingo" for guests to fill in gifts they thought Jessi would receive. Blank squirrels were provided for guests to decorate and fill out with new mom advice and were then used for a rousing game of Pin the Squirrel on the Tree. I somehow managed to forget to photograph the Tree for this game, but it can be seen on the wall behind the happy couple in the photo below.

The gift table was decorated with old window frames I pulled from a house I lived in during my brief residency in Georgia. At one point the house had been the town's funeral home.

PS The abstract woodland wrapping paper here was purchased from Ikea.

I've already planned Rowan's first birthday (yes, I know, it isn't until March) and because it will be a woodland/gnome theme I'll be able to re-use much of this yet again.