I’ve always been enamored with entertaining. Even from a young age, the idea of rooms filled with people laughing, eating, or celebrating has been a romanticized vision in my mind and one that I thought longingly of often. Now that I’m old enough to truly start entertaining on my own, I took on my first opportunity in the form of a wedding shower.

The shower was for a couple we met while living here in San Francisco, but are actually from North Carolina (and Alabama) – small world, right? They’ve become our best friends here in city, and it’s been wonderful. The people are really what make a place feel like home and having such close friends here has been something we cherish. They are getting married in a couple weeks in North Carolina and because of the hassle of traveling back-and-forth and the gazillion other wedding things they have do while back home, they didn’t have a shower planned.

Though Xan and I got married in a very non-traditional way, we were lucky enough to have some very thoughtful people who hosted a couple of showers for us and it was a surprisingly special and sweet celebration. Because of the really wonderful experience we had with our showers, I wanted to share the same thing with Allison and Will.

I had so much fun planning all the little details while also trying to create a party that “felt” like them. When we were getting married, I was a bit anti-wedding, feeling like so many things in the industry are over-hyped, expensive, and many people feel pressured to plan a day that isn’t what they want. Often wedding showers can be very stuffy, so, I tried hard not to do things just because that’s what everyone does, but to plan something that felt young, fun, and unique to the couple.  

Allison works designing high-end wedding invitations and loves cards, paper, and well-thought out details. Luckily, I love those things too and was super excited to incorporate some knowing they wouldn’t be lost on her! For the decorations I kept that in mind, while also wanting to choose something made a big statement without a ton of work. The paper garlands I made fit the bill perfectly! Those paired with the laser-cut sign of their names and the fresh flowers around the apartment made for subtle, but special décor. Because Will has great taste in music we used that as a base to create a playlist that kept a nice buzz to the day. I find music to be essential component to a good party and is a must in my book!

Both being from the south we used a slight southern theme as a guide for the food we made. Everything was bite-sized including BLTs with Duke’s mayonnaise, chicken and waffles, buttermilk biscuits with jam, tater-tots with candied bacon, and a minted honey watermelon salad. A few side items like asparagus with a Dijon dill cream sauce for dipping, pastries from our delicious neighborhood French bakery, and some good old fashioned donut holes rounded out the menu. We served it all with mimosas and a variety of light beers (it being a Sunday morning and all).

We were a bit nervous about how the day would go because we were living in a tiny studio apartment at the time. Having a party with 10 guests seemed like it could be a terrible idea, but fortunately it turned out really well. We moved some of the furniture around to open-up the living room even more and everyone fit perfectly. Whew! And frankly, I would encourage anyone who thinks their apartment/space is too “whatever” (small, not decorated enough, etc.) to go for it anyway. If entertaining is something you love to do and aren’t afraid to think outside the box a bit, nothing should stop you from having a wonderful party!