Hi everyone! I’m super excited about today’s post. I started writing it and it ended up being waaaay long and didn’t even have everything I wanted to include so I’ve decided to break it up into a few different posts. You know I’m all about easy entertaining that makes your everyday moments feel more special. But, there are also times when you just have to throw a full on party! And this is one of ‘em. A couple years ago our very best friends in San Francisco were getting married and I wanted to do something fun for it. Since their family was back on the East Coast I thought it would be nice to throw them a wedding shower so they could celebrate with all their friends in SF. Today I’m going to tell you about the preparation that went into it.

Wedding Shower Ideas for Couples: The Preparation

The dear friends who threw my wedding shower sat down with me well beforehand and we brainstormed a guest list, they asked me about my favorite colors and other useful details. So, I followed their lead and did the same thing with our friends. We all got together nailed down a date, figured out who to invite, and decided on a color scheme. After we met I thought of the things I needed to do and then worked backwards from the date of the party to figure out when exactly to do it all. I made sure to send the invitations out about 8 weeks before, which meant I had to start working on them several weeks before that because I wanted to DIY them. I printed them on white card stock and then painted over them to get that brushstroke affect. I spent some time practicing on some regular paper first to get the strokes and the transparency of the paint just right. They ended up looking really special and I didn’t have to spend the money to get them printed by a professional. Win win! The guest list could have been a little tricky because our studio apartment was SO. SMALL. But, we just decided not to care and go for it. I didn’t want to be hindered by it so I decided I would be very Tim Gunn about it and make it work no matter what. I’ve come to realize that if you embrace what you’re working with other people do too. I couldn’t believe how impressed everyone was with the set-up. Even when we were all in the same room as our bed. Haha! But, I think it’s because we acted like it was totally normal (which it was for us).

The Best Tip for a Big Party

After I decided all the logistics would work I moved on to figuring out the food, which I’m going over in a couple weeks. Once that was done I made a timeline for the day so we could make sure we got everything cooked and prepped in time. And that was a huge help! We do it for any parties or holidays we host where we know we’ll be cooking a lot of food. If you make it realistic then on the day of it serves a few purposes. 1. It keeps you on track. 2. It’s a reminder you that you can get everything done - even though it pretty much always feels like a scramble. And 3. it helps you see if you’re getting behind on something and how to best remedy it. I highly recommend trying this for your next party. And when you do be sure to include everything, like when you’re going to shower or what time you’ll tidy up after the mad dash.

There were a few other things I did in the weeks leading up to the party. I worked on decorations a little here and there so it wasn’t too overwhelming. I pulled out all my dishes out and arranged them on the kitchen table the way I would for the party and I marked what would go in each one, this way I didn’t have to think about it when I had so many other things going on. And I knew if I needed to get anything else like that donut holder we ended up making to add height to the table.

Read the other posts in this series here: 

Food Ideas for a Couples Wedding Shower
Decoration Ideas for a Couples Wedding Shower

And don't forget to pin this and save it for your next wedding shower for couples