Wedding Recap: Bridal Luncheon

Thank you for all of your comments on my "funky" post. I'm feeling a lot better now and back in the game! I'm going to recap the bridal luncheon with you now because not only have I been dying to share this event with you, but I also really want to share some wedding pictures with you!!

Where can I even start with the recapping of this luncheon?! It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Let me start by saying that our hostess, Mrs. Frederick (a good friend of my mother’s and the wife of one of my dad’s partners) did SUCH an amazing job on this luncheon. With a little creative help from my mom, they put together the most beautiful and perfect afternoon lunch that a bride could ask for – everything from the place settings to the decorations was picture perfect.

I guess I’ll start with the details. My mom (and now all of her friends) know that I am a pink girl through and through and pink and green is my all time favorite color combination. Mrs. Frederick and my mom certainly brought this color scheme to life with all of the amazing details.

The luncheon was hosted in Mrs. Frederick’s home nearby to my parent’s home, actually! When we all arrived we were greeted by our lovely hostess of course and with servers handing out glasses and pouring pink champagne. The room was bright and cheerful with round white tables and chairs set up in the living room and in the dining room.

Each table was set with crisp white linens and rolled white napkins. The place settings included an absolutely beautiful pale pink frosted “dress” cookie with each woman’s first initial piped in white frosting. The “dress” cookies were even accented with little edible pearls around the neck as a pearl necklace! The cookies were wrapped in cellophane bags and tied with a pretty pink satin ribbon. At the head of each place setting was a bright pink favor box labeled with each woman’s name in calligraphy and filled with beautiful pastel Jordan almonds again tied up with pink satin ribbon. Finally, each woman’s setting had a water glass with lemon and a champagne flute. On the stem of each champagne flute was a little “tag” with each woman’s name in calligraphy. The tag was actually held in place by one oversized pearl and a smaller pearl and accented with pink and green grosgrain ribbon! In addition, each table had a BEAUTIFUL pink and green floral centerpiece to complete the look. I was absolutely SHOCKED with how amazing the room looked – I felt and still feel so blessed to have women in my life that would go to such lengths to put together such a beautiful event in my honor. I wish I could be back in that moment now! :)

After arriving at the luncheon and starting to sip on my pink champagne it was time to dine! Mrs. Frederick’s kitchen was set up with the most beautiful spread of luncheon items including a delicious spinach salad with goat cheese, blueberries, strawberries and almonds, a fabulous shrimp and pasta salad, mouth watering panzanella, a fabulous brie in puff pastry with apricot marmalade, and of course a beautiful fruit display. After the breakfast and then the luncheon my mom could stop worrying about whether or not my dress would be too big! ;)

Now let’s talk about the AMAZING cake for just one second…I actually found this cake design MANY, many months ago and absolutely fell in love with it! I wanted to find a way to somehow honor my beautiful bridesmaids and attendants and thought this would be a cute way to do it! I wanted our baker to pipe each of my bridesmaids and attendants names (and mine too!) on the top of the cake and then of course accent it with pinks! I passed this info along to my mom who ended up making the final decisions about color (I wasn’t sure if pink was involved with the luncheon or not), but our baker (the same as for our wedding cake) knocked this cake out of the ball park! It was SO beautiful and more amazing than I could’ve imagined. Seriously, is this not the prettiest cake ever?! I was SO impressed with this cake and I couldn’t wait to see what he would do with our wedding cake!

So after chatting and enjoying the FABULOUS lunch we all gathered in the living room so that I could pass out the gifts and so that the servers could cut up the beautiful cake for our enjoyment. I gave a VERY brief little speech to my ladies – **I had already done myself in with the crying at the bridal shower so I figured short and sweet would keep me from getting emotional**. Then I handed out the gifts for my girls – I ended up going with the monogrammed robe and slipper idea – petal pink for my girls (with white monograms) and white for me (with a pink monogram!). I also gifted them slate pearl dangly earrings to wear on the day of and to keep in their jewelry collection – my mom did all of the monogramming herself (she’s SO crafty) and she also made these ADORABLE bags for the bridesmaid’s earrings – seriously people, my mom is gifted! For my two lovely attendants I gifted them brightly colored pashmina’s with their monograms in a contrasting color.