Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Our Italian Themed Bridal Shower

In preparation for my brother in law's upcoming wedding, this wweekend we threw his beautiful bride-to-be a bridal shower with an Italian theme to honour her heritage. Here is a summary of what we did:

Our Italian Inspired Bridal Shower

Décor
Red and white checkered tablecloths with small potted herbs as centerpieces. Great background music includes: Il Divo

Menu
Serve up a traditional Italian feast with a variety of pastas, variety of sauces (white, red, marinara), fresh Parmesan Cheese, antipasto salad, garlic bread and tiramisu and gelato desserts, iced tea and a good Chianti.

Top off the bridal shower with a homemade cookie buffet of cannoli, pizzelles, Mostaccioli, Pignoli, tiramisu, biscotti, and amaretti cookies.

Games

Door Prize
When the guests first arrive have them fill out a piece of paper with their wedding date or, if they are single, their birthday. The person with the date closest to the bride's wedding date wins the prize.

Name the Pasta
Created 10 bags with each bag holding a different variety of pasta. Number each bag from 1-10. Whoever guesses the most correct names win.

Trivia about the bride
Guests had to complete 10 trivia questions on the bride-to-be. The person with the most correct answers wins a prize.

Guessing Game
We played this game during our lunch. We filled a large glass jar with uncooked pasta. Have each guest guess how many pieces are in each jar. The person who guesses the closest to the true number of items in each jar gets to takes the goodies home and the fabulous recipe attached to it (or an Italian cookbook).

Read his Mind

Then we tested the bride-to-be on how well she knew her fiancé by asking her the following 12 questions.
1. What is his favorite pizza topping?
2. Where did you go on your first date?
3. What is his favorite drink?
4. If he could star in any tv show, which tv show would he pick?
5. If Steve were spending an evening at home, what would he most likely be doing?
6. What is the first movie you saw together?
7. If Steve were a superhero, who would he be?
8. What animal would Steve compare you to?
9. What is his grandmother’s names?
10. What was Steve’s first job?
11. How many clocks are in Steve’s room?
12. Name one thing Steve own’s that you will throw out the first chance you get?
13. Name one activity your fiancé does with you ONLY because he loves you?

We asked all the guests to write on a piece of paper a number from 1-12 to represent how many questions the bride-to-be would get right. The bride-to-be’s answers would have to match the pre-recorded answers from her fiancé, that we played off a host laptop. Her punishment for wrong answers was based on her own personal vice… red wine. We made red wine jello shots instead of the hard liquor variety for her to spoon out every time she got a question wrong. For all our guests who didn’t guess correctly how many the bride-to-be would get correct, also had to take a jello shot

Roll the Cannelloni
You need a pair of pantyhose, an orange and a cannelloni. Put a cannelloni on the floor and an orange in one leg of the pantyhose. Tie the other leg (of the pantyhose) around your waist. The object is for you to swing your hips and hit the cannelloni (that you placed on the floor) across a designated area in the best time. You could also have 2 teams and have a relay.

Who Wears the Pants
The groom joined us before we began to open gifts and included him in our next game. Give each of the future bride and groom a roll of toilet paper. The first to completely unroll the toilet paper "Will be the One Who Wears The Pants in the Marriage". Everyone was laughing so hard and routing them on. It goes quickly once they figure out how to unravel it the fastest.

Prizes
Prizes included pasta bowls, wooden spoons, cheese shakers, gourmet olive oils, glass containers filled with pasta, red and white checkered place mats & napkins, Italian cookbooks and the Godfather movies on DVD.

Favors
Departing guests went away with delicious chocolate and white chocolate dipped biscotti cookies packaged in pretty bags tied with red and green ribbon with a tag that read “Amore Dolce: A love so sweet” Other sayings could be: “Sweet Beginnings!” or “How sweet it is that you could celebrate with us”

Guestbook
When guests arrived they participated in the door prize game and were also able to sign a Guestbook of photos of the bride-to-be and her fiancé. Alternatively, the guest book could be empty, have the guests sign it and then add pictures of the shower later on.

Kids Games and Activities

Cannelloni Bowling
Have the children colour their cannellonis and leave one white. Roll the white one into the centre of a room and take turns to see who can roll their cannelloni closest to the white one.

Cannelloni and Spoon Races
Cannelloni, a spoon and an area to run are all you need for this game. Variations could include relays and obstacle courses. To make it easy for younger kids, place the cannelloni lengthwise on their spoon or give them a smaller tubular pasta piece on their spoon. For the older kids place the cannelloni standing up on their spoon. If it tilts or falls over the kids have to start all over…

Find your Name Pasta
Write the name of each child on a cannelloni piece of pasta. The person that finds their own name wins a prize. Bigger pieces of pasta for small kids and smaller ones for the bigger kids.

Duck Walk Race
Have the kids line up at the Start Line, squat down and grasp their ankles with each hand from behind. On GO, they waddle to a designated Finish Line. They can't let go of their ankles or the are disqualified. The first child over the Finish Line wins a prize.

Dress Up Activity
The kids were asked to make with all the leftover pasta hats and necklaces for themselves and the bride-to-be. Once completed all the kids and the bride-to-be posed for photos.

Kids Prizes and Favors
Kids Prizes included: princess, Hannah Montana and Pirates of the Carribbean temporary tattoos. All kids left the day with animal-shaped collapsible tote bags filled with giant sidewalk chalk, that I found for $0.49 at a post-Easter sale.

I'll post pics soon but in the meantime enjoy!

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