bridal shower for Dawn

It has almost been a month since I helped throw a bridal shower for my amazing friend Dawn - I had so much fun doing it!  I was in charge of the shower decorations so of course I spent lots of hours "researching" on Pinterest... it was hard work. :)  But first a little about Dawn....
I met Dawn at MidAmerica Nazarene University where we both attended college.  We were roommates for two years and she was THE best roommate ever!  We had a lot of fun living together and she's been a great friend to me over the years.  Most of my college memories include Dawn and almost all of them make me laugh, those were some good times! And I get the honor to be one of her bridesmaids in her wedding this July!  So this bride-to-be is very important to me and here are some pictures and decor details...
Dawn's wedding colors are yellow, gray, and aqua, so I tried to stick to those while decorating.  First of course are the invitations... I used Photoshop to design them and then had them printed at Kinko's.  I probably would not go back to Kinko's again, just because I think it was not as easy as I had hoped and their printers don't print very accurately to the colors you see on your computer screen.  Next time I make invites, I'll probably just use a quality home printer versus going to anywhere like Kinko's. This picture of the invite is just one I took with my phone and you can't see the whole thing so it's not the best pic, but you get the idea.

One of the main pieces of decor I made was a banner to hang across the fireplace mantel.  I used a combination of scrapbook paper, some "fine decorative paper" as they call it from a place called Paper Source (different from scrapbook paper just because it comes in large sheets and it a higher quality), and paint chips.  The paint chips that I used were Martha Stewart samples from Lowe's.  I think they work the best for something like this because they are fairly big in size and each paint chip is just one color.  I varied the size of the paper on the banner and folded it over some plain white baker's twine.  I used rubber cement to glue the paper/paint chips together although I would maybe try something different if I did this again. I did end up having to use tape too on the back side of some of them to get them to stick, especially the paint chips because the paper is thicker.  I did not follow a pattern as far as colors and types of paper goes, I just randomly added whichever piece of paper I thought would look good next as I went along.  Here is a close up I took while trying it out on my own mantel when I was done making it...

The next thing I did was used some of the "fine decorative paper" from Paper Source, and I wrapped some old antique books with them.  I love using books to decorate anyway, so I thought it would be a good way to add the pretty colors and patterns of the paper around the room.  Here's a close up of a few of the books that had a yellow and aqua floral pattern, the plain yellow books are yellow books I happen to have:

Set up on Janae's mantel

And here's all of the mantel decor set up on Janae's mantel right before the shower:

Paper banner (made by me), Antique books wrapped in paper from Paper Source (done by me), Antique owls that I spray painted a high gloss white, manzania branches (from saveoncrafts.com)

And some fresh yellow spider mums were place around the room!

Another part of the decor was made by the bride's sister, Angela.  She was not able to make it to the shower because she lives in Texas, but she was so kind to contribute this amazing yarn ball garland! The note hanging from the garland were some things that Josh (Dawn's soon to be husband) had to say about Dawn and their relationship.  They were displayed around the room for everyone to read and "oooh" and "awww" at!

Then of course there was the amazing food that the other bridesmaid's did all the work for and it was so, so delicious!

Lemon bars made by Linsey!

Some of the shower guests...

Dawn opening some gifts...

Dawn trying on her "Future Mrs. Hankey" sash!

Bride-to-be and Mother-of-the-bride...

Dawn and I...

Excuse my sunburn... Janae and I had a little sun expsoure pre-shower. :)

A big thanks to Janae for offering her home for the shower!  I had such a great time preparing and being a part of the shower and I couldn't think of any better to do it for!