Travel-Themed Bridal Shower

After a fantastic bachelorette party in Puerto Rico planned by my amazing friends, it was time for the bridal shower. Two things I knew that I wanted was for it to be travel-themed and in Baltimore County, so parking would be easier as guests would be coming from all over.

After a lot of emails back and forth with various restaurants and tasting some of the food during a visit, we settled on The Grille at Harryman House in Reisterstown. The restaurant had a great private room perfect for our group size and the event planner, Vanessa, was very easy to coordinate with.

Next up was sending out the invites. I wanted the invite to reflect the things I love since the shower, unlike the wedding, is supposed to be focused on showering the bride-to-be with love. With Justin's help, we came up with an idea of having a digital image of me on a yacht (because I love boats) with a big hat, rosé, and a charcuterie board. Wanting to support local businesses and people, I found a woman on a neighborhood group who created the invite for me. Everyone was amazed at the close resemblance of the image to me.

After the invite, my mom and I started thinking decor. Knowing we were not very creative, we decided to call in the experts. Once again, through the same neighborhood group, I found Heidi (with Anchor and Lace) who was instrumental in bringing my travel-themed ideas to life. She was the perfect person for this job -- she coordinated all of the decor (including the flowers from Little House of Flowers) and found my other new favorite person -- Candice of Signed in Pink Events.

Candice created a big backdrop sign for photos, a welcome sign, and designed all the tables with travel-themed center pieces. She really listened to our story and included very cool personal touches. She also set everything up and took everything down after the party. Alison from Anchor and Lace also assisted with the set up. All three of these women are amazing to work with and super quick to respond to any questions.

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After finding the right planners for all of the decor, we needed a cake. Looking through Instagram, I came up with the idea of a globe cake. I called around to many cake makers and very few would make what I wanted. Luckily, someone suggested Orysia's Sweet Creations. The cake was three different flavors and was one of the coolest cakes I have ever seen in real life. I was amazed at the work of art and very sad when we had to cut into it. Each layer was as delicious as it was pretty.

For favors, one of my best friends made adorable little suitcase boxes and stuffed them with macaroons. These favors went really well with the theme of the day.

For the menu (which the restaurant customized for us), we selected the crab dip and the pretzel bites to start. Both were delicious. Then every woman had the choice of her starter (Cobb Salad, Beet Salad, or Cauliflower Popcorn) and an entreé (Grilled Salmon BLT, Smashburger, and Black Truffle Pasta). The winners of the day were the cauliflower popcorn and the pasta.

Ross of the Lewin Creative Group took awesome photos of the event -- both candid and posed that will let me relive the amazing day over and over.

I would highly recommend using all of these vendors and the space for any bridal shower.

Thank you to all my wonderful family and friends for attending (some from very far away). Thank you to my groom-to-be for playing along with the games, helping plan, and hanging out in a room full of women. Thank you to all of the people who made this event such an amazing memory. Most importantly, thank you to my mom, my dad, and Jess S. for all of their help.

Click here for all of the pictures.