bridal shower – Jo McVey Photography

My Bridal Shower

As many of you know, Steve’s and my wedding was here in Tennessee, which means that almost our entire guest list either had to fly or drive really far to get here. That being said, I knew I wanted everyone to be able to participate in my bridal shower as well, so I had Elizabeth plan it for the Thursday evening before the wedding so that most people coming from out of town would already be here. It worked out wonderfully. Almost everyone (except a few people who were coming in late Thursday night or Friday) was able to attend.

We had a wonderful turnout, and I think between 20-25 ladies showered me with love.

Luckily we had enough chairs for everyone to sit down. That was one of our main concerns….but we were able to bring in some chairs from our kitchen table and place them against the walls and such to make more seating.

My mom gave a wonderful devotional about being a great wife and loving and respecting your husband.

Love my mom!

Then it was time for presents!! (Side note: See that “s M j” on the mantle? I painted that for the wedding and then forgot to set it out on one of the display tables. Oh well, it still looks cute in my house)

Yay! My cupcake carrier!! Now I have more of an excuse to make delicious cupcakes because I’ll have a method of transportation to bring them to other peoples houses so they don’t end up in my belly!

I got many other wonderful gifts, like this beautiful wedding photo album. But I won’t bore you with all the present opening pictures. It might get kinda redundant.

My friend (and former next door neighbor) Connie came with her bouncing baby girl, Camryn.

What a beautiful baby girl! And look at those deep blue eyes!!

Well you can forget what I said about the present opening pictures. I just remembered that my good camera battery died half way through, and my friend and bridesmaid, Tiffany, got my other point and shoot camera and finished taking pictures. So I guess you’ll just have to deal with more present pictures! 🙂 Connie made this beautiful card for me. It has cut outs of our wedding invitation and the picture we sent with our invitations. Very creative!

I just like this picture because I look really tan. 🙂 Those days at the tanning salon really paid off! No bride wants to blend into her wedding dress, and I most definitely would if I didn’t have a little help from some artificial sun. Yes, I faked and baked and I’m not ashamed!!!

And this is the face I made when I opened Elizabeth’s gift. A camera bag!!! Up until this point, every time I wanted to take my camera somewhere I’ve had to just carry it in my hands or try not to ruin it by carrying it in my purse. This was a much needed and appreciated gift.

And to top it all off, she had it embroidered with my Southern Daisy logo. Amazing!

What’s a bridal shower without some kitchen towels and oven mits?!

Steve’s mom, Toli, gave us some cute kitchen towels and oven mits with puppy dogs on them.

This is when I realized that this gift from Cheryl McAdams wasn’t just a pretty picture frame, but that it was pictures of buildings and architecture that actually spelled out my new last name, McVey!! What an amazing and unique gift! It is now hanging above our pantry.

Elizabeth was there to help me write down all my gifts so that I wouldn’t forget a single thank you card.

It was a wonderful shower, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Elizabeth did a great job planning it, and my mom was wonderful in helping her out and making some of the food. Oh man, I just realized that we didn’t get any pictures of Elizabeth’s beautiful cake that she made, but just know that it was a gorgeous strawberry cake with white sides and a beautiful pink flowered top. And we can’t forget that delicious punch!

Bridal Shower Sugar Cookies

I was a little naughty last week. My Aunt Sally sent our wedding gift a couple months ago, and I’ve had it sitting in my sewing room unopened, because after all, it’s bad etiquette to open wedding presents early! However, a few days ago I was updating my bridal registry and noticed that one item had been purchased. And when I saw what it was my heart started to pitter patter.

I brought the box downstairs and set it on our kitchen counter. To open or not to open…..that was the question.

Surely taking it out of it’s cardboard prison would be acceptable. And to leave it in there would be an injustice!

Oh man! I know I need what’s in this box desperately! It would make the next few days so much less stressful, and make my baking for the bridal shower so much faster! Have you guessed what it is yet?

I’m seeing some pink!

Oh my goodness! I’m starting to get excited!

It’s my pink Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer!!!!!!!! I’m very sorry for opening your generous gift early, Aunt Sally. I thought if you knew how much I needed it this past week you’d understand. At least my wedding is less than 3 months away! 🙂

And I LOVE IT!!!! Mixing is a breeze! If you don’t have a stand mixer, I HIGHLY recommend getting one! Now, onto the cookies.

Start by putting 2 sticks of cold butter and 1 cup of sugar into your mixing bowl.

Cream together using the paddle attachment.

Next add an egg, 3/4 tsp of vanilla extract, and 1/2 tsp of almond extract to the butter and sugar.

Mix until combined.

Next, add 3 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour and 2 tsp of baking powder. You might not want to add all the flour at once. Try adding it a cup at a time, and start mixing on a low speed, or else you’ll have flour all over your face and your kitchen.

Mix until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. I didn’t take pictures while rolling out the dough and cutting out the shapes. For one, I had flour all over my hands, and the main reason is……I forgot.

So just know that you need to roll out your dough on a floured, flat surface with a floured rolling pin. Dip your cookie cutters in some flour before you press them into the dough.

Place your cut out cookie dough on some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.

Next it’s time to make the royal icing. Clean your mixing bowl and add 4 Tbsp of meringue powder and 1 scant cup of water.

A scant cup means not quite 1 cup.

Beat meringue powder and water until nice and foamy.

Add 1 lb. (about 4 cups) of sifted powdered sugar to the bowl. Beat on low until combined.

Add 1/2 – 1 tsp of light corn syrup. Try not to notice my lovely chipping nail polish. Oh man, I just directed your attention to it, didn’t I?

Beat the icing on medium-high for about 5 minutes, or until a stiff peak forms. This is not quite stiff enough.

This is perfect! The peak should stand straight up even if you wiggle it around.

Transfer icing to bowls where you’ll add the coloring, and cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic is touching the icing. Royal icing dries really quickly so you need to make sure no air comes in contact with the icing if you’re not working with it right away.

Add some coloring with a toothpick or knife. There are several different gel colorings out there. I use Wilton brand since it’s what I have on hand.

Mix all the colors you’ll need and cover the ones you’re not using with plastic wrap.

Transfer the icing to piping bags filled about half way. Place the bags in a cup with a wet paper towel at the bottom. This will ensure that your icing doesn’t dry up at the tip when you’re not using it. Place plastic wrap over the remaining icing in your bowls.

Start outlining your cookies using a #2 tip. You’ll want to outline them in the same colors that you’ll be filling them in with.

When you’re done piping, take your remaining icing in the bowls and add water 1 tbsp at a time until it has the consistency of syrup. Place a wet paper towel over the bowls and let sit for 10 minutes to allow the air bubbles to come to the surface.

Stir the icing gently with a spatula or knife to pop all the bubbles.

Pour into a squeeze bottle.

Now you have both piping and flooding consistency icing.

After letting the piping dry for about an hour, flood the cookies with the thinned icing. You can use a toothpick to spread the icing into all the corners.

Let the cookies dry overnight, and then you can pipe on the decorative details. If you’re in a hurry, you can let the cookies dry for a couple hours and then decorate them, but since I had applied the flooding icing pretty late at night I decided to let them dry overnight.

Use the piping icing you had in your bags from before (just put the whole cup with the piping bags in the fridge until you’re ready to use them).

Above all, remember to use your creativity and have fun! This cookie and royal icing recipe can be found on Bake at 350.

Elizabeth’s Bridal Shower

So the reason I have neglected my beloved blog this past week is because I’ve been super busy preparing for Elizabeth’s bridal shower. This was the first shower I had ever hosted, and I wanted it to be perfect! I spent 3 days making and decorating sugar cookies, cleaning, and baking cakes and cake pops. And let me tell you, cleaning up after 2 Saint Bernards and 3 cats is no easy task. The cats are actually pretty easy to clean up after. They just leave cat hair that can easily be wiped or vacuumed up. The dogs, however, manage to fling their drool all over the house, including the walls, ceiling, floor, couch, doors, windows, counter, bed…..I think you get the point. But let me tell you, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are AMAZING!!! I don’t know how they do it, but they get even the toughest drool spots clean. I think I’m going to need to buy them in bulk.

I set up the tables and chairs in our living room, which fortunately, after almost a year of living here, we still haven’t put any furniture in. So set up was easy since I didn’t have to move any furniture out to make room for the tables.

We had exactly enough chairs for everyone, which was incredible since I only got a few RSVPs. Having enough places for people to sit was one of my main stresses before the shower.

Here’s the food table. Fortunately the other 2 bridesmaids were wonderful enough to bring the food dishes, and I only had to worry about the dessert. That took so much stress off me. So thank you Jen and Krista!

Elizabeth and I went to Kroger about an hour before the shower was supposed to start and bought some flowers to put on the tables. And instead of buying perfectly fresh roses for $20, I found some that were a couple days old on sale for $4.99 and $7.99. I also bought some candles and put them in gift bags for each lady to take home with them.

Here everyone is hanging out in the kitchen before we ate lunch.

Elizabeth sneaking a cookie before lunch. 🙂

Here’s the view from our cat walk above the living room.

Wedding themed sugar cookies that I made.

The dessert section! Strawberry cake, cake pops, and sugar cookies.

Here’s what the inside of the cake looked like. I added a white cake layer in between the 2 strawberry layers just to make things interesting.

Such a pretty lady. She’s going to make a beautiful bride!

We started by eating the lovely lunch that Jen and Krista (seated) provided.

Elizabeth is telling a story, that I can’t remember…..

But I remember that it was funny, because Jenni and Cheryl are laughing.

Then we played a game where I asked questions about Elizabeth and Rustin and whoever got the most answers right got a prize.

Then we played a game where each team wrapped a girl (Elizabeth and Rustin’s little sister, Sam) in toilet paper. And whoever looked the most like a bride won a prize.

It was a close one, but Sam ended up winning.

Elizabeth enjoyed the cake pops. 🙂

Present time!!!

This bag had a TON of tissue paper in it, so luckily when she tossed it in the air I had my camera pointed right at her and captured the moment. 🙂

This was a hilarious moment! This gift was from Lindsey, who apparently didn’t have many greeting cards at home….

So she gave Elizabeth a “thank you” card…..

…and wrote “Thank you for getting married and inviting me to your shower.” She said the only other card she had was a sympathy card. We were cracking up so much we needed lotion. Bahaha!!! I know, I should have been a comedian.

She loved her new Keurig coffee maker! It’s great! I have one!

Cheryl, our Sunday School teacher’s wife and the leader of our weekly Bible study gave a wonderful devotional on how to be a godly wife.

Afterward, she gave Elizabeth this beautiful painting she did titled “The Art of Marriage” listing all her talking points from the devotional. What a wonderful gift!