Preparing for Irene's Bridal Shower

It took countless nights of brainstorming, planning, discussing, (a little disagreeing), online shopping, budgeting, and even sketching ideas in order for my little sister Frances and I to style and create Irene’s Chanel-inspired Bridal Shower.

Frenchee and I planned and syled the shower over several months

One thing was for sure: Irene needed to have a shower as classy and fabulous as she is!

Irenee Weenie

So, we decided we wanted to have it in a pretty backyard and we thought Irene’s godmother, our lovely aunt Ofelia, had the perfect setting in her home.

Arranging the buffet setting at Tia Ofe's backyard

Next, we knew we needed to stick to black and white colors (Chanel) and keep things simple yet full of gold and silver vintage details.

We wanted to make it elegant so we asked the guests to wear a little black dress in honor of Chanel’s signature contribution to the fashion world. And we wanted it to be a brunch in order to serve such items as French toast, Croissant Sandwiches, Quiche, Mimosas and pastries, among other things (Thank you mom and dad for always making things happen for your daughters).

My parents prepared the food!

The bottom line is, this task could have never been done without crucial the help of our parents and wonderful aunts.

Tia Laura and Cousin Nena helping at 7:00 am!

Let’s see, where should I begin? In my mind, I knew Frances and I had to be creative. She came up with the brilliant idea of necklace centerpieces. We thought champagne would serve as a perfect shower favor so we purchased mini champagne bottles and printed labels with one of Chanel’s famous quotes: “I only drink champagne on two occasions: When I’m in love and when I’m not”. How appropriate, right?

We gave ourselves plenty of little projects that could only be done late at night after my workout, after dinner and after putting Benny to sleep. Take this little canvas board, for example. I purchased the frame at Ross for $4.99 and bought tons of buttons at Joann’s Fabrics. Then I sewed on the buttons (which I thought appropriate for a haute couture themed party) and attached three pictures of Irene along the center of the frame. This took me several nights to complete but once it was done, it served as a neat little background frame for the dessert table.

We thought it would be fitting to place pictures of Irene around the garden since she’s always so stylishly dressed. We also felt the need to pretty much clear our home of candle holders, frames, candles and fixtures to decorate the garden with style.

Frances purchased several black and white umbrellas which were placed around the garden to give it a “shower” background and I purchased an 8’x8’ backdrop for ladies to take pictures using gloves, hats and other head pieces. I should mention, my father and uncle Mike were in charge of figuring out a way to make the backdrop stand upright… and they sure did!

The men at work early in the morning

With Benny in front of the photo backdrop!

Tomorrow, I'll share how the shower actually turned out. I was so afraid the chilly autumn Oxnard weather would ruin the moment but it turned out to be quite sunny!