So. Many. Showers.

I've helped plan/decorate/host five (basically six) showers in the past four months...if that doesn't make me an expert, I don't know what does.

And I'd say that it qualifies as blogworthy. LONG blogworthy, to be more accurate.

Shower #2 was a baby shower held for my friend and Connection Group leader Carley. My friend Jessie planned for the food and I cleaned my house from top to bottom. An arrangement I was really okay with, if you know me and understand my strengths.

Colors: Baby blue, kelly green, yellow, red, brown
Food: Yogurt bar, muffins, juice, coffee
Committee: Mollie, Jessie, Haley
Decorating Expense: $0
Attendance: 15-17?

The shower was at 9:30, so a yogurt bar was a perfect idea (props Jessie). It was easy and fairly inexpensive. We met a couple days before the shower to do some minimal crafting, which included cutting and tying some fabric scraps to twine and hanging the garlands all around my house. The banner hanging behind where Carley sat and opened gifts read, 'Baby Hoben' since Beckett's name was still up in the air at this point. :) We added a cute chalkboard at the entrance and ta-da! Shower prep completed in less than an hour!

Shower #3/4 might have been my favorite, but I'm slightly biased. The most heart/work/effort was put into making this bridal shower for my future sister-in-law, Hannah, Pinterest-worthy and adorable. My sister-in-law, Jillynn and I started planning our theme and menu a couple months before this shower took place and the key to it's success was delegating. We assigned some different things to both Patti and Hannah's mom...aaaand I might have also had my mom make some lemon bars. Moms are the best.

Colors: Navy/coral, spring colors
Food: Cupcakes, veggie cups, fruit cups, pinwheels, lemon bars, raspberry crumble bars, Crystal Light, coffee
Committee: Mollie, Jillynn, moms
Decorating Expense: $0
Attendance: 17-19?

The shower was held at 2:00 in the afternoon so we went for light snacks since we weren't feeding people an actual meal. I borrowed some engagement pictures from Hannah's mom, put them in frames and hung them all over my house. Thank you Pinterest for the idea of the century: Scrabble letters as decoration. I usually like to keep an extra invitation to set out somewhere at the shower too. We stuck to a rustic theme with old windows, Mason jars, burlap, and added some spring colors. The paper flower garland that hung behind where Hannah sat and opened gifts was made by Patti...all I know is that it looked adorable and she used a lot of scrapbook paper, hot glue, twine and determination. :)

And see that wedding dress made out of cupcakes? EASIEST THING EVER. Step one: Make (or order from Scratch!) 30-ish cupcakes. Step 2: Pull Pinterest up on your iPad. Step 3: Copy the picture. DONE.

There were so many Nathan-Hannah pictures around our house that Josh and I felt
like we were living in their house for the few days I had everything up before the shower. :)

Bridesmaids before the shower!

This shower came in two parts. The first was a personal shower held at my house, and the second part was a 'Bachelorette Night' held in Des Moines at Jillynn's house. Remember that silly invite tutorial? Here's the pin-up theme we were going for:

Totally adorable, right? Bachelorette, but also classy. I just printed these pictures off of Pinterest and we used a banner Jill had from a one of her kids' birthday parties. We were actually pretty impressed with ourselves. The evening included dinner out to Fire Creek Grill; coffee and games at Smokey Row; and wine, games, and Frozen back at Jill's house.

Shower # 5 was a bridal shower held at my home church for my dear friend, and Boersma Lawn Care's newest employee, Ben (and his bride-to-be :). I absolutely LOVE being part of shower committee's with the ladies from Faith and this shower was no exception. Besides the decorating, it's fun to spend a morning holding babies and visiting with everyone.

Colors: Terra cotta, turquoise, rustic
Food: Egg bake, muffins, fresh fruit, cinnamon bread, juice, coffee
Committee: 15-ish ladies?
Decorating Expense: No idea. All I know is I un-decorated my house and hauled it to church.
Attendance: 50-60?

Ben's aunts did a terrific job of putting this shower on. I just lent my decorating advice and some of my Mason jars to the effort. And also everything I could find that had the letter 'B' since Boersma and Butcher have that in common. :) Terra cotta pots with succulents planted inside were centerpieces that doubled as gifts for the bride, mom's, and g'mas to take home after the shower. The 'guest book' was a metal container everyone signed (above right picture) that can be used for storage or decor in the couple's future home.

Once again these chalkboards made an appearance, along with silk hydrangeas, burlap, Scrabble letters, seed packets, and all the old windows I use to decorate at our house. I was at a cheer conference on Friday night before the shower when all this set-up happened, but I was so proud of my little decorators when I kept getting texted pictures of the progress. :)

With the groom!

Shower #6 was a bridal shower held for my friend Susan and it pushed me to my decorating limits. When Susan's Maid of Honor, Kara, emailed and said she wanted to do an 'outdoor/camping theme for our girl' I was at a loss. It's not a typical bridal shower theme, but it turned out to be pretty adorable. :) This is what we pulled together:

Colors: Red, brown, plaid
Food: Fruit cups, veggies and dip, chickens salad sandwiches/croissants, chips s'mores, pink lemonade, coffee
Committee: Kara, Mollie, Jessie, Christy + CG girls
Decorating Expense: $0
Attendance: 20-22?

I went through our closet and grabbed every plaid flannel Josh owned, then sprinkled them around the house. I used flannel fabric I had on hand for the food table and brought up some Christmas trees and pine cones from the basement. Again, it was super easy to print some Landon-Susan pics and add their faces all over our house. Plus I used flannel scraps from cutting apart old flannel shirts and made more twine/scrap garlands (not pictured). I draped flannel blankets and old quilts across the backs of all the furniture, changed the pillow cases from spring back to Christmas/flannel, and sat Susan on a plaid picnic blanket and a vintage camping chair to open her gifts.

Of course an adorable chalkboard was also necessary.

CG girls with our favorite bride! 

I feel like quite a few people have been asking me about all the shower hosting I've been up to this spring, so I thought this would be an easy way to explain everything. I hope you enjoyed the little details and extra touches in case you're ever a friend/sister/maid-of-honor and are having trouble coming up with ideas. :)

MmB