My wedding shower – or bridal shower if you will – was this past Saturday. It went perfectly, other than the fact that it flew by so fast I didn’t get a chance to speak with everyone individually as I wanted to.

In the majority of my wedding posts I talk about the planning process, questions to ask vendors, etc. I hope as I write about my wedding journey I can advise and occasionally amuse others along the way.

In the case of the shower, I had nothing to do with the planning and didn’t know where the location was until I was driven there. It was so wonderful to be out of the loop, to have one less thing to worry about.

Consequently, I don’t have a solid list of how to plan a shower, but I would like to share what was done for me – I’m sure great ideas can be sparked.

To start out with this, this was the cake, courtesy of my very talented future sister-in-law. I’m pretty sure all guests were shocked that she is not a cake person or baker by profession.

In honor of my bookworm-ness, my MOH created book centerpieces of antique looking books.

Side note: I will be rereading Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus before I get married, and you should too.

You’ll also notice a personally crafted bookmark of my fiance and me, “starting a new chapter in life.”

The rose below is made up of book pages.

A personalized menu:

Pictures of me, as a kid:

From the cake, with cute birds:

I just love the simple delicateness of baby’s breath.

It really goes to show how much a few tiny detail-oriented additions can make all the difference in the world.

What I’m holding here is a collection of all the bows and ribbons from the gifts, arranged just so on a paper plate, courtesy of one of my bridesmaids:

And, just a few personal photos. . .

Here I am cutting the amazing cake – it was red velvet inside!

My beautiful MOH, Jenny:

My biggest cheerleader in life, my mom:

And me with my bridesmaids, or as I like to call them, Team Erin:

Conversely,  when I was a maid of honor, I did things quite differently. I threw the shower at my own apartment, cooked all the food myself (I would not recommend that by the way – it was very hectic and in the crazyness I severely burned my arm) and had someone come and give everyone manicures. And did I mention it was pajama-themed?

There are lots of great themes for showers, or you can go traditional as my maid of honor did, reserving a cute room at a quaint location. Whatever you do, don’t forget to spice things up with some awesome personal touches.