Asian Themed Bridal Shower

 

the main food table

I wrote this post a few months ago, but was waiting to get some photos back from the bride and other bridesmaids. Since then, my wonderful friend has gotten married, gone on her honeymoon and celebrated a month of marriage! Even so, please enjoy this non-recipe post of how I threw an Asian-themed bridal shower.



In just over a month, my best friend of over 15 years is getting married! I, of course, am serving as her matron of honor and threw a bridal shower for her last weekend with the help of her future aunt-in-law Nancy. The shower was in Chicago, and Nancy was kind enough to supply her home and help with decorations, set up, food etc.

Nancy's lovely home set up for the shower!

Liesl and I became friends in part over the anime/manga Sailor Moon, so that was my base for the asian theme as well as  major influence on the color scheme. Liesl and Tom's relationship has some major basis in sushi (they ate it on their first date AND on the night they got engaged) so I wanted to bring it in as both a food and an activity. Liesl also LOVES tea, so I wanted to make sure that was present as well.

Food

The food table was full of more and less traditional Asian items. We had: pot stickers, fresh spring rolls, fruit salad, mochi cakes, and pink punch. On the wonderful kitchen island, we had a loose leaf tea station and sushi making.

potstickers served in soup spoon

I purchased frozen pot stickers and served them with a little homemade dumpling sauce in Asian soup spoons on a platter. I bought both the spoons and the pot stickers at an Asian market in Philadelphia. The spoons were $0.50 each! Much less expensive than most online retailors.

fresh spring rolls add a nice pop of color!

The fresh spring rolls, which I've made before for this site, are always a favorite. They are easy to make, colorful, and healthy.

Mochi cakes I purchased from the Asian food store as well. They are a rice dough with a sort of gelatinous filling. They come in a variety of fillings and flavors. These were not super popular, but Liesl likes them and she's the bride!

We also had a nice fruit salad of strawberries, pineapple, mango etc. This was to go more with the colors and because people like fruit.

loose leaf tea station

One of our activities was making sushi. We had a variety of veggies (cucumber, carrot, avocado, bell pepper) cut up and some nice sushi-grade salmon. Not everyone liked the sushi, but I think that everyone enjoyed making it!

Demonstrating how to cut the sushi... looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

Decorations

I made a pennant banner to go across the front of the food table in the pink and yellow with the letters TLC. This is Liesl and Tom's monogram as well as standing for Tender Loving Care which is sort of a cute coincidence.

Nancy and I purchased a bunch of paper lanterns. I found a couple that were pink with cats and she had a bunch in pink and yellow. Nancy also made some cute flower arrangements for the various tables. All the paper products/disposables came from Party City. They were easy because I could have them shipped directly from the website which was really nice for having the party at a distance for me.

On the food table, I also had a jar with the favors. These were chopsticks in a custom paper sleeve on which I'd stamped "thank you". I think they looked really cute!



Chopstick Favors in "Thank You" sleeve

Games

We played two games. During lunch, we had a "How Well Do You Know the Bride" game with 15 questions about Liesl ranging from her shoe size to where she and Tom went on their first date. I had Liesl fill out the answers in advance, and then once everyone had filled out their answers, she read hers off. I had prizes for the top two scores (prizes are important people!)



Games at each place setting. Stickers to mark the bingo cards.

In the invitations, there were instructions for the guests to send me what gift they were bringing for a Bridal Shower Bingo game. I made bingo cards with most of the gifts on them. As Liesl opened the gifts, people were able to mark off the items until they got Bingo! As a shower attendee, I know that watching the bride open a multitude of gifts is really boring and takes forever. Having the bingo game makes it a little bit more exciting. Plus, more prizes for bingo winners!

After the gifts, the shower wound down. We cleaned up and then headed out for the bachelorette :)





Beautiful bride to be, me looking awkward, and two other bridesmaids... behind me the lantern I walked into every time  I went near the food table.