Weddingbee Blog

This past weekend, I stuffed myself with way too much cheese, cupcakes, French macarons and short ribs. Before you think, ‘Why that’s just another Hamster weekend,’ (uh, I wish!) I must attribute all this gluttonous goodness to my awesome bridal shower! (I feel okay bragging about it since I didn’t plan it.)

My shower was hosted at Bar Artisanal, which is known for French brasserie fare, cheese, wine, cheese, and a knowledgeable fromagier. Oh, and cheese. As you can guess, Bar Artisanal, along with its sister restaurant Artisanal are among my favorite places to eat in the city. And the food at my shower didn’t disappoint - I’ll let you see for yourself:

From top to bottom, that’s:

Blood Orange with Fennel, Arugula and Olives; Organic beet Mache with Gribiche Dressing

Short Ribs with Parmesan Polenta and Glazed Vegetables; Eggs Benedict Artisanal

Cheese Course of Chabichou du Poitou, Primma Donna and Epoisse; Panna Cotta

My bridesmaids really went out of their way with details, details details! I’m a sucker for details, so I appreciated each and every one.

Decor included ginormous white balloons that required TWO balloon weights and tape to hold down, balloons that matched the Shower Invite colors, awesome hanging photo ribbons featuring pics of me and the mister, really cute signage and even ribbon-wrapped toilet paper for a shower game (more on that later). To add to the already abundant yumminess, we had cupcakes from my favorite place, Sugar Sweet Sunshine.

The shower included a rousing rendition of Toilet Paper Bride. For the uninitiated, guests are divided into teams and have 15 minutes and 4 rolls of toilet paper to create the ultimate wedding dress. My bridesmaids took it one step further, providing each team with a theme or “general vision” to execute. Let’s just say that it was hilarious to witness my mom trying to re-create Lady Gaga on my cousin.

One of my favorite details of the shower was the recipe box - a group effort among my guests. You might have heard of a cookbook of compiled recipes to start a new household off right. I would have appreciated the sentiment, but as a true-to-heart city gal, my recipe box was *much* more practical:

Awwwwesome - 20+ new restaurants and dishes to try! For a foodie like myself, this was quite possibly the best “recipe box” anyone could have put together for me.

For favors, we had white chocolate umbrella lollipops (for a “shower,” get it?) with brown ribbon personalized with my name, and super cute boxes holding what inside?

Why it’s my favorite dessert - the French macaron! There were some leftovers, so like a good Hamster, I had a cupcake for breakfast today and 4 macarons as “snacks.”

I was really fortunate to have a ton of my cousins attend:

as well as great friends:

and some of my aunts! (who, as can you tell by the look on my face, are a *hoot*):

All thanks to my lovely bridesmaids (plus a balloon standing in for my ’maid in California!)

Me with Mom Hamster and Sister Hamster/MOH Extraordinaire:

Overall, my shower was a truly fun experience, and a great opportunity to catch up with relatives and friends. The level of detail and effort that my bridesmaids had put into planning this was apparent, and they really executed flawlessly. Thank you so much, bridesmaids! You ladies rock!