My Surprise Bridal Shower {LATE POST}

Chocolate Cocktails (very yummy)

Hmmm...My surprise bridal shower was different shades of awesome, i'm truly blessed with the sweetest friends and i'm grateful to have them in my life.

You either throw yourself a bridal shower or your friends plan one for u; i have always been a part of the latter. I was kinda wary my friends would not be able to plan and execute a bridal shower for me 'cos i am always the planner and main player in all the surprise bridal showers we've held for our married friends. I've written about bridal showers and how best to plan them, as well as baby showers i have planned in the past and i know how they typically work, at least in Nigeria.

The typical surprise bridal shower starts with 2-3 close friends of the bride-to-be coming together some months before the wedding to decide on a date, venue, decor, activities and a budget for the shower as well as contacting the groom-to-be and letting him know their plans so he can help surprise the bride. After this they create a group usually on Whatsapp or BBM to invite other friends of the bride-to-be and update them on the plan so far, get more suggestions from them and inform them of the amount to be contributed per person and the account to pay into (of course na when e reach money matter people take off, act funny, etc. making money collection the most stressful/annoying part of the whole process).
I am always the one that kicks off this planning process and i know how stressful it can be (though i enjoy it) so u can imagine why i was nervous. Infact i thought i won't get to have a bridal shower! But ma gals came through for me *wide grin*

awon goons mi

My shower held on Sunday, 11th May 2014, the weekend before my wedding. Hubby-to-be was in charge of helping my different groups of friends link up, well the ones in Abuja anyway (my friends dnt all know each other. I have office friends, uni friends, etc.) and making sure i dressed up nice and arrived at the venue in time for my surprise. He did a good job.

My cake

Being the planning lover that i am, i asked Yoee to fill me in on the planning process and she told me how stressful and annoying it was (as i'd expected it'll be) but i enjoyed hearing every tidbit. There were those that contributed even though they could not make it to the shower(Mel who had just had her baby and Wyn who was in Lagos), i sent them thank you messages after the shower and pictures; those who argued on the agreed amount or paid late; those who went all out and made me gush. It was fun being the celebrant this time and hearing how the shower was put together. I even added an Excel sheet to my wedding budget of the whole planning process and those that contributed to making the shower a success. Don't mind me, i just like having this stuff documented so i can look back on it. Oya straight to the main shower gist.

Yoee told me they needed music for a get-together i think (can't really remember), so i needed to get my butt down dere with my laptop and playlist, she said she had discussed with hubby and he had agreed to bring me down. I guessed it might be my surprise bridal shower since that was the last day of the weekend before our wedding weekend. I sha dressed up and went with the flow, i randomly chose to wear a black and white gown and funny enough black was the color code for the shower. Hubby took me to Bolton White Apartments and as the door opened SURPRISE!!!! it was the sweetest thing, i was just grinning like a Cheshire cat, from ear to ear. They pulled me in and draped a bride-to-be sash over me and put a crown on my head. I really did feel special.

It held in a nice 2-bedroom apartment with a big living room, kitchen and balcony at our disposal, i loved the setup, decor and the cake(this is the EXACT cake i wanted, big ups to Yoee for catching my hints back then); It was so heart-warming seeing how much effort they put into everything. Yoee a.k.a Alcohol goddess brought the alcohol, Farida brought the small chops, pizza n soft drinks, Ejura brought cupcakes, Pauline was in charge of decor, Bola a.k.a Miss B was the MC and Joy was the Photographer/Videographer. I was the DJ still. lol.

enjoying my small chops

After hugging and thanking the gals, they finally got me seated on my 'throne', placed a tantalizing plate of small chops in my hands and things were set in motion by my able MC Miss B and her tiny voice. lol. The first game was 'How well do you know the bride-to-be?', everyone had a pen and paper and Miss B would ask them questions about me (my fave food, color, etc.) and they would write their answers down and the person with the highest no. of correct answers is the winner. This game was so funny 'cos they kept trying to ask me for expo or confirm if their answers were right while Miss B did her best to block my face so i wouldn't pay attention them. Chide won this game and the highlight was when Miss B read out some of the hilarious answers they had written, we all had a good laugh.

Yoee was having way too much fun torturing me

Next game was 'How well do you know your husband-to-be', i alone played this game, Miss B would ask me a question and i'd answer within 10 secs then she'd compare my answers to what Hubby-to-be had written for them. Yoee was on punishment duty, standing happily beside me as she was in charge of drowning me in alcohol for every question i answered wrong. This gehl eh!! she really wanted to drown me, even questions i answered correctly she'll say time was up and make me guzzle down *smh* luckily she only got to do that about 3 different times and that was how i discovered that i quite like Coffee Patron.

The process

Joy (on my left in the pic) won obviously. lol.

Next game was the 'Tissue wedding dress', the gals were divided into 2groups, they picked out their models and were asked to design an outfit on them using just tissue. It was too funny, i just sat down watching their 'creations' take form actually it was falling apart. I was to pick the winner and had to go with the model that managed to keep her tissue dress on. We all had a good laugh with this game.

The winning banana found a spot on the cake

Next game was 'Fastest fingers', the gals were all given bananas and a condom sachet, the fatest to get the condom on the banana properly is the winner. Oh my days, u had to be there!! i laughed so hard i fell off my seat when Miss B was inspecting the condom-wearing bananas. Ejura was the winner of this game. Some claimed their bananas needed a bigger condom (Magnum tins), some put it on backwards, some put a rip in it, some said the condom was to big for their bananas, some did not get it on all the way. It was too funny walahi!

Last game of the night 'Charades' had us rolling on the floor laughing while clutching our sides in pain with aching jaws. The gals were separated into 2 groups and each group would pick 1 person to be their representative; the representative would go to the opposing group and they would tell her a word or sentence to go describe to her group without using words and her group would try to guess it. Where do i even begin with how competitive and funny this game turned out to be, i even participated. Let's just say it involved trying to describe 'crocodile in the ocean', 'sex not in the beach' and 'igede dancers'. Try picturing how someone would describe the above to their group. It was crazy!

Hubby-to-be came around as we were rounding up so i cut the cake, took pics with him & d gals and he happily got a take-away pack of small chops and cake when leaving. The gals and i touched up, they cut cake to take away and we went to Sofa Lounge to karaoke and dance the night away. I honestly had way too much fun and laughter for one night. Ejura, Yoee and I finally went back to the apartment @past midnight, we cleaned up the messed up apartment a bit (we didn't have to but i have a bit of OCD) and put the leftovers in the fridge. I was given my lovely gifts and we crashed.

My gifts

Next morning, we put the apartment in order some more, warmed and ate our leftovers, looked through pics & vids and had a good laugh before checking out around midday. The shower was more than i could have ever expected and i'm grateful!

Toodles!XooX

Karaoke Bridal Shower (Late November Post)

This was the most stressful bridal shower i have ever planned with the smallest group of people! and i have planned two so far, you can check here for the post on that. My friend and colleague was getting married and everything was kinda happening in pretty fast, her traditional wedding was slated for December 7, 2013 and her church wedding for Feb 1, 2014 and she would be relocating to Port-Harcourt after that, so i knew we had to throw her a shower before the wedding prep craziness got real! My plan was for us to make it a surprise initially but that wasn't going to work 'cos she was shuttling PH and Abj 'cos of her marriage counselling and wedding prep so she was informed so that we could get a date for the event to hold when she would be in town.

I already have quite some bridal shower experience so everything is pretty much routine, you can check out my former bridal shower post here for info on that. I created the BBM group for the shower and added our mutual friends and requested that they add her other friends that would be interested in joining the shower to the group. Let me pause here and say my friend is the kinda person that has loads of friends! or so it seemed until it was time for the shower, Long story short i had to add my friend (the bride-to-be) herself to the group so she could add her friends 'cos we were only 9people in the group and we definitely needed more people if we were going to throw a fab shower. I had intended for the shower to be as fun as Mel's own where we had paid for an apartment for the night and had loads of proper fun but that would require at least 20people with minimal contributions or if the 9people would be ready to contribute at least 12k each towards the event which they were not.*sigh.

I have to say the majority of these ladies were the most uncooperative, tight-handed, argumentative and annoying set i have ever had to deal with and even more annoying because of the small number (only 9ppl).

The idea of the karaoke shower came up from that when i realized that funds would not be enough for anything else, i contacted the owner of the Karaoke lounge so we could discuss the cost of us hosting the shower there, food, drinks and bringing in a cake. I informed the ladies after discussions had been completed and told them the cost per person, it was about N6k600 to cover a bottle of the most affordable champagne they had (25k) and the rest was for the cake (12k), finger food and any other drinks for all the ladies. Payment was quite a hassle to get, only Annie and Dubs paid more than the amount which made up for the N600 the other ladies did not pay thankfully. I concluded the transaction with the Karaoke folks and made the necessary down payment. There was drama in the group afterwards on agreeing on the colors everyone should wear and then on the date. I had a wedding the weekend of the shower but luckily got back in time to set things up that Sunday. I hurried home from the car park, changed, picked up the cake and headed to the karaoke bar while calling up the gals to know their location and hurry them up to the venue so the surprise wouldn't be ruined. It hurt a bit that even though i got back from a trip i was the 1st to get to the venue and start setting things up. 

Everyone finally arrived in their sweet time and some even came with +1s (which is not bad except that it costs more)*smh. The bride-to-be arrived and it was a jolly time, Annie came with her pro camera i took a no. of pics. I introduced the bride-to-be to the owner of the karaoke bar and luckily he gave us an upgrade to the VIP section which was more private.Once everything was setup i had to leave the fun asap 'cos my back was killing me from the road trip, i handed over to the able Dubs and said my goodbye's. I changed and ran home to crash, can't remember if i even got to taste the cake. 

The koko was that the bride-to-be had fun singing away, from the reports i got later, and it was a good way to send her forth to her hubby's home and new city. It makes it all worth it for me. *i should go into event planning, the rate at which i love it. :D

Toodles!XooX

*Surprise Bridal Showers*

This is going to be a kinda 2-in-1 post about 2surprise bridal showers I was actively involved in planning. I learnt a whole lot of stuff on the web which really helped in my planning, so in the spirit of giving back I am doin this post. I hope it helps anyone planning to surprise their engaged friend, it really is the sweetest thing when friends to come to celebrate the graduation of one of ours from single-dom to double-dom.lool. you all know by now that I’m a clown. Sit back and feed ur eyes and mind and enjoy this picturesque post.

Bride-to-be in her 'royal' accesories (2nd shower)

customized tee for the friends (2nd shower)

Lingerie Cake (2nd shower)

souvenirs-rose pattern compact mirror & cupcake packaged towel

Surprise!! moment (1st shower)

DIY crown and name tag on a guest in the bedroom (1st shower)

Finger food array (2nd shower)

The first surprise shower I planned was for my friend Melissa (I blogged about her proposal here), her wedding was slated for April but I wanted to start off preparations for the bridal shower early to avoid complication, so I formed a BB group sometime in February and added the few friends I knew who in turn added some more from her University and Secondary school (I had met a number of them during her traditional wedding so it was not hard to flow), we were about 20 in total the group. I was glad discussions started early and all ‘cos I love to plan ahead so things go accordingly, although some of her friends thought the group was brought up too early, they eventually thanked me for starting it on time.
Make a to-do list. Here’s mine:

• Selection of a Venue (Park, Hall, Someone’s house, commercial apartment)
• Selection of a Tentative Date for the Shower
• Decoration
• Minimum amount to be contributed (usually decided after deliberations or can be before so there is a budget to work with)
• Commencement and Deadline for Payment
• Cake
• Food (Preferably small chops-spring rolls, meat balls, samosa, cupcakes, doughnut, etc.)
• Drinks (variety of soft drinks, malt, water, juice, punch, alcohol)
• Gifts for the Bride-to-be (Lingerie, Customized t-shirt, etc.)
• Eating Utensils (Disposable plates, cups & cutlery, toothpicks, straws, serviettes, foil paper, Knife for the Cake)
• Games & Activities
• Bride-to-be’s outfit (Crown, Sash, outfits, pins, etc.)
• Others

Bride-to-be in customized t-shirt {front} (1st shower)

Bride-to-be in customized t-shirt {back}(1st shower)

Friends & Bride-to-be in sexy police outfit (1st shower)

1. Start Planning Early if it is a surprise bridal shower that involves her other friends u don’t know. Why you may ask- because decisions involving more than 3 people takes a long time!!! talk less of 20 girls! You don’t even wanna know, and there are soooooooo many things to decide on and we haven’t even moved on to contributions for the event.
2. Invite her close friends into a forum and let them also branch out and invite other close friends but remind everyone to be hush hush about it! Else they spoil the surprise.
3. Do some research (Google is your friend, find sites with bridal shower post, games, décor, themes, etc. It will help to have some ideas to be deliberated on)
4. Will the shower be themed or unthemed? (unthemed ones are easier)
5. Welcome opinions and deliberate respectfully and be polite (you don’t know some of these ppl and dnt know where you may meet again. I remember a bridal shower that went awry due to the attitude of the Coordinator-not cool* remember it is not about you, but about creating a special memory for a friend)
6. Once the major decisions are out of the way (mainly things that have to do with costing), the next step is to delegate (you honestly cannot do it all by yourself).  Pair up at least 2 people and make them accountable to the group, do this for all the different tasks in your to-do list. I t is ok to be involved in some and you also have to follow up on all the others to keep everyone on track (don’t be bossy/overbearing doing this though, it’s easy to get carried away-try to remember that the other friends also have their own life and schedules). One way I found easy was giving the delegates a week or 2 to come back and report their findings to the group so decisions can be made, and during that week, after discussions, we will gently remind them that we would be expecting feedback on the agreed date. I helps ease tension and burdening anyone.
7. DIY (Do it yourself) In the 1st surprise shower, I bought cardboard pieces, glue and other materials from the market to make crowns, name tags and decorate the venue. While in the 2ndd, one of the ladies who was into printing, made tees for us although we paid for them, the price was very minimal. Make use of group members to cut costs (if there’s a baker or decorator among you, make use of them to save cost).
8. Gather intel/info on your expected audience (are most of them single ladies or is it a mix of married women and single ladies, are they gentle or loud) this will help you in ur selection of games and activities for the day. In the 1st surprise shower I planned, I did not do this and the crowd was the loud kind dat mostly jst wanted to eat, make noise and get themselves & the bride-to-be drunk. We did not play up to half of the games but they still had fun although if I had known earlier I would not have planned for the other games and wasted resources. The 2nd shower was the opposite as it was made up of mostly married women. We played practically all the games and were able to compile a book for the bride from them.
9. Have someone recording and taking pictures of the event so you can give the hubby to watch later and enjoy and the bride-to-be can also add it to her memorabilia.
10. Make a nice playlist everyone can dance to, its usually safe to go with the songs in vogue
11. You will need someone to act as a DJ overseeing the music, another as the MC and someone monitoring the food and drinks while u can be in charge of games and activities so you don’t get overwhelmed trying to handle it all, this happened to me at the 1st surprise shower but i learnt and the 2nd turned out way better.
12. After the cutting of the cake, don’t forget to divide it so everyone gets a piece to eat and take home and also keep some for the bride-to-be to take home.
13. Remember the food (preferably small chops-) can never be too much and its beta it goes round than for it to not. The guests can take home the leftovers of the food and drinks.
14. Most importantly keep the shower a surprise right till the very end, don’t forget to have a believable story to get the bride-to-be to the venue without her suspecting anything.
15. And just as important, don’t forget to have fun!!!

I hope this helps you in planning an awesome surprise bridal shower. Find the game docs here and feel free to customize it for your own games. Enjoy the pics. Please drop a comment if you find this post useful in ur planning or if u have any other ideas. Merci.

Cover photo used for the compilation of advice from friends

Photo used as target for Tissue wedding dress game

fooling around

Drink mixing chart

wedding ring ice cubes

Champagne cubes

photo cut out can be used for drinking like a sir

Photo cut used for the cardboard crown

Who has the groom game

Lipstick Souvenirs from the friends

Sex Pot

Helium filled ballon with fun pics of friends and the couple as decor

Banner

Bride-to-be in  sexy 1st outfit (1st shower)

Bride-to-be in sexy police outfit as 2nd outfit (1st shower)

DIY Fruit & Alcohol Punch i made (Crazy stuff)

Decorated  furnished Apartment we paid for the night (1st shower)

Friends, Bride-to-be and the Lingerie cake {All smiles}

Toodles!XooX