Bridal Shower! (part une)

This past Saturday was my best friend Kendra's bridal shower and I was happily lucky enough to be a co-host/emcee. Kendra's delightful mother Susan and I had a brainstorming session and, thanks to some help from the trusty old internet, we nailed down a theme: French countryside library. Interesting, mais non?

There are few words that can do this spread justice. I don't even know what to say, other than, just look at all that beauty. Handmade doilies, handmade passports by my friend and fellow bridesmaid Sarah, delicious cheeses and sandwiches, salmon galettes, fresh flowers, a handmade cafe-style chalkboard, classic novels, handmade paper flowers plucked, literally, from the pages of French novels and hand crafted into flower pinwheels by Kendra's mother, and adorable party favors: jars of Parisien spices.

And look! Susan found a tiered cupcake holder that worked perfectly for the spices:

Adorable!

Kendra's mother spared no attention to any detail. Everything was perfect. All I did was show her some ideas, give her a couple of ideas, and she ran with it, like The Black Stallion running away with first place, like Lydia Bennett running away with Wickham, like the dish with the spoon, like... Ok, you get my drift. I just cannot explain it enough so that you understand the genius, the light-handed touches of elegance and seemingly careless chic whimsy that just tickled me. I mean, I took approximately 500 photos of the table itself, so obviously I was impressed.

Oooh! See those salmon pastries? Kendra's grand-mere, Pat, made those from scratch. Smoked salmon, leeks, capers and puff pastry. Well now, you just cannot go wrong with that, can you?

Some more of the mason jars with flowers.

Yum! And gorgeous, to boot.

Hmm, that was more of a moody shot. I'm working on this photography thing. I have told you before how fond I am of The Pioneer Woman's blog, and she talks a lot about natural light, so I'm working on using that instead of a flash. Then Sarah told me that the flash helps stabilize the camera. So aside from bad lighting, like above, a lot of these photos have a slight shake to them, like unset jello. Forgive me folks. Photography intimidates the hell out of me but I think I'm getting to the point, thanks to this blog and living a big chunk of my life through a lens, where I really need to learn some stuff. Case in point with the shaky lens:

A giant punch bowl of mimosas? Amen!

Hey, there's Sarah and Amery! Also: a gorgeous bowl of grapes. To the right of those grapes is a FONDUE POT FULL OF CHOCOLATE. For strawberries. Or, if I had my way, a straw.

Fresh flowers, an array of Peruvian lilies, lavender roses, irises, pale pink and creamy white tulips with little darts of eucalyptus. Not, obviously, shown above, but I just wanted you to know especially since I picked them out.

Okay, so that was the majority of the lovely decor. Any more than that and I will break this blog, so tune in next time for the post and pictures that actually include people!