In just a little over a month my baby sister is tying the knot! It feels like it was just yesterday we were in Big Bear where she was proposed (here is that post if you're interested). She's the last in our family to get married, so to say I'm excited is a major understatement. Stay tuned for the wedding post but for now let's take a look at how gorgeous her bridal shower was (and her of course).

I was honored to plan and host her bridal shower, alongside my mom and our middle sister, oh and let's not forget my "about to pop" baby bump. Our bride-to-be is obsessed with NYC. So, it was a no brainer to add the NYC inspiration to her bridal shower, especially after coming across the adorable mini taxi cabs for the place-cards - it was then that the theme for her bridal shower was set in stone. The bridal shower venue was already booked at the gorgeous Madera Kitchen in West Hollywood. It was seriously the most perfect venue for a bridal shower with a chic city sophistication of a modern, urban event mixed with a romantic and earthy twist. The main seating area took place in their gorgeous greenhouse style covered patio with the entire indoors left for dancing, lounging and hanging at the open bar (hello mimosas - "sad face" except I couldn't have any). So, after the theme and venue were set, everything else just came together. We kept it simple with decor and florals and emphasized on the little details such as the place-cards, the favors, the guest sign-in board, table numbers, etc. I even created a custom snapchat NYC and Sex and the City inspired filter for her that turned out so adorable. And, as for the games, we decided only three games but nothing cheesy.

Breakdown of all the details:

Invitations (not shown here): Went with these gorgeous foil-pressed invites by Minted. And, ordered custom taxi cab stamps for mailing from here.

Venue: The gorgeous Madera Kitchen in Hollywood, CA. We had the entire space to ourselves until about 4pm.

Favors: Nothing more perfect than olive oil favors for a NYC themed event - NYC reminds me of Italy when it comes to food. So many cozy pizzerias and Italian restaurants on every corner. Found the glass jars from Moskatels in Los Angeles. We poured olive oil with rosemary in each jar and tied it up with the cute DIY tags that read "Thank you with olive our hearts".

Centerpieces: My sister wanted a variation of short wooden vases (that we found from Anthropologie's sale section) and some tall glass vases (from Moskatels) for the florals. We picked up the gorgeous flowers the day before from the flower market in Los Angeles.

Table Numbers: I wish there was a close up photo of the table numbers so you could see the perfect little details in them. I was inspired after seeing them on Pinterest the day before the event and decided to design them myself. Each number (we had 9 tables) was a fill in photography of a special monument or scene in NYC (such as 1 being the Statue of Liberty, 2 was the Brooklyn Bridge, etc.). We had them printed in 5x7 black and white and placed them in gold frames.

Placecards: How adorable are the taxi cabs? They were the first item found that set the theme of the shower. Ordered them here. And, the guest names were just typed up in Word and cut to fit the top of the taxi cabs. They had to be taped down on the cars otherwise transporting them to the venue was going to be a mess.

Guest Sign-in: The gorgeous sign-in board was inspired by the famous LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana, situated on the corner of 6th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan. My sister picked up some wooden letters and spray painted them in red while my dad stained a piece of wood and glued the letters on. We just used some gold and white sharpie fine point markers. It turned out PERFECT!

Games: Game 1 - Swing your ding-a-ling: put an orange in panty hose and tie around waist. Then, try to knock another orange (on the ground) to the finish line. First to the finish line is the winner. Game 2 - Dress Up: pair volunteers and give one of the couples thick mittens and a blind fold. Have this person put on the random articles of clothing from the basket on their partner. Give them a time limit and the couple that has put the items on correctly wins. Game 3 - Stuff the Veggies: Also known as "dolma" if you're Armenian. Give your individual volunteers the same number of veggies (eggplant, zucchini, squash), a knife, and a bowl of wet rice for the stuffing. The first person to carve out the flesh of all the veggies and stuff the them with rice wins.

Cake: The lovely and delicious tasting gold foil cake was designed by Rafi's Pastry. Filled with their famous flavor of hazelnut crunch. YUM!

Bride-to-be outfit: Dress by Rachel Comey and shoes by Charlotte Olympia (Wallace).

Katherine's outfit: Coat from Zara (sold out), dress from Etsy shop, Hip Mom Made and shoes by Dr. Martens.

My outfit: Maternity dress by ASOS and high heel sandals by Zara.

Sister's outfit: Dress by Proenza Schouler and shoes are by Christian Louboutin (sold out).

Mom outfit: Dress by DVF and shoes by Steve Madden.

Photographer: Nairian Images

xo, Salpie

NYC Themed Bridal Shower