Kicking off the Wedding Festivities

We’re now under 2 months until our wedding, and it’s starting to feel real! Especially because last weekend we officially kicked off the festivities with my beautiful bridal shower!

It was such a perfect day, filled with so much joy, and I’m still on a happiness high from it all. I understand the basis of a bridal shower now, because I truly felt showered with love. Not only was I completely spoiled with the most generous and beautiful gifts to fill our home, but love that was expressed for us filled my heart.

The room was vibrating with laughter and excitement from the voices of my favorite women. Sharing our stories and sharing in our joy. It was the sweetest realization of how blessed and loved we are.

I feel extremely grateful to have had my Mom host this wonderful celebration for me! I know how lucky I am to have her put together this special day for me, and I’ll always be touched by her love and generosity. She put so much care and attention into making it perfect, and for months she worked through the details with me to make sure I was happy with everything.

It was so much fun to come up with this theme, thread it through all the elements of the event, and see it come to life so beautifully! Of course since I’m a little type A, and love to plan, I couldn’t leave too much to surprise. But I was so happy with how everything turned out and couldn’t wait to share it here!

So read on for all the details of my boho bridal shower!

The Location

We held the shower at one of our favorite restaurants in Westchester, X2O Xaviars on the Hudson, owned by Chef Peter X. Kelly. Fun fact, Kelly beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef! And his food lives up to the hype. For this reason our family keeps going back to dine there, including for my 30th birthday! And now having had such a great experience planning the shower at X2O, I know we’ll be back to celebrate many more events like this in the future.

X2O is located in Yonkers, New York. It’s only 30 minutes north of Manhattan, which was important since we wanted it to feel convenient for most of our guests who were coming from the tri-state area. The best part is you can see the cities skyline right from the windows that cover about 300 degrees of the dining room.

The restaurant is located over the Hudson river in a renovated pier. I loved the very open space and all the natural light streaming through the windows..

It was such a perfect location for our group! Because there aren’t a ton of local restaurants that can fit 60-80 people we secured this date for the shower back in June of 2021, and then had to wait such a long time to finally enjoy it! And it fulfilled every expectation we had.

The food was all delicious, the room was gorgeous and spacious, and the service was fantastic. From booking the event, working closely with the manager who helped us plan all the details, and letting us come set up the space the night before. They went above and beyond for us.

Since the restaurant doesn’t open for dinner until 5pm we were able to rent the entire downstairs dining room for our event, from 11:30 - 3:30pm. I’m not personally a huge breakfast person, so we threw a boozy lunch, and kept the champagne, mimosas, and bellini’s flowing.

We started the event off with a cheese board and charcuterie for our guests who were arriving hungry. The restaurant offered a choice of two appetizers, three entrees, and a dessert to wrap up the meal! There was no shortage of food.

They even printed menu’s for us, ordered the dusty rose table cloths to match our theme, and even provided fresh flowers for each table. They really made everything so easy for us! Part of planning a good party is having it run smoothly, and I can’t say enough good things about our experience with X2O.

The Decor

We decided the shower needed a theme, and I wanted something that felt fun and feminine, and different from our plans for the wedding.

I usually think of a boho shower setting as something outdoors, like a backyard in Scottsdale Arizona. The dining room space is pretty modern, but I felt a little inspired by all the windows and natural light, which brought the outdoors in. Once we toured the space again in January I knew we could bring the boho theme to life.

We tried to tie all the different elements together with this theme, keeping within a color range of rose gold, shades of pink, and neutrals. And I was so happy with how it came together - from the invitation, to the decor, to the party favors. Everyone really grasped my vision and I couldn’t have been happier!

To execute the boho theme well you need to have pampas grass in abundance. But for our event I loved how the pampas grass showed up throughout the room in a cute and tasteful way.

For those who are considering planning a boho themed event, it was surprisingly hard to find affordable bouquets so we downsized in order to not break the budget! I explored tons of stores in Westchester and across Manhattan, but ultimately ended up ordering most from Etsy.

My future Mother In Law generously provided the rosé for each of our guests as a party favor to thank them for coming. And I love how she decorated each bottle so perfectly to the theme!

Not hard to understand why, but my favorite decoration was the balloon arch!

We received this custom design from Prime Party Rental, which our venue recommended. I couldn’t speak more highly of the experience working with Daiana. They created a perfect custom color palate and design, provided the custom sign on the rented arch, and included delivery and install in the price. I will absolutely be working with them again!

It was the perfect anchor for taking pictures, and helped get people up from their seats and walking around the room. Some of my favorite moments of the day were spent embracing and giggling with my friends and family here.

I’m such a sentimental person, and capturing pictures during these events help me relive the memories of the day over and over again. I truly cherish them. Plus, I love a good photo shoot!

Aunt Susie’s Dessert Bar

One of the sweetest elements of the shower was definitely the dessert bar!

A few months ago my Aunt Susan said she wanted to pay for the bridal shower. She’s mentally handicapped, and receives a small stipend in addition to the money she’s saved from working at a local retail store for thirty years. As generous as her intention was, she thought about $200 would cover it :) We wanted to acknowledge her generosity and honor her by using her contribution towards something everyone could enjoy!

My Mom and Grandma spent days baking some of my favorite treats - Chocolate chip cookies, Italian wedding cookies, Snickerdoodles, and my Grandma’s specialty Rainbow cookies.

My sister made this pretty table sign that says “Love is Sweet.” And we tried to personalize the offering by adding some of Ryan’s favorite candies like Butterfingers and Kit Kats, and my favorites like Reeses and Hershey kisses. My sister and I found lots of pretty jars to put everything in from Home Goods and Michaels!

All Fun & Games

Can’t speak for everyone, but I loved the games at my shower. They felt personal, relevant, and shared something special with our guests about ourselves. For that reason I was pretty selective when it came to which games to play.

I know sometimes they can become a little awkward and corny, but most of the showers I’ve been to have had such cute and fun games. I had lots of inspiration when it came time to select a few for my own.

Game 1: We started off with a game called How Old Were They in which everyone tried to guess our ages across 10 different photos from childhood until adulthood. We made it extra tricky to encourage some friendly competition and laughter! The top 3 winners got some Bath & Bodyworks candles that were inspired by our honeymoon in Bora Bora.

Game 2: We took a twist on a game called Left or Right, in which a bottle of wine is passed around the table according to the speakers directions. My sister read the story of how Ryan and I met, fell in love, and got engaged - but with this twist of constantly adding in the words left or right. The winner takes home the wine!

Game 3: The final game was “He Said, She Said” which Ryan joined in for! First our family and friends received the game with a series of statements, and filled out whether each belonged to me, or to Ryan. At the end of the shower Ryan arrived and we answered the statements in front of our friends and family. The whole thing was so funny as my best friend Tonia hosted lit like a Game Show, and as we went along we equal parts surprised people, confirmed their beliefs, or contradicted each other! It was a blast.

Opening Gifts

Overall I had a pretty traditional shower! But opening gifts was the one part of the day I was originally thinking I’d do away with and skip. Ultimately I probably spent about ten minutes in total acknowledging and opening what people had so generously gifted us. And I think a lot of my guests appreciated that we kept to tradition a little, and we tried to keep it from getting too boring since my bridesmaids set up a hell of a smooth system!

First, we created a Honeyfund account where our loved ones could instead provide a cash gift towards different experiences throughout our dream honeymoon, like sightseeing activities, spa treatments, dining, and more! We were blown away by how generous our friends and family were, and partly because of them we’re getting to experience two amazing weeks in Bora Bora this June! But we also registered for some upgrades for our kitchen and bathroom, so I opened some of those gifts at the shower.

My bridesmaids were unbelievably helpful in unwrapping and recording everything for me, while my girlfriend Carly created a bow bouquet for me! It ended up being a sweet part of the afternoon!

Cried Some Happy Tears

One of the best parts of the day was definitely my Moms speech. She welcomed our guests, thanked them for coming, and then shared some of the most sweet and wonderful words about Ryan and I. She moved not only me to tears, but the entire room.

It was such a powerful expression of love, and I’m so grateful to her for giving me this gift so that I can always cherish and remember this day. I’ve never felt so loved. I was so completely impressed by her bravery to stand in front of the room and open her heart that way, while looking as beautiful, strong, and composed as ever. What a role model!

Though I could never do what she did, it meant a lot to be able to thank everyone myself at the end of the shower. For being there, for supporting and loving us, and for sharing in our happiness. I was so proud to look around this room of incredible women and to say they’ve all had an impact on Ryan and I in a greater way than we could express. From our families who helped raise us, to our friends who continue to grow alongside us, we are so fortunate to be surrounded by people who care for us the way they do.

My Other Half!

I was looking forward to Ryan showing up, and to no surprise the crowd went wild! :)

Though I loved my time with the girls, and never wanted it to end, it was so fun getting to have him there to experience the last hour of the shower with me.

Recipe for a Perfect Marriage

One of the best parts of the shower was that we asked our friends and family to share their favorite recipes with us, so that we can start off our marriage with tons of new meals and treats to create together! Ryan and I try to make dinner together as much as we can throughout the week, and the key to our hearts is food. So it’s no surprise that we were excited by having the amazing chefs in our lives share their favorite recipes with us!

Bridal Shower Outfit Details

After shopping around for a while I finally found the perfect look about 2 weeks before the shower. I saw so many pretty white dresses, and even bought a pink dress I had decided I’d wear! But ultimately saw this dreamy cocktail dress at Neiman Marcus and felt like it was super special! It was called the One33 Social Fringe Dress.

I loved that it was something I hadn’t seen before, and it had such great details like the asymmetric draping fringe belt. It’s comfortable, well lined, and high quality. It felt perfect for the boho theme!

My heels were from Aqua which I found at Bloomingdale’s. Earrings are from Anthropologie.

Pictures from the Day

I can’t get over some of the amazing. I love and admire these strong ladies so much, and it meant the world to have them share this special day with me.

Here are some photos of the day with our family!