Cranes, Coffee, and Candles

Over a year ago, I threw a bachelorette party for my friend Traci. It was long enough ago that she is now happily married and about three months pregnant. After the party, I intended to make a blog post about the theme and decorations, but never seemed to get around to it, but I'm finally going to do it now, like I promised a few posts ago. Also, don't worry about any inappropriate content that you might normally see at a bachelorette party; it was not that kind of party. In fact, her mom was there. :o)

The party centered around a black and white theme. In addition to the colors, I also focused a great deal on origami cranes because I knew they were going to be a big focus at her wedding. I don't remember the exact date of the shower—I believe it was in November—but it was close enough to Christmas that I was able to get some of my decorations out a little early, yet far enough away that my tree wasn't up yet.

I started by making black and white origami cranes in various sizes. I placed most of them throughout the room, but I also threaded several onto a a black piece of thread, separating them with knots, and hung them in the doorway.

I had some black and silver wired ribbon which I twisted and arranged with some pin boughs and white Christmas ornaments. Throughout all of this I scattered candles.

My husband happens to like black and white decorations (our couch is black leather and most of our living room furniture is black) so I already had some black and white painted wine bottles. At my wedding shower, my sister had a wooden sign that said “Wish” placed among my presents. I kept the sign, repainted it in black and white, and placed it among Traci's presents. I also bought some black and white wedding themed confetti and sprinkled that on the gift table.

Traci loves coffee (particularly Starbucks), so for favors, I bought some black and white mugs and painted them with different designs. Inside the mugs, I placed small bags of specialty coffees and wrapped the whole thing in clear gift bags and tied it with a black satin ribbon.

For food, I kept with the black and white theme and made Black and White Cheesecake Bars, Coconut (Haupia) and Chocolate Pie, black and white cupcakes, and Kahlua Espresso Martinis. I rimmed the glasses with melted chocolate. The cupcakes I decorated with edible pearls and white chocolate. I printed out words and pictures covered them with waxed paper, and traced the pictures and words with white chocolate that I piped onto the waxed paper. Once that dried, I used it to garnish the cupcakes. Important note: I bought special food coloring to make the black icing. It looked great (although a little messy), but the food coloring stained everyone's mouths purple. I also made chocolate truffles and dipped them in white chocolate with dark chocolate garnish. And of course chocolate covered strawberries in white and dark chocolate.

  It ended up being a really fun party with just the right amount of scandalousness to still be a bachelorette party, yet not so much to make anyone uncomfortable (at least I don't think so). If you're interested in what games we played because you're planning your own party, let me know, I can give you a list. Anyway, I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time, especially Traci, which was my goal, but I guess the real proof is in the pictures.