Sombreros y Rancheros Hat Party Bridal Shower

I get lots of emails from readers asking for fun ideas for bridal showers, so when Cortnie of Canvas & Canopy Events sent over this super fun bridal shower she designed I just had to share with you guys! I love the fun twist she created on the typical tea party shower with hats – although this one has a fun Mexican twist! Thanks so much to Cortnie for sharing all the details of the day with us also!

sombero-bridal-shower-01

sombrero bridal shower

the decor: Living in San Diego we were inspired by our neighboring country of Mexico. There are a multitude of feminine hat parties these days for bridal showers with tea party and Southern garden party themes, but we wanted to put a South of the Border twist on them! We quickly became inspired by Sombreros and Rancheros! Why not put an elegant girly spin on a fun fiesta?

We started by decorating huge straw sombreros with balsa wood flowers and sequins to put a ‘ladies who lunch’ spin on the traditional sombrero. We also tied pastel Ranchero hats to the backs of some of the chairs which doubled as party decor and fun take home gifts. Soon the bridal lunch was filled with party goers wearing colorful Ranchero hats and giant glittering sombreros! We then took it a step further and hung sombreros upside-down over the dining area and strung them with flowers and sequins. They became ‘SOMBRERO CHANDELIERS!’

The dining tables had had a pair of maracas with napkin tags that had our party tagline of ‘Vamos a Bailar, Nicole is Getting Married!’ upon them. Each was wrapped in glittering blue napkin treatments, flanked by french blue toy horses and surrounded by blue chairs.

sombrero bridal shower

sombrero bridal shower

sombrero bridal shower

sombrero bridal shower

sombrero bridal shower

the drinks: We soaked beer bottles, took off the old labels and stuck new custom drink labels onto them that said ‘Vamos a Bailar, Nicole is getting married!’. We set these upon the bar, topped them with air plants and they became festive cerveza vases (say that 5 times fast!). To make the margarita making process smooth and easy we just poured the Skinny girl margarita mix made with agave alongside salt and limes. For those party-goers who wanted a topper of tequila, Kah Tequila serves their tequila in the coolest bottles for a styled tequila bar. Their tequila comes in hand-painted ceramic bottles that are inspired by day of the dead. We put straws with drink flags on the bar that said ‘uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco’. This way we could keep tabs on how many drinks each girl had drank!

sombrero bridal shower beer labels

sombrero bridal shower beer labels

rustic bottles with airplants

sombrero bridal shower pinata

the food: Quite the Mexican feast was served on a buffet table with a sign that said ‘Tostada Stand’. Guests were able to pile generous helpings of toppings including carne asada, pollo, guacamole, various cheeses, lettuce, onions, a variety of hot sauces and salsas, etc. onto their plates. It was a fun way to serve both carnivore and vegetarian palettes while sticking with the theme.

sombrero bridal shower food

the dessert: The dessert bar was set with lots of fruit inspired desserts since Mexico is known for their fruity sweets. We hung a pinata over the spread as it was very appropriate to be swinging over a dessert bar. We even created a new dessert that we named ‘donut kabobs’. We made them by sticking donut holes onto skewers, they were fun and easy to eat.

sombrero bridal shower desserts bon bons

the games: We are a bit tired of the same old games so we wanted to come up with some new ones. We decided to put a ‘Mexican twist’ on the old classic game of musical chairs. Our new version was dubbed ‘Musical Sombreros’. We had a giant sombrero that each guest had to put on her head and pass it along, when the music stopped the guest with the sombrero on her head was out. It was pretty hilarious! We also decided to play a game that was a tested the party-goers texting knowledge. We wrote a funny story about the bride and groom-to-be. We chose funny text acronyms from the Texting Dictionary of Acronyms throughout the story and asked the guests to guess what they meant. It was a lot harder than everyone thought and there were some really funny answers!

sombrero bridal shower guests with hats

Looked like such a fun bridal shower! Thanks so much for sharing this one with us today! Is anyone in the process of planning a shower right now? What kind of shower are you throwing?

credits:

photography: Joielala Photographie // paper goods: Printed Palette Ink // event styling: Canvas & Canopy Events // decor: Canvas & Canopy Events // floral design: Studio Fiore

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