The lowdown

Folded napkins can make even Chinet look elegant. You'd be amazed how much beauty a stack of $2.00 napkins can add to a party!

It's the little things that make the most impact.

I avoid the balloons and crepe paper look when decorating for a shower. Even those disposable decoration costs add up! Rather, I look for things from my own home to use for decorating.

The bride chose the colors Royal blue and silver for her wedding. Coincidentally, my kitchen is decorated in Delpht Blue and White and I have a LOVELY collection of blue glass on my windowsill. I brought it all along and had just enough for groupings of two flowers and one candle holder for three tables. Since there were five eating tables-the extra two had groupings of three simple bud vases tied with blue ribbon and surrounded by simple clear glass votive holders with blue candles.

The Holiday season also makes decorating a cinch, since there is so much beauty and sparkle around!

My home decorating colors are burgendy and gold. Silver is not something that is abundant in my home so I went to the dollar store and bought these two silver tree toppers and a package of silver balls. The tree toppers are quite pompous perched in their candlestick thrones. I added the balls with some antique ornaments given to me last year. They aren't royal blue-more powder blue but it didn't lessen the impact. You needn't have the EXACT same color all of the place...variety is the spice of life, after all! ;-)

With the flowers, I made sure there was one TALL vase and one small vase. But I varied the flowers used. The photo at the top of this post has the head of a bud rose in a teeny little vase with daisies in the tall vase. This photo has a long and elegant single rose with a small bouquet of daisies and such below.

The candelabra on the eating table is also mine...I received it as a birthday gift from my sister. As you can tell, Elizabeth, that thing has made its way around quite a few showers this past year! Such a FABULOUS decorating piece, for at home and ABROAD! :-) Whereever it goes, it gets all sorts of compliments! It's the gift that keeps on giving!

The church gave me $20.00 to spend on flowers.

I spent three dollars at the dollar store for those silver things.
Two dollars on napkins.

Everything else I brought from home, so the grand total was $5.00 out of my pocket!

Now, some of the showers I have hosted ended up costing me over $100.00 to orchestrate-because I also had to buy plates, cups, silverwear, etc. I was tremendously happy to hear that the church where the shower was held (it was a dual-church shower) had all the eating supplies covered, had tablecloths, etc. What a RELIEF for my pocketbook!