Sunday, February 16, 2014

Cooks & Queens

Remotely coordinating a bridal shower and bachelorette required juggling time,  unnecessary irritations and expectations (mine & those I was working with).

No matter what it would take, my personal goal was to make sure M would have a memorable time. Suffice, to say, I believe we achieved just that!

We dubbed the event: Cooks & Queens.

Cooks was M's bridal shower. 

We wanted a Martha-Stewartesque theme as M does love cooking and all things related to the home. Ingredients to this part of the day included:
  • Cooking class with all of M's girlfriends. We did this at The Cookery in BGC - a cute little place that is perfect for this sort of thing. Their kitchen is a lot of fun, and there is a space wherein you can enjoy what you eat after. This worked out perfectly for us as it doubled as a venue to do the more traditional part of a bridal shower - gift giving and games.  
  • We jazzed up the place a bit with lots of personal touches - a special vintage-looking apron for the bride, placemats / serviettes / serving dishes in the appropriate colours, speciality popcorn for pica-pica, big 'ol coffee cans stuffed with bright flowers, baking bowls filled with equally cheerful fruit, bunting on the wall, give-aways also in the right theme (large box graters filled with delicious chocolates from kuwait and a set of ref-magnets we printed with kitchen themed life quotes)
  • Another special give away from the bride -  book which we filled with "recipes" from all other women in Maica's life
  • Gift-giving and Games - what bridal shower is complete without this? The most fun ones I feel are the ones that are slightly more personalized - hence a trivia game about M. Hehe. We had gifts as well that were kitchen-themed. 
Queens was M's bachelorette.

We took it beyond strippers and R-rated games and went instead to a drag club! This was done at Club Mwah on Boni Ave. The venue looked like versace-exploded inside with its large gold lamps and zebra-print carpet. But the show? My goodness, the show was brilliant! Talent-filled, varied and 200% entertainment. 
  • M of course needed to spend the evening in the usual crown & sash
  • We brought the groom with us! Well, more like masks which we gave everyone to wear. 
  • Alcohol (need I clarify this further?) 
  • The venue was in on it as well!  Towards the end of the evening, one of the male dancers dressed in a white wedding tux and a mask with the groom's face came to dance with her bride-to-be. 
Few other things that helped stitch the whole day together:
  • A personalised invitation to all attendees which covered all the details for the day
  • A hotel room near the cooking venue - so we could quickly get ready for the evening, and then retire to at the end of the night
Chocolates & kitchen life-quote ref magnets in grater boxes

Flowers in coffee cans, placemats, popcorn and serving dishes

The Cookery's lovely set up in BGC

Ingredients for one of many things we made that day

All ready to go! Now to surprise the bride to be

More of The Cookery details

Taking notes as we listened to the chef

Demonstration

Mediterranean chicken on 3-garlic pasta

Each of the team's lemon & parsley gougeres - lol from decent to fail! all tasted delicious regardless 

Apple pie - without a bottom crust. Hehehe

Amazing talent at Club Mwah

Zebra!