A Hufflepuff Bridal Shower

My best friend, Shannon, was getting married. In ten years of friendship we'd shared secrets, a blog, our ups, our downs etc. etc. Of course I accepted when she asked me to be her Maid of Honour and of course I wanted to throw her the best Bridal Shower I could. The snag? I live in the UK. She lives in the US. But I am a master planner so what was a little pond going to do to put me off! It was a hectic few months of emails and long-distance phone calls and one very long evening with two bridesmaids and I popping paper flowers with me straight off the plane but in the end I think it turned out alright!
Given that the shower was coming via England, when I found out there was a tea room just around the corner from Shannon in my favourite town of Lititz, PA, I knew we were onto a winner. The team at A Tea Affair were just amazing, sorting me out long distance and putting on a perfect afternoon tea (so perfect that I forgot it included dessert and we ended up swimming in cake between what A Tea Affair provided and the four delicious cakes ordered in from The Baker's Table!).
As Shannon and I both appreciate the geekier things in life, the theme of the Bridal Shower was 'Muggle to Mrs', and I used a colour scheme of yellow and black (Hufflepuff colours for Shannon's house!) with soft blue accents to hint at the mint in the wedding colour palette. For centrepieces I filled blue mason jars with paper flowers in three shades and Hufflepuff pencils for the games, tying the jars with black ribbon and assorted Harry Potter charms.
The Harry Potter theme was carried through into the guest book too. Having found a beautiful wooden book engraved with the Marauder's Map artwork, I filled it with blank portrait templates for guests to personalize. For favours I stamped muslin bags with a Hogwarts crest stamp and filled them with Butterbeer-scented candles and Sherbert Lemons.

For games each guest had a 'Who Said It?' sheet as well as an activity to create the best wedding dress simply by tearing a piece of paper. Shannon was then put in the hotseat to play a version of the shoe game with her fiancé's sister standing in to deliver his answers. Game prizes were boxed Ring Pops!
All in all the shower got a lot of praise for days and, most importantly, Shannon was happy! Not bad for long-distance planning! My only regret was that in the flurry of flights and setting-up, I didn't take as many pictures of the little details and I'd have liked but we live and learn!