Bargain Bridal Shower was a Hit (but not to my pocketbook)!

Ok, so remember a couple of weeks ago, when I told you guys that I was giving a Bridal Shower for my best friend? Well, it was weekend before last (I couldn't find my camera cord until today, to load pictures), and I wanted to let you all know how it went. Well, here are some pictures so you can see for yourself.

The cake! Chocolate cake with fondant icing (by yours truly).

My gift and the "hostess" gift! I love the bright colors.

All the cute little favor boxes!

Since it was a bar shower, I tried to stick to the theme - inside we have beer nuts, beer salt and single serving margarita mixes (just add a shot of tequila and a 3/4 cup of water)!

All together - I tried to keep the colors all the same (to match the invitations).

The dollar store I went to was ghetto and you couldn't buy regular balloons and blow them up, you had to buy mylar ballons and these are the only ones that they had that didn't say "Happy Birthday" or "Get Well Soon"! Nonetheless, here is the gift table.

A shot of our table, as people were first arriving. We were in a private room, which turned out to be very nice!

As you can see - she got a lot of gifts (most of them too big for the table). This is the honoree, Elizabeth.

Liz with two of her cousins and her little sister, before everyone arrived.

Here is the group (minus me, I'm behind the camera). Lots of great girls - old and new friends, co-workers and family! No one better to celebrate with.

My goal was to do this shower for $100. I totaled everything up and guess what - I made it! I did the whole thing for $98.83. Seriously! I already showed you how I did the invitations and that cost me $7.22. I had enough cards left over, when I got through printing that I was able to run the left overs through the printer and address them (again), so that she could use them for thank you notes, and they would match (and save her some time)! So that's invitations and thank you notes for $7.22. We sent out 16 invitations and 10 people came, so that makes both the invitations and thank you cards approximately .27 cents each! Then, I was able to make the cake for $17.03 (that is counting my ingredients - I make from scratch), and what it cost me to get the fondant (I was lazy and bought it instead of making my own which would have been so much cheaper), and I already had the colors, so I didn't have to pay for that. I did find the flowers (which were artificial) on sale for half off, which helped. Then I got the balloons at the dollar store for $5.41 I had already picked up the favor boxes and my gift bags and tissue, a couple of weeks ago, so all I needed to do was get the stuff for the boxes. While I was at Spec's picking up her gift, I was able to get beer nuts, individual packages of beer salt, and individual margarita mixes all for $12.63.

Since we ate at a restaurant, everyone paid for their own meal. I paid for mine, and the honoree, and with the tip, it was $40 even.

So, add that up (I will wait, while you get the calculator).

$23.76 (Invitations, thank yous, postage, gift bags, tissue paper, colored paper and favor boxes)

$17.03 (Cake)

$5.41 (Balloons)

$12.63 (Favors)

$40.00 (Lunch)

Comes to $98.83!

I don't count her presents in there, because I would have bought those regardless of if I gave the party or someone else did. If you want to get picky - put it in there and its ALL less than $150!

What a bargain!