Ultimate Blog Party 2014!!!

It's time again for the Ultimate Blog Party! The Ultimate Blog Party is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. I admit I am a little late this year. There has been a lot of craziness this month because the Random family is moving (more about that later)! So I forgot to get this post up on time, but better late than never, right?

And to all the visitors from the Ultimate Blog Party, welcome, feel free to look around!

About Me

I am Randomly Fascinated. I chose that name because when thinking about a possible blog I knew that I would  never be able to choose just one topic to talk about. I am fascinated wide variety of subjects and I tend to randomly jump from one to another. I think that I originally started this blog as an outlet to get some adult interaction while staying home with my Little Man.

I am married to the most wonderful man ever (if you don't believe me read about how he browns meat for me)! I have two Little Men one who is 2 1/4 and one who is 7 1/2 months old.

I get fascinated by random things like which diaper brand is best. I love to cook. I love to try new recipes and I am totally comfortable adapting recipes to my taste (Mr. Random is not a picky eater so I am allowed to adapt to my tastes, which are significantly pickier). I also love to find new ways to save/make money. I love to make crafts and art. I enjoy being creative and making things with my hands. My favorite artistic medium is ceramics and my dream is to one day own a kiln so I can make ceramics again. I love pinterest. I tend to spend more time pinning than repinning because I also love combing blogs. I also have a lot of other random thoughts that I post about.


I am not hosting a giveaway on here this year because I am sponsoring a prize on the Ultimate Blog Party.

$35 gift card to Domestic Randomness Etsy Shop
(1 winner – US Only – Lower 48 States)
Provided by: Domestic Randomness
Twitter: @RandomFascinate
Facebook: DomesticRandomness
Prize Value: $35.00

You can find it on the prize page (You have to enter through their entry form). There are lots of other prizes and socializing opportunities available!

A Coffee Themed Bridal Shower (and free supplies list printable!)

Wow, I can't believe that it has taken me so long to post this. But here it is, detailed info about the bridal shower I threw for my sister. We did a coffee bridal shower because my sister loves all things coffee related. This is kinda an overview of the bridal shower, you can find out details of a lot of things by clicking on the links. The shower turned out great! My sister and her husband loved it. All the guests seemed to have a good time too. You can see more of my inspiration in my bridal shower pinterest board.

We held my sister's shower on a June Sunday afternoon at 2:00. We held the shower at my mom's church which had a great room with couches and an attached kitchen that was perfect for this.

For the food we had: 

Fruit Tray - Store bought by co-host

Veggie Tray - Store bought by co-host

Wrap Sandwiches - Store bought by co-host

Cheesecake Bites

Nutella Brownie Bites

Biscotti Bites - store bought

Chocolate Chip Cookies - used store bought dough

Mini Fruit Pizza

Coffee w/ sugar, creamer - store bought (I got several little packets of coffee from Target for less than $1 each, so we could try a couple different kinds)

Ice Tea - Store bought by co-host

Lemonade - Store bought by co-host

Flavored Water

Coffee Punch

Hot Chocolate w/ marshmallows - store bought

Tea w/ sugar, creamer - store bought

We had way too much food. I didn't realize until afterward just how much food we had and how I spent a little too much. I think if I were to do it again I would make less items. Very little of the actual coffee was drunk because the coffee punch was such a big hit. So I probably would have served just one, maybe two types of coffee instead of the five types we had available. I probably would have made fewer desserts as well. But the food was very good and well enjoyed by all. And the coffee punch was a super big hit!


The Games I planned:

Wedding Things/Apples to Apples

The Story of the Bride and Groom - prizes for bride’s favorite, most true, least true, funniest

How Well Do You Know the Bride and Groom

What is in Your Purse

Wedding Bingo

You can find details about the games and free printables here.

Decorations/Extras

Favors: Merci Chocolates (found at Target on clearance)

Prizes: Mini Ground Coffee Packets, Chocolate, Candles, etc.

Balloon Chandelier (we didn't have time to actually do this, but it is so cute, we did get the balloons blown up but they ended up just sitting on the floor)

Towel Cake

Tablecloths (dollar store)

I used purple and brown because purple was the main wedding color.

Schedule

2:00-2:10 Arrival - Purse Game

2:10 Introduce Ourselves, Name, How you know the bride or groom, What you like best about the bride

2:10-2:30 Food

2:30-2:45 Know Bride and Groom Game

2:45-3:00 The Story of the Bride and Groom

3:00-3:30 Open Gifts/Wedding Bingo

3:30-4:00 Wedding Things

I also made a Coffee Themed Present.

I also made a supplies list for the party, I thought that I would give it to all of you so you wouldn't have to recreate what I have worked on :) Print the Supplies List

Linked Up To:
The Frugal Girls, The Thriftiness Miss, The Foley Fam, Fun-a-Day!, Blissful and Domestic, While He Was Napping,

How to write a wedding toast

Writing a toast for a wedding is hard.

Originally I wasn't going to be giving a toast for my sister's wedding. She had my other sister and I as co-maids of honor and she had wanted our other sister to give the toast. I wasn't offended (I was a little relieved not to have to write one :). But her husband (who had two best men) wanted both his best men to give a toast (or maybe they both wanted to give one, I don't remember) so she asked me to give one as well. Since there were going to be 4 toasts I knew I should keep it short. But other than that I didn't really have any idea of how to write a toast.

So I did what I normally do. I researched. I found some tips here, here, here, and here. (You can find those and a few other Maid of Honor tips Matron/Maid of Honor pinterest board). All of those have great advice for how to write a toast. I won't repeat everything that they said, I will simply share how I wrote my toast.

At least one of the posts said that I could use a quote, so I set about finding a quote that I liked. Though there were many many quotes about love, weddings, marriage and such, there were very few that I liked or that fit with anything that I might say about my sister, her husband, or their relationship.

But when I found this quote an inspiration struck! The quote was by Mignon McLaughlin who said "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person." (I think I found it here).

The inspiration that I had was to share the reasons that I loved my sister. And then after thinking about that for a while I realized that it would be even more meaningful if I included reasons why several people loved her. So I questioned several of our family and her friends and asked what they loved about her.


Here is the toast that I came up with (edited to take out names of course :)

Hi, my name is [me], I am [bride]’s sister. I am so honored to be here today standing up to support [bride] and [groom] as they start their new life as a married couple!

Mignon McLaughlin said "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person."

[groom], I know that you have found many reasons to love [bride] and I know that you will find many more to fall in love with over the years. I just wanted to share some of the reasons that we love [bride]

There is just so much to love about [bride]. She is so much fun, it is rarely boring with her. She is loyal, she is a friend for life. She is up for anything. She is great to talk to.

These are just a few reasons that I love [bride], but I am not the only one who loves her. I took a small poll of some of [bride]’s close friends and family and these were the reasons that they gave.

[Aunt] said her adventurous spirit and beautiful smile

[Mom] said her diligence and sensitivity in her work.

[Her friend] said when someone in her life is interested in something she doesn’t care for; she makes an effort to like it, or at least to understand what makes it likeable

[Aunt] said she couldn’t give just one reason ... [bride] is beautiful in so many ways!

[Her friend] said No matter the miles between you, you still know your friendship is rock solid. And on top of that it's effortless

[Cousin] said our mutual obsession of coffee makes me smile

[Aunt] said her optimistic love for life and people!

[Her friend] said [bride] is one of those people who is always up for just about anything, and you know you will have a lot of fun!

[Sister] said I love that I can talk to her about anything and she will listen

These are just a few reasons that we who have known [bride] love her, there are many many more. I hope you spend the rest of your lives finding reasons to love each other, and that you fall in love with each other as many times as you can!

Let’s drink to [groom] and [bride]!

I personally loved my toast, my sister loved it too, and it was well received by all. I took it printed out to read because I knew that there was no way I could remember all of that without having it written in front of me.

What about you? Have you ever written a wedding toast? How did you plan yours out?



Linked Up To:
The Frugal Girls, The Thriftiness Miss, The Foley Fam, Fun-a-Day!, Blissful and Domestic, While He Was Napping,