Citrus Themed Wedding Shower

Over Memorial Day weekend I hosted a wedding shower for one of my best friends, De.

It was an absolute blast working with her bridesmaids to come up with a theme and scheming on the details of the menu and decor.  I absolutely love hostessing, especially showers.  I get such a kick out of entertaining on a small scale, for such a close knit group of women.  It’s great to see the love and support they provide to the people you care about.

De with two of her other bridesmaids and co-hostesses.

De’s wedding colors are orange and green, which made me think of limes and tangerines and fun citrusy flavors. We decided to run with the citrusy color palate and create a citrus themed shower.

We used lemons, limes and oranges incorporated into the floral decor, and we embraced citrus and other bright flavors for the menu.

One of my favorite details from the party was the “Make Your Own Champagne Cocktail” bar we set up.  Traditional brunch cocktails like the mimosa and bellini were joined by cocktails we dreamed up such as the “Hibiscus Punch” and “Magnolia Blossom”.  Based on my observation, the Magnolia Blossom which was pear nectar and champagne was the most popular.

The yummy buffet spread included: shooters of curried zucchini soup, roasted red pepper & tomato soup, prosciutto wrapped melon bites, caprese bruschetta, citrus shrimp pasta salad, lemon madeleines and lime cupcakes.

The curried zucchini soup was low cal and vegetarian, without compromising on flavor.

I thought the 3 oz shooters were a fun way to serve soup, we drank them right from the glasses – no spoons required.  You can pick up shot glasses like these by the case rather inexpensively at your local restaurant supply store.  The mother of the bride mentioned that they would be cute for serving desserts like mini parfaits or small servings of ice cream.  I’m glad I invested in these, and hope to get many miles from them in the future.

Both the prosciutto wrapped melon bites and the caprese bruschettas were easy for entertaining – very little cooking required, mostly an assembly job.

Salty procuitto paired with sweet cantelop may sound a little odd – but it is delightful!  I had this as an appetizer in Florence ten years ago, and I’ve never forgotten it.

Shhh.  Don’t tell anyone, but I didn’t make my own pesto this time.  I meant to, but it didn’t happen.  But luckily our local HEB has a prepared foods section with a mediterranean emphasis.  It was pretty good, but I make mine heavier on the garlic.

I’m not a fan of shrimp generally, but I think I may be a recent convert now that I’ve discovered citrus shrimp pasta salad.  I created this recipe after reading several similar shrimp salads from favorites like Ina Garten, Giada DeLaurentis and Paula Dean.  I’ll share the recipe later this week – it’s the perfect main dish for summer entertaining.

For a sweet ending to the brunch, we had lemon madeleines and lime cupcakes.  I made the madeleines with my new madeleine pan that my parents brought me back from their most recent trip to Paris.  The lime cupcakes are from Polkadots Cupcake Factory in Austin, one of my co-hostesses picked them up for me.  They were to.die.for!  I ate one for breakfast the next morning, and I’m craving one right now as I type this.

Not that anyone was hungry after that yummy buffet… but we had a little something sweet for the guests to take for the road.

Tagged as: baking, cooking, entertaining, weddings