Gone are the days of stuffy bridal showers in your partner-to-be’s great-aunt’s living room. As much as we love sitting on couches covered in plastic and receiving a somewhat awkward mix of kitchen appliances and lingerie, it’s time to think beyond the traditional shower. In this post, we’ll show you how to whisk your gals off to an IRL Midsummer Night’s Dream. Meet your new pre-wedding tradition: the boho bridal picnic!
We teamed up with Kia to bring this dreamy picnic in the woods to life. The Kia Sportage is a car designed for the gal that’s a planner and adventurer in one. Perfectly curated experiences and excursions are what this ride was made for, and today’s boho shower is no exception. Scroll on to see how to create your own take on this totally Pinterest-worthy gathering.
Before you get carried away buying and DIYing all sorts of stylish details, start by scouting out the perfect location. We recommend looking at day permits at campgrounds or checking out parks that are nearby.
A Dreamy Location in the Woods
If you live in a city, we strongly suggest getting out of the city so that you can really escape the hustle and bustle of your everyday life. If you live in the ‘burbs or the sticks, you may be able to transform your (or a friend’s) backyard into this fairy princess scene. Bonus points if you’re so far out that you don’t even have cell service so that you’re truly living in the boho picnic moment.
Once you’ve nailed down a location, you’ve gotta get yourself, the bride and your gals there. For our gathering of five ladies, we were able to all pile into the Kia Sportage. Fill the trunk (and, admittedly, your laps) with all the pillows, blankets and goodies you need.
Sweet Set of Wheels aka Your Magic Carpet
After you’ve arrived at your location, set the bride up with a DIY photo album of old and new snapshots or something else to entertain her while you set up the scene. Or ask her to help! ;)
Flowy fabrics and floral prints better step right up, because we’ve gotta transform these gals into fairy queens! Whether you’re the bride, MOH or bestie organizing this event, it’s always good to give guests a loose dress code. In this case, we simply asked that people wear their most bohemian outfits and everyone showed up looking like a princess.
Boho Dress Code
Naturally, we decided to take our flowing dresses for a spin ;)
To create a supremely cozy scene, pile on the pillows, blankets and tapestries. That way you can turn any patch of grass into a picnic.
Pillows, Blankets and Tapestries
Scope out your location before the big event so you can see what all you need. In the case of this spot, there was a natural dining area made up of log benches and a big wooden table in the middle. Our colorful textiles simply added comfort and personality!
In addition to lightweight textiles, we brought a few rugs to throw on the ground to add another layer to the scene. Rugs are also way more durable than blankets, and you don’t have to worry about both walking and sitting on them. Just be sure to use rugs that are easy to wash.
Rugs in the Outdoors, Genius
We built a photo backdrop right off the trunk. Follow along to see how it’s done.
DIY Fabric Photo Backdrop
Materials: (The number of fabric and ribbon strips will vary depending on how wide your trunk is, but this is the amount of materials we used for a 4-foot-wide backdrop.)
— 3 types of fabric cut into 1-inch-thick, 7-feet-long strips (cut 15-20 strips for each fabric)
— 3 types of ribbon cut into 4 – 6 feet long strips (cut 10 strips for each ribbon)
— 6 feet of floral wire
Instructions:
Smooth out the floral wire so that the majority of the kinks are straightened out. Take one of the fabric strips and fold it in half. Hold the folded part of the fabric over the wire and loop the ends through the loop so that the ends wrap around the wire. Be sure to make the first loop 12 inches from the end of the wire (you’ll use the wire ends to attach to the car trunk).
Continue adding fabric and ribbon strips to the wire with the same looping technique as the first strip. Keep adding strips to fill out the wire but be sure to leave the last 12 inches of the wire fabric free. For ours, we didn’t stick with a strict pattern but made sure all colors and textures were evenly distributed. We also liked mixing longer lengths with shorter lengths, so no need to fold your strips exactly in half before looping.
To attach your backdrop to your opened trunk, have a friend help you wrap the wire ends of the backdrop to any nooks and crannies on the inside sides of the trunk.
We used some extra wire to connect the middle of the backdrop to the middle of the trunk.
Say cheese!
We went with a dessert focus for the menu of this afternoon in the woods. This means donuts, fruit tarts, donut holes, macaroons, macarons and lots of fresh fruit. Let’s roll through the main characters here, just to make sure our mouths are sufficiently watering.
Lots of Sweets
Vegan donuts? Yes please.
This two-tiered tray is filled with decadent cookies, tartlets and more.
This flavor-packed pie is part custard, part cheesecake and ALL parts delicious.
As much as we love a good old pitcher or punch bowl, be sure to bring bottled beverages that can stay relatively bug-free during your party. We brought Strawberry and Raspberry Lemonade. So refreshing. And if you’re feeling saucy, bring soda water to turn either of these yummy sippers into a spritzer.
Bottled Beverages
It might seem crazy to bring fresh flowers to an event that takes place in the great outdoors, but they’ll add a nice pop of color and fragrance to your setup.
Fresh Flowers
Blend them in with paper flowers and other botanical decor items for a full floral takeover.
This one is obvious. One cannot be a woodland princess without a flower crown. That’s all there is to it. We ordered most of these online but we’ve also got a great tutorial for creating your own crown out of crepe paper. This is also a fun DIY project to create *at* the actual bridal shower, because who doesn’t love a par-DIY?
Flower Crowns
Go old school and bring along an instant camera so you can take a few snaps to pin up on your fridge or bulletin board.
Instant Camera for Old School Memories
It’s a great way to capture these pre-wedding moments in a way that seems like it belongs in the woods ;) That being said, you should also take plenty of digital pics!
And yeah, you should probably take a selfie.
The centerpiece of this tablescape is definitely that gorgeous paper flower garland. Created by Brit + Co production assistant Irene Lee, this beauty will take a couple evenings or afternoons to create and is best made while binging on Netflix. Follow the steps below to make your own.
DIY Paper Flower Garland
Materials:
— 5 different colors of crepe paper for the flowers (We used white and pinks for the flowers and greens for the leaves)
— scissors
— paint
— paintbrush
— hot glue gun
— floral tape
— floral wire (cut into 6-8 inch long pieces)
Instructions:
Cut petal shapes into the crepe paper. We layered up the crepe paper so we could cut more than one petal at a time. Cut leaf shapes into the green crepe paper.
For each flower, you will want to cut six small petals, six medium petals, six large petals and several leaves.
Very lightly brush the large petals with some paint and let dry. Once dry, tug the top halves of the petals so that they curve into cups. Tug the medium and small petals too.
Begin assembling the flower by adding a drop of hot glue to the bottom of a small petal and wrap around the tip of a piece of wire. Keep gluing all the small petals around the wire. Once all of the small petals are attached, glue the medium petals on.
Glue the large petals on next.
Glue the bottom corner of a leaf and wrap around the wire. Add as many or as little as you please.
When you have multiple flowers made, connect their wire stems together with floral tape.
Lay on your table to immediately add boho vibes to your spread. Cheers!
This post is a collaboration with Kia.