There are big changes afoot in the Big Dot of Happiness world! Through the years, you’ve come to know us as THE place to purchase everything you need to host a great party…we’re your one-stop-shop for all your party supplies. Well, the Big Dot family is thrilled to announce we’re now also your place for party tips, ideas, and inspirations…

Introducing the Big Dot of Happiness Blog!

Now you can join SimplyWeddingStuff.com and the rest of our sister sites at the all-new Big Dot of Happiness Blog as we share and discuss our favorite party supplies, tips, projects, and recipes—and show you how to incorporate them into your next event, whatever the occasion. At the Big Dot of Happiness Blog, you’ll find all the party expertise you’ve come to expect from our company, brought together in one handy, accessible spot.

So come, be a part of the Big Dot community, and let us help you take your parties to the next level—the Big Dot of Happiness way!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

With my cousin’s Jack-and-Jill wedding shower coming up, I have to figure out some ways to keep the guys entertained. Now I’ll admit that I love the idea of putting them in charge of grilling at a BBQ, but I think I need to come up with more than that! Oh, decisions…

For some reason, karaoke is coming to mind but I just can’t talk myself into coordinating that into a wedding shower. Maybe afterwards?

Ooooo! Horseshoes. I know my parents have a never-been-used horseshoe set that needs to be put to good use. The guys could be manly and put together the horseshoe pit while the ladies visit and do some of the usual bridal shower things. Although I promised the bride-to-be that I’d keep the games to a minimum, so I’ll need to be creative on the ladies side of entertainment as well. But I must say, I like the horseshoe idea for the guys.

What do you think of doing something along the lines of the newly-wed game? Too cheesy? Ridiculously fun? Hmmmm…I might have to ask my husband about it. He’s usually a good sport and we could include the not-so-newlyweds and learn more about the parentals before they became Mom and Dad.

So much planning, so little time! I’ll keep you up-to-date on how things turn out and maybe even have the opportunity to share a picture or two from the wedding shower.

Posted by Sara, a Dot-arilla Blogger

As it turns out, my mother is planning my cousin’s upcoming wedding shower as well. And to say that we work well together would be ridiculous. We butt heads, each want to take the lead and can’t spend more than a few minutes on the phone coordinating details before tempers flare.

And while I completely understand that the wedding shower isn’t about my mother or myself, I have to admit that I was more thrilled about pulling it all together when I was the only one in charge. I’m a bit of a control freak like that.

So I think that a solution to this will be to have each of us take ownership of certain aspects of the wedding shower while staying on the same page with the overall direction of what the happy couple wants for their celebration. Mom’s already claimed the invitations. Maybe I’ll take on the guest favors?

Have any of you planned a wedding shower with the help or under the guidance of your mother? If so, do you have any tips or tricks to share? Do tell!

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official…I’m taking the lead on planning my cousin’s wedding shower! I couldn’t be more excited! This is the first bridal shower that I’m taking the lead on and while I have LOADS of experience planning weddings, we all know that a wedding shower is a completely different story.

My cousin and his bride-to-be have decided to do a couples wedding shower and due to crazy work schedules, we’re looking at having it on a Saturday night in September. Talk about opening up some opportunities for a non-traditional bridal shower! Needless to say, I’m up for the challenge.

But there were a few sensitive issues at play. Namely, the bride-to-be had been previously married and I wasn’t sure how comfortable she’d be being the center of attention. Thankfully, I was able to run the situation by SimplyWeddingStuff.com’s fabulous customer service department. My conversation with Emily confirmed that it’s more than ok to celebrate a second marriage with a wedding shower and immediately suggested a Jack-and-Jill shower. I ran the idea by the happy couple to be and they were all about it. In fact, they had already thought about it! Great minds, I tell ya..

Now to figure out a location, time, theme, coordinate the hostesses and all the other details!

Posted by Sara, a Dot-arilla Blogger

All girls have one thing in common; we love good chocolate! That is why a chocolate fountain is the perfect focal point for wedding shower decorating. A large fountain, with chocolate flowing down over its tiers, is just as decorative as it is tasty. Your guests can head over to the chocolate table and dip ripe strawberries, pieces of pound cake and marshmallows into the fountain for a sweet treat. The smell of melted chocolate will fill the air putting everyone in a festive mood. If you choose to use a chocolate theme for your wedding shower, send your guests home with their own chocolate party favor. Purchase personalized candy bar wrappers to wrap up chocolate bars for your guests to take home with them.

Posted by Amy, a Dot-arilla Blogger

Send us pictures of your baby showers, birthday parties, baptisms, bridal showers and weddings, and we will post them on Facebook to share with everyone.

Pictures are great inspiration to other party planners. Send your event pictures to Smiles@BigDotOfHappiness.com!

Looking for something a little out of the ordinary for your something blue? Try one of these three unique ideas for your wedding day:

1. Be a bold bride and paint your toes in a blue hue
2. Be daring and go with a blue temporary tattoo
3. Be sophisticated and chose to order a dress label with your wedding date embroidered in blue

Prefer more classic options? Consider a blue garter, hair accessories or flower arrangements. You can even add in blue guest favors from SimplyWeddingStuff.com’s Blue Weddings and Tiffany Blue Wedding options. The Something Blue or the Bridal Silhouette Tiffany Blue Mini Candy Wrappers would be great choices. You can personalize the wrappers with your own message and share the sweetness with your guests.

So, what will you choose for your something blue? Will you be bold, daring, sophisticated or classic? What other ideas have you thought of for your something blue? Do tell!

Posted by Sara, a Dot-arilla Blogger

The bridal shower season has officially kicked-off, within the past couple of weeks I have received a couple of bridal shower invites and my maid of honor has started planning my bridal shower. The first thing we did to start planning my bridal shower was to figure out a date that works for everyone in the wedding party, and close family and friends. After that we picked out a location for the bridal shower and since my bridal shower is still a couple months away we have been researching ideas for the shower. Items we have been deciding on are my bridal shower theme, games and decorations for the party. We have found the following to be “most haves” for the 2010 Bridal Shower Season!

1. Bridal Silhouette Invitations: SimplyWeddingStuff.com has gorgeous bridal shower invitations with many styles available that have a bridal silhouettes. My personal favorite is the Bridal Silhouette Purple.

2. Fabulous 5 Bridal Shower Game: No more playing boring games at bridal showers. The Fabulous 5 Game is a modern twist on bridal shower games that all of your guests will love. The game is available in 3 colors (black & white, brown, and pink) and comes with the option to personalize the front of the bridal shower game with the bride-to-be’s name.

3. Bridal Shower Decorations: We loved the bridal shower tableware and personalized placemats available at SimplyWeddingStuff.com. The bridal shower theme we decided on using was the Bridal Silhouette Purple and the coordinating placemats are perfect for decorating our tables there is also a great selection of ideas for centerpieces.

4.Personalized Bridal Shower Favors: There are so many get options for personalized bridal shower favors at SimplyWeddingStuff.com, especially if you want to create your own favors using their do it yourself tags and empty favor jars. Other favors at SimplyWeddingStuff.com that I adore that do not have personalization are the cosmetic mirror, manicure sets, and notepads.

Enjoy planning your bridal shower! SimplyWeddingStuff.com is truly a one-stop shop for planning bridal showers. Looking for more information on planning a bridal shower go the Bridal Shower Checklist, it is full of a great tips on planning a shower.

A couple weeks before my husband’s bachelor party he got a phone call from a friend – who let in on a big secret… he was invited to a tool party for a soon-to-be Groom. My husband immediately threw a fit (I am not exaggerating) and said “you work at a company that throws bridal showers and you didn’t know about this?” I had nothing to say….had no idea! He thought it was a great excuse to have the guys over to hang out in the garage, eat pizza and drink beer (I think it was to get everyone to come over to drool over the race car – bring a tool as a gift was optional. It was the “excuse” to get every guy out of the house and into our garage. This was a perfect idea for my husband- he spends 80% of his time in the garage where his race car, snowmobiles, vehicles, the dogs, etc. hang out. This is his man cave. I felt pretty bad because I had missed a great opportunity….but knowing his bachelor party was a week away it was a bit too late. I did a search on Google and there is some really cool wording for an invitation that I couldn’t resist. Here it is below. If you can’t stand the thought of your soon to be husband having a bachelor party this is a great suggestion. I would highly recommend coming down with the flu before having to go to a “man store” such as Sears to register…but I think my husband would say the same about Target. Haha!

Tony James
May be ready for marriage,
But we’re not sure he understands…
He’s about to become
Yvette’s Full-Time Handy-Man!
Let’s prepare the groom for life
After the honeymoon!
Tool Time Bachelor Party
Saturday, November 10th at 7pm
Tony’s Garage
220 Siskiyou Ave.
Menomonie, WI
Registered at: Sears & Menards

Posted by Yvette, an Expert Expert

Planning a bridal shower can be a bit hectic and it is always helpful to have a checklist. My aunt threw me a last minute bridal shower and I know she was running around like crazy…a checklist would have been very handy. I used this same checklist for a baby shower I threw as well…it helps with planning any party! Happy Planning!

2 Months Before the Bridal Shower:
- Set the Date (check with traveling guests to be sure they can make it)!
- Make your guest list (talk to the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. to make sure you do not miss anyone).

Decisions Decisions…Decide on the location, menu, and bridal shower theme right away because it will make the rest of your planning easy! After you have decided on the location, menu, and theme you can purchase invitations, return address labels, and matching thank you cards. Check out SimplyWeddingStuff.com’s bridal shower themes, we have everything you need for your bridal shower; invitations, favors, thank you cards, address labels, and decorations.

1 Month/3 Weeks Before the Bridal Shower:
- Send out your invitations (Don’t forget to include directions to the bridal shower, including the zip code on invitations helps with navigation).
- Order cake.
- Order decorations (balloons, bouquets of flowers, etc).
- Purchase tableware, favors, games; and game winner gifts (Simplyweddingstuff.com is a great place to get all of your bridal shower party supplies!)
- Finalize menu.
- Buy your bride-to-be a gift.

1 Week Before the Bridal Shower
- Final guest count (may have to call late RSVP’s).
- Confirm all reservations (venue, flowers, cake, etc).
- Wrap your bride-to-be gift.
- Get your camera ready!
- Plan your outfit. Buy yourself something special, you are planning it after all!

Day Before Party
- Pick up cake.
- Purchase drinks and ice.
- Do you have party trays or serving bowls? If not, purchase some to server the food on.
- Make street signs for guests.
- Set up tables, chairs and decorations.
- Prepare your food.
- Wrap any gifts, favors (don’t forget your personalized candy bar wrappers), and game prizes.

Bridal Shower Party Day
- Main dish in the oven?
- Run your errands-inflate balloons, etc..on your way home put up street signs for guests.
- Set out beverages, ice and glasses.
- Set up food and appetizers.
- Be ready for the doorbell to ring early (you know grandma will be 20 minutes early at least).
- Greet everyone with a smile…and most of all enjoy yourself!

To see more bridal shower planning tips check out our SimplyWeddingStuff.com Bridal Shower Guide: http://www.simplyweddingstuff.com/brshad.html

Posted by Yvette, an Expert Expert