My Chelmsford Wedding Shower :: 50′s Housewife Theme

When it came time to plan my wedding shower, I wanted everything to do with it (much to the chagrin of my 5 Maid of Honors).

Have you ever heard of the Good Wife’s Guide?  If not, it’s high time you did.  The Good Wife’s Guide was supposedly printed in a 1955 issue of Housekeeping Monthly and is full of all sorts of amazing tips on what a wife can do to keep her man happy.  There is a lot of hilarity on this list, but this tip epitomizes the Guide for me:

Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

What better way to celebrate upcoming nuptials than to pay homage to the 50′s housewife?! Because well, I am so far from that person (and quite frankly, there was probably never a woman alive who was this person) and also– the Mad Men craze was/is in full effect with all of it’s fabulous clothing and hair styles!

I don’t think I would have wanted a shower at all unless it included all of the following things: pink + teal, martini’s, amazing 50′s outfits, red lipstick + nail polish, curlers, aprons + a fantastic game thought up by the dream team that is my Maid of Honors.  The game was dubbed the “Housewife Relay” and it tested your skills at dust busting, beating an egg, diapering (a teddy bear) and folding a stack of clothing.  The one thing missing was a cigarette hanging out of our mouths while completing these tasks.

Oh! And I grew up in Chelmsford, MA.  It just seemed fitting to have the shower in (what used to be and I still refer to as) the Old Town Hall (what is now actually called the Chelmsford Center for the Arts).  It was the perfect location, providing plenty of space for the photo booth and stage for the housewife timed relay and fit well with the theme.

VISUALS! The centerpieces were hot pink flowers wrapped in light pink tulle, put into blue “vases” (plastic cups) tied up nicely with pink polka dotted bows.

:: (L) Tower ‘O ‘Tini Glasses (R) Yours Truly in my Grandmother’s 50′s garb I found in my attic. I’m in the photo booth here, scroll below for some more amazing shots from the photo booth that night ::

:: No party is complete without a photo booth. Setting it up below ::

:: How well do you know the Bride? A “social mixer” game ::

:: Fantastic prizes included: Tide detergent, pinup Mad Libs, Martini Shaker, broom + dust pan, dish washing gloves, etc. ::

:: Housewife timed relays! How long does it take you and 3 friends to dust bust, crack + beat an egg, diaper a teddy bear and fold a stack of clothing? ::

PHOTO BOOTH SLIDESHOW!
:: Check out a few of my favorites (there were hundreds) from the photo booth ::

As a disclaimer, I refuse to go into the real facts of the decade including the very real the oppression of women at the time, and actually how close to the truth some of those expectations may have been on wives.