This was by the far the grooviest wedding shower I’ve ever hosted!  The bride-to-be was a cool girl, and a great respecter of retro.  So when I proposed we do a 70’s themed shower, she gave me the green light.  Or should I say, the avocado green light . . .   Now I’ve seen some cheesy 1970’s party fare – disco balls, peace signs and “have a nice day” smiley faces.  But I wasn’t looking to do a drugged-out, fakey kind of 70’s party.  Instead I’m thinking, what would Carol Brady do if she were giving a wedding shower?  I started with the invitations.  I found a photo online of a Charlie’s Angels-era model, complete with the floppy hat, aviator sunglasses, and peasant dress.  I then found a font that supported the 70’s vibe – moderna.

The search was on.  The search for avocado green and harvest gold serving pieces and accessories.  My neighbor provided some vintage table cloths, while friends of the bride borrowed green, gold, and orange items from their mother’s and grandmother’s hall closets.  I had a record player that belonged to my dad and a bunch of old records from my in-laws, including The Carpenter’s Greatest Love Songs.  I couldn’t stop singing “Rainy Days and Mondays” . . .

Besides the 70’s colors, I started thinking about items that signified that era – like owls and mushrooms.   My mother-in-law had a set of mushroom kitchen canisters and I had my own collection of owls (I heart owls!) and green/gold glassware (which I blogged about here).  I went to an estate sale of a time-capsule 1970’s house and found these plastic paper plate holders and some other 70’s paraphenalia.  I also found some vintage plastic bridemaids on ebay.

Now for the menu:  I had a few vintage 1970’s cookbooks that belonged to my mom.  One was completely about conjealed salads and jell-o recipes – how 70’s is that?  I thought back to my mother’s dinner parties where the ladies wore blue eyeshadow and long, flowing dresses . . . and  food ideas began to emerge.  The menu consisted of:  Swedish meatballs served in an avocado green crockpot, a gorgeous congealed salad, cheese fondue, merengue cookies, party nuts, and a hideous chocolate cake with lots of fake plastic flowers.

My friend Jennifer made this GORGEOUS 70’s congealed salad, full of fruits, vegetables, and nuts.  Only in the 1970’s would someone come up with such a concoction!

This is truly the ugliest cake I have ever made.  But that was kind of the point.  It was very difficult to make the icing this brown plus it was a rainy day, so the icing was so cracked that it looked like mud.  Thank goodness for the plastic flowers that covered most of it up!

And no wedding shower in the 1970’s would be complete without the frothy sherbert punch served from the green punch bowl!

Of course, we all had to dress up in 1970’s-appropriate garb!  The bride-to-be was wearing a lovely orange frock and coordinating green headband.  So groovy.  When guests arrived, I assigned all the girls a 70’s name.  They had to go by this moniker (Misty, Rhonda, Dawn, Brenda, etc.) throughout the party.  Click here for a list of  Your 70’s Name.

You can’t have a wedding shower, especially in the 1970’s, without word games!  Click on these to play your own:  1970’s SuperCouples and 1970’s Teen Idol Mix-Up.  Of course, we had a test to see who had remembered all of the guests’ 1970’s names.

I must say, after a few weeks gathering 1970’s decor and covering my house in avocado green and harvest gold, I was SICK of the 1970’s.  No wonder so many people were doing drugs – all these drab colors are depressing!

All the shower guests went home with a CD of the great 1970’s love songs that played throughout the party.  These included soft rock favorites from artists like Captain & Tenille, Olivia Newton John, Bread,  John Denver, Rita Coolidge, the Carpenters, and even a little bit of David Cassidy.

My neighbor was kind enough to loan me her WEDDING DRESS from 1975 to wear to the shower!  The hat belonged to my husband’s grandmother.  The clogs and owl necklace are mine.

Photo Credits:  Kristie Barnett.