The best "stock the bar" party this immediate side of the Mississippi

For the past several months, Allison and I have been planning this couples shower for our recently-engaged former roommate Brady. I'm not a fan of anything extra girly, so a traditional wedding shower was pretty much not going to happen on my watch, and because every one likes free booze, a "stock the bar" party seemed to fit the bill. Since Allison is planning her own wedding, and since I am perpetually broke, we both wanted to do the party on the cheap -- so we got crafty. Taking a break from most of my knitting works in progress, I spent the past few weeks gathering crafty things and creating stuff for the party. In the end, I think we had a pretty fun night, and aside from the cuddle-raping (more later) the night was a success. Here's how we did it.

The Barnes family was very gracious, and let us have the party at their family's cabin on the Mississippi river. Venue = free, and not to mention precious and relaxing.

I designed the invitations myself and was able to find a printer in town to print them professionally. Sure, I could have gone to the Kinko's in my work parking lot, but that would have been too convenient. Plus I would have had to cut them myself. Overall, Invitations = $40 including postage and envelopes.

We put BYOB on the invitations, because if there is one thing I know about the Arkansas Delta, it's that people there can put away some booze. I can barely afford beers for myself some weekends, so they needed to bring their own. We provided a little booze in the form of a signature cocktail - sweet tea vodka, lemonade and water. Cost of cocktail = $26 for booze (split between me and Allison), $20 for pretty drink dispenser. I don't know if I will ever use the drink dispenser again, but maybe I can sell it to someone who is having a party. Check out the paper flowers by the drink, I made those!

Since we had the party during dinner time, we felt like we needed to provide food for our guests. Originally the plan was to cook out, but Allison and I decided against that, and chose to make taco soup and chili. Those are much easier to make in bulk, and it was perfect since it turned out to be rainy night. I went to Sam's and spent $80 on chili stuff, candy, dip, chips and desserts. I still have a lot left over and I don't plan on going grocery shopping all this week. Not too shabby for food for dinner for 40 people, and a week's worth of food for me.

I spent probably another $15 on odds and ends for the party, like plates, cups, mason jars and a new ladle. That brings the grand total to $168 spent on the bash, not including my gifts, but I would have bought those if I wasn't hosting the party, so they aren't really relevant to adding up the costs. I don't want to seem like I am really hung up on the cost of the party, because I would do anything to throw a fun party for my besties, but I also love finding a good deal, and any chance I can use to get crafty, I want to take it!

Aaaaaaand back to the cuddle raping... Around 3 a.m. Brady's cousin crawls into bed with me and drunkenly tries to cuddle with me. After a quick cussing out courtesy of yours truly, I think he sat up, realized I was not the person he was supposed to be cuddling with, and quietly slips out of the room. A shady ending to an otherwise perfect evening!