This past Saturday, I threw a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law, Melissa.

Wait!! Don’t click away from the page yet! BEER! We brewed BEER for it! This post is about BEER and FOOD, not wedding dresses and gift registries!!

See? Beer.

*ahem* Anyway. Melissa is beer- and food-crazed, much like myself (check out her and my brother’s blog Bathtub Brewery), so I wanted to plan something that would satisfy both of our foodie/beer loving needs. So I came up with the theme “Close to Home.” Essentially, everything at the shower was either homemade or obtained from a local source. For example, the BEER.

We brewed two beers especially for Melissa. The first was a berry wheat beer brewed with raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, which we called “Sweet Melissa Wheat” (yes, like the song). We mainly made this in an attempt to get non-beer-drinking women to give beer a shot. And it did work for some, which was great!

Now, Melissa enjoys a good stout, so we brewed a chocolate cherry stout that we called “So Melissa Won’t Pout Stout” *snicker*. I figured we wouldn’t be able to convince many of the women to try this one, but we still made it fruity and sweet so that they could at least see that beer doesn’t have to be bitter and manly.

I also picked up three bottles of wine from a PA winery called Clover Hill Vineyards, which were quite good. The favors were chocolate truffles from a local chocolatier called Prestige Chocolates. I highly recommend both!

I spent a good amount of time in the kitchen preparing for this party. We’re talkin’ homemade ravioli, bison meatballs (the meat came from a local bison farm), beer bread (I swear, the recipe is coming soon!), salads full of fresh produce from local farms, coffee-chocolate layer cake, and coconut-lime bars. A couple family members also chipped in with homemade goodies.

So yeah, I’d say it was pretty rockin’. And I know Melissa really loved it, which is all that matters!

If you’re looking for some ideas for throwing a party with all local/homemade foods and drinks, here are the beverage and food menus I created for the shower. Have a look!