Bridal Shower!

I swore on my stack of twelve new cookbooks that I wouldn't blog about the bridal shower until AFTER I finished all of the thank you notes! Talk about motivation to get those finished in record time :) Now I can share some photos and stories from this weekend's festivities.

A good friend of NavyGuy's mom offered to host a bridal shower for me. She has known NavyGuy since he was five; her daughter and NavyGuy went to school together for years, and the moms have been friends for a long time. Linda, with me in the photo above, was kind enough to host a shower for this silly girl she's never met! Linda could not be any nicer though; she pulled together a simply beautiful little afternoon lunch for myself and all of the guests.

Despite the horrid weather (stormy rainy all day long... it showered for my shower), many of NavyGuy's and my relatives and friends showed up decked out in their finest, ready to celebrate. First up was a yummy lunch; chicken salad, fruit, croissants, and spinach salad. The meal was topped off with chocolate or champagne flavored cupcakes!

Here's a group of NavyGuy's relatives dining. Aren't the tables adorable? Linda really went all out with beautiful floral centerpieces (that also served as doorprizes for the person at each table who had the wedding date closest to ours), and colorful dishtowels rolled with ribbons that pulled double duty as a napkin at lunch, and a favor for each guest to take home. Check out the cupcakes on the tables, adorned with fresh fruit! Delicious! Plus, there were little take-out boxes to wrap up the extras for the ride home...
After lunch, I expected to have to do my duty and play some of those uncomfortable/corny shower games, but Linda spared me and sent me right over to a comfy chair to start opening gifts! Hooray! My MOH had quite the job ahead of her writing down all of the items I received; the shower was a "time" themed shower, where each guest got a time of day to shop for. For instance, my mom had bath time, so she got us a collection of towels, bath supplies, and a great bath caddy that matches the fixtures in our bathroom. MOH did an awesome job making sure to write down every little piece of each person's gift basket.

People came up with the most creative gifts! One person had "cupcake time" so she gifted us with a cupcake pan, carrier, decorating kit, and the super neat Hello Cupcake book. Another had "cocktail time," so we received margarita glasses and pitcher, decorative margarita lights, a dance music cd, party napkins, and margarita mix and tequila! We also got, seriously, twelve different recipe books - and not a single duplicate! Amazing.

As Linda knew all the "times" people were given, she figured I'd need a good apron to go along with all the other items I was getting. And of course, she got a pink one (it even has a white monogrammed M near the top!). I had to model it immediately, doing my best June Cleaver impression (all that's missing is the pearl necklace). It was really unbelievable the amount of gifts people brought. Even in these tough economic times, our friends and family were so generous and thoughtful. It really makes me want to make sure we put on a spectacular wedding for them to really enjoy.

And of course, the ribbon bouquet. The best man's wife (pictured at far right) took care of assembling not one, but TWO, ribbon bouquets (one regular size, one toss bouquet) while I opened gifts. The girls above are each from a different part of my life (college friend, work friend, NavyGuy friend), but they all bonded quickly and shared their love/obsession with checking out the blog - hello girlies!

Spending the afternoon with everyone was a nice break from wedding planning, and a good bit of perspective. Much as the ceremony programs and cake flavors are important details on the wedding day, celebrating with friends and family is hopefully the thing I'm going to remember most clearly.