Shower Time

Last weekend, we had our very first shower. E's Aunt J1 hosted at her home with my future mother-in-law's help, and it was just beautiful and perfect. She really got excited about the decorations and theme. She made it look like a French bistro to go with the crêpes she ordered for the event from Le Petit Crêperie. Aunt J2 and all the other aunts actually (gotta love those Polish ladies!) helped in the kitchen and helped make the finishing touches in decor. My favorites were the potted flowers in the windows, the uptucks on the table cloths and the hydrangea napkins at the bridal table (to match my wedding flower!). It really made me feel special. I love doing the little details so when other people do them I totally notice!

Here are some pictures of the set-up:

I believe there were 30+ women in attendance and 1 groom - lucky Erik! In his family, it is traditional for the groom to go to the wedding shower and only have the female wedding guests invited. Works for me! It was fun to have him there and, as mentioned here, we bought new outfits for the event (thanks again, Mom). Here's us looking cute sporting our new duds:

Shhh... don't tell anyone but I'm wearing my wedding jewelry! They don't show up that much in pictures but I still love the necklace and earrings. I don't want to take too much away from the dress afterall!

Three of my lovely b-maids were able to make it up for the shower. And let me just say, I am SO GRATEFUL AND LUCKY to have such wonderful friends. Bmaids Jess and Steph drove 8 hours total two weekends before law school finals to come. MOH Kim flew in all the way from NYC. She was in town for 25 hours, I think. That's love! I feel that when all these girls get married they will expect major payback! And I will be more than happy to fly/ drive all over creation for them!!

Funny story about Kim's dress. I may have mentioned this before but at the beginning of the wedding planning my FMIL wanted to wear FUCHSIA to our wedding (our colors were originally bright pink and dark brown). I think my response to her saying that was "Hell no!!" but it's gotten a bit fuzzy now. . . Her dress is going to be a lovely navy number to match the wedding colors! Anyway, as soon as Kim whipped out this dress I knew FMIL was going to say something. She didn't say anything but I knew what she was thinking!

Another funny thing: This picture. Are we related or what?!

She will probably kill me for posting this. What's up with our weird chicken arm mannerism? This will have to be nipped in the bud. I do not want all the wedding photos to have this arm thing in them!

Here are some pics of the bridal party:

MOH Kim, Bmaid Jess, ME, Bmaid Stephanie

Did I mention there were plenty of mimosas and wine?!!


Requisite Shoe Shot

When it came time for us to eat, my FMIL started to make this lovely speech about how I'm the daughter she never had and that she feels so welcome in our home. She came to visit a few months ago, and I went all Martha Stewart on her—leaving chocolates, towels, and travel size bath products for her in her "room." She even came to one of my fittings. Anyway, I don't remember much else of what was said because she was doing this

to me. Yes, that's her choking the be-jesus out of me! I tried so hard to look pleasant but boy was it hard! I seriously could NOT breathe and my face was being squashed into her CHEST! Apparently, this has happened before to Erik. Needless to say when I was reviewing the photos that Bmaid Steph so wonderfully took, I nearly peed myself when I came across this one! Oh dear.

Anyway, it turned out alright and the shower went on without any more "incidents."

See, we still love each other even though I'm both worried about my hair and whether she left any marks around my neck!

After we ate, we did the oh-so-boring-for-the guests gift opening! Well, we played a "newlywed" type game first (both doing not so great mostly because we didn't even know the right answers for ourselves!). Also, all the guests wrote us advice for the wedding day on cards. I may or may not put those on the blog... Basically, people know us too well. Most of the advice was DON'T FREAK OUT on your wedding day if it's NOT PERFECT. Got it. :)

Anyway, here are photos from the gift opening:

I like this picture because Erik was soo excited! See, it pays for the grooms to go to the showers!

We are just touched by the generosity of our guests. It really was incredible. Life is already much better in the B/ N household. But I'll blog on our "upgrades" in another post. I just have to say that all the thank you cards have been sent. It was the least that we could do (get them out in a super timely fashion) to show how much we truly appreciated everything.

And one last picture: