My Bridal Shower

I think I had been engaged about 15 minutes before I started thinking about my Bridal Shower. I'm not sure why...I assume most recently engaged women start thinking about their wedding dress, or saying their vows, or the lives with their future spouses. Don't get me wrong...I was thrilled to be engaged to John and about our future life as Mr. and Mrs. but somewhere after calling my entire family and finally running a brush through my hair, a thought entered my mind. "I get to have a bridal shower".

I think I've been to three bridal showers in my whole 26 years of life, but I loved them. And I especially loved that only women got to go. I know this must sound terribly old fashioned of me, but I loved that they were women only. And I think for me, my love of these all lady parties comes from the relationship with the women in my life.

I don't say this to reduce the role of the men in my life. I have wonderful male friends, and fantastic uncles (blood related and not). And don't even get me started on my Dad because I could go on for paragraphs...pages, probably.

But the women in my life. I'm sure that in reality the number of men and women in my family is about equal, but I tend to think of my family as a women dominated group. Maybe because we're a particularly loud group? Maybe because I have a sister and a Mom who I consider to be my best friends. Maybe because the women in my life have such big personalities and have always modeled for me the strength, compassion and love for others that I aim to have.

And my girlfriends. Where do I even start? We could start with Tammy who flew all the way from California to surprise me. Or my soon to be sister-in-law, Laura, who has bestowed upon me the best gift I think anyone could give a bride...a sister-in-law to love. Or my friend Becca who I learned how to be a grownup with our very first year out of college in an apartment in Bensonhurst. Or my friend Stephanie who I have a constant stream of dialogue with every day via Gchat, who knows my house better than I do and who lets Dilly snuggle on her even though I'm pretty sure she hates it. Or my bestie Ashley who literally carried me through my last two years of college and who once went to Kinkos for me at 4:30am and who has seen my ugliest crying face. Or my cousin Bridget, who has known me since I was born and who suddenly is turning into her mother and tells me I'm turning into mine.

On Saturday these women in my life who I love so much pushed me a little closer toward wife-dom.

My bridal shower was basically everything I hoped it would be...but a little more because there was a candy table!

If you ask my sister, I cried too much. But honestly I'm not sure what anyone expected from me with the gifts people gave us. Like below where my Mom wrote me a letter and filled a cookbook with her hand written recipes.

This is me exclaiming, "There are three pages for gravy!"

My Mom also made me the most beautiful sewing box out of a Shaker Box with a cross stitched scissor holder...its the most beautiful thing anyone has ever given me.

I was nearly positive that my Bridesmaid's were going to quit during gift opening. Apparently I was taking too long and they were told to speed up the line. As they were shoving gifts at me Becca looked me dead in the eye and said "Thank you so much for being the first one to do this...now we know for next time!"

And my Aunt Kathy made us the most beautiful cross stitched O! I've already put it up in our living room, even though we're not married yet. I love it so much!

Also, I've been informed that this is a lingerie bag and not a pencil case. You should know I will probably be using it as a pencil case. 

The centerpieces were so beautiful and I currently have five huge mason jars filled with flowers all over my house. I think I might need to keep them filled all the time!

AND there was even a game! I asked my Mom what the rules were and she said "I don't know, I kind of figured everyone would just yell out their answers and you would pick the winner". Note to self for future bridal showers: there must be a buzzer! So much yelling! Also was #10 really necessary? I had a lisp. It was a bad lisp but incredibley adorable if I do say so myself.

Thank you so much to everyone who came on Saturday, I'm so lucky to have you all in my life. And extra thank yous to my Mom and sister who plan a mean party!