Fun in the shower

Okay so not that kind of fun.

I know that shower recaps can be rather dull to read (and sometimes to attend) but my MOH and my fiance came up with a really fun idea (that you can all pinch if you so choose).

She'd had a very intricate and impossible to do game all planned out and upon realizing that there was no way we could do it we all had to start brain storming ideas for something for people to do.

Then my guy suggested getting some black and white pipe cleaners.

And from that came the idea of having each guest make her own cake topper with the pipe cleaners. It was a throw back to the days of kindergarten when you're just given some supplies and allowed to be as creative as you want.

Here are some of the final creations.

I made the little groom and my MOH did the rest

This is my guys, though he also made a pipe cleaner dove.

The giant one with the groom's foot going into the bride's dess was my Mom's. We were all busting a gut laughing at the idea of the poor guys foot getting caught in her hoopskirts.

In hindsight though, we may have been dying of laughter due to the fact that it was a cheese and wine party. Regardless it's much more fun than being poked full of clothespins or having to TP the bride. Oh wait they did that to me as well.

It's hamburger, fire, and twilight zone day!

At least that's how I always celebrate the fourth of July (for all the non Americans just think of this as a really big bank holiday).

I would share my recipe for blue cheese hamburgers but it's pretty straight forward and boring. We're gonna spend most of the day treating it like it's a Saturday, reading the paper maybe doing a crossword, oh and putting away all the stuff we got from the shower!

I've heard of a few brides feeling empty after their shower is over, as they don't have anything to look forward to (til they suddenly remember they have to send out their wedding invitations tomorrow!) For us we had a full feeling, a very very full feeling.

I'd love to share a picture of our apartment covered in boxes but we didn't have the heart to take one of that mess. We managed to make a path for this past week but now it's time to attempt wading through and trying to put everything into its place (we may be needing to steal some closet space).

It's a toss up of what we were most excited to get.

1. We both love cheese so the opportunity to slice and grate whatever cheese we want was very exciting.
2. Courtesy of our cheap cheap forks the dishwasher has been gobbling them up for the past few months, so we were ecstatic to see we got some flatware and won't have to eat with our hands anymore (doesn't mean we'll stop though).

The one good thing about an 8 hour trip after the shower I had plenty of time to get all of the Thank Yous done on Sunday and mailed them off on Monday. So luckily all we have to do today is make a billion and one trips to the dumpster.

I did have one thought though. Wouldn't it be really cool if you could register at a grocery store? Get a good hunk of mozzarella or Gouda. A whole pork loin. Gotta be better than still asking for money, eh?

Oh well, one shower down one to go. But the next one promises to be much more relaxed and a complete 180 (there was talk we'd have it at Steak Buffet). So happy fourth to all the brides and grooms our there. Remember, keep watching the skies!

And thus it continues

Now for the post everyone really cared about, the shower games.

After spending a good 2 hours waiting and eating our food (the salad was good, but man do I regret not getting the london broil. What resturant gives the person who got the pasta dish the least amount of food?) we only had an hour to do two games and open all the gifts. So this flew by quickly.
The first "game" is a story. Apparently it was family tradition where they would read a little essay about marriage and at certain words hold up cleaning supplies that are the same word (aka glad=Glad, fantastic = Fantastik, and match= book of matches). It was cute and in the end I got a ton of cleaning supplies (score!) and a laundry basket (though as his sister just got engaged I left some of the weirder named products that are hard to find for his mom to use again (there really is something called Iron Out apparently). We will never have to buy dryer sheets or laundry detergent ever again. If anyone would like the story or wants to just see it just leave a comment and then I can get to the long hard task of typing it all out.

The next game uses everyones love of making a mess and deciding who is in charge. His Mom found a roll of toilet paper that was blue and roll that is pink (sadly I didn't get the blue one). The rules are the first one to roll off all the toilet paper wins and wears the pants in the family (not sure what pants have to do with TP).
I won, by using my tiny fingers and just spinning all the toilet paper off (after decorating my guy for a bit). My fiance said it wasn't fair because his fingers are larger than mine, but we already know I wear the pants (well aside from when I wear a dress or a skirt). We made a big mess though, so who doesn't love getting to do that?

The final game was a simple quiz for everyone else about us. After reading the thing over I couldn't help but realize we are incredibly boring people. Really, even coming up with 8 questions was a stretch.

I do like the drawing one of his cousins made on hers though. The winner at each table got to take the flower and ice bucket centerpieces home.

And that was about it. So what followed was the joy of getting all that stuff back down the stairs and into the cars. Tomorrow I'll tell the tale of me packing up our car with everything while it rained and in high heels.

And thus it begins

This is my three part series on a super fancy shower . . .

I am cursed with a helpful nature. Something about me just screams "trust me to do whatever you want I know exactly what I am doing at all times." Yeah, it sure would be nice if that were true.

So as the day of the shower dawned I got all snazzed up in a fancy dress and heaven help me put on high heels. I have a very limited number of dressy shoes (all of three, one for the wedding, one causes a weird rubbing on the top of my foot, and one has heels), so I went with something I very rarely wear. (I'm hard pressed to think of a time I wore them when I was little for dress up, I think instead I'd pretend I was the janitor here to fix the princess' running toilet.) Don't worry, all this text is going somewhere.

We showed up an hour early at the place and got to move box upon box up stairs and then back into the room. (Anyone who vacuums in high heels is nuts) For reasons that I don't understand I was left down in the foyer to guard all the presents while people in shorts and tank tops would walk into the resturant to get some food. I'm sure I was quite a sight, all glammed up with a corsage on my wrist (the last time I wore one of those was my confirmation).

Some of the stuff we had to haul up

After we got everything up into the room my fiance and I could for the most part sit back and relax while his Mom and sister went crazy setting everything up. The long debate about where to put everyone made me quite happy that we're not doing a seating arrangement. If no one likes anyone let them fight it out. It was also apparently essential that the silverware be moved to um well I'm not sure. But it was very important.
They really went all out on the table settings. The centerpieces were a flower plant in an ice bucket with some balloons tied to them (the balloons sure were trying to make a break for it in the car). The favors were some little dress and tux boxes that had a yankee candle in them (the few guys there got mint, so it smelled a lot like gum).

After all the set up, me and my guy had some chairs we could crash in and I kept asking him what the time was so I could glance at his watch (I was going nuts without mine, courtesy of the corsage). Soon all the guests started to show up and thus began the smoozing of the room (something I am just horribly terrible at). I'd offer up some tips for the introvert but I really don't have any aside from have a drink in your hand so if need be you can be fascinated by that.

Finally noon came and we all started to settle in hoping for some tasty food.

Tune in tomorrow for "We have to do what?"

It's scrubberin' time

Tomorrow we're heading due east to attend his sides shower. I've been a bit nervous about this one ever since his mom decided she was gonna do it. His family is the type where etiquette and "what was done before" is vital (some may also be really pissed that I'm not catholic so this could get really interesting). I'm more the type of person where even if it was done before, if it makes no sense to me I'm not gonna do it. But we've been making some consolations (I've even included the tissue paper in the invites).

Is it bad too when the shower is gonna be fancier than the wedding? Even the invitations have one of those ribbons and overlays while ours are just laser printed. And it's in one of those really fancy restaurants I just don't fit into (I'm more a throwing peanut shells on the floor kinda girl, they don't seem to really like that at Panera), so I also got to get into a dress and get all glammed up.

So in honor of my "slight" fears of this whole thing I present the worst of bridal showers.

• First off are the worst bridal shower gifts. I doubt I have to worry about anything like this, I'm more concerned about how my friends will try to embarrass me. They're pros at it
• Games, I have never seen a good shower game. They all seem either pointless (who cares what I have in a purse I don't carry?) painful (clothespins, really?) or confusing (celeb couples should be left far far away from a real wedding). For the really dull here's a drinking game turned tame.
• Favors, I can't really think of much to say but some in this list just horrify me.
• The etiquette, all these stupid things you are expected to know to do just because someone somewhere decided it was so.
  
• We'll just try to ignore the T word. I don't think that anything shower related is tacky (except for that new body lotion/glue hybrid) it's just not all for me.

The first shower I ever attended I actually planned for my Matron of Honor. I had no idea what I was doing, no idea what was required of me, but I like to think it was a success as no old ladies beat me over the head with their giant purses (I have a fear of old ladies, I can't help it).

Hopefully I'll be back Monday with lots to share, and maybe some advice on how to survive a shower attended mostly by people you don't know all staring at you just to make sure you don't suddenly bolt or something.

But I don't wanna shower!

We've been having an interesting time of trying to include my fiancee's family (especially his mother) as they are a good 8 hours away.

I feel bad generally just bringing up wedding stuff with other people because I don't understand how they can really care unless it specifically affects them (their dress is late, they're allergic to chocolate, they have a deep fear of cardboard). So I do my best to not start talking about it until someone else brings it up.

As my mother's already gone off the deep end and made all the decorations for the ceremony I just wasn't sure what all my fiancee's mother could do. She went with us to look at a possible reception site but I could tell she wasn't really all that excited about it (whole nother long boring explanation).

Anyway, last night she calls saying she has this idea that we should go see them some weekend for a shower for her side of the family. That way they can do all their family traditions (no idea what this means), and all the rites and stuff (really getting scared now!) I still haven't really warmed to the idea of me having one shower (but as I planned one for my Best Friend she was gonna plan one for me) and now I suddenly might have to have two!

Besides I'd much rather get together with my friends and invade a gremlin infested land than have to sit through shower games where you have to go through people's purses and attack them with clothes pins.

I really need to find myself an invisibility cloak before any of these showers start.