Bridal shower #3

This past weekend was my third and final bridal shower, followed by a bridesmaid luncheon on Sunday.  All three of my bridal showers were great - each of the hosts thought of my personality when planning and without me giving too much direction made each of the days exactly how I would have planned them for myself.  I am not going to play favorites, but I had SO much fun at my third bridal shower.  My third bridal shower was hosted by my MOH, her mom and my 8 bridesmaids.  The first thing that I loved was that my MOH ordered invitations and then took the invitations to the stationary store where I got our wedding invitations made and had the owner match the graphic on the invite to make a registry card - I loved it. The second thing that I loved was how they chose one of my favorite recipes to serve -- Grilled chicken sandwiches with mozzarella, pesto and sun dried tomatoes on cibatta bread -- my MOH's mom's specialty and I would always request it if we were ever having parties and our parents offered to send food.  I had totally forgotten about how much I loved it until I caught a glimpse of her mom in the kitchen putting the sandwiches together.  Check these out :)

So the food was great, there were yummy drinks - hand purred peach Bellinis - and then we moved onto opening gifts, which is always fun for the bride, but sometimes can be a little painful for the guests, to all my friends who get married after me, I promise I will ooo and ahh at all of your kitchen accessories because I know how excited I was myself to receive them. Something happened at this bridal shower that made me laugh so hard - I never thought it was possible to laugh this hard at a bridal shower.  I am going to try to tell this story, but it might be one of those things where 'you had to be there' - but I am going to try....

 While I was in the middle of opening up gifts, I was handed a card and a package in a white bag - the name on the card said "Pa P!" I thought this was weird - but I have a lot of nick names and I thought maybe this was just one that I had forgotten about, so I continued to open up the card.  When I opened the card the front of it said "Grandpa, on Father day...." so I started laughing, I thought, hmm this must be a joke and when I open the card I am going to 'get it'.  So, I continued to open the card and when I read the names on the bottom of the card I got even more confused it said Love,  Mya (I have a cousin named Mya), Michael (my brother's name) and Abby (My brother's dog). I kept repeating the names "Mya, Michael and Abby" thinking that someone in the crowd was going to speak up and say something....While I was repeating the names, one of our friends from our lake house was sitting in the back saying to the people around her "Why is she saying my grand kids names?" This went on for a good minute or two and finally after laughing so hard that I was almost crying she figured out that she brought in the wrong gift and wrong card and she jumped up and grabbed it from me.  Here is a picture of me opening up the father's day card. 

Definitely made watching me open my gifts a bit more entertaining :)

There were a lot of other things that I loved about the day but the last thing that was a surprise to me, but I loved it and I can't wait to make it an ongoing tradition as the rest of my friends start getting married is a charm cake!  I had never heard of a charm cake before but apparently it is a southern tradition.  The idea is that a baker will place a charm on a piece of ribbon  for the bride and her bridesmaids in the cake while it is being iced and then everyone pulls out the charm at the same time.  Each bridesmaid and the bride gets a different charm with a different meaning. 

I got a four-leaf clover which symbolizes good luck (how fitting for a bride-to-be?!) and the other ones were: 

A tree of life, symbolizing a life of stability
A wishing well, symbolizing that a wish will be granted
A Palm Tree, symbolizing a life of relaxation
An Anchor, symbolizing a life of stability
An Engagement Ring, symbolizing a happy marriage or to be the next in line to wed
A Fleur de Lis, symbolizing wealth and prosperity
A Flower, symbolizing a blossoming relationship
A Shell, symbolizing eternal beauty

It was such a fun idea and the cake was delicious....another one of my favorite things :)

The day after the bridal shower, my grandma hosted a bridesmaid luncheon for me and my bridesmaids which was so great because since we are scattered all over the place it was nice to be able to have some time to sit around a table and eat and talk, but once the luncheon was over and all the out of town guests left, let down was starting to sink in....the weekend went by so fast.  I guess I should start preparing myself for what the wedding weekend will feel like.  The only thing that is helping me be OK with thinking about the wedding being over is that Jon and I get to go on vacation.....well, and I guess I have being married to look forward to also :)