One of the Best Parts

I would be lying if I said getting shower and wedding gifts wasn't one of the best parts about getting married.  I can't ever remember a time that I ever recieved this many gifts - not one Christmas, Birthday or Graduation called for as many packages to be opened.  And thanks to modern technology and the genious who invented wedding registries - I like every.single.gift.  Even though I selected the things we wanted as shower and wedding gifts, it was still so much fun to open things becuase I had no idea who had purchased what and it was fun to sort of see people's own personalities and styles in their selections. I could tell that even though I had narrowed down the selection for people, that everyone really put some thought into what they chose to give us.  A lot of people would write little notes in my gifts and say something like "I have this and love it! you will too..."  Others would buy something that I had picked off my registry and then add a few of their own ideas too -- like a group of my lake friends picked crystal wine glasses off my registry and then added a whole basket of wine-themed accessories, complete with Jamie & Jon personalized wine bottle lables - how creative is that?!

Since Jon and I were living long distance until May and we are still not living together and I am in a small temporary apartment until we close on our new house and move in after the wedding - figuring out where to have gifts sent and where to store all of the gifts we recieved was a logistical challenge. Some needed to be sent to Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh showers, some were sent to Jon's parents house and then transported for my Baltimore shower and some were just sent to my  parents house or Jon's parents house.  Thank goodness for Jon's parents enormous basement that I very quickly turned into my wedding gift storage unit. 

(before) 

Those gifts have been shipped from warehouses to homes, from stores to homes, from homes to parties, from parties, to home, from Pittsburgh down to Baltimore and from parties back to Jon's parents house.  And thanks to Jon and his Dad I haven't had to cart all those boxes up and down any stairs.  So to say thanks for carting all these gifts around I figured I would take some time to organize and try to make the most out of re-packing everything so that its fewer boxes to move when Jon and I move into our new house.  I think I was quite sucessful if I do say so myself.

(After) 

Each one of those boxes is labled and categorized so that we know exactly what we are opening when we have to unpack.  And I think I reduced the number of boxes that we are going to need to transport yet again by at least 15 boxes - thats like 10 trips up and down the steps that we wont need to take.  Jon thinks I am crazy but I think he will thank me come moving day.