My Bridal Shower

On Saturday, July 11, my mom and bridesmaids threw me a bridal shower. I woke up at 5am that day, filled with excitement and anticipation. I knew it would be a great day, but everything blew me away – it was above and beyond anything I could’ve imagined!

My Maid of Honor, Amy (best friends since 6th grade!) and her roomate, Elspeth, picked me up at 9:45am. Before arriving at the shower, Elspeth dropped us off at The Spa at Capron Falls for pedicures. It felt soooooo good to be pampered, and it was fun to spend some alone time with Amy.

Elspeth picked us up around 12:45 and it was off to the shower at my parents’ house!

the bride-to-be (me)

(I was excited about my dress – it was 50% off at Karen Millen – a new favorite store. I found it surprisingly difficult to find an all-white dress)

The yard looked great – there was a band playing Beatles songs and an hors d’oeuvre table by the pool.

the band

hors d'oeuvre table (later the dessert table)

In another area, there was a gift table large white tent with tables set up. The tables had beautiful centerpieces designed and made by my sister, Erica:

the centerpieces

The shower was catered by Peppercorns and they did an amazing job. We had a delicious hors d’oeuvre table with fresh fruits, veggies, pita chips, all sorts of dips, and lots and lots of CHEESE! (I love cheese!!!)

Lunch was a chicken salad, fresh breadsticks, and shrimp over seaweed salad (another one of my favorites).

Dessert was a “Venetian dessert table”, with cheesecake, macaroons, mini-tarts, etc. I had my very first macaron (not to be confused with ‘macaroons’) and it was sooooo good.

The most uncomfortable part of the day was opening presents. I love getting presents (who doesn’t?!), but I don’t like being stared at as I open them – and I had quite a large audience.

Here’s my Maid of Honor, very focused on my ribbon bouquet (she brought it home to work on it – I can’t wait to see what she comes up with!)

me and my Maid of Honor

(For anyone unfamiliar with this, it is a tradition to save all of the ribbons and bows from the wedding shower and create a bouquet to use at the wedding rehearsal.)

We recieved so many great gifts – our entire set of dishes, glasses, cookware, bakeware, knives, kitchen gadgets. I had quite the time on Sunday re-arranging our kitchen to fit everything. One of the best parts is that we now have enough plates to start using the dishwasher! And we can have dinner parties without mis-matched plates!

The favors were handmade soaps – also designed by my sister:

the favors

Have you noticed the bird theme? My future new last name means ‘bullfinch’ in Russian, so it’s one of the wedding themes.

My final surprise of the day was one of the best… look who showed up to bring me home :

Stas!

Yes, that’s the handsome groom-to-be He cut his day of skydiving short just to come pick me up and drive me back to our house!

cheers to a perfect day!