Weddingbee Blog

Our great friends, Travis and Suzi, hosted a (non)shower dinner for us at their rustic country restaurant, the Heart in Hand, on Friday night. It was so lovely!!! There were about 30 people, and the fun part was that it was kind of like a neat run-up to the wedding. I gotta say, even with only 30 people, it was hard to get around to saying hello to everyone (given it was only two hours long, or so). To encourage mingling, Suzi scared up some name tags for all the guests… even for US!

Suzi did all the flower arrangements herself.

There was a little cocktail hour before (I was late, as getting out of DC was a nightmare, as it always is on Friday nights). Then there was dinner, which was off their group catering menu. Almost all the food is some sort of recipe from Suzi’s family, including some amazing yeast rolls (that tasted like corn bread), citrus poppy vinaigrette, country filet and salmon, home-made pastries… it was all very down-home and simple.

There were speeches: Suzi recalling a fond memory of Mr. P as a child, and when she and Travis first met me. Mr. P thanked our lovely hosts and wonderful guests, and kidded about the great distances many came (from the city or, in his case, fresh off a plane from Seattle, where he was on business).

The lovely little restaurant is in the historic town of Clifton, Virginia. The rest of the establishment is decorated in early American style (as Suzi collects antiques), as well as with mementos from the couple’s polo life (including this picture of them after a match they played against Prince Charles–who are these people?!).

It was a non-shower party because we didn’t really register for any gifts. But some guests brought us things that they knew we’d like and collect, anyway! This is an antique sterling wine coaster (Mr. P has a bunch of vintage and antique silver wine accessories).

Hand-painted Chinese Porcelain (we have a lot of Chinese porcelain)… this bowl is exceptionally delicate and thin:

Gastronomic foodie gifts from Spain, via Michelle:

And Venice Biennale art festival tickets for our Italian honeymoon! (After we insisted on no gifts, our mothers said that people will want an option of giving SOMETHING, so we have a Honeyfund.com account.)

It was so sweet, fun, and we are so incredibly grateful for our family and friends!! Now we’re a little more prepared to engage each of our guests.

Did you celebrate with warm-up wedding festivities?