Weddingbee Blog

After a merry night out at my bachelorette, the following Saturday morning started off right with some much needed sister time at breakfast:

Waiting for our AM cup o’ joe at Cafe Marie

Afterward, we headed over to BM Tanya’s home, which had been transformed into bridal shower central. Much to my sister’s amusement, I meandered around for quite some time, snapping photos of the beautiful tablescapes and adorable favors. My sister and I used to play with sandalwood fans all the time as kids, and the tins held one of my favorite candies: M&M’s!

There was a delicious cheese and cracker spread along with gobs of jellybeans for people to snack on as introductions were made:

While people were trickling in, they were shown to this table to participate in a project: making our rehearsal bouquets! Prior to the shower my BMs asked to borrow our framed engagement photos, and as you can see below, they put them to good use:

Each guest at the shower was encouraged to channel their inner Martha to create a flower using tissue paper and pipe cleaners for the wedding rehearsal bouquets. They were also asked to attach a note of advice for Mr. Tartlet and myself to the stem of their flower (I’m really looking forward to reading these!). See the “Bride” and “Groom” hats on the table? Those are from BM Laura and her hubby’s wedding rehearsal, and they’re letting us use them at our own!

Yippee for gigantic paper flowers!

Once the crafty creations were complete, we sat down to an amazing spread the hostesses put together comprised of chicken salad croissants:

A spring salad and a Mediterranean pasta salad:

And last (but certainly not least), delicious desserts:

A marvelously tasty frozen fruit salad, yellow cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting, and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

As the munching wound down, one of the shower games played was for each guest to fill out a sheet to determine how well she knew the bride. In order to get to know each other better (and because I’m a sucker for these 20 question type surveys), here’s a sampling of the Q & A:

1. What’s the bride’s favorite color? Black. Although I did go through a mild punk/goth phase in high school, I just like wearing this color. I have a very monochromatic wardrobe.

2. What was the bride’s first job? A Sizzlin’ Summer Science Camp Instructor (Algebra, baby) at the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center. Mama Tartlet was convinced that I had started teaching piano prior to this gig, but they might have happened over the same summer.

3. What’s the bride’s favorite band or solo singer? Guster! One of my all-time favorite songs (Happier) is by this group.

4. What’s the name of her favorite film? Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version with Colin Firth). There’s something very snuggly about this movie that screams for a fuzzy blanket and some Ben & Jerry’s.

5. What month of the year did she meet the groom? September. I think everyone got this one wrong because we have so many May landmarks in our relationship (we started dating in May, got engaged in May, and are getting hitched in May). We actually first met when he came to a Biology study session I was running at Kalamazoo College. I thought he was way hot—until he fell asleep. Then I got irritated and proceeded to pepper him with questions (which he promptly answered, and then fell back asleep again).

Once the games had concluded, we proceeded to the opening of the gifts! Originally Mr. Tartlet and I weren’t going to have a registry. We’ve lived together for almost 6 years now and love to cook, which means we’ve accumulated a lot of standard household items that you typically put on a registry. Plus, there’s the cultural tradition where many of our family members prefer to give cash. However, a few of our married friends encouraged us to register somewhere, lest we be the recipients of multiple toasters or crock pots—so Crate & Barrel it was.

I was really blown away by everyone’s generosity, and so thrilled that I can finally replace those cheap-o plastic items that you get in college kitchen starter sets (amongst other things). As the guests left, they were handed these adorable favor boxes containing flower and butterfly-shaped soaps:

And before I left, I dropped off these little gift bags to the hostesses of my shower:

Each of these contained a miniature shower gel, body butter, soap, and bath scrub as a small token of thanks for showering me with love and good times!

And that, dear Hive, concludes the recap of my weekend of awesome! I hope all of you with upcoming bachelorettes and showers have just as much (if not more) fun as I did. If yours have already come and gone, what sort of fun and games did you enjoy?