A few weeks back I came home to a surprise envelope. It was an invitation to our wedding shower!
I originally didn’t think that I would even bother having a wedding shower since so few people that we invited are local and I didn’t really think it was necessary for people to fly out for it.
Needless to say, I was incredibly surprised!
First of all, there is no way for me to express how much gratitude I have toward everyone who planned and attended my shower! Mr. Lemur’s church is incredibly generous and I am so thankful for all the effort and time that went into this. I want to share some of the pictures from the day to show what a wonderful event it was—they did a great job!
The theme was books and numbers—ahem, two of my favorite things. The tables were decorated with piles of books wrapped in ribbon and surrounded with paper numbers for the game that we played. The napkins were held with coral tissue-paper napkin rings. Basically, a very similar vision to what I’m looking for at the wedding! These ladies nailed it.
All photos personal—from my mother and a friend of the family.
Remember when I wrote a post about the bunting we had worked on? Well, it looked amazing! There were four lengths hung across the front of the room and several more along the back by the food table. The backdrop to the bunting is cardboard panels covered in book pages. (Interesting note: The room used for showers at the church is a classroom and chapel for the school, so there was a whiteboard all along the front of the room. The ladies have to come up with creative ways to cover it for showers they hold there!)
Hive, my heart feels so incredibly full. My wonderful boss and coworkers kept a secret for AN ENTIRE WEEK and managed to throw me a surprise shower on Tuesday. I cried, of course. I also tried to back into Mr. O, but he shoved me forward where I hid by my boss lady until I could pull myself together. I am so happy and blessed to work somewhere so amazing.
And of course, my boss did a wonderful job of gathering all my favorite things. Not only did we have Chic-fil-A for lunch (om nom nom), but we also had cake AND cupcakes (yes, those count as different things) and part of our gift was my favorite wine.
I truly have nothing else to say—just a big, big thank you to my coworkers and boss for planning something so wonderful for me. I am NOT a surprise person, but this truly made me so incredibly happy! Plus, it was a great way to spend my last day of work before the wedding!
A card everyone signed for me, so thoughtful!
Just a few short weeks ago, I made my last trip to my hometown before the big day. And since it was my last time in town, my amazing bridesmaids decided to throw me a shower. I got this lovely sparkly invitation in the mail a few weeks prior.
I know you’re jealous of my mad Paint skillz. And seriously, this is the worst picture ever. But trust me, it’s glitter-tastic.
When I arrived, I was greeted first by so many hugs! Then, by this delicious spread!
As I mentioned in the posts about our dress experiences, my bridal party is fairly far flung. BM Blackout currently resides on the West Coast and Rev. Fun is representing the ATL, while the rest of us are in/near Pittsburgh. When we were together for the dress extravaganza, we hammered out dates for the shower and bachelorette party. It was best to just pick ‘em and commit, making sure they were on everyone’s radars well ahead of time.
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Personal photo from BM Y / Me with my adorable “Miss Palm Tree on Weddingbee!” announcement and decorations. How freaking cute is this?!
I know I’m a tad crazy about this “getting things done early” kick, but I just wanted to say that I would recommend having a shower a little bit earlier to ANY and EVERY bride. First of all, my girls did a seriously kick-ass job, and although they would’ve made it baller no matter what, it helped that they had so much time to dedicate to it and to be able to do things in bits and pieces. Second of all, as a bride, I cannot imagine having a shower super close to the wedding. Although I didn’t do much in terms of action, knowing I’d have to dedicate what would likely be an entire weekend to something when there were 93,598,345,987 time-sensitive things going on at the same time would stress me out to the max. Third, it was nice to include a passive aggressive “Hope to see you at the wedding!” line in the thank you notes as a gentle nudge to return the RSVPs. 
Fourth, it is so nice to have a little buffer in between everything and really feel like you’re in the midst of your wedding season the entire time. Late February shower, early April bachelorette party, late May wedding – it’s honestly like the whole first half of the year. I’ll only be doing this once, I want to relish every single moment of being a bride because it won’t come again for me, you know?
Less than one month until the wedding, and today in Indiana, there are (roughly) six inches of snow on the ground. Really, Indiana? To say I’ve started freaking out a little about the weather is an understatement. I know I can’t control it, and I maintain that I’m fine either way, but really—this weather dilemma is starting to stress me out.
Moving on to the fun stuff—my bridal shower was this weekend! I can’t believe that it has already come and gone; after all, it feels like the bachelorette party was just a weekend ago—not a full month (and a little extra) ago.
My two aunts hosted the shower for me and it was really a fun time. 
There is something very strange about being a grown woman and having all eyes on me while I open heaps of presents. I literally haven’t been in this situation since my ten year old birthday party. Having attended many bridal showers in the past, I came up with a few tricks of the trade:
1. Surround yourself with your ladies.
You picked your bridesmaids for a reason. This is a great time for them to literally be your right hand women. There are a few tasks that you can delegate before the shower
a. The present recorder:
I know it is hard to tell…but don’t worry, MOH K loved her job! I meant to outfit her with a fancy pen because that makes this job a little more exciting. Bridal fail…
b. The trashy one:
Just kidding, MOH C is not trashy at all. But look at her tear that paper away. Get it girl…
As you may remember, I always thought I would have an obnoxiously yellow wedding. I didn’t end up going this route, but my family knew that when it came to planning a wedding shower, yellow was the way to go. The wedding may be full of dramatic whimsical flourishes, but I love modern decor as well so they also decided to incorporate chevron into the shower theme. I knew I was in for an awesome time when this came in the mail:
I am seriously one lucky lady. In addition to having Mr. S, I have the most FABULOUS women in my life. My sisters, mother, and friends completely out-did themselves with the thought and detail they put into my hometown shower.
From the moment I walked in, I was blown away. The ladies had set up a mimosa bar that was exactly what I needed to start the party off right. MOH C stocked the bar full of many different juices, heart shaped fruit, and champagne. MOH K pimped it out with her signage, mirrors, and of course, lots of chevron!
As you can probably guess from the title of my post, I had my Chicago shower this past weekend. Although I mean it both figuratively and literally, because we had a whole day of rains showers to match my event! It was a wonderful afternoon and I’m so grateful to all of the beautiful ladies who came to celebrate with me!
When I first got engaged early last year, Boss Lady told me she wanted to throw me a LLLL shower here in Chicago for all my Chicago peeps, and I was so touched! I know bridal showers are a bonus as not everyone gets one, and I was thrilled when she made the generous offer.
Boss Lady is also Mom to my flower girl, Littlest C. Littlest C was so adorable at the shower. I heard she helped set up, I saw her greet and talk to guests, and when she wasn’t bonding with Sister/MOH Big Eyes she was being the cutest, most adorable and mature six-year-old ever!
This will probably be the last post I make before the big day because with three days to go, time is of the essence. We are looking at a fantastic wedding weekend—weather wise. Philadelphia will be in the mid to upper 40’s all weekend, and loads of sunshine. We’ve dropped off all our stuff to the caterer, so it’s just fun stuff like manicures & pedicures, shopping (who still doesn’t have an outfit for the rehearsal?? This girl.), and wrapping up our last minute gifts for our bridal party and parents. So much to do, so little time. But I do have time to share with you one last pre-wedding event that I had recently!
Last week, my fantastic colleagues and friends threw me a super sweet school shower. I was almost completely surprised, but someone accidentally left the notice folded up on my desk…I thought it was a note for me from a student or a teacher, so I opened it…and well, that was it for the surprise. We were just a few days away—and I hadn’t been snooping or anything! I had so much on my mind that I hadn’t really thought about it. I guess I knew it was coming—everyone at school gets a shower for their first marriage. But I hadn’t put too much thought into it at all. I played along very convincingly and most people at school still think I was very much surprised. (Turns out I will turn bright red even at the thought of being the center of attention for that long—so it worked well in our favor.)
The fantastic hostesses (and you can see where I work all day!)
Mr. Squirrel and I had the best holiday break from school and work. We both traveled to our own hometowns for one last single Christmas with our families. As much as I missed Mr. Squirrel, I think it was special for both of us to have that alone time with our families before we start traveling together for every holiday from now on. Right before New Year’s, my mom and two of my sisters traveled down to Arkansas where Mr. Squirrel’s mom threw us an absolutely wonderful shower.
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FMIL
She went above and beyond to make this is a special day for us. Yes, us, because Mr. Squirrel was at the shower too! Not the norm, but since he so rarely gets to see his friends and family from home, it gave him the chance to visit with everyone. He was also able to introduce me to relatives I hadn’t gotten the chance to meet yet. Plus what guy doesn’t love to ham it up in a room full of 30 women??
Hive, I have to tell you—I was not particularly looking forward to my bridal shower{s}. It’s just that…I’m an awkward person, on a normal day. Put me in a situation where I am the guest of honor and have to talk to everyone, and I am a hot mess. I’m not naturally effusive, so it’s hard to me to find enough nice and friendly things to say, and my facial expressions are completely uncontrollable—you should see how wide my eyes get without my knowledge. On top of that, I was completely prepared for a panic episode…so, in short, not my ideal time.
Future mother and sister in law-/awesome shower hostesses
My actual showers, however…were completely awesome! My amazing future sister and mother in law threw me a beautiful shower with a ‘Love is Sweet’ theme. Since it was McGlovin’s family, everyone was super incredibly nice and welcoming )maybe other people don’t have that experience, but my in-laws are the most gracious people).
Back during the end of September, I went to have coffee with my FMIL and FSIL. However, there was no coffee. Instead there was tea! And tons of familiar faces! I walked into the oh-so-charming dining room of the little restaurant and gasped at what I saw! I was so confused at first, I didn’t know why everyone was there, and then it dawned on…they were there for me! Mr. Beanstalk’s mother had planned a surprise bridal shower for me!!! I was so surprised and excited by this touching gesture.
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| They gave me a “Bride” sash (that I didn’t want to take off) and a little flower crown to wear! |
It was such a delightful day. We sipped different flavors of tea (I’ve become a a big tea consumer in recent months…I adore English Breakfast Tea as a late afternoon drink) so this was a real treat for me! As we drank our warm beverages and chatted amongst each other, tiny sandwiches were served. They were served on platters and set in the middle of the tables. Once we had finished all of the finger sandwiches, tiny scones and pastries were brought out for our enjoyment! Everything I tried, I loved!
MOH S scheduled my bridal shower for the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, and I was so grateful for the day of rest before and after! S wanted my shower to be a complete surprise, so I didn’t even get an invitation! I was told what time to be there—15 minutes early so that I could complete one task before the guests arrived, filling out our “Almost Newlywed Game” questions! Now, in all truth, I kind of knew about that one, since Mr. B thought it was important to ask me if “S had emailed me the questions too.” But he was very careful not to give me any of the questions (or his answers) away once he realized the point of the game, so I was on my own.
Once the guests started arriving the shower took off. I felt so loved to have so many of my family and friends show up to celebrate my upcoming wedding! One of my favorite surprises was that S had given everyone a recipe card to fill out with their favorite recipes and then she compiled them into my very own cookbook! I guess she knows how much I love to be in the kitchen!
As far as the answers to the Almost Newlywed Game…I was surprisingly on point. My only pitfall was that one some questions, I was trying to decide between two answers and usually I picked the wrong one! So even though everyone else got a laugh out of it, I had the self-satisfaction of knowing I was right.
My answers to the Almost NewlyWed Game (before crossing out the incorrect answers)
I left off the first half of my shower with all the amazing details and a custom game of Scattergories. The afternoon ended with gifts. Opening up all of those packages in front of everyone was definitely a weird experience. I don’t mind being the center of attention, so that didn’t bother me, but coming from a large family (oldest of five), I’m so used to having to wait 10 minutes after opening a gift before I can tackle the next one. The steady stream of presents felt so luxurious, and I was in awe of how generous—and creative—my friends and family were.
