Last Saturday afternoon, I began my initiation into the sisterhood of married women…

After all of the planning we’ve done thus far, it was fun to finally start celebrating our upcoming marriage. As I write this, we’ve finished up our final scheduled meeting with our vendors (a little over a month ahead of time), and the majority of the day is now out of my hands. It’s a GOOD feeling.

Of course, there are still some tasks left to handle, like place cards, programs and the dreaded Seating Chart (ps- What is it that makes this so terrifying? Please enlighten me in the comments… It seems rather black and white when I look at things in our families, but it could be that there are no current blood feuds between family members or other dramatic notions), but even the majority of our nitty-gritty work is done.

When I first started discussing planning with my Maid of Honor and my Mom, I decided that having a “surprise” bridal shower would be fun. It seemed like a perfectly valid idea at the time, but I had no idea just how packed our schedule would get in the months leading up to The Big Day, and how practically impossible a true surprise would be.

As the weeks went by, and other commitments came up, I was able to narrow down the potential dates to one of two… and as the first passed it was pretty definite when the party would be. ;)

Last Saturday, we carried on as normal during the morning hours- got up, made breakfast, and took a leisurely walk with puppers. When we got back to the house, Army Boy mentioned that I should start getting ready, as we’d be leaving soon for an unknown destination.

I may or may not have had an outfit picked out for this very occasion, as any good Type A Bride would, and it wasn’t too long before I was sparkling clean and ready to go.

A while later, Army Boy was ushering me into a local restaurant that I’d never been to. That’s always a good start.

“We have a party waiting…” he explained to the girl at the desk.

“We don’t have any parties waiting, “ she replied, looking bored.

“Uh, there should be a room reserved,” he encouraged.

“OH. THE BRIDAL SHOWER!” she realized, as she started to lead us into the back.

Army Boy leaned over and whispered “Surprise FAIL,” so I was stifling giggles as we walked into the room of my nearest and dearest.

“ACK!” “You’re Early!” “Surprise!!!”

The next couple of hours went by in a blur, as time does when you’re surrounded by friends and family. Mom had gotten me a lovely wreath of flowers to wear, which is apparently a Celtic wedding tradition.

There were lots of laughs (thanks to a wedding-themed ‘Taboo’ game), and a few tears (thanks to lovely cards from best friends)…

And a totally delicious coconut cake. Yes, that is one of my tricksy wedding secrets, a little design that we’ll be using for a few elements of the wedding. Army Boy was even tricksier and stole one to use for decorating the cake. I discovered said missing label while doing some crafty business, and was told “Don’t worry about it.” Yum, he was right.

The part of the day that touched me the most was a recipe book compiled of signature recipes from the guests, and a few from family who couldn’t make it that day. It was an awesome moment to look and see the food love shared by my guests in their own handwriting. Once the wedding is over, and I no longer have to worry about maintaining weight*? The French Silk Pie will be mine. Oh yes it will.

* I know. I totally sucked with “updating about the diet progress.” It was like “Hey! I am going to lose weight, blogfriends!!” and then nothing. I didn’t mean to leave you hanging. It was more “OH GOOD LORD this is SLOW and BORING”. 13lbs lost as of this posting, which is better than if I’d continued sitting on my ass and eating bon-bons. Considerably less fun than eating said bon-bons, I must state.

 

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