My Bridal Shower!!

My bridal shower was this past Saturday and I don't even know where to begin. It was everything I hoped it would be and more! Seriously, I knew that it would be a great time, but I just couldn't have imagined it going any better than it did! 

This is a long, picture-heavy post but I have so much to share! We arrived at The Buckeye Tavern a little after 11:00am. The place has such awesome decor as it is, we didn't have a whole lot of setting up to do. Here's me with the two hostess(ess) with the mostess(ess), my sister and mom!

Maid of Honor: Melissa, Mom and me!

My dad had printed off name-tags with our custom-made calligraphy that I won on weddzilla.com (totally his idea!)

We had so many people from my mom's side, Chris' mom's side, and my side that when people arrived, we had them make a name-tag, here's mine:

It seemed that everyone arrived all at once and from the second the party started everything became such a whirlwind!

Amazing Friends: BM Cassie, Reader Ben and BM Mandy

The first game we played was a question and answer game. Last week, I had sent my mom 52 "little known facts" about Chris and me. She took these little facts and created a game out of them. Each person got one or two cards that had an answer and a non-corresponding question. You then had to find the person who had the matching question to your answer and answer to your question.

For example, someone may have gotten a card that said "A: 6 years.  Q: Where did Laura and Chris meet?" So they would  have to find someone who had a question that matched with 6 years, which in this case was "How many years have they been dating?" and someone else had a card with the answer "Wagner College". Once you found a match, that person had to write the answer/question and sign their name on your card.

It's hard to explain and it sounds way more complicated than it is, but it was a huge hit! Once everyone had their cards filled out, we went around the room and shared the questions and answers. This was a great ice breaker game, was a ton of fun, and many people learned some interesting facts about Chris and me in the process!

After that it was time to eat!! We had a selection of wraps, salad and pasta salad for lunch:

Then it was time for game number two. The age-old "Make a wedding dress out of toilet paper" game. I know this is a cliche bridal shower game, but it was so.much.fun.

We had four fabulous models: My Aunt Laura, and my friends Christina, Bridesmaid Lauren ("Smith"), and Kyle. Bridesmaid Cassie was on Smith's team and she is one of the most artistic people I know. She got right to work on creating a dress on Smith.

Kyle was a good sport (actually he loved it) and let the ladies do their artistic work creating a dress on him:

Christina looking like a greek goddess: (Read about Christina's Fabulous wedding here)

All the models:

Aunt Laura, Christina, Smith and Kyle

We declared it a tie between Smith and Kyle, but in the end, my sister made an executive decision and announced Smith's team the winner because Kyle used so many outside props (clip on earrings, some dried bouquet, and a doily Haha). Really, they're ALL winners in our hearts :)

The Winner!

After the toilet paper game, it was time to open presents!!! I wish I got a picture of the present corner, but just know that there were so. many. gifts!! It took me at least an hour to get through them. It would have taken so much longer if I didn't have the help of my fabulous bridesmaids. Each one had a job to do and it made the process go so much faster and smoother. 

No Italian family is complete without an Italian cookbook!

Very excited over my KitchenAid mixer!

Cassie made my bouquet out of the gift wrappings which was seriously amazing and such a work of art! BUT Smith ALSO made me an awesome hat to wear out of all the bows I had!! (I was secretly very happy I got both!)

Me with my bridesmaids!

Cassie, Molly, Me, Melissa, Mandy, Smith

 Me with my fabulous ceremony readers, Kerry and Ben:

With my mother and future Mother-in-law!

With my amazing Grandma and Aunt Laura:

After gifts it was time for C-A-K-E. This was my favorite cake combination: vanilla cake with chocolate filling, from our favorite bakery in town.

It was the fastest three hours of my life! I kept replaying the day over and over in my head the whole rest of the weekend. I got such amazing gifts, and feel so lucky to have had so many of my favorite people in one place at one time. I have to admit I was really nervous going into the day, but once it started I didn't have time to think about being nervous anymore!

There are a ton of other pictures on Mandy's camera that I haven't even seen yet, so I may be doing another post of some other pictures later this week. This was mostly what Kerry and I were able to get throughout the day. I can't thank my mom and sister (and I have to mention my Dad too, because I know how much he helped out with everything) enough for throwing me such an amazing Bridal Shower.

Tomorrow: I share with you the party favors!!

Candid shot of the friends table