Celebrating a Beautiful Bride-to-Be

Busy, busy weekend. It was a fun weekend, but by the end I was completely exhausted. It was so nice to get up this morning and not feel like I had a million pressing things to do.

We had a good time putting together a bridal shower for my niece who is getting married in November.  She loves nature so I wanted it to have a natural feel with a tough of elegance.  I hope I achieved that goal. My father-in-law has an amazing shop so we spent lots of time in there preparing. Remember the tree that had to be cut down in our yard to make way for the new shed?  The trunk was cut into slices to act as bases for the centerpieces.

The dress is cut out from a large paper doily. I adapted this from an idea I saw on Pinterest.  They had cut dresses out of small doilies to decorate the food table.  I loved the simplicity. The dress is on a bamboo skewer stuck into the slice of tree trunk.  I used a few mums tied with twine to make a little bouquet to lay on the base to add a pop of color.  The bride's little sister (and bridesmaid) was a huge help with the shower.  We spent weeks planning and working out every detail.  She came up with the idea for the pumpkin cheese balls.  I think they came out super cute and they were devoured so they must have been tasty :)

A fun game we found was "Who Has the Groom?"  Each person had an envelope under their chair with one of these pictures. The person who got the groom won a prize (see birdhouse in picture below).  Originally, we planned to use celebrity pictures, but decided not to spend that much money on magazines. We ended up using a variety of pictures, including the ridiculous. There was plenty of laughter as people opened their envelopes.

We did a dessert buffet.  For three days I was a baking fool.  I did my best to not indulge during the baking process, but of course there was a little "quality control" happening. A couple cookies and a few tastes over three days is a victory in my world.

One of my good friends is starting her own photography business, Look Closely Photography.  She took lots of great photographs of the shower. Here is a sample.

Guest were asked to write a little piece of advice for the bride on wooden hearts.

The beautiful bride-to-be.

Thank you Amy for the great pictures!

Today I managed to make my lunch and remember to take it with me to work.  It wasn't anything exciting just a turkey sandwich and some leftover cantaloupe and grapes from the shower,  I was very grateful to have it though.  When I arrived at work I suddenly realized I had forgotten to eat breakfast.  So guess what I had...yep, a turkey sandwich and some leftover cantaloupe and grapes from the shower. Then for lunch I hit up my frozen meal stash at work...just for this sort of emergency. It was slim pickings in there too...Lean Cuisine Veggie "Fried" Rice and more of the fruit. It was okay and I was proud of myself for not going out and getting something "fast".  Tomorrow is my weigh-in day.  I haven't weighed myself all week (so hard for me) and I am eager for a good weigh-in.

I brought my walking shoes to work so I could squeeze in a walk at lunchtime. Since I forgot my Garmin watch I decided to go to the park that I knew had a 4/10 of a mile loop.  Just five quick laps and I would have 2 miles.  For some reason it didn't feel the same as the numerous times I'd walked it before.  It really is a nice little park in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  I think today there were just too many people parked around the lake I felt self-conscious passing cars with people inside.

Rain clouds were threatening so I tried to just walk fast and finish quickly.

I am intrigued by this house.  I am not sure I want a striped house, but it definitely makes a statement.

Made it back to work just in time :)  Rain drops falling in the parking lot.

After weeks of preparation and then putting on the shower this weekend, it feels good to relax a little and get back into my regular routine this week.  Now bring on the wedding prep!!!