Ang's Wedding Journal: Bridal Shower Recap

It is difficult to write my bridal shower recap. But, if I ever plan to make it through my wedding recaps, I guess I'd better try.

The reasons I'm having difficulty is that it's hard to capture the emotions I felt that day in words. It was most certainly, one of the happiest days of my life. I ran the gambit of confusion, surprise, elation, and an overwhelming sense of being absolutely and completely loved. There was love everywhere in that room.

But I should start at the beginning no?

It all started when my two friends, D & H (who I rarely ever see) invited me to lunch. Invited me to tea in fact. It was only a week earlier so I was totally unsuspecting. They played it very cool in the car with me (they offered to pick me up - still I had no clue ;) ).

In fact, even after seeing all my friends and family gathered around me, it still didn't really hit me that my shower was finally happening. I was busy making my confused face:

It wasn't until everyone yelled "SURPRISE!!!" that it all hit me in a wave. Let's cut to my "OMG I'M SO HAPPY!!!" face:

Yes, I look gross, but one of the prices of a surprise shower is that you're not as prettified or styled as you'd like to be.

Let me pause for a detail shot of what greeted me upon arrival:

That was a picture of the most delicious cake I've ever eaten. Thanks Cake Boss! And also the crossword puzzle my FSIL designed and the recipe box my FMIL had customized for Mishka and me! Yay!

Anyway, the point is, I was surprised. And that was what my mom and my bridesmaids had been desperately trying to do for months. I know it was hard, with me living in the same house, but it was important to my bridal party and my moms (both blood and "in-law") so I tried to keep my eyes shut and ears closed when I sensed Bridal Shower planning afoot.

But back to the day. If we can backtrack just a little... it seems there is a lot of this shower that I can't strictly recap because I wasn't there. Due to the fact that the shower was a surprise, most of my guests arrived well before I did. So there was a lot of mingling of people who really didn't know each other (special thanks to my future mother-in-law and future sister-in-law for arriving so early so that no guests would be without a host). I've heard it went pretty well, and my proof are facebook pictures like these:

Some of these people are my friends, some are my family, and some are my future family. The last picture is a shot of three of my beautiful bridesmaids who made my day so special. Unfortunately, my fourth bridesmaid was taking this picture so I don't have a picture of the four of them together :(. It's unfortunate, but it's something I'll be sure to rectify at the wedding :-D.

Anyway, this is what they all looked like as they waited for me to come in the room. Talk about people coming together ;):

Another unfortunate is that I don't have any pictures of the yummy food we ate. I think we were all too focused on the fun party and socializing to take the time to photograph the food. At some point during the meal, my bridesmaids all got up to make a beautiful heartfelt toast. My maid of honor even started to cry (quite unexpectedly) which got me all teary eyed too!

Eventually it was time to move on to gift opening. I know this is one of the most dreaded activities by attendees since it can get rather boring, but as I mentioned my future sister-in-law had a solution for that. She had me tested on "Mishka Trivia" before I opened the gifts and I had to get the answer right before I could move forward (side note: I actually did pretty well! I think there were only 2 out of the 20 questions that I struggled with).

I'd like to say the whole thing was as relaxed as this picture makes it look: