on saturday, august 25th, a few of our family friends from church growing up, along with mimi, threw me the bridal shower of my dreams!  seriously, i didn’t really tell them anything about what i wanted it to be… my mom asked about a theme, and i was like oh, if they want to do a theme, we could do travel-themed?  but that was it, and it was perfect beyond words and SO me!  i couldn’t have planned my own bridal shower better, haha.  it was just fabulous in every way and so much fun.

carole, the one who hosted the shower at her house, had just moved into a new home, and she worked tirelessly to get the house ready and decorate.  her new home is gorgeous, and the decorations turned out sooo cute.  katrina and charlotte helped with the food and the games, and mimi helped with the food and decor as well.  they all did a wonderful job, and i’ve been DYING to share all the details with you guys!  everywhere you looked, there was travel-themed decor, or items displayed from places that i’ve taken trips to – japan, england, hawaii, italy, france, etc.  carole’s daughter sarah has a cricut, and she made all these cute little signs with travel quotes and a “miss to mrs” banner on map paper.  she also added frosted glass writing on stemless wineglasses that said “bride” for me, “mother of the bride” for my mom, “mother of the groom” for karen, and “grandmother of the bride” for mimi and nama.  she even made a “groom” one to take home to jamie!  and as a gift to me from her and her daughter elizabeth who couldn’t make it, carole had hired a photographer to take photos of every detail of the party.  this made it so nice for me, because you know how i would have been otherwise – running around taking photos like a mad woman, haha.  but instead i could relax and enjoy the party, knowing that i would have beautiful photos that capture the details and the people to look back on later.  that was one of the best gifts they could have given me!

first, i want to show you guys the invitation because it turned out just lovely, and again, so me!  this is obviously not one of the professional photos, but i wanted to share it to kind of “set the scene” of the party:

and now for the photographer’s pics:

{carole’s lovely new home}

{a sign that sarah made!  it had shiny gold font!}

{this was fun!}

{tasty champagne punch!}

{with katrina and carole, two of the hostesses.}

{so, funny story:  apparently mimi thought it would be funny to put those lacy panties draping out of the suitcase when they were decorating!  gotta love her!!!} ;)

{with all four amazing hostesses!  you ladies rock!}

{with my “bride” glass!}

{with my beautiful mom!}

{and here with my beautiful mother-in-law too!}

 

{check out this AMAZING pagoda made out of watermelon by a lady at church.  isn’t it cool?!}

{all my family members who attended – aunt cindy came all the way from indiana, nama from arkansas, my mom’s cousin dian lives about an hour away from my parents, mimi, mom, and karen came from south dakota!  i really appreciate all you ladies making the trip!}

 

{all that delicious food, and so clever with the little signs!  what a beautiful display.}

{digging in!}

{and that dessert table!!!}

{the cutest cookies!}

{then we played some fun games!  i love this memory game that we played – katrina made this cute reversible apron that has “jessica” on one side with a grapes-printed fabric and “darling” on the other side [since that’s one of the names jamie calls me] with a map-printed fabric.  all this different travel stuff was safety-pinned to it, and she had me put it on…}

{…and walk around the room so that everyone could see for a couple of minutes.  and they couldn’t write anything down, and then had to see how many things they could remember when it got put away.  whoever remembered the most got a prize!  and then i got to keep all that handy travel stuff and the apron at the end, which was a bonus!}

{then there were gifts… everyone was incredibly generous.  there were SO MANY GIFTS!!}

{cute cute cute}

{the first gift i opened was this fun one from the hostesses.  as if they hadn’t already done enough!!!!!  it was the most adorable wooden wine box with a bottle of wine for all different occasions and a little poem to go with it, so for example, when we get back from our honeymoon, our first new years eve, first anniversary, etc.  i can’t wait to share the poems with you as we drink the bottles, they are so cute!}

{too many fun gifts to count!  i love my mom’s face in this one – so animated, haha.  i got a scrub daddy, which i’ve never known about but apparently people love them, and my mom didn’t know about them either.  they started telling her how awesome they are, and she goes, “frank is the only scrub daddy i’ve ever had!”  lol}

{my mom got me this adorable hat!!  i love it, can’t wait to wear it on our honeymoon!}

{love these two.  they look like they’re having fun!}

{thank you to everyone for all the amazing gifts!  you guys are incredible!}

{my lovely bridesmaids who came to the shower!}

{i gave each of the hostesses a personalized galvanized tub as a gift.}

{photo time!}

{talking after the shower was over}

carole, katrina, charlotte, and mimi, THANK YOU so much for everything you did to make this day so special for me.  it was a day i’ll remember forever.  everything about the party was just grand!  and thank you to everyone who came – you all mean so much to me and i’m so thankful to have each of you in my life. xoxo