Bridal Shower - Finally!

Okay, before I post some pictures, I have a PSA:

Do yourselves a favor and go see "Away We Go." It's that movie with Jim from "The Office." Me and Cheese see A LOT of movies, and both agreed that this is one of the best - if not THE BEST - movie of the year. The acting is so fantastic, that I was teary almost the entire movie - I cared THAT MUCH about the characters.

So please, please go see this movie.

Now onto the pictures.

So, taking into account my "To hell with etiquette, I'm doing whatever the heck I want" theme for this wedding, I had a slightly different take on the bridal shower. See, we've all been to the three-hour long Sunday brunch showers where you watch a bride unwrap hundreds of presents and feign surprise at getting gifts she literally asked for herself.

And no offense to the people who had these kinds of showers - I just wanted something a little different because I mostly just couldn't stand the thought of:

a. Sitting in front of hundreds of pairs of eyes while I painfully unwrapped endless presents, and pretending that I am surprised and excited about kitchenwear (which, let's be honest, will be used soley by Cheese).

b. Using up a good Sunday when I could be at the pool or on my bike.

c. Taking that same Sunday away from people who really, really need their weekends and shouldn't have to spend it inside at a shower, oohing and ahhing over dishtowels.

I guess I just didn't want to take up people's time, especially a Sunday. That's really what it came down to. I mean, I know who much people complain about them, and I just didn't want to do that to people. So short and sweet - and the combination of the bridal shower and bachlorette party limited the amount of time people had to spend on this wedding thing.

Oh, and the fact that wedding is the size of a pea, there aren't a whole lot of ladies that I could have invited anyway - especially when my side of the wedding guest list consists of, well, my sisters, two bridesmaids, and mom. As for the extended family, I invited only one aunt to the actual wedding, and decided not to invite any of my cousins, other aunts or uncles (the rule was - if we haven't spoken in five years, too bad).

So when the shower is only eight people, this also eliminated the need to have someone walk around the room and show off the flatwear and frying pans. All the ladies at my party just sat right in front of me and could see the gifts just fine.

So.

The bridal shower began as a small cocktail party at Ellen's house with eight other ladies. The 90-minute event, which was mostly spent eating and conversating, was followed by my bachlorette party - a concert at Ravinia, which is an outdoor music venue type place that is more about the picnic, wine and food, then about the music.

And the music that night happened to be Tom Jones.

I know, ladies. Hang on to your panties.



So here we are, Ellen's house. The Mayor saw all the presents on the table, and probably wondered how it could be Christmas again when it was so hot outside.
"Megan....Megan....this one's for Megan too! Hey wait! How come none of these say 'Nolan?' How is this possible? If it's wrapped and in this house, it's usually for me! Mooooooooooommmm!!!"

Awwww....he helped move the presents over to the couch, even if they were all for me. Aww, what a sweet picture of him and Aunt Devin!

Me and Ellie.

The whole group (click to enlarge of you want) - Devin, Ellen, Anne-Marie (besty and bridesmaid), my aunt, Adrienne (of the Sandbagger team, also a bridesmaid), me, my mom, and my FMIL.

At Ravinia - Ellen and Anne-Marie, my two preggo bridesmaids. Ellen is actually due in less then a month, Anne-Marie is due in October.

Devin - isn't she so cute you just want to eat her up?

Cheese's mom, or my FMIL. Doesn't she look just like Cheese?

Me and A.

Mr. Whiskey. But there actually wasn't a ton of drinking. Mostly just hanging out.

My mom laughing.

And still laughing. Don't you love it when your mom gets a really good belly laugh? It makes me happy.
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So there you have it.

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I should also mention that my mom pretty much bought out our registry. Between her, and my sister Ellen's birthday gifts she gave me earlier that week, there was nothing left at Crate and Barrel. And then Ellen and Devin collectively bought 8 of 12 "fancy" plate settings (by fancy I mean we got them Crate and Barrel - we didn't do the whole China thing because that stuff is uber expensive and I knew we would never really use it), and Anne-Marie rounded out our "everyday" plates (Can you believe that, between me and Cheese, we had three plates he managed to take from friends over the course of his life, and four plastic bowel we bought from Target?)

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So fear not, if you ever do come to our house, we probably won't use paper plates and plastic forks.

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Probably.

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But I'm still lazy, and you can't buy "domestic interest" at Macy's.