I'll Toast to That!

WARNING: This post may get a little awkward at times and there may be a touch of sappiness here and there.

Over a month ago, I threw a Bridal Shower for my best friend, Jenna.  I spent months preparing for this shower, as I was her Matron of Honor (this was oh so exciting to me, as I'd never had such a big job before--I'd been a Bridesmaid in 2 other weddings previously, but never a MATRON OF HONOR). There were so many things to do to get ready for this shower.  Lots of ordering, planning, and creating went on behind the scenes.  Here is a picture of the "B" I painted for her in her wedding teal.

The morning of her shower was a crazy one, as I had stayed up the night before until 2:30 in the morning.  The shower was thrown at Jenna's mom's house.  I came with a vision in my head as to how I wanted the shower to look and play out. Thankfully, the shower looked exactly how I had envisioned.   Here are some pictures from the shower that show off the decor I put together.

  

The candy bar was one thing I couldn't wait to put together.  It consisted of Twizzlers, Tootsie Rolls, Jelly Beans, M & M's, Almond Hershey Kisses, Mike and Ike's, Reese Cups, Lollipops, Metallic Gumballs, and Raspberry French Macarons that I special ordered from Etsy.com (they were the bomb!).  It was so nice to hear some of the guests compliment this display.  Here are a couple of comments I distinctly remember hearing: "This looks like it is straight out of Pinterest!" and "I think Mary could open up a side business in party planning."

This little table consisted of some fun time filler activities. Guests were to write some good marriage advice on the wooden spoons, date night ideas on strips of paper, their tried and true recipes on recipe cards, and then they were to take a clothes pin in order to play the "Clothes Pin" game.

To finish off the decor, there were vases of flowers with gold glitter floating in the water and Mason Jars with different colored and patterned straws.

This shower exceeded my expectations. The guests were so much fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  There was lots of drinking, laughter (laughter caused by drinking? haha), and games!  Who doesn't love games?  Here were a few we played:

Ever heard the phrase, "Keep it simple, stupid?" Well this game was stupid simple.  Jenna and I spent the night before drooling over looking up celebrities in tuxes.  Then we cropped her fiancé's (now husband's) head and put him in a tux.  Can you pick him out in this pool of sexiness  classiness?  I made an envelope that read "Who Has the Groom?" for every celebrity.  The guests at the shower picked out an envelope and all opened their envelopes at the same time to see who in fact received the Groom.  This person received a gift.  Pretty simple, eh?

The other games were fairly traditional (Wedding Mad Libs, What's in Your Purse?)

And then of course came the "Toilet Paper" game.  You may think you know how this one goes, but I bet you are wrong. :)  I put a spin on the traditional "wedding dress" game, and went a little dirtier.  I split guests up into two teams and gave each team two rolls of toilet paper and a roll of tape.  I told them that their mission was to make a piece of lingerie that Jenna would wear on her wedding night.  Here were the results:

Team One (on the left) went the chastity belt route and Team Two (on the right) went the naughty route.  The guests got quite a laugh out of Team Two's creativity.  They used candies from the candy bar to make tassels (from Reese Cups and Twizzlers).  They made a whip from Twizzlers and they made a toilet paper thong.  It does not get much better than that ladies and gentlemen.  

WARNING: Here comes the sappiness.  If you can't handle it, don't read any further. :)

A month later, Jenna got married.  It was a day that I will never forget.  It was so hard to hold back tears at certain moments, especially when waiting for her to come down the aisle.  As I was standing up at the altar patiently waiting for my best friend to be given away, I looked over at Justin (her now husband) and I hear him say to the Mayor (who officiated the wedding), "She looks so beautiful."  No words could describe how right he was. 

A part of me was sad to see my single friend get married off, but the other part of me was so excited for her to finally experience married life.  I'll be honest, I wouldn't take my single life back for anything!  It was fun while it lasted, but my husband is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  I feel the same way about Jenna.  She is one of the best friends a girl could ever ask for.  She is like the sister I never had, literally. The moments we have shared are some of the best, especially this one (which if you were at Jenna's wedding, here is a picture to go with my toast about Jenna breaking the toilet at my bachelorette party--does that car in the toilet look familiar? ;) haha!):

  

Jenna and I have a special friendship.  She can make me laugh so hard that I cry and I can be extraordinarily stupid when I am around her.  There are not too many people that get to see that side of me.  However, I am learning that I need to let that side of me show more often because it's fun and makes life more meaningful.  

Thank you Jenna and Justin for letting Eric and I be a part of your lives and a part of your wedding.

You may never truly understand what your friendship means to us.  What I do hope you understand though is how blessed you both are to have found each other.  May you always love each other a little more each day, be the backbone for one another in tough times, rejoice in good times, and work as a married team.  Since you will celebrate a month of marriage a week from today, here is a picture to remember your big day.

I'll toast to that! :)