grab your umbrella.

ella.

ella.

(that is for you, jen weber...)

hello hello!

i must say my first bridal shower was almost like a flashback to my 5th birthday party at pawnee park. how often in our adulthood do we get a party with fabulous food, games & all eyes on you as you open present after beautiful present??! oh and wine. but i didn't know what i was missing in preschool....

i must thank aunt tricia, aunt nita (who flew in from colorado!) and aunt nancy for throwing me a lovely bridal shower --- my very first one!

here are my hostesses with the absolute mostesses (i know -- ginormous fail on the rhyme.)

the day was filled with gold & ivory & lace & incredible homemade party favors.

my fabulous matron of honor made the trip to join my new minnesota family in celebrating! isn't she just cute as a button?!

it was such a wonderful turnout! it's so humbling to see all of these new friends and family members come to wish us their best. to share in my excitement & not make fun of me for the smile that seems to be permanently planted on my face AND to saunter up to that bridal pictionary board like we were on the game show network. for the record...team bride won with a clutch point at the end. sorry joel.

after the shower, many of my guests stayed to help assemble the invites --- even uncle jim pried the corner embosser puncher thing away from me before i injured myself. i realized then that i could never be a scrapbooker.... i wish to thank ALL of you for helping to get those beauties in the mail! you should have seen the assembly line we had going -- and the contraptions that aunt tricia owns to make all of these masterpieces...and we're not talking pinking shears, folks. there was a sticky tape gun thingie that blew my mind.

joel's cousins stacey and anna (also our photographers) captured pictures throughout the afternoon & made this slideshow... i am so grateful for them to capture all of these moments since my phone has now become my camera. that's right, i honestly couldn't tell you where my real camera is right now. probably in harv's tummy.

speaking of harvey...he squeezed in a little snuggle time with his buddy ethan during the road trip. mind you, ethan & harvey get along just like brothers ----- constantly pestering one another.

after ethan woke up...
"hey ethan! you & harvey were cuddling! it was SO cute! i took a picture; do you want to see?"

no thank you.

sigh.

another memorable weekend in the books......my goodness we're creeping up to april 13th quite quickly, aren't we? :)

invites went in the mail on saturday! my parents stuffed the freshly assembled invites into the envelopes that aunt tricia individually embossed --- yes, she thought of embossing the envelopes --- i adore her. my mom has spent the past few weeks carefully addressing each one in her dainty & oh-so-perfect penmanship. i had her write out a cursive alphabet (upper AND lower case) on a piece of paper for me this past weekend. i am going to start practicing. and i'm not kidding. put that lost art right up there with letter-writing.

i hope all of the invites reach our loved ones unscathed. my mom meticulously packed them in two boxes, and we toted them to the post office here in des moines. we gingerly handed them over to the attendant, and she measured and weighed them, assuring us the sixty five cent stamp was ample postage for each item. we were quite pleased with ourselves & smiled at each other. and just at that moment, out of the corner of our eyes, we saw that same postal woman worker HEAVE the box on its side, its contents avalanching into the 'OUTGOING' bin. i thought my mom was going to have a heart attack. so yes...please tell us they made them to you in utterly perfect condition. ;)

and forgive us for the unconventional rsvp --- how can we buy more stamps from the woman that all but used her ugly black boot to ensure they all fit in that blasted bin.

no bridezilla here. :)