Wedding Wednesday: My Family Wedding Shower

I'm back with another wedding post!  This past weekend my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law hosted a shower for me at the lake. They have been planning this for many months so I was so excited to see what all they had up their sleeve!

First things first, here was the invitation!  As you all know, I love all things French so the Paris theme was perfect for me!  They also incorporated our wedding colors (navy, gold and light pink).

The shower was held at the church in the town by my parents lake home where my parents are members. It was nice to have it off-site as we had enough craziness at the lake home with all my siblings/nieces/nephews.  A lot of my aunts and cousins weren't able to attend since Easter weekend is a busy weekend for many, but I had my mom, my mother-in-law-to-be and all of my sisters and sisters-in-law there, plus an aunt and several cousins from my dad's side of the family.  So we still had a nice 20+ sized group of people!

My Chicago SIL handled all of the decor.  Party planning and decorating is totally her thing (this is the SIL that flew in to help me make our centerpieces). Each of the tables had an Eiffel Tower centerpiece plus paper flowers that she made herself using her cricut!  I gathered all of the paper flowers to use at our reception. 

Similar to my Minneapolis shower, I was greeted with mimosas!

Then it was time to take some pictures!

My mom is on the left and my mother-in-law-to-be is on the right

Surrounded by my sisters and sisters-in-law. My sisters are standing next to me (many people have mistaken Abby, the sister on my left, as my twin!), and my sisters-in-law are on the ends.  I really think of my sisters-in-law as sisters, though, and am very close to them. My brothers couldn't have picked more amazing women to marry! My sisters will be matrons of honor.  I'm so excited to have them stand up there with me as we say our vows!

Emily, Abby, me, Emily (yes I have a sister and SIL with the same name!) and Julie

My sister-in-law Emily made me this sash, which was begging for a pose like this!

The food at the shower so so good! My mom and SIL Julie made 6 different quiches. They also had croissants for the gluten eaters, cheese & crackers, and a veggie tray.

Here's a close-up of the quiches. One was crustless and the other 5 had homemade gluten free crusts.  My mom is the best pie maker and has found a great recipe for GF pie crust (GF pie people - check out the America's Test Kitchen GF cookbook - the pie crust recipe is wonderful, as are all the recipes we've tried).

For dessert, we had fresh fruit with a dipping sauce, Eiffel Tower chocolate treats, peanut butter truffles, and macarons!!

After stuffing my face with all of that delicious food (I did not hold back, I've been eating healthy lately but have given myself permission to enjoy the heck out of these special events!), it was time to open gifts!

I didn't share any photos of my gifts from my last shower but here are a couple of photos of gifts. We registered at Crate & Barrel and Amazon.  For our plates, we went with a basic white style.  I had so many bright-colored platters so decided to go with white as it will go with anything!

Our chip & dip platter - this will get put to use at my Mexican-themed Bach Party that my sister and friend are hosting at our house.

 

 

My aunt had a cutting board made for us with my new last name!

There was one mystery gift at the end...

I'm hoping and praying that we'll need the other one within the next year or so!!

Our family was so generous so we came home with quite the haul.  This is just some of the boxes.  It's making my minimalist fiance feel a little panicky but I have gotten rid of quite a bit of stuff over the last 2 weeks as we've unpacked our gifts.

We get a couple of weeks off from wedding-festivities and then during the first week of May, my colleague/mentor and his wife are hosting a pre-wedding Cinco de Mayo party at his house for work friends and then the following day I have my "Girls Gone Mild" bachelorette party which will also be Mexican-themed.  What can I say?  This girl loooooves tacos! 

It's hard to believe that I will say "I do" one month from today!!!  Life sure is good!