Last Saturday, my best friend and I got up early to make our trip home for the weekend.  Well, to my home.  She lives on the other coast.  Anyway, we grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald’s and started our trip.  As we drove, we talked wedding, goings on in our lives, and all that girly stuff.  We made it home by 11:30am.  My mom was so excited to see us!  We got all of our stuff inside and ran up to the cake place.  The cake lady agreed that the flowers we bought for the cake wouldn’t work.  We agreed on hydrangeas that she would die to match our lilac color.  I love going to the cake place, because the lady has it set up like a dainty boutique.  Seriously, it is wedding cake mania in there, with a cute dining room table and chairs for tastings.  She serves everything on china and even serves water in tea cups! 

We had enough time after going to talk with the cake lady to get home, change, and head to the shower.  My sister was already there when we arrived, but she and my sister-in-law (also my matron of honor) were still setting up.  It was weird; they wouldn’t let me help and I had nothing to do!  I started feeling really weird, almost like an out of body experience.  It was a combination of anxiety and the thought of being the center of attention.  People starting coming, I would greet and introduce them, and before I knew it, the party had begun!

We started out with introductions around the room; since there were about 30 people there, we pretty much needed to have everyone introduce themselves.  The sweetest thing was when we got to my stepdad’s family – everyone introduced themselves as my sister, aunt, cousin – no “step” involved.  It was a very subtle thing, but very special to me. 

We got some food (which was amazing – finger sandwiches, spinach dip, fruit skewers, sangria, wine, etc.) and started the first game.  My sister-in-law asked Tom a bunch of questions beforehand, and she asked me those.  People guessed how many I would get right.  If I got a question wrong, I had to put a piece of gum in my mouth.  Out of 12 questions, I got 7 wrong!  I swear though, Tom tricked me.  No joke, one of the questions was “How many times in a day do I fart?”  I guessed 50 times, but his answer was, “17.  One day, I counted.”  Tom’s mom was mortified, and I was slightly embarrassed, but everyone laughed.  I made sure to get a picture of my chewed gum for Tom, since he gave me such interesting questions to answer!

The next game we played was a “Bobbi or Tom” bingo game.  Several questions were asked, people would show a “B” or “T” on their paddle and would get to mark that square on their bingo card if they got it right.  We didn’t make it all the way through the questions before someone called “BINGO!”

Next up, we had cake and I began opening my gifts.  I got an insane amount of gifts!  My most prized possession was what I received from my future mother-in-law.  Her gift was wrapped in a shirt box, and when I opened it, there was a letter that told me about the gift.  The letter told me about Tom’s christening cap that was too big for his little head.  The christening cap is to be used for my handkerchief the day of the wedding.  As you can imagine, it was a very emotional moment, and I cried a lot!
The rest of the pictures are those that I picked from the 180 or so that my sister-in-law took and sent to me.  Click to see the full size pictures.  I had such a wonderful time with thirty or so women that I adore.  I can’t wait for the wedding!