My friends are the BEST! And this is putting is really mildly. I'm still a little overwhelmed about the phenomenal weekend that was my Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party, but wanted to make a public announcement about how lucky I am to be so lucky with my friends! This is not to discredit my family either, as they are pretty fantastic too! I had, perhaps, one of the most amazing weekends ever (second to the engagement weekend, but absolutely top two!), with my Mummy & Daddy, Sister(s), and all of my closest friends!
Friday was a very busy but productive day, filled with wedding appointments and details, the likes of which I would not dare to bore everyone with (except for Mike, he had to listen to ALL of it, poor thing). Friday evening I had dinner with my parents and then Lauren C. arrived just in time to help with some preparations for the next day's festivities. We stayed up too late talking (late for me, it was past midnight) but had a great time catching up just the two of us! And then Saturday arrived, and wow did we make it count!
I had a chance to talk to my Grandfather first thing in the morning, so I could tell him about William and Kate. Yes, I am talking about THE William and Kate, of The Royals. Being that they are getting married a month before us, and being English, it seemed only appropriate that my Mother should invite them to my Bridal Shower. Keeping their attendance in mind, it also seemed approriate that we all wear headpieces/feathers/hair decorations Kate-style. Nichola made us all beautiful feather hairpieces and Kate even got one too (apparently she came unprepared, must have been jet lag).
(Obviously before she put on her feathers, but still, this gives you an idea of their "presence"!)
Enough about those two lovebirds though. The shower was fabulous-we had an English tea party, complete with cucumber sandwiches and trifle (yum!)! We played games, I got locked out of the house, it was a wonderful time! My Mummy and Nichola did a wonderful job hosting and my friends had a thourougly lovely time being English for the afternoon! After the shower, we made a mad dash across town to downtown Raleigh for....wait for it....our POLE DANCING class!!
Yes, we learned to pole dance. The thing I heard the most during the class went something like this: "This is way harder than it looks. I can't imagine doing this in heels and trying to be sexy all at the same time" or something like that. It is, in fact, harder than it looks, and we all had bruises and sore arms the next day to prove it. Props to strippers everywhere for their skills. We, non-strippers, still had a great time and enjoyed a little exercise and fun in our Saturday extravaganza! Sexy up from the fridge drawers, ladies!
Beerfest!!! And Bachelorette!!! And Saturday night!!!! It was wonderful! All of my favorite things (except Mike) in one place! We sampled beer, ate pretzels-thank you, Suelee!-, and had a fantastic time dancing/swimming in the rain! We were all amazed at the response to a bachelorette party at Beerfest, who knew it was so weird, but I was really appreciative of all of the "advice" I received along the way about marriage....there are a lot of really sincere gentlemen out there in Raleigh, or maybe that was just the beer talking!
We finished the night with a hotel party in the hotel lobby (Crabtree Marriott staff are probably still annoyed!), how else would be celebrate?! We had brunch at Humble Pie on Sunday-Delicious!-and then all headed home to recover from the world's most exciting Saturday ever! It was a truly fantastic time and my words will never do justice to how appreciative I am for all of the effort, love and support for Mike and I during this special time! On a side note, do not ever attempt to drive home for 7 hours after a weekend like this, it is a terrible idea! Even worse idea, having an interview at 7:30a the next morning after said drive-yowzer! A very special thank you to Lianne and Ivy for planning such a perfect day, you're both amazing and I love you guys!!!!
For those of you interested, and still reading, Mike had a great weekend with his friend Brian in Jacksonville while I was away! They got lots of sun on the beach, played with sharks and jellyfish-I'm not even exaggerating at all-while swimming in the ocean, ate lots of yummy food and drank too much beer! The cats tell me it was a great man's weekend and I think Mike would agree!
We can't wait for the wedding day, our friends and family are going to make our happiness about getting married just that much more wonderful! Woohoo dancing, eating, drinking and love! 39 days to go!
