This past weekend I was humbled by the amount of love shown to Paul and I at our wedding shower.
The shower was hosted by my mom Mary Pye and sister Denise Wengielnik, along with help from all of my bridemaids and flower girls. (Special thanks to flower girl Jacey for being the present runner!).
I knew all of the girls were working hard on it. For weeks there's been signs of their efforts, such as questions on which items on my wedding registry I wanted most or declining my invites to hang out in order to work on shower stuff. I can't be mad they are turning me down to work on my wedding, right?
Even though I knew how hard they were working, I could have never imagined the beauty and detail of it all until I walked into the room.
We walked into the Public Landing in Lockport and Paul and I were immediately greeted by my sister with turquoise corsages matching my wedding colors, and Mimosas! From there my eyes were immediately drawn to the custom cake which featured our initials, C&P, in "sand" surrounded by two beach chairs and a white fence. The cake itself was surrounded by decorative beach items and a beach framed picture of Paul and I from when we got engaged. The cake was the touch of my "friend soul mate" Amy.
And the table centerpieces - little lanterns decorated in my wedding colors atop a beautiful fabric and surrounded by turquoise petals. My gift table displayed a beautiful balloon bouquet with a giant "Mr. & Mrs." balloon that I truly have always wanted. No joke, I have a obsession with balloons. (Don't judge me.) But only my oldest friend Rachel, who has always loved me and respected me no matter how weird I am, could fulfill such an obsession.
If you recall my last blog on my fascination on customized items . . . well my mother and sister must have read my mind because my favors were heart candy dishes filled with candy and personalized sunscreen and lip balm stating "Paul and Christina sealed with a kiss." (Click on bottom left photo). I love them! I will never throw them out!
My most creative BFFs Trish and Angie (also soon to be sister-in-law) came up with the best games. Now I know shower games can be boring, but not the ones these girls did. As a matter of fact, I think my mom and Aunt Toni had the most fun competing to win the Bath and Bodyworks prizes Angie so graciously purchased. They did a quiz on who knew Paul and I best, with such questions as who kissed who first, where was our first vacation, where did we meet, etc. And believe it or not, the person I have know the shortest amount of time (like 10 months to be exact) won - my co-worker Jessica Cohea. I think she's just a good guesser because that quiz was written by Trish and Angie who are the two people in our lives that know us best. In actuality, I talk a lot and Jessica is a really good listener, hence why she is a good reporter.
Even the little things had me choking back tears. My cousin Krystal made us a memory box covered in pictures of us in moments that only a loved one like her could capture - a secret kiss in the corner of a party, and even a close up of us from when we were 16 next to almost the same exact shot 12 years later. It now holds the notes my shower guests wrote for me on "what love is..."
And the traditional bow bouquet, for those that don't know you put all of the bows from your gifts on a paper plate to serve as your rehearsal bouquet, well my cousin Wendy did it for me and it's so amazing. Seriously, it's good enough to be my bouquet for my wedding day. (Picture to come later!) Wendy has always been crafty, but seriously, I've done probably six of those in my years as a bridesmaid and it made mine look pathetic.
But the most heart-warming memory I will take from this event was the turnout. When we started planning for this I had a list of like 52 and was worried my mom and sister might kill me. They said 'don't worry only about 35 will come."
47 people came.
Please note, showers are boring. Besides the bride, most people don't care for them. And of all the wedding festivities, it's normally the one people skip. So the fact that so many people came from our families and friends, it was breathtaking.
Paul and I don't do well as the center of attention, especially Paul, so it's overwhelming enough to have so many people looking at you. But then when you think of all those people coming because they love you and want the best for you, well it brings me to tears, as it is right now.
I wish I could spend a half an hour with each one of my family members, friends and bridesmaids thanking them for their gestures of love, but that would be hard to do so my thank you cards will just have to be darn good.
But since I'm still working on those, please take this for now...
“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” - Frederick Keonig
I'm so glad I have all of you.
