The Countdown to a Wedding...Finally!

There is a new Mr. and Mrs. in our family! The long awaited for, rescheduled, and worried over event finally arrived..and it was a beautiful day. The last week and a half has been a whirlwind with a to do list that seemed to stretch on forever. I had an entire notebook chock full of notes, reminders to myself, and covered in sticky notes for those last minute things I remembered but was afraid would get lost on a page that was already too filled up with words and directions. With lots of help from some amazing friends,(huge shout out to Carol and Mary!), our family, and lots of prayers, everything came together and made for some wonderful memories.

I'm going to break this post up into a mini series since there's just way too much to share at one time. There are way too many pictures, too!

First up is Marisa's shower....which was actually two showers. Marisa's shower was rescheduled twice from its original April date and landed on June 20th, which was only 8 days before the wedding. Two weeks before the shower, we still didn't have a whole lot of guidance about crowd sizes or restaurant reopening. Marisa's mom, Cathy, and I decided to split the shower list into her side/his side to keep the numbers down. Since it wasn't going to be able to be held at the hall like she originally planned, I decided to host our side at our house. A couple of Marisa's aunts offered to host the shower for her side of the family, and it ended up being at her Aunt Patti's house since she has a beautiful back yard. Keeping it outside would keep everyone safer in a crowd.

(Some of Marisa's bridesmaids, including her maid of honor and sister, Bridget(in blue).

I did not do a good job with photography and failed to get a group

shot with the whole crew which also included Sarah, Ellen, Liz, and Kate as the flower girl.

 Marisa's sister, Ali, is also a bridesmaid but was stuck in Italy where her husband is stationed.)

(Their wedding # was "Holding out for a Hamel"...

after all the delays we joked that they should change it to

#stillholdingoutforahamel!)

I was blessed to be able to borrow a tent from some parish friends. (They also let us borrow some cloth table cloths and champagne glasses for the reception which we appreciated so much!) I came up with a menu with covid in mind: I served individualized portions of potato salad(thanks mom), vegetables with dip, and taco salad in disposable cups, individual skewers with watermelon, more skewers with caprese chicken, and individual wrap sandwiches.(The sandwiches were from a local restaurant, On The Go, that make the best wraps!) There were also lots of yummy desserts! Jay's mom made her famous cupcakes as well as some delicious scones and some squares. Sarah made her amazing macaroons in chocolate and raspberry. I made chocolate chip cookie dough brownies and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. My dil, Liz, made these super cute peanut butter smores blossoms and one of the bridesmaid's moms made miniature cheesecakes. (There was more than enough dessert:)

We didn't tell Marisa that she was getting two showers in the same day so that we could have a small element of surprise! I think she got a little worried when she arrived and didn't see any of her aunts...and no extra chairs to accommodate them. So we made sure to start the party with a little explanation. :)

The theme of the shower was "Favorite Things" after Marisa's favorite movie of all time, The Sound of Music. We tried to tie in elements of the song into the shower...we had roses, brown paper packages tied up with string(which held our hand sanitizer party favors(great idea by Cathy!), and snowflakes on a banner filled with Marisa's favorite things..(Jon, babies, our dog, Josie, and her aunt's dog, Holly). Cathy even got Marisa a copper kettle which we filled with wedding advice from all the guests. We had yellow tablecloths and flowers since yellow is Marisa's favorite color. 

(Note the copper kettle:)

Some of the bridesmaids put together a few fun games that everyone enjoyed. Marisa got lots of wonderful gifts to start their life together. And even though it happened to fall on the hottest day of the year(at least in June:), it was just so nice to actually be around people! There were a couple of months when we weren't even sure that a shower would be possible, so being able to celebrate Marisa just made us all appreciate the day so much more!

This was "guess Marisa's age in the photos" game

Photo spot

The moms wore the same color scheme...all unplanned:)

As the first shower wound down, we packed up many of the decorations and desserts and headed over to shower number two. Cathy had the party catered by a very good chef that she knows. They also had a choice of wraps which were very good! The mac and cheese she made was excellent as well! Marisa got to open more lovely gifts and spend time with her side of the family. After the gifts were open, the kids and young adults all got to swim in Aunt Patti's beautiful inground pool. (Kate loved it!)

I failed again in regards to picture at shower #2. I did get these cute shots of Kate with Aunt Patti's dog, Holly....

It was a very full day...but all very worth it to see Marisa so happy!

And then the real countdown began...it was only six days until "I do's"!

To be continued.....