Parties

We made it!! It was a three day whirlwind of dress shopping, cooking, hosting, opening presents, drinking, seeing all of our wonderful friends and family, and it was great. Totally exhausting and absolutely great.

The Friday dress shopping trip was good because Feather Nester and M. got to see two of the top dress contenders in person and see if we could find any additional dresses - we didn't. The second dress shop consisted of two pouty young girls who didn't listen to anything I said and were extremely put out by our very presence. The next trip - whenever that is - will be to Albany to keep looking. It's just such a big decision!

Saturday the house was a hive of activity from 7am until Feather Nester's baby shower started at 1pm. We threw a lovely and relaxing tea party. No baby shower games, just "nine ladies chattin'" as I told B.

Food table

Gift and favor table, with some before and after pictures.

Tea cup favors
(Thank you Ithaca Chick for help with the labels!)

After our tea party, we all took naps and tried to gather energy for the next party. The one thing about living far away from everyone you love is that you never get to see people all at once in the same room. Instead, you just make lots of one-on-one visits. So to have so many friends and family drive and fly into town for this was amazing. I felt drunk with excitement before I even walked into the restaurant. It was the fastest 3 1/2 hours of my life! There were only 30 people there and I couldn't even talk to everyone. THIS is exactly why we are having a weekend wedding - so that Friday night can be the time where it's a frantic game of catch ups and thank yous, and Saturday can be more relaxed and celebratory. I don't have many pictures of the party because I need people to send me some, but here are two.

Sweet Nothings & Feather Nester in front of the sign B's sister made for us.

After the party, the under-40 set all came back to our house for some post party drinking and present opening. Then this morning, after I nursed an awesome hangover for a few hours, everyone stopped by for a few hours before leaving. This was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. It was so nice to have everyone all together again and not have to worry about planning and cooking and hosting - just doing nothing but enjoying each other's company. The low key and impromptu nature of the morning just gave me the chance to really appreciate everyone's company. So thank you to everyone who came (and the long distance ladies who tried so hard to come) - it was such a special weekend.