Looking Back: Showered with Love

Once May rolled around, my life went into super-wedding-overdrive.  I remember the waking up the morning of May 1st, realizing that we were quickly approaching the end of a thirteen-month engagement, and that our wedding was just around the corner.  It scared the crap out of me.  It was at that moment that the wedding butterflies decided to take permanent residence in my stomach.  I had so much to do.  It was overwhelming, the list was so long.  I had people to coordinate, projects to complete, details to finalize; to be honest, I'm not sure how I made it through that month!

But that first weekend in May, albeit full of stress, was also the first time I felt like a bride; it was the weekend of my bridal shower.  It was then that I finally understood that other people were excited about our wedding. It wasn't because of the details that I had slaved over for the past year.  No, they were excited because they loved us and genuinely wanted to wish us well in our new life together.

My shower, hosted by my mom, my aunt and my grandma, was perfect.  Absolutely perfect.  I spent the day with all of my favorite ladies, some of whom I hadn't seen in a long time, and just soaked it all in.

The shower was at a small cafe in Tulare, CA called Hazel's Kitchen.  They closed down for the Sunday and filled their front lawn with tables, umbrellas, and an eclectic variety of antique chairs.  Their food was spectacular: an array of sandwiches (The best being chicken salad, yummm), angel hair pasta salad and fruit salad.  We played games, visited, opened gifts in traditional bridal shower fare, and had a fantastic time.

So, I took a ton of pictures to correspond to this post, but sadly they were lost.  Instead, I'll leave you with images captured by others kind enough to upload to facebook!

My mom spent hours making fabric flowers to place atop ink pens for the centerpieces/favors.

The setup was so cute, and the weather was perfect. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom, me, and my grandma.

I couldn't believe how generous people were!

Our tasty, tasty cake.

As cliche as it is, I honestly felt showered with love.  I am extremely thankful to everyone that made it out.  Spending time with my loved ones allowed me to de-stress and refocus.  Though my list of to-do items didn't get any smaller, I remembered that our wedding was supposed to be about family, friends, and love.  All of the other stuff was just bonus  : )

Next up:  Flower District Fail