Ohio family bridal shower

yay! my mom put together a bridal shower for me :) it was gettting depressing and frustrating because of distance and timing and budget, to get together for a shower with even just one of my bridesmaids present. i was close to giving up, but my mom pulled thru! she is seriously so excited about all of this stuff. she kept all the planning under wraps and secret and surprised me with it all. it was cute. my dad put together a posterboard with photos of my childhood that said "our little bride to be" at the top. i was one cute kid lol.

it was nice to see some family members, all from my mom's side. and i also got to see 2 ladies from my home church i hadn't seen in ages. cute little ladies.

we played bridal bingo, a letter writing game, and a how well do you know the bride/groom game. of course i  came up with the most bizarre questions i could for that last game. i knew most of them didn't really know my favorite food or things like that, but it would be fun to guess at more bizarre and random things. and it was really a breath of fresh air that some of them, who i didn't really think cared too much, actually remember and definitively knew some things about me and bryan. it was nice. i'll be the first to admit, i felt so completely awkward sitting there being "showered" with gifts. i felt awkward at birthdays as a kid too. just kinda don't like feeling greedy or grabby or needy or whatever. if that makes sense. but my bff told me to just relax and enjoy the conversation and let my mom take care of me and spoil me, and just be the daughter, and focus on that. so i did. and man did my mom cook some awesome stuff.

i'm not sure i'm supposed to share what gifts we got, if that's kosher. but here goes anyways, we got a basket of kitchen items, spatulas, towels, and a cake decorating kit (which is so cool!). also got an over the toilet shelving unit, and a matching wall shelf. got a bag of matching bath towels, shower curtain, curtain ring things etc. and my fav gift was from my parents. we got one of those willow tree figures. i love it!

here are some photos from the day (it's a facebook album, not sure the link works :-P )