Amazing

This past weekend a whole boatload of my favorite people all got together to throw me a wedding shower. That this was occurring wasn’t a surprise as six of those people were staying at my house for the weekend, but the details of what was going to happen were conveniently kept secret from me.

When my mom and I showed up at my friend Liz’s house, it was basically the cheeriest sight I could have imagined. Our wedding colors are lemon yellow and lime green which my friends took and ran with. My favorite color is orange so they threw some of that in for good measure. It was just so happy! Liz even went so far to stash away her red throw pillows and only leave out the green ones to keep with the color scheme. How awesome is that?

I was so impressed that they found color coordinated banners to decorate with, but then was even more impressed when I found out my friend Gayle custom made them for the shower! My friends are so talented.

The food was also spectacular. As some of you may remember, I happen to LOVE the subs from a place called Taylor in DC. Well, apparently when they started planning this shower, the first thing that was decided upon was that they were going to serve Taylor. Not only did they get my favorite kind of sub, but they remembered that I liked it without onions and got them on the side. A shoutout to Betsy for navigating the streets of DC to pick up the sandwiches!

I love this picture because my friends are so intently discussing and surveying the sandwich scene. I wonder which ones they had there?

They also had an array of cakes. The Darster made my very favorite cake in the whole world as well as getting a custom cake made with our save-the-date photo on it. We still have Andrew’s head to eat. The third cake I actually made for my mom and I’ll have a post about it going up next week.

All the bridesmaids made it (in a timely manner this time…much better than our Florida trip) from around the country. I was SO SO SO glad and excited to see them and am so lucky that I have such awesome friends. Jen M came all the way from MA (with my mom), Elise came from Chicago, and Melissa and Jen R came down from New York. One of the best perks of this whole wedding thing (besides you know, getting to marry an awesome fella) is that we have many excuses for reunions these days.

Friends who have known me for years and friends who have only known me for a few months all came out to celebrate with me. I really truly feel honored to have all of these amazing people in my life. One of the things they did was to have people tell stories about me (and yes, a few made me cry), and it was really awesome to see everyone from every era of my  life together in one room. Gheesh, imagine what the wedding is going to be like?! I have to start preparing myself now.

We also took a quiz about me, and I must say I had some trouble with a few of the questions. I would like to publicly declare that even though I answered “What is Simmie’s favorite ice cream flavor?” with “mint chocolate chip”, the correct answer is actually “heavenly hash“. Andrew had to remind me of this later that night as I was recapping the days events. Apparently he knows me well. Good thing.

The entire afternoon was so much fun. I would like to thank each and every person who helped plan, set up, decorate, and celebrate. I would like to thank them for all of the beautiful gifts. Everyone contributed a recipe or two and put them in a scrapbook cookbook for me. Some of the recipes I have been trying to figure out for years and it’s really quite priceless. It was a wonderful day and I would like to thank you for showing me such generosity and love.

That evening my four best friends, The Jackster, and The Darster all came back to our place for a slumber party. And quite a slumber party it was, as Melissa was asleep by 8:30, Jen R by 9:30, and everyone else barely an hour later. Only Jen M and I were able to keep the party going. And by keeping the party going, I mean talking while lying down for an hour.

Before everyone left in the morning, we were able to sneak in a picture of The famous (infamous?) Darster and The Jackster. The last time the two were in the same vicinity of each other was our college graduation. They look good don’t you think?

We also got one last group shot before most of them departed back to their respective cities. Jen M and my mom hung around for the rest of the day so I got some more quality time in with them. It was sad to see them go since we all live so far away from each other now, that each and every minute we get to spend together is something special.

Simply put, I have the best friends in the world.