Hey Hey A Beautiful Day : Showered with Lots of Love & Surprises

At the end of June, MOH Tessa and her amazing mom – My Auntie Rucksack– threw me the best shower a girl could ask for. I knew the date (I’m not one for surprises when it comes to having to dress up and look pretty) but I didn’t know much about the details – including the guest list. It was such a surprise to have so many of my wonderful girlfriends in attendance.

Surrounded by the lovliest of girls

Celebrating with MOH Tessa, Auntie Rucksack, and Momma Rucksack

The best semi-surprise was that my FMIL & FSIL flew in from Minnesota to attend! They were planning on keeping it a total secret, but then decided to tell me because a) a couple of weeks ago I was having a bad day and they thought I could use something happy and b) FMIL said she would have killed her Mother-in-Law if she had ever shown up for a 4 day stay unannounced. Best In-Laws ever, I tell you!

BM F, me and FMIL Rucksack

We made a whole weekend of their visit, and FMIL Rucksack took FSIL F and me into the city for a girls’ day of shopping and a Broadway show! We saw Cinderella and it was amazing! We all cried at Ella and Topher’s finale wedding.

Photos by FSIL/BM F

On Sunday, I got to spend the morning relaxing by walking downtown in sweats for a leisurely breakfast, getting my nails done (in neon coral) and lounging in the sun with BM F while drinking Bloody Mary’s. It was such a perfect start to the day.

At 1:45, we headed out the door and arrived at my aunt’s house just as they were finishing set-up. We were the first “guests” to arrive which was perfect so that we didn’t walk into a swarm of people. It gave me a chance to introduce everyone and to chat with each girl as they walked in.

My old roommate Jem, Cupcake, and Goody after hitting the wonderful bar

My aunt’s backyard is just this amazing oasis of garden perfection and she and Tessa made it even more amazing for my shower.

I wish I got a picture of the food spread, but I was clearly very focused on the bar instead! Someone actually had to remind me to eat because I was so busy visiting with everyone. I realize now why everyone says it’s so hard to eat at your own wedding. Hopefully there will be people reminding me there too!

I should have requested a better cake shot, but at least this is fitting of our personalities

I did get a picture of the cake though. It was beautiful and I heard it was also really tasty. My aunt made me chocolate covered strawberries since I couldn’t eat the cake and those were super yummy!

So obviously, I’m a little out of order here. In between lunch and dessert, we also did a lot of gift opening. I’m not going to lie, I was so excited about this part. But once we got there, I realized “wow this is awkward.” I also had 2 glasses of sangria in me at this point, so I was a little flustered. And did I mention it was eighty billion degrees in the sun? Well, the first couple of gifts I was all like “Oh this is weird….am I smiling enough?....do I look appreciative?....can everyone see the sweat puddle forming underneath me?” but eventually I got the hang of things.

Hard working flower girl handing me yet another gift

My flower girl was the best helper. She handed me every single present (even the heavy ones), then took the ribbons to BM Veronica for my ribbon bouquet, and came out with the best one liners: “Whew – I think I’m getting in my workout of the day!” and "There's no business like show business!"

If I look confused here, it's because I totally am. I was told to unwrap this before reading the card and was very surprised to find a big jar of....um...things? I honestly had no clue what I was looking at. There were patches of some sort, coins, action figures, a lucky rabbits foot and so so much more. The card explained that this was a jar of all of Mr. Rucksack's treasures that he saved when he was a little boy. I thanked FMIL and then announced "Mr. Rucksackis going to be so pissed when I tell him that I have a jar of really cool things and I'm not going to share with him!"

The toys are mine! All mine!

One of my favorite parts of the day was after most of the guests had gone home and there were just a few of us left. By this point, Mr. Rucksack had joined me so that he could thank everyone on their way out. I was sweaty and exhausted, but since it was just our families and a couple of close friends left I was able to take my shoes off, put my hair in a ponytail and just relax. We had so much fun reminiscing and laughing until we were crying. Plus, Mr. Rucksack was being super mushy. It doesn’t happen too often so when it does it’s adorably funny. He kept hugging and kissing me and for some reason trying to dip me, all while saying “We’re getting married! We’re really getting married!”