My bridal shower rocked! It was just the best shower I've ever been too -- the food was fabulous, the games were amusingly silly (but not boring or embarrassing), the gifts were wonderful, and, most importantly, almost all of my favourite female friends and family were there!

Thomas' aunt Carolyn was the hostess with the mostess, and she did an astounding job! The location was the home of Thomas' dad and stepmom, Deb, and she also did a great job. The living room was set with one long table, draped in white, and decorated with beautiful arrangements of red and purple tulips and eucalyptus leaves (made by Carolyn, Thomas' cousin Amy, and Thomas' grandmother Pat). The cloth napkins were tied with sheer burgundy wired ribbon, and at each place was a tiny stamped teapot shaped box filled with purple paper, a packed of green tea, and a Chinese red envelope with a lucky quarter inside. These favours were handmade by my mom.

We had a lavish buffet with a green salad, loads of fresh veggies and fruits, bagels and salmon spread, and a bunch of dim sum delicacies such as steamed and baked cha-shu bau (BBQ pork buns), har gow (shrimp dumplings), sui mai (pork dumplings), and sweet rice with chicken and pork sausage wrapped in lotus leaves. There was a devastatingly delicious cake too -- chocolate with white chocolate frosting, decorated with an elegant purple flower and my and Thomas' names in purple. Champagne flowed all afternoon, along with Earl Grey tea.

About 15 people were there, including my mom and her friend Maryanne (who is practically an aunt to me) and Thomas' aunt, cousin, grandmother, sister, and stepmom. My maid of honour, Irina, arrived late (as usual ;-), but unfortunately neither of my bridesmaids could be there (Kelly had planned to come all the way from Rhode Island, but an injury prevented her from getting on the plane at the last minute). Friends from my old workplace and people I've met through vampire gaming and the Costumer's Guild rounded out the guest list.

Everyone got two nametags as they arrived -- one tag with their own name and a second tag that was stuck to their backs. The back tag had the name of a famous bride on it, and everyone had to ask other people questions to figure out who they were. The definition of "bride" was pretty broad -- names included Queen Victoria, Marilyn Monroe, Maria Shriver, Liz Taylor, and Dennis Rodman! Irina had Dennis Rodman's name and surprisingly guessed it pretty fast. This game really got everyone talking right from the start.

While we were eating, we played two other games. One was to see how many words you could come up with from the letters in "Trystan and Thomas." Diane was the hands-down winner -- she came up with 43 words in about five minutes! Some of the more PG-rated words people came up with were "randy", "nasty", and "tantra."

The other game was a trivia contest about me. Thomas had helped Carolyn come up with the questions and answers. It was fun to see who know what answers (of course, my mom was disqualified from the whole contest). Almost everyone knew Indian food was one of my faves., but no-one could remember chicken tikka masala as my favourite dish. Nonie knew I was born in Pensacola, Florida, because her fiance, Mike (Thomas' best man) was from Pensacola and had pointed out the hospital where I was born and where he had an operation. Dorie was the quickest with math and got my birth year of 1969 correct. Everyone knew Thomas Hardy is my favourite author, and everyone knew I was an English major in college. Everyone knew how Thomas proposed because most of them were there when it happened (but a couple people got bonus points for having watched the video online ;-). I did blow one question though cause at the beginning of the game I was talking with Deb about how long ago Thomas and I first started seeing each other (eight years ago on March 7 was our first kiss).

Then I opened the presents. As if I didn't know it before, I was reminded that I have truly generous and creative friends and family! The gifts were all beautifully wrapped, which gave Dorie plenty of materials to make a fake bouquet for me to use during the wedding rehearsal. Let me just say, I never realized how a bridal shower can really bring out the sentimental side of people! Irina was being quite the proper Maid of Honour, writing a list of the gifts received and the givers, as well as writing down my reactions to each gift to use in a naughty "what she'll say on the wedding night" bit. Karen was gushing like crazy about the wedding. Dorie was exhibiting her secret Martha Stewart side with the fake bouquet. And all of the older ladies kept telling me I "looked like a bride", which was very sweet though slightly confusing to me.

I received a lot of stuff off our registry -- particularly the Macy's registry. Beautiful sheets, placemats, napkins, and silver items were in abundance. Thomas now thinks we'll never need to buy another candleholder in our lives, since Karen gave us a very stylish set of tall silver candlesticks and Stephanie gave us a totally gothic iron candelabra that holds four red votives. Both Maryanne and Dorie gave us cozy throw blankets, one a sweater-knit in dusty plum, the other a fringed chenille in burgundy. I even got a sexy rose-red nightie from Diane!

It was so much fun to see everyone. I was really glad that people seemed to get along so well. There were people from a variety of different groups, most of whom didn't know each other. But everyone chatted and laughed together the whole afternoon. It was so special and meant a lot to me for everyone to be there and having a good time.

Time to write those thank you notes now!!!