Wedding Shower

Last weekend Scott and I had our first wedding shower. It was a couple's shower thrown by Marian, a friend of Scott's mom. Now Marian, aka Martha Stewart, is an experienced event thrower. She stocks up on various themed items and stores them until the right occasion comes up to use them. She is not a professionsl event planner, but would be very successful at it. Our "theme" was hearts (awww), and cooking. Marian invited a sprinkling of our Orange County friends, along with my grandparents, and Scott's family. In the invitation, guests were sent 2 recipe cards and asked to bring some special recipes to share with us. Marian collected the recipes in a cute box for us, and now we have new recipes for my Nana's butter riches, Matt's beef bourguinon, and Carla's causa (a Peruvian dish).
When the guests arrived, they played the "white" game and the "spice" game. The "white" game consisted about 10 small bowls filled with white foods (salt, flour, cornstarch, sugar, etc). The goal was to guess as many correctly as possible just by smell (no tasting!!). The "spice" game consisted of a cupcake pan, each bowl filled with a different spice or dried herb (cumin, dried basil, paprika, celery seed, star anise, etc.), and the player had to once again guess by smell alone. Scott and I were not allowed to play, so I "helped" my grandma play, and amazingly, Nana won! I don't want to brag, but I knew every single spice in the "spice" game, and no one else did (besides Scott)!Carla and Mike play the spice game.
Now when I mentioned that the theme was hearts, I mean everything was hearts...on the door, the crackers, the salad bowls, even the ice in the water glasses. And if something was not heart shaped, it was red. Marian really outdid herself. She even conspired with Scott's family and my parents to make little books about us. I received 2 books, one from each parent, filled with handwritten notes of why they love me. Scott received the same thing, but one from his mom, and one from each sibling. Jeff reads his book to Scott. Mine was filled with notes like "I love how you do whatever it takes to spend time with family", and " I loved the perm you had when you were 5 years old." Thanks mom and dad, I really love my books!
After dinner we played "Scott & Holly BINGO", a whole BINGO game made about Scott and I by his sister Kelly. Nana and Jeff (Scott's brother) teamed up and swept the tournament, and Nana won the grand prize at the end, a huge electric heart light.
The shower was quite an experience, and I have 2 more coming up (one at work and one thrown by my grandma in Walnut Creek). Now that we have officially had a shower, the wedding seems REAL now! I have my first dress fitting next Saturday....
A pasta pot to add to our All-Clad collection!
Glass plates from my granparents!