Morning, friends!
I had such a great weekend – Saturday was my bridal shower, which was an afternoon tea at my parent’s house hosted by my wonderful bridesmaids! Here I am with the four of them – it was awesome to have my very best friends in one place. 
(If you’re new to the blog – I’m getting married to my fiancé Matt in October! Check out my wedding page for all our previous wedding planning-related updates, are here is our engagement story.)
From left – Laura aka Turner (college), Jenny (high school), me!, Jessica (previous DC roommate), Kris (college)
These beautiful ladies put a ton of hard work into the shower for me and I’m so lucky to have them in my life. A huge thank you to them for making the day so special!
Another big thank you to my mom, for offering to host the shower at their house, and for busting out all our awesome old family china and linen for the occasion. We used tablecloths and tea services that date back to my great great grandmother! So cool.
And one more big thank you to Gretchen for being awesome and offering to take photos so I didn’t have to worry about taking them myself! Credit for almost all of the photos in this post goes to her. Thank you, Gretchen! Here I am with Gretchen and my MOH, her sister Jenny.
We had an amazing spread of food for the shower, plus some beautiful flowers and decorations.
Gorgeous photo courtesy of Gena!
There were also some adorable favors for everyone to take home!
The favors were little tea packets with a thank you on them, plus some madeleines. Yum.
The girls were in a frenzy getting all of it ready before everyone arrived! Even my grandmother got roped into helping because she arrived early. 
Since it was a tea party, we had all sorts of cute little finger sandwiches. Cucumber:
Smoked salmon and dill:
And plain jelly in heart shapes.
We also had some unpictured hummus and veggies and lots of fruit, including some amazingly delicious watermelon.
And of course, dessert.
How adorable are these mini-pies?! Jenny and Gretchen made them and they definitely won for cutest dish of the day. Delicious, too!
Plus little mini cups of brownies and lemon tarts!
Yum.
Before we knew it, the guests were arriving and the party had officially begun.
I really wish I’d gotten a photo of all the guests together (or at least more of them), but I was too busy chatting everyone up! We had 26 people total in attendance and it was so much fun to have so many of my close friends and family in one place. There were people there from all walks of life – family friends, neighbors, high school friends, college friends, DC friends, blog friends, and future family, too – Matt’s mother and my future sister-in-law came as well!
Here I am with my friends Kathleen, Hilary, Erin, and Megan:
Hilary, Ashley, and Jess:
Hilary, me, future sister-in-law Jess, Janice, and Erin (in front of a window, hence the bright white behind us):
Lara, Jenny, and Gena:
And so many more!
We spent about an hour or so mingling and eating before settling down to open gifts and play a couple games. The girls know me well and knew I wouldn’t want a ton of cheesy bridal games, but we did play one really fun trivia game.
For the trivia game, when we all sat down, Jenny (my MOH), told us all that she had emailed Matt about 15 questions (things like, “How do you take your coffee?” “When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?” “What’s your favorite meal that Anne makes?” etc.). She would ask the questions to me and for every one I got wrong, I would have to put a huge piece of bubble gum in my mouth (lol).
Above I’m celebrating getting one right. And below I am like, oh, crap… what’s Matt’s favorite movie? (Braveheart – I guessed it right!)
Aaaaand here’s me starting to eat the gum for answering one wrong, lol. I’d say I got about 60 or 70% right. There were a lot where I was like “It’s either this, or this…” and then I guessed the wrong thing, haha. But I did guess Matt’s favorite athlete – Troy Polamalu from the Steelers! Even though I pronounced his name wrong.
Buuuuut by the end of the game, my mouth was still exploding with gum. Everyone was cracking up – I’d really recommend this game if you find yourself hosting a shower for a friend. So fun!
After trivia, we moved on to presents. The girls presented the guests with this fun “bridal present bingo” game to keep them interested/occupied during the present opening. They would write typical presents (e.g. silverware, frying pan, towels, etc.) in the squares and whoever got bingo first won!
The girls gave out prizes to the first two winners – they got reusable cups with little Starbucks cards in them. Gretchen was one of the winners and snapped this photo of her prize!
Presents!
My last gift was a fun basket that was a collaborative gift from all of my bridesmaids. I was so touched by how sweet and thoughtful the presents were! There was an assortment of fun little kitchen gadgets from our Crate & Barrel registry, plus this gorgeous cutting board engraved with me and Matt’s name:
And the main gift was a beautiful cookbook they made by compiling all of the recipes from my blog!!
How cool is that?! I was so surprised and I can’t even imagine how long it must have taken them to compile all the recipes. What a sweet gift!
The book literally includes every single recipe from my blog, all organized based on the categories on my recipe page. And since it’s in a spiral book, I can get new pages printed to add to it as I make new recipes!
Amazing, right? A bunch of people at the shower wanted to buy a copy, too!
We ended the shower with some advice and well wishes – my bridesmaids handed these cards out during the present opening and asked everyone to quickly write down any advice they could think of for maintaining a happy marriage. I read through the cards with the girls after everyone left – there was a wonderful mix of sentimental, thoughtful, and lighthearted well wishes/advice from the guests.
What a wonderful day. A huge thank you again to my bridesmaids and my mom for making the day so special for me – I was so touched by how much effort was put into all the little details. And a big thank you to those who are reading that were in attendance! I’m so honored to have such amazing people in my life.