Heather's Baby Shower

Now for the 3rd stop on the May Three Weddings, a Baby Shower and a Birthday Tour!  Next stop, Pittsburgh!  Or more specifically, Venetia, PA, to my Nan's house for my cousin, Heather's baby shower.  She is having a boy, due in July, and yes, we're all super excited to meet him :)

My aunts, Kelly and Donna, along with my Nan threw the shower, and it was a jungle animal theme.  I made the cake, just like I made this cake for her bridal shower:

And this cake for her Halloween wedding:

I rolled out fondant and drew little lions, monkeys, birds, a hippo, etc. with food pens and gel food coloring and water with a food paint brush.  Then I cut them out and let them dry, and prayed they wouldn't crack.  Which some did, but oh well.

The cake was vanilla with vanilla italian buttercream, except the trees, which had a little Hershey's syrup for color.  So much tastier than brown food coloring, don't you think?

Congratulations on your new little man, Heather and Dan!

The glowing Mom-to-be

And the dad-to-be, acting weird with Randy.  Why is it that guys always make weird faces when you take pictures of them at baby showers?  Probably because they're jealous of all the fun the girls are having.  That's got to be it.

Kelly, Donna and Nan did an amazing job on the food.  The circular hoagies were a nice touch.

Heather got lots of nice gifts, including these cute drawings from her friend's 4-year-old daughter, Wren.

 See her cute bump?  This girl is all baby.

Our cousin Becky made this beautiful quilt for the baby.  She is so talented.

You would think I would have gotten a better close-up of it considering I folded it and sat there cuddling it for most of the rest of the shower.

Hot dog baby suit.  In our family, not just for Halloween.  Every day wear.

Heather got lots of help from Wren opening presents.  Wren even explained to us what some things were.  So adorable.

Then it was finally time for cake.

Wren was my helper and handed out cake, making sure ladies were served first.

Cutest cake delivery girl ever, right?  And yes that is my butt on the right as I cut the cake.  Probably could have cropped this better, but we're almost a month behind, we'll keep it real.

Congratulations, Heather and Dan!  Bring on the newest Thomas baby!

Megan and Matt's wedding

On to our next stop on the May 3 Weddings, a Baby Shower and a Birthday party:  Matt and Megan's wedding.

You may remember this post in which I let the cat out of the bag that Megan and Matt, my friend and Randy's friend, who we introduced a few years back at a Harry Potter movie, were looking at engagement rings.  And you might remember this post about Megan's bridal shower and the beautiful blue dresses she had picked for us to wear for the wedding.  And you may remember that I was the Matron of Honor and Randy was a groomsman, so we don't have a lot of pictures since we were in the wedding.

Megan asked me to give a speech at the rehearsal dinner.  I'm glad it was for the rehearsal and not at the actual wedding, but getting up in front of any size group of people gives me the willies.  I've given presentations at work and at school, but this was my first toast!  I decided to just tell the story of the night that Megan and Matt met, which is actually a pretty funny story.  I was so nervous and had to practice it in front of some friends and random women in the Ladies' room.  It fell flat.  It was awful.  I had "To Life, To Laughter, and To Happily Ever After" in my back pocket at the suggestion of one of the ladies in the bathroom, but it turned out I didn't need it.  I got up there to give the speech and it was a million times better than the practice run in the bathroom, not to toot my own horn or anything.  I'm just glad it wasn't a massive failure and Megan is still talking to me.  That, in my book, is a successful toast.

This is the only picture I got to snap before the wedding.

The wedding was at St. Patrick's Church in Kennett Square.  Randy showed up early and made friends with the ladies at the church, Mary and Marge.  They were so nice and answered all of his off-the-wall questions about Catholicism that I don't know the answers to or can't answer while he's whispering loudly in church.  Thanks Mary and Marge!  You rock!  Now I don't have to give him the same speech my mom gave me when I was five before we walked into church, that we have to be quiet in "God's house", and he hasn't referred to Jesus as "The only other jew in church" in a while.  But I'm getting off topic.

We had an absolutely perfect day for the wedding.  The sun was shining, it wasn't too hot, the sky was a beautiful blue and there were fluffy white clouds.  The grass and trees seemed extra green.  You really could not ask for a more beautiful day.

When we got to the country club after the wedding, we took some golf carts out to the golf course for some professional pictures.  My husband ditched me to ride with Megan's 16-year-old cousin, but Matt's brother gave me a ride.

As you can see, Megan looked beautiful.

Megan's family has a tradition where the bride and groom at every family wedding drink out of the "Loving Cup".  And I thought it was just a Rolling Stones song.  That little guy below actually lifts up off his legs and his coat flips over to be a cup.  The cup on top is hinged to it, and both cups are filled with wine.  The bride drinks from the little cup, and the groom drinks from the coat and they have to do it without spilling.  I think it's an Irish Tradition, but a new one to me.  That's Megan's bouquet below.  Does this florist do gorgeous work or what?

Isn't Megan's dress beautiful?  It had buttons all down the back that we had to fasten one by one.  I did not envy Matt after the wedding, and I'm guessing Megan had to sleep in that dress!

The cake was just like Megan, very traditional and classic.  I haven't seen an actual bride and groom on a wedding cake in a long time, but it is so charming.  The cake was chocolate with vanilla icing and fondant.

  

Ever go to a wedding and think, "Wow, these two could not be marrying into nicer families?"  That was definitely true of this wedding.  Everyone was celebrating as hard as they could and there was a definite merging of the two families.  It was a beautiful thing.

Congratulations, Matt and Megan!

T N' T Dynamite!

OK, so I know we said we'd be better...  it's just that life has gotten in the way.  Thank God we don't write this blog for a living or we'd be B-R-O-K-E.  Especially after all the wedding and baby and birthday presents we had to buy in the last month.  Just kidding ...sort of.  Living life is more important than documenting it, and we had a wonderful May.  To make up for our absence, this post will be extra long.  Yay!

The first stop on our 3 weddings, a baby shower and a birthday party tour was Chicago.  Our friend Lizzie married a wonderful guy, Tony, who Randy and I both love.  Randy and I went to Villanova with Liz, and she was our roommate for a while when we first bought the house.  She was also a bridesmaid in our wedding!  

Liz at our wedding.  What you can't see here is she is sitting because she cut open her toe on the threshold of the door walking into the country club a few hours before our wedding.  Yet she still walked down the aisle.  She is one tough cookie.

Liz is a hydroplane race boat driver, one of the few women in the sport.  She is very talented, and a super star in Australia.  

Although we have not known Tony for as long, we like him too.  He's like another Randy, but with an actual filter between his brain and his mouth.  Super hilarious and better behaved, really laid back.

Liz and Tony at Mr. Bill's in New Jersey

The wedding was a Mardi Gras theme.  These are the masks for the bridal party.  Fun, right?  This wedding was totally worth the hell we went through to get to and from Chicago.  American Airlines + O'Hare airport + four days of thunderstorms = colossal suckiness.  But lets not dwell on the unpleasant. I'll just say don't fly American Airlines into O'Hare EVER. 

The rehearsal, wedding, and reception were all at the Eaglewood Resort in Itasca, Illinois.  They did a great job.  If you're getting married in Chicago, check it out.  We didn't even have to go off site for hair or getting our nails done.  There is a spa right in the resort!  Not that I got my hair done, but we did go to the unique rehearsal dinner in the on-site bowling alley.

Look at this handsome guy.

Lizzie looked beautiful.  Funny thing about Liz:  Randy and I are the only ones who call her that.  It wasn't until we met Liz's parents at a boat race a couple of years ago and they didn't know who "Liz" was that we realized no one calls her Liz.  It turns out Randy started calling her Liz in class and she never corrected him.  So then when I was introduced to her, I called her Liz too.  I can't call her anything but Liz or Lizzie now, even though she is Elizabeth or Tizzy.  So this was the wedding of Tizzy and Tony, or T&T.

Yeah, I blinked, but I'm ok with that so we can show us with Lizzie.

T N' T Part 1.25

Great ideas for a place card table, right?  I love the simplicity and bright colors of the floral balls.

Instead of a guest book, Liz and Tony created a picture album on Snapfish and had everyone sign that with gold, silver and magenta pens.

I'm a sucker for some floral balls.

T N' T Part 1.5

Bucking tradition, Liz and Tony had their cocktail hour first.  It was nice to get to enjoy with cocktail hour with the bride and groom.

The wedding and reception were in this outdoor tent, complete with chandeliers and a luminaria aisle.

The head table.

I thought the centerpieces were so clever.  Once the sun went down, you really felt like you were outside at a garden wedding in the French Quarter.

They even had cajun food for dinner and it was fabulous.

I loved how the bridesmaids dresses wore different shades of purple.  They each individually looked gorgeous, but all together they were the colors of a multifaceted amethyst.  

Liz and her dad

Randy getting all teary-eyed during the ceremony

After the wedding, there was a champagne parade.

To be continued....