Heating Up For The Kettle Wedding: A Bridal Shower

After our amazing engagement party, the next official party we had was the bridal shower. Like so many other aspects of this wedding, the shower was larger than one would expect. There were 50 invited women. There ended up being 55 in attendance. I arrived horribly late, just like I was for the engagement party. I marveled at how gorgeous the decorations were as well as how many presents there were.

Personal Photo: Decorations/Favors for each hour of the day.

Personal Photo: More decorations/favors.

Personal Photo: An obscene amount of gifts, mostly from Victoria's Secret. They covered the whole table! If giving gifts measured love, I was feeling the love.

In my defense, I was coming off a 3-day (night) work shift and had only had 3 hours of sleep in between getting off work and getting to the shower. But I arrived and went to each table snapping pictures and saying hello.

I sat down to eat and finally got to have some sangria out of the special bridal shower glass my mother purchased probably 2 weeks before I was even engaged. The food was amazing. We were at one of my favorite restaurants, Buca di Beppo. Lots of laughter and chatting happened all around.

Personal Photo: I wish I'd taken a better photo, but you can see the "Sho" of Bridal Shower if you look hard.

Then a delivery arrived that made everyone ooh and aah. Mr. Kettle's entire family took pride that they raised him right. My whole family cooed that I'd found a great man.

Personal Photo: Mr. Kettle had them delivered during the party. He's such a sweetheart!

After we ate, it was time to start the games. There was the game I'd been dying to play: Toilet Paper Wedding Dress.

Personal Photo: These women got outrageous with their designs. This one had an 8 foot train.

Personal Photo: They were weaving a crown with ribbon. There were lots of non-toilet paper items ending up in these dresses.

Personal Photo: Me posing with the lovely models. I wish I could remember who I chose as the winner. But I was impressed with these dresses. Off the shoulder, two tier skirts, halter tops, belted waists, they weren't playing!

There was Who Knows Miss Kettle Best. That game was very interesting because no one knew everything. I started to feel as if I'd compartmentalized my life. People I'd gone to dinner with knew my favorite foods and wine. People I'd known as a child knew what super hero I'd be. Hardly anyone knew my actual height. I resolved to have more well-rounded discussions with people.

My mom brought her dance instructor to teach us all a dance. It was far too complicated for our group that had been drinking sangria, but it was fun.

Then it was time to open the presents. There were so many! It took forever. My mother and bridesmaids came up with a clever theme for the party. The decorations and invitations and everything went with it. The theme was around times of the day. Each guest got a time from : Breakfast Time, Lunch Time, Dinner Time, Cocktail Time, Exercise Time, Bath Time, Bed Time.

Personal Photo: One of the nicer lingerie sets I got. I figured I could show this one on the internet. It got much worse (or ahem, better) from there.

Personal Photo: I got excited when I got a gift that wasn't lingerie. 

No one told me, but apparently, every time is time for lingerie. I joked a lot about how I couldn't believe all these women were cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner in lingerie. My closet it still full of things we haven't used yet. I used to have half a naughty drawer that really just held random stuff I picked up at a friend's bachelorette party back in 2010. But now, we have two full drawers of naughty stuff. That's not even including the lingerie.

After the gifts, the party wound down. We gave out favors and cleaned up and moved on with our day. All the bridesmaids came back to my parents' house and we had a snack of the leftovers. Mr. Kettle met us there and was promptly embarrassed by me showing him some of my gifts in front of my father. I wanted to tell him that we were getting married and the whole world knew what we would be doing as a married couple, but instead, I just laughed and ate more pasta.

How did your bridal shower go? Did your guests go lingerie crazy? Have you used all your gifts yet?

Best Engagement Party Ever! Part One

I don't know if my engagement party was really the best ever, but it was the best one I'd ever been to. The food, the music, the decorations, the guests, everything was exactly as it should be. It really warmed my heart and Mr. Kettle's heart too. Now we only talk about eloping when confronted with overly detailed wedding decisions, instead of every time we thought of the impending too-big-too-succeed wedding.

Momma and Daddy Kettle, along with some help from friends of theirs, put together a wonderful affair.
We had our engagement party at the lovely L26 restaurant and it was better than I could have imagined. So, onto the recaps.

Mr. Kettle and I agreed he wouldn't take any gigs the days of wedding events. He forgot this agreement and took a gig the day of the engagement party. I was concerned he would be late or miss his own party, but I didn't request he cancel the gig. Interestingly enough, I was the one who made us late to the party because I was last-minute shopping in Orland with BM Milk. But I ended up with a great dress. I don't have any full length pictures of me standing up wearing it though. I can't believe I went all night without getting one. Recap fail.

Personal Photo: This is the only photo I have where you can see the whole dress. It is lovely even sitting down isn't it?

One of the better surprises of the day was my best man, BM Doc, deciding at the last minute to come to the party. He got on a bus from St. Louis that morning. I tried to track down a ride for him amongst the bridesmaids, but a friend of mine ended up picking him. They seemed to have hit it off and she's coming with Mr. Kettle, GM Dark, and me to St. Louis this month for a weekend of hanging out.

When I finally got home from the mall, I gave Mr. Kettle the new shirt and shoes I bought him and he and I hurriedly dressed. BM Doc (cause he's in medical school) was already ready to go. Momma Kettle called us at around 5:45 (the party started at 5:00) to see where we were and luckily we were just up the street. Mr. Kettle dropped me off at the door and went to go park the car since it was raining.

I arrived to the restaurant to see a sea of faces sitting there. They were just... staring. They were staring at me unexpectedly and smiling as if I was supposed to break into song and dance or entertain them somehow. It was incredibly awkward. Momma and Daddy Kettle weren't letting anyone eat until we got there. And we were bringing the speakers, so the DJ, GM Mac (cause he owns everything they make), couldn't properly DJ. So there were crickets and I was looking for an escape. "Um... I'm going to get Mr. Kettle. He's parking the car." I hightailed it out of there before anyone could respond.

After I met Mr. Kettle at the entrance of the hotel that housed the restaurant our party was at, I explained what had just happened and how I was apprehensive to go back in that room dripping with expectation. While we were walking, we ran in Mima and Poppa Kettle who were also (and always) late. The four of us walked in together and it just got much better after that. When we got back to the room, everyone wasn't just sitting there anymore. The cameras were out and ready to take pictures of us. Momma Kettle came and pinned Mr. Kettle and I with pins that read Future Bride and Future Groom or something like that.

I began taking photos of the lovely event.


Personal Photo: They took this picture of us right when we came in. Poor Mr. Kettle is still decorated with raindrops on his shoulders.



Personal Photo: They had this photo of us outside the room. I was so impressed by how nice it looked with the balloons. I love balloons so I relish chances to use them since they're not "fancy" enough for our wedding.

Personal Photo: This is an upclose shot. This photo is great isn't it? It looks like it was taken outside, but it was just in front of a window. It's one of my favorite pics of us as a couple.

Personal Photo: Our menu of our delicious food.

Personal Photo: Our delicious food. beef skewers, chicken wings, shrimp on cucmber, punch, fruit. Perfect hors d'ouevres.

Personal Photo: The favors table; can you see all the cute boxes? Lots o' M&Ms, and the world's cutest napkins



Personal Photo: A closeup of napkins. They're in our wedding colors!



Personal Photo: Our cake! It was tasty. Momma Kettle understands my strong love for whipped cream and my strong distaste for buttercream. The frosting was whipped and delicious!

Personal Photo: A shot of the table setup. That fuzzy baby shot was of me. They had lots of matching photos of Mr. Kettle and I on the tables. This was one of the cute ones. We also had our college grad photos, which were cute. But there was a terrible one of each of us...

Personal Photo: More table setup. I had to include another nice photo. They also had our pics from HS graduation. I am definitely not showing the picture of us from elementary school. Let's just say it was rough!

In the next post, I'll finish my recap of the best engagement party ever!

You're Not Seeing Double, No Need To Adjust Your Screen

In our wedding, we have lots o' people. That may have been mentioned once or twice so far. Our wedding will look like this:

Image: 34 Person Wedding Party / Photography by Digital Photography School

That wedding had 34 people. Ours is just shy of that. We are including everyone in our count because they're all important. Mr. Kettle and I both have a Best Man and Maid of Honor. So that's 4.

He has 8 more groomsmen, bringing our total to 12. I have 2 more men standing up with me which brings our total to 14. I also have 6 more bridesmaids, bringing our total to 20. Add in 2 jr. bridesmaids and we're at 22. Then 2 ring bearers and 2 flower girls and we're at 26. Tack on 3 hostesses and 2 ushers and the number is now 31. Don't forget our 2, yes 2, officiants and we're at 33. Don't forget Daddy Kettle, Mr. Kettle, and me. That makes 36! Yup. 36 people.

I want to take this time to answer I've gotten in comments on previous posts. The question was about our hostesses and ushers and what exactly they were. Some people double groomsmen as usher, helping to seat people as they arrive to the ceremony. That's not the case with us.

Momma Kettle, ever the etiquette stickler (I get it honest, you know, so I  know exactly what to rebel against), tells us we should have one usher/hostess for ever 50 guests. This is particularly important when our venue is at a house that has thousands of square feet spread over 3 stories. We'll need people to help get all those people into the ballroom conservatory for the ceremony, out to the rest of the house for cocktail hour, then back into the ballroom for the reception. They'll need to know where to sit and when. The mansion provides staff to do this, but having extra people on hand could only help out.

Think of a combination between a hostess at a restaurant mixed with a regular usher at a wedding, and that's what our hostesses and ushers will be. Why not make them honorary bridesmaids and groomsmen? Well, because then they'd get their names on the programs and we'd get no work out of them! Just kidding, but I know they'd want to be involved more than just in name.

One of our hostesses is my niece, Hostess Cheery, who's 19 and too old to be a jr. bridesmaid. The other is a high school girl I mentor, Hostess High,  who's friendly with Mr. Kettle ever since they were both in the wedding I met Mr. Kettle at last summer. The third is one of his nieces, FNIL Sniffles, who's also in college and also to old to be a jr. bridesmaid. One of our ushers is my god-brother and the other is Mr. Kettle's cousin. They're both in high school.

Our wedding has been used as a tool to accommodate all our close family and friends that have been in our lives for a long time. Besides the flowers girls and ring bearers who are both 6 years old, we've known everybody else in our wedding party at least 10 years (including the officiants).

So, yeah there are a lot of folks, but they're our close friends. We're both just super friendly people who are close to our families. It happens.

And now for your viewing pleasure, some lovely photos of random wedding party members.

Personal Photo: our two flower girls. My lovely new nieces. Aren't they adorable twins?



Personal Photo: our two ring bearers. They're also twins, they just don't look it as much.



Personal Photo: FNIL Sniffles and Hostess High at our engagements party.

GM Hubby, MOH Sis, GM Mac, Mr. Kettle, GM Cuz, GM Light at the engagement party. I really should do something special for whoever can keep all these folks straight!

BM Doc, BM Mon, BM Law, BM Libra, BM Milk, me at our engagement party

 BM in this case stands for Bridesman and Bridesmaid. We're still sorting out exactly what to call everybody in our wedding party.

Personal Photo: GM Dark at a gig we all went to. I love the look on his face. He was resigning himself to being the only single and never-married one of his friends. His level of melodrama fits in nicely with Mr. Kettle and I.

Personal Photo: I love this pic.
From left to right: FNIL Tiny, Mr. Kettle, FNIL Sniffles, and BM Cuz's daughter who's my new great-niece.

Soooo many people. Judging by the engagement party, I know our wedding will be exactly what we want: a big party that includes all the people we love and cherish. I will now stop alluding to our engagement party and actually give recaps in my next posts.