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?

Kettle Chicks & Mary Kay

I've been trying to plan a party for my bridesmaids for quite some time. Because there are a bajillion of us, it's been hard to get a time that works for all of us. A friend of mine sells Mary Kay and she doesn't live in the city, so that was another person to coordinate times with.

But last night the stars (and our schedules) aligned and we were able to all get to my apartment at nearly the same time and have our party. We have chicken, pizza, salad, and screwdrivers. And we had music and good conversation.

But most important was the reason we were there. We were there to sample Mary Kay products. This event was all about skin care. We will get together next month and that will be all about makeup (I think) and then we will get together one more time.

The end result is that each girl will have a color palette for her makeup especially designed for her skin tone and the color of the bridesmaid dress. If you know someone who sells Mary Kay, by all means, host the bridal makeup party. It's like playing big girl dress up. And if you live in central Illinois or further north in the state, I can give you the hook-up on a great consultant.

Personal Photo: My consultant, and friend, setting up our skin care sample sets.

The Kettle ladies vary in their knowledge of makeup, so starting with the basics was a fantastic idea. We learned about skin care and how choosing the right foundation is actually an important part of skin care.

Personal Photo: That's MOH Sis holding her sample. There seems like quite a bit of steps to get great skin, but the end result is worth it. I use about 5 products myself daily.

Personal Photo: MOH Sis, BM Law, BM Milk BM Libra, BM ATL, and BM Shhh. Momma Kettle is there hiding in the back too.



Personal Photo: You can see BM Shhh's makeup, we liked how smooth it made her skin look. Me and Momma Kettle laughing about something.



Personal Photo: Testing out my foundation. I wasn't a huge fan, I think I'll stick with my tinted moisturizer and mineral powder.

Personal Photo: BM Law all tuckered out. She's the old lady in the group. Not in age, but in behavior. I should have juxtaposed this with a picture of Momma Kettle dancing to Michael Jackson music at that same moment.

The ladies really enjoyed the products and a couple of them bought some stuff. Yay for Mary Kay converts! Next month, we'll be playing with eye shadow and lip color. I can't wait!

Did you do anything to prepare your girls for their makeup for the day of the wedding? Do you have a skin car regimen?