Bridal Showers: The Dirty Secret...

Ok, there's not really a dirty secret.

But let me tell ya, I was wholly unprepared for it.

I have a tendency to get really bad anxiety around large groups of people at any time, let alone when I personally am the center of attention.  {you don't even know how nervous i used to get during chorus concerts in high school...ughh}  And a bridal shower, when you're the bride...well. Wow.

1: Everyone wants to say hi.  And some of them want to chat your ear off forever, not realizing there's a million other people who want to say hi.

2: Some people will not even bother to say hi.  You will find this highly annoying and rude, though you were already annoyed with saying hi to everyone else.

3: Everyone just wants food and to see their gift opened.  They really don't care about anything else.  {ok so that's how i feel at parties...sue me! LOL}

4: You will be totally overwhelmed by people's generosity.  And completely underwhelmed by some.

5:  The cake at your shower will be the most highly anticipated dessert until the wedding day.

6:  There will be young children trying to help you rip open each and every gift.  And they'll shout loudly to tell you what their parents got you.  It's pretty hilarious.

I am one of those people who tends to need to be all OCD about every little detail.  I actually didn't even lend any input into my shower, except for my venue preference and a guest list.  Everyone was honestly was surprised that I didn't tweak out over anything {excepting the part where my fiance didn't even show up to help open gifts at the end...he's never living that down.} 

I was completely unprepared for the awesomeness that awaited me.  Everyone was there for me, to celebrate my joy and my fiance's.  I couldn't believe the mountain of gifts we received, it seriously took three vehicles to cart them all to my house!  I was completely in awe.

That being said, I was also amazed by these things:
1: We received zero repeat gifts.  Not that that is a bad thing, but EVERY single shower I've been to {including one that only 12 people were at!} has had at least one large gift be repeated. 
2:  We received no personalized gifts.  Again, not a bad thing, as it's not exactly our style, but there's always someone who gets something from Things Remembered for you. Always!
3: We were given very few gift cards.  Only 3 actually.  Definitely not a bad thing, but again, at every shower there seems to be a group of people who didn't have a chance to buy a gift or weren't sure what to get and so they give you a gift card...not the case at my shower!

All these things said - pretty much every single item on our registry ended up in our possession!  A definite rarity, to be sure!

Thank you so much to my sisters and my mom for throwing such an amazing shower for me!
And my bridesmaids for helping out!!
:)