The Budget Savvy Bride » Jillian

Honeymoon tips and a recap of our Bahamian honeymoon

Jillian — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:00:11 +0000

Hi BSB-ers! It’s been a while!

I’m happy to report that I have been successfully married for more than one month. Recently, dear HUSBAND! and I returned from our week-long honeymoon in the Bahamas. I have lots to report about our trip and some honeymoon tips to make your honeymoon even a little more enjoyable!

A couple things first. For those of us who are funding our honeymoons entirely on our own, I recommend booking as early as possible and using a travel agent. Why? Because flights cost more when booked closer to the departure date. We booked our January 2013 honeymoon in late April 2012 and we definitely reaped rewards. First, we took advantage of about $400 off our stay through a tourism promotion for the Bahamas. Second, with our travel agent (we used Sue at World Wide Travel in Walla Walla, Washington), she was able to get us even better deals we may not have known about otherwise. She timed the purchase of our airfare to get the lowest price possible. She booked everything for us, coordinating layovers, etc. and answered questions we had about tipping and airports before we departed. She even faxed our wedding invitation to our resort, the Sandals Royal Bahamian, for us and we got a special breakfast on our balcony, wine and rose petals. Plus, she was the one who recommended the Bahamas to us! You’re awesome Sue!

Our favorite drinks were called Carribean Dream (for him) and margaritas (for me).

Another one of our BEST decisions: We waited to depart on our honeymoon almost one month after we got married. We got married on Dec. 15, a very busy time with holidays and family. I was making a career transition on top of all of it. Leaving one month after allowed us to get out all thank you cards, put away all wedding gifts, complete our registries, and generally feel ready. In addition, I took the Friday off of work before our Saturday departure to get the house and all of our bags ready. So glad I did that. Preparing for a week-long vacation can be stressful!

Finally, I recommend getting a credit card with airline miles or a travel rewards program if you are funding your honeymoon. One month before Dane and I got engaged, I did some research and signed up for an American Express Blue Sky card. I was worried because Bank of America was talking about charging me fees for using my debit card, which I used all the time. So, I started using my AmEx as my debit card. Every time I swiped it, that money would “disappear” from my account. I record all my money, in and out, in a small notebook I keep in my purse. Then, each month I paid off the card and reaped the rewards. By using this AmEx for my regular spending and the big-ticket wedding items like stationery and photography, we got an extra $300 off on our honeymoon. I paid no annual fees or interest because I paid it off each month.

This is a shot of one of the pools at the resort right before we went to fancy dinner one evening at Baccarat.

OK, so you want to know how the Bahamas were in January? Amazing. We stayed at a Sandals resort on Cable Beach right outside of Nassau. The Sandals folks treat you right. Everyone was friendly and helpful. The hotel was quiet, our view from our room was amazing and the activities were endless. We took the boat to the resort’s private island, swam in the ocean, lounged by the pool, enjoyed the swim-up bar, played ping-pong and cuddled by fire pits in the evening. We did go into town twice, via the bus, to see downtown Nassau and to visit Ardastra Gardens. The drill marching flamingoes are a must-see! And because of the time of year, our resort was anything but packed. We even got to catch glimpses of brides and grooms getting married at our resort.

Our resort was all-inclusive, meaning all food and drinks were already paid for. Dane loved this because he could eat a ton and not worry about price. I loved the fancy French cuisine at Baccarat and what we termed “crack chips” at the pub. There was food for every preference. I also loved that the drinks were included and our room even had its own fully-stocked bar. No one felt like they were going without in any regard. Plus, resort photographers mingled with guests day and night to snap photos of us. We even got a free photo session and we loved the photos so we bought some.

We loved our trip to the Bahamas so much we’re definitely planning to return. Where are you honeymooning? Somewhere warm and relaxing or somewhere that offers more adventure?

The marching flamingoes at Ardastra Gardens were very entertaining. They can grow to be 5 feet tall!

_________________ Thanks for reading Honeymoon tips and a recap of our Bahamian honeymoon from: The Budget Savvy Bride

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Jillian’s Wedding Recap + Budget Breakdown

Jillian — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:27:56 +0000

Here’s every last detail just for you! This photo is of Dane and I in front of the Liberty Theater in Dayton, Wash. All photos are by the talented Ali Walker at Ali Walker Photography.

To my dear friends,

It has been so fantastic to share my journey with you. We have all 600 of our wedding photos and I’ve combed through them to find all the best details to inspire you. The wedding was a really emotional time for us and each day that passes I love the details of our wedding more and more and I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish. Enjoy!

Our chapstick favors! Our guests hoarded these! There were none left!

Maid of honor Jennifer helps with my dress.

Our program was a two-sided newspaper I made.

Me, mom and Jennifer.

I used puzzle-maker.com to make a free word search with all of our guests’ names in it for our guest book.

Glamour shot!

Sister Alison and Jennifer helped me put I Do stickers on my wedding shoes.

My favorite project — my bouquet made of heirloom brooches from family and friends.

Our ceremony was late in the day so we did a first look. I loved spending more time with Dane on our wedding day. It was one of the few times I didn’t feel stressed.

Dane gives our snowflake girl Brooklynn a high five.

Our bridal party! The buys rented suits and my maids picked out black dresses. Their tights had small polka dots and their jewelry included pearl dangly earrings and pearl bracelets with black bows.

Dane made his boutonierre out of duck and goose feathers and copper wiring to go with our no-flowers decor.

My maids had bouquets made out of vintage sheet music. The sheet music was actually music for Christmas carols!

We were all freezing for pictures but that kind of made it more fun because we were a little more candid.

Our ring bearer Kolton wore suspenders and a gray bowtie and looked precious. We’re proud of him for making it down the aisle.

These little plastic deer were on the cupcakes. Loved them!

Our s’mores bar was a hit. We ordered peppermint and caramel marshmallows to add some variety.

My mom, and my best friend, gave me away. This was one of the best choices I made.

Yup, I cried the whole way through the ceremony. I managed to laugh a little bit too as I read my vows to Dane. He and I chose to write our own.

My father-in-law and his buddies made us this eight-tier cupcake tree. The cupcakes were red velvet and chocolate cake with peppermint icing.

After the ceremony was over and the food was served I could finally let my hair down. I popped into the photo booth with Dane and enjoyed showing off the photos.

And then when my dress got too hot I changed into my second dress and we danced the night away!

Jillian & Dane

December 15, 2012

Weinhard Hotel | Dayton, Wash.

What was your budget? If you are able, give us a rough breakdown of how you spent your budget.

Our original budget was $12,000-$15,000.

Venue – Restored hotel was $2,000 for the day, including all 14 guest rooms for the night

Catering – $3,895

Day-of Wedding Planner – $1,050

Photo Booth – $600

Decorations – $300

Rentals (Cocktail Tables, linens, heaters) – $390

Bridal Dress & Accessories – $1,730

Groom’s Suit & Accessories: – $130

Favors – $60

DJ – $558

Ceremony Pianist – $100

Paper goods – Save-the-dates, invites, stamps, favor tags, programs – $1,047

Photographer (all-day wedding coverage & engagement photos) – $3,075

Gifts for Wedding Party – $400

Total: $15,335

How many guests did you have?

What creative or personal aspects did you include in your wedding?

It was a goal of mine to make our wedding feel personal and do as much for free as we could. I worked for a newspaper at the time of our wedding and so I designed a two-page newspaper as our wedding program, complete with personalized crossword puzzle. We printed out childhood photos of ourselves as décor near the restrooms and spent countless hours cutting out paper snowflakes for our 3-D snowflake wall. Our guest book was made for free. I used a free puzzle maker program online to make a word search with all our guests’ names. I made our card box, my bouquet out of family heirloom brooches and all of the special touches including embossing, ribboning and stamping our invitations.

What was the biggest thing you did to save money?

We saved the most money on our venue and our food. I originally thought we would get married at a winery, and those venues start at $4,500 for an evening. Our hotel at $2,000 was a steal. Also, because we had heavy appetizers for our food, we saved a lot of money there, too. Also, because of my new husband’s allergies, we didn’t do any real flowers. My bouquet was made of heirloom brooches and my girls’ bouquets were made of vintage sheet music flowers.

What’s the best advice you have for planning your wedding now that you’re on the other side?

I felt like I was really prepared and organized until the last month. When we had deaths in the family and I left my job for a new career, things got really crazy and all of a sudden I had almost no time to finish up the last-minute details. I started throwing money at projects to get them done, which hurt my budget. But, every detail was perfect the day of. My best advice is take the week off before the wedding so you can devote plenty of time to handling last-minute issues that pop up. I also will never regret shelling out the $$$ for my day-of wedding coordinator. If there were any issues, I wasn’t aware of them! Ignorance is bliss sometimes!

What was your biggest splurge?

Photography! And it was so worth it- Ali did an incredible job capturing our day. We also splurged on our photobooth and everyone had a great time with it.

What was your favorite detail?

I loved my bouquet. I had brooches from all grandmothers and family friends and it sparkled like nobody’s business. I also loved the plastic deer toppers on our cupcakes. It was a nod to my new husband’s love of nature and “exploring.”

What is the most memorable moment of your day?

I LOVED taking photos with my fiancé, soon-to-be husband, before the ceremony. We spent about an hour together freezing in the December weather and running around Dayton getting mud on my dress. It was one of my only low-stress points of the day. It also started to snow during our ceremony and I could see the big fluffy flakes falling through the windows of the hotel. That was awesome.

VENDORS

_________________ Thanks for reading Jillian’s Wedding Recap + Budget Breakdown from: The Budget Savvy Bride

Welcome baskets- yay or nay?

Jillian — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:00:49 +0000

We decided to splurge a little on our friends and family members staying in our hotel. We appreciate many of them traveling long distances in the wintertime and we wanted them to feel loved!

How do you make your guest feel welcome? Or do you?

Because our venue is a restored historic hotel with 14 guest rooms, I decided in October that we could afford to leave guest welcome bags or boxes in each room for our nearest and dearest we have chosen to stay overnight. This includes our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and a couple of our closest friends. I had seen an easy idea using homemade stencils and spray paint on kraft paper bags. I thought it would be a very inexpensive way to hold all of the goodies I planned to provide for our guests, including a thank you note, water bottles, snacks, maps of the area, a timeline of the wedding day and their personalized door hangers.

Here are our 16 guest welcome boxes with maps, water bottles and snacks.

However, I could not find the kraft paper bags anywhere online for individual sale. Every site offered a minimum of 100 or 250. I only needed 14! So, in my search, I came across some sweet, easy-to-assemble kraft cardboard boxes with a monogram. Dear fiancé agreed and we threw our $50 toward the company and waited for the boxes to arrive. Now, just a few days before the wedding, I’m so thankful we didn’t have to mess with all of the spray paint and the dry time because of family and work craziness that has recently turned our world upside down.

We ordered these door hangers and wedding thank yous on Etsy. I think they’re the perfect personal touch and wonderful keepsakes for our family.

Dear fiancé Dane agreed he would assemble our welcome boxes for me if I helped him with his homework. It took him about an hour to get all 16 done. He assembled the boxes and used a hot glue gun to tack on the white ribbon and monogram card that came with the boxes. Even though the first one was a little crooked, his glue skills improved. And I was happy one more project was done. We filled the boxes with the thank yous ($30), door hangers ($15), water bottles ($6), granola bars ($8), timelines (free) and maps (free). So in all, we spent about $110 on our welcome boxes. It was one of the more expensive projects that we did. It works out to about $6.87 a box for 16. But, because these boxes are going to our favorite people in the world, it’s worth it.

Are you providing anything to welcome your guests?

_________________ Thanks for reading Welcome baskets- yay or nay? from: The Budget Savvy Bride

A Departure From Traditional “Wedding Food”

Jillian — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:00:08 +0000

Let’s make wedding food fun!

Through my many months of blogging here on Budget-Savvy Bride, I have realized that I haven’t disclosed anything about a very important wedding component – food!

Food was a very easy choice to make. I knew I didn’t want a formal sit down dinner. And I also didn’t want guests to stand in long buffet lines carrying plates everywhere. I knew that if we did something more simple, then it would be cheaper too!

In search of a caterer who could produce lovely heavy appetizers and a dessert bar, we stumbled into Olive a couple of times in Walla Walla. After LOVING everything we have ever eaten there, I knew I wanted them to cater our big event. And I’m so glad we did.

On a winter night, you want to eat something warm, comforting and delicious. We decided we wanted to have hearty macaroni and cheese and a mashed potato bar so our guests could get a little creative. I’ve never met anyone who hates those two foods. For our tasting, caterer Tom brought out little ramekins of the mac and cheese with a crostini to eat it and big vats of lovely, whipped mashed potatoes with chevre and assorted toppings. We were in heaven. Dear fiancé almost licked the mac and cheese ramekin clean. We knew we had hit a home run.

For our dessert bar, we chose petits fours, brownies, blondies, cookies and cupcakes rather than one cake. For the cupcakes, we chose red velvet and a chocolate cake with white peppermint icing to add to the holiday spirit. Both were exceptional.

The mac and cheese will be passed so people don’t have to wait in line. I love it when food finds me in a crowd. We couldn’t get away from lines with the mashed potato bar because I wanted guests to really choose what toppings they want — everyone is different.

We came up with three different menus for the toppings: traditional, Mexican and Italian. Guests can mix and match to their liking. This is a huge point with me. I don’t eat much meat and I’ve been to a couple of weddings where olives and salad have been my main course. I respect the bride and groom’s decisions, but I wanted to make sure everyone had something they liked that would be substantial.

We will have some sit down tables and some tall cocktail tables so people can put their food down to eat if they like, but we really designed the food to be given to guests quickly and to be eaten easily without a table to keep the party upbeat and flowing.

For the drinks, we have local wine and beer and a signature cocktail called Winter’s Chill that is a beautiful blue color. We saved $$$$$$ by providing our own booze. We did hire a bartender mainly to cut people off if they need to be.

Having plenty of delicious food and drinks for our guests is a must and I admit we have been a bit looser with our budget in this area than in others. I don’t know yet what the total will be, but I know we saved $$$$$$ by not having a plated sit-down dinner.

What food are you having? What’s your favorite mashed potato topping?

My only hope is that my guests drinking this delicious/dangerous Winter’s Chill martini won’t spill on my dress! Photo courtesy of Webster Syle.

_________________ Thanks for reading A Departure From Traditional “Wedding Food” from: The Budget Savvy Bride

A Homemade Brooch Bouquet

Jillian — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:00:50 +0000

My future mother-in-law and I had a blast crafting my brooch bouquet!

As soon as I saw a brooch bouquet in wedding blogs I perused even before I got engaged, I knew I needed to have one. Brooch bouquets are wonderful because they’re homemade (unless you buy on Etsy) and they never wilt. I decided when I got engaged in August 2011 that this brooch bouquet had to become reality for me. I sent my mother a photo and a blog how-to and we began searching for brooches immediately.

We looked everywhere. We scoured antique shops in Walla Walla, Aberdeen and in Pomona, Calif. Searching for brooches of a decent price with just the right shape and sparkle became a part of life. Always something in the back of our minds.

I’ve seen beautiful enamel brooches, but for our winter wedding I wanted pure sparkle. Not all rhinestone brooches were created equally and we found that it’s hard to find perfect ones.
Luckily, through the donation of brooches from family and friends, antique shops and some re-purposed rhinestone earrings from my grandmothers, I was able to collect about 30 sparkly pieces for my bouquet. This took me more than one year. It was a big commitment. And with all of the supplies and purchased brooches, it cost me about $200. To save money, scrounge mroe brooches from family members who may be willing to donate them for free.

I found a how-to on offbeatbride.com and I tweaked it a little. Here’s what I did:

Two people
floral stem wire
faux white hydrangea flowers
needle nose pliers
wire cutters
brooches/earrings
mailing tape
ribbon
hot glue gun and glue
vase to support it
paper towel/tissue paper

1) Attach wires to brooches. Most bloggers had painstakingly wrapped the wires around the pin of the brooches. I had a heck of a time getting the brooches secured to the wires using just wire and pliers. Others had beautifully wrapped them around the pins. I ended up wrapping the wires around the pins as best as I could and I hot glued them in place. I cheated, but it worked.

2) I made the base of my bouquet with white hydrangea flowers from Joann’s. My second person (my mother-in-law) helped me out with this task. You need two people. I held the white hydrangea pieces in bouquet form and my MIL put the rhinestones on wires in the appropriate spots, making sure the brooches were evenly spaced.

3) When all of the rhinestone brooches on wires were bundled correctly, my MIL wrapped clear mailing tape around the wires and faux hydrangea as tight as possible to keep the shape of the bouquet.

4) Next, we wrapped white ribbon up and down the “stem” of the bouquet to cover the wires and tape. Finally, we tied black and white ribbon to the bouquet to finish it.

5) To keep the bouquet upright, we placed the heavy bouquet in a vase filled with paper towels to keep the bouquet in one spot. Once it was secured in the vase, we could pull on the brooches and affix them so they’re in the perfect spot.

Did you try a brooch bouquet? Would you?

Close up of the finished product!

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blogdash

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What Do We Do With The Pre-Wedding Mess?

Jillian — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:00:18 +0000

This used to be a spare bedroom. Now it’s the “Wedding Room.”

Hello again readers. It’s officially 31 days to the big W Day (as I’m writing this) and I didn’t think life could get any crazier. Then, two weeks ago my grandma had a stroke. She passed away last week and dang it’s hard to feel good and excited when you’re family is grieving. I feel little to no motivation to tackle my wedding to-do list. I can barely be a functioning human being.

Because I lost two weekends of wedding project time to traveling to be with my family I only had one thing left to do — throw money at projects I knew I wouldn’t be able to get done. The DIY’d bridesmaid gifts to go with their big gifts went out the window. I bought them something special instead. The snowflake confetti I was going to make for the flower girl to throw was purchased for $3.50 on Etsy. I just had to get some things crossed off my list. I had to do it to make it mentally feel like this wedding is going to happen.

Unfortunately, getting all of this great stuff for the wedding means it has to go somewhere until the big day. We have zero storage space as it is. We don’t have a garage or a basement, so our two guest rooms have been getting most of the ever-growing clutter. All of the wedding gifts are going in the downstairs guest room. It’s still useable, there’s just a couple of stacks of boxes. The upstairs guest room is another story (see photo above). The wedding clutter started in the corner and has just kept growing. Some boxes are labeled and some aren’t. I just don’t even know what to do with this mess. I abhor clutter so much I keep the bedroom door closed so I don’t have to look at it. I just get the new package and open the door, throw it in, and close it up again. I’ve thought about buying those containers that are plastic and labeling everything, but those containers can be $10 a piece!

Any ideas out there for a budget-savvy way to de-clutter before the wedding? I was hoping when my mom came she would tackle it….

HELP!

_________________ Thanks for reading What Do We Do With The Pre-Wedding Mess? from: The Budget Savvy Bride

Choosing Not To Freak Out

Jillian — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:00:29 +0000

This post is backdated, but worth sharing. Life seems to pop up and happen while planning a wedding and sometimes you just have to go with it. xoxo-Jessica

Happy November BSB-ers!

Life has been a whirlwind the past week. It’s early November and I’m 38 days from my wedding. Unfortunately, my maternal grandmother had a stroke last week and is expected to pass on any day now. My mother is two hours from me by Grandma’s side and even though I visited last weekend, all I can think about is the two of them. And to be honest, it’s really tough to be happy and focus on the last wedding details when my family is so upset.

Meanwhile, packages containing welcome guest boxes, the bridesmaid bouquets and gifts come to our home every day. And all I’m doing is checking the contents and shuffling it all into the designated “wedding room,” which used to be one of our guest rooms.

I came into work tonight to tie up some loose ends from the day and I saw our cocktail napkins and coasters had been delivered. The cocktail napkins are special because they have the recipe of our signature cocktail on them. They’re beautiful, but the wrong color.

Typically, I would have been very upset. It’s late and the dog is running around and it’s just been so crazy lately. But, instead, I chose to be calm and just accept that while they’re not the right color, they’ll certainly work. I wanted gray, I got blue, it’s OK.

I called my mom and she agreed that blue might be an even better choice because the cocktail is bright blue. It was good to hear her out but I still felt bad calling her knowing she was with my grandma and had bigger things on her plate. But, we’re going with blue and we’ll carry on. I’ll still email the company to let it know it wasn’t what I asked for (I checked my records) but right now it has to be the least of my worries.

How are you all dealing with things that don’t go right in the final days?

_________________ Thanks for reading Choosing Not To Freak Out from: The Budget Savvy Bride

A Budget-Savvy Way To Get Wedding Rings Down The Aisle

Jillian — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:30:48 +0000

Our rings are tucked safely and tied securely inside this book!

In a magazine forever ago I read about a company that will turn a book into a ring holder for your wedding ceremony. The company will cut out a hole for the rings, glue the pages together and put a magnet in the book to hold the rings in place.

About one month ago, I stumbled across a blog that showed me how to make a ring book at home for FREE! It was so simple and only took about 20 minutes.

You’ll Need:
*A book, a pretty vintage one or one with significance in your relationship
*A utility/craft knife
*A pencil
*A Ruler
*Some ribbon

Dear fiance’s favorite movie of all time is “A Christmas Story.” Never will a Christmas Eve go by without him glued to the screen for the 24-hour movie marathon. Our new puppy is even named Ralphie after the main character. I found the book that inspired the movie online and ordered it for our project.

With the book in hand, we used a pencil and ruler to draw a 2-inch by 2-inch square in the middle of a page, a couple of pages into the book. Our book was only about 150 pages, so we cut the square on the third page so the hole would be deep enough for the rings. This won’t be a concern if your book is 500 pages.

Next, Dane used the utility knife to cut the square out of the pages. He went over each cut about eight times.

Then, with the hole finished, all we had to do was slip some ribbon through the hole and put the rings onto the ribbon, carefully nestled in the square.

We closed the cover on the book with both ends of the ribbon sticking out on the right side and tied the ribbon tightly into a bow.

The best part about the ring book was that you can throw the book or drop it and the rings remain safely in the book. Our best man can drop it 10 times before the ceremony and we’ll still be OK. This is a particular fear of mine (losing the rings) because when I was a young flower girl I dropped the bride’s ring in the bushes right before the ceremony and lost it. Lesson learned: Figure out a way to tie rings to large objects and never give expensive rings to children.

What are your rings going down the aisle in?

_________________ Thanks for reading A Budget-Savvy Way To Get Wedding Rings Down The Aisle from: The Budget Savvy Bride

What Does A Budget-Savvy Bride Do With Wedding Cash?

Jillian — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:12:24 +0000

What should we do with all this extra cash?
Image courtesy of www.lovemydress.net/

Dane and I have been so blessed by how generous our friends and family have been. They have been showering us with gifts and money since we announced our engagement. I was truly shocked that they would send us checks and even a set of our china when we sent out our save the dates!

With both bridal showers complete (thanks mom and aunties!) we have been storing our gifts in our dining room. The dishes we have washed and put away (we really needed some that weren’t plastic) but our new suitcases, bedding and other kitchen goods are stacked up and waiting to find a home in our home. I’m glad all of the thank you notes are out at least!

Also in the piles of wedding goodness are the various cards full of gift cards, cash and checks. OK, as I’m writing this I’m making a note to have Dane lock them up tonight. I don’t know exactly how much we’ve received at this point, and we’re not cashing any checks until we say “I do,” but I’m definitely thinking about how we should use this money.

About one year ago, we were socking all extra money from Christmas and birthdays away to our honeymoon fund. We’re planning to spend eight days in the Bahamas about one month after the wedding. But now that I am confident we have the honeymoon costs covered, what should we do with the rest?

Here are my ideas:

Emergency Fund
We could add the money to our emergency fund. It’s pretty substantial (Suze Orman would be proud) but we’re likely going to be moving again in the next five years. It would be nice to have some extra cushion. Down side: the money will barely keep up with inflation in our savings account.

Invest It
We will want to build or buy a home at some point. We could invest the money so it can grow over time. But, do we want our money tied up for five years or more? If we invest it, we’ll need to let it sit and grow as long as it can.

Spend And Save
Or, we could choose an item we didn’t register for but would still like (we definitely need a new dining room table and chairs) and buy it with the money and put the rest in savings.

What are you doing with your wedding cash? Please share any ideas to help us decide what to do!

_________________ Thanks for reading What Does A Budget-Savvy Bride Do With Wedding Cash? from: The Budget Savvy Bride

How To Graciously Accept Lingerie At Your Bridal Shower

Jillian — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:54:19 +0000

What lurks inside these packages?

I was absolutely floored, in a good way, when dear fiancé’s aunties said they wanted to host a bridal shower for me. This was something I didn’t expect and I’m happy to report they throw a heck of a party.

When I drove the six hours from Waitsburg, Wash., to the West Side of the state where this shower was to be held, it was like homecoming – with a wall of rain. The rain I have not missed but the people I have missed. The party on Saturday, Oct. 13 was on such a yucky, rainy day. But inside Once Upon A Thyme in Chehalis, Wash., the shower location, it was lovely. There was plenty of fall décor and smiling faces. We had beer and wine and a beautiful lunch. I don’t eat much meat because of those videos I was shown in sociology classes in college (thanks Professor Peterson). I was so excited that the aunties picked this little lunch spot for the shower that specializes in vegetarian food. Yum!

And I knew I couldn’t get out of playing any games at all. And I admit, they were actually quite fun, mostly because I wasn’t completely the butt of all jokes that afternoon. Thank you aunties! The first game was a list of everything that could be found in a woman’s purse and you got points for the items you had in your purse that day. I thought for sure my ever-prepared mother-in-law would win that one, but my picture of the bride (my driver’s license) and uncanny need to have at least 20 pens with me at all times (newspaper editor) gave me the highest score and I won the prize.

After that fun game was the toilet paper dress game. I’m not sure who came up with this one. This person obviously decided women could not get married without being subjected to public embarrassment via toilet paper couture. But, I sucked it up and tried to direct my team into making me the perfect one shoulder, mermaid wedding gown. Thank goodness I’d already had a couple glasses of wine at this point. The gloves and hat/veil were too much and we lost that contest.

Lunch was beautiful, little sandwiches, pasta salad, broccoli salad and cake – you know the sugary white cake with white icing and the red flowers that stain your whole mouth!

Opening gifts can be fun. You could get your dishes or sheets you registered for! The most awkward thing (in my entirely prudish opinion) is receiving lingerie. I attended a bridal shower once upon a time where the bride opened black lingerie … from her mother-in-law. To me, I would have died. Maybe I died for her. All I can think is “wow, thank you mother-in-law for this entirely too racy lingerie to wear for your son while we consummate our marriage.” I had told my mother-in-law how awkward this had been after that shower and we made a pact that she would never buy me lingerie. Bless her heart.

However, I did receive a beautiful silk-satin robe and nightie from one of dear fiancé’s cool auntie and cousin. It’s lovely. I will wear them. But what do you say? How do you react in front of 20 people including children?? I turned bright red from head to toe and simply said “thank you” with a smile on my face. Yup. That’s the best I could do. And they’re not even that racy. But I wear pearls and I get all of my prudish-ness from my mother and I simply get embarrassed.

Any tips or tricks for how to graciously receive lingerie from family, or gasp, even your mother-in-law?

Me and my beautiful bow bouquet. I didn’t cut or rip a single ribbon thanks to my MOH with tiny fingers!

_________________ Thanks for reading How To Graciously Accept Lingerie At Your Bridal Shower from: The Budget Savvy Bride