Showered With Love

As Jess celebrates her first wedding shower, she takes the time to appreciate what really matters.

By Jessica Solloway

I had my very first shower this past Saturday, hosted by Seth's mom. It was a great afternoon of family, friends and food. When I first walked in, I was shocked to see an entire wall lined with tables covered in presents. How could ALL of that possibly be for me? Where was I going to put all of this stuff? But before I could mentally re-organize my cabinets, I was swept into the crowd.

The shower was at an adorable Italian restaurant. We all sat at a big U-shaped table and feasted on heaping plates of family style Italian food and wine. My best friend Rebecca recited a poem that made fun of Seth's (lack of) dancing skills, which was truly enjoyable for all.
 
And finally it was time to open the gifts. I didn't have a chance to practice my ooohs and aaaahs beforehand, but I put my game face on and it all went pretty well. Seth's mom printed up sheets of paper with Bingo on it, and everyone had to fill in the boxes with types of gifts. The first four people to get bingo won lottery tickets called "Matri-money". Very cute! Not sure if this is true for all showers, but my friends have this superstition that brides aren't supposed to rip anything (even card envelopes) so they handed me everything opened, and all i had to do was hold it up. What a cinch...

Thanks to this shower:
 
*Seth and I can stop drinking out of pastic glasses.
*I can invite about 100 people over for martinis, champagne, margaritas and any type of wine.
*I can now make 17 different sized omelettes.
*It's time to retire my Swiffer and actually use a vacuum.
 
After the shower, we took cars full of gifts back to Seth's mom's house and filled an entire room to the brim. Before his mother had a full on nervous breakdown about it being a complete disaster, Seth's cousin Jess and I divided and conquered to create order among the chaos. Jess is getting her PhD in applied math, and about an hour later, thanks to our resident genious, we had neat, organized stacks that took up half the space.
 
Aside from the actual shower, we had a truly special family weekend. My family and Seth's family got to spend a lot of quality time together and it was great. We all had dinner together Saturday night ... complete with a dance party. My five year old cousin got Seth to dance for two hours straight (at least I know I can count on her to keep him on the dance floor at the wedding). On Sunday morning, my grandparents hosted a great brunch for everyone before we all went our separate ways. My brother made his signature Bloody Mary's and we spent most of the morning explaining to my younger cousins that while yes, it does look like juice, it's just for "the big kids".

I just felt really lucky all weekend long. And I made sure to take the time to step back, look around and be thankful for those that surround me and love me. Not only do I have my own fabulous family, but now I get Seth's too. It's easy to get so swept up in petty things in life -- a bad day at work or a silly argument with friends -- and sometimes we forget to appreciate the most important things. And for me my family is at the top of that list. Sharing moments that matter with people that matter is what it's all about - isn't it?