Sombreros and mojitos and limos, OH MY!

Me & my soon-to-be sisters: Amberly, Emily, (me) and Annie

Most of you who follow my blog were probably there, but I'm blogging about it anyway - Saturday was my long-awaited bridal shower and bachelorette party! The shower was mexican-themed, in honor of our (also long-awaited... still awaiting...) honeymoon in Cancun. The decorations were kick-ass... there were chili peppers on the walls, incredibly bright streamers and table cloths and daisies, adorable little mexican candles that Janelle's doll of a mother sent with her (a cactus wearing a sombrero, for example), and a cake so bright and festive you could probably see it from space!

See what I mean?!?! It was pretty intense. And the food... oh the food. Taco dip, quesadillas, delectable little roll-up things (the contents of which I am unsure of, but they were awesome), fresh guacamole, salsa con queso... it was a mexican extravaganza. And to top it all off, my favorite drink, mojitos :) I had several. As you can see in the first photo I posted, they made me wear a sombrero. They think I kept it on because of the mojitos, which is a lie. I kept it on because I didn't want anyone to hurt me for taking it off :) We had a nice-size crowd - not too overwhelming. I think it turned out to be just under 30 people, which was about all I could handle anyway - I still feel like there were a few people that I barely got to visit with :'( Ben was there in the beginning - he got home from work around noon and showered and was there to say hi for a bit and then went to Em's to hang out with her husband for the day/evening. He said if he hadn't already made plans with Josh he would've stayed because it was suck a kick-ass party :)
Part of what made it so kick-ass was the awesome PEOPLE there. Left to right, back row first: Dana (bridesmaid and college roommate, living in Cali), Tara (friend from college, works with me at NIH), Me in my crazy sombrero, Janelle (maid of honor and college roommate), Sam (bridesmaid and friend from high school, also getting married in Nov), Alecia (bridesmaid and best friend since middle school). Front row: Kristy (bridesmaid and college roommate, also shortest person I know), and Annie (Ben's step-brother's wife... or just my new sister).

So anyway, after about an hour and a half of mingling, we started with the gift-opening. THAT was fun! I got tons of wonderful stuff from my registries (and various other items), including my coffee maker with grinder, our giant toaster oven (you can cook a 12-inch pizza in that sucker), nearly everything bathroom-related (towels, shower curtain, hamper, scale, accessories...), my 6-quart crock pot AND mini dip-size crock pot, electric fondue set... I could go on but I'll spare you. Suffice it to say that we're off to a GREAT start filling our new apartment with goodies :) I also got a few gifts just for ME (a bracelet, some cash, a pedicure gift certificate...) which was lovely. However, for some mysterious reason, I lost my voice near the beginning of the gift-opening. I really don't think I was yelling, but like I said, I did have several mojitos so who knows. It started to come back before we left to go out, but of course by the end of the night I sounded like a man again. Speaking of going out, there was a bit of an issue with our original limo running late, so they sent a Hummer...


Pretty sweet! It was HUGE and we had plenty of room. We enjoyed champagne with peach schnapps and grenadine (also referred to as a "blushing bride" - how appropriate!)... of which I had about 3 glasses :) Dana had stickers made for us that said "Jenna's Final Fling before the Ring" and had the date on them - so cute! So we stuck those all over ourselves on the way downtown also. We went straight to Power Plant and into Howl at the Moon, an awesome dueling piano bar that those of us from the area all LOVE. It wasn't crowded when we got there, but it was crowded enough that we had to snag a standing-room table in the back. I got a few glasses of water to start - my group was very nice to me :)
Lovely ladies from Gettysburg, Dana, Leanne and Janelle
The obligatory jello-shot-in-a-syringe. We made Em do one at her Bachelorette party, so I guess it was my turn. It was actually quite delicious!
We mostly stuck to the giant buckets-of-booze with lots of straws to go around. Kept costs down for everyone, and we didn't have to spend half the night ordering drinks.
Sam, Dana, Amberly, Em, Tara, me and Kristy huddled around our table. I have such beautiful friends :)

So, of course, lots of people go to Howl at the Moon for birthdays and bachelorette parties and such, so they have a tradition of embarassing the hell out of people with incredibly raunchy songs on stage. Given that I made Em get up there for her Bachelorette, I knew I wasn't getting out of it. Nor did I really want to get out of it - it's all about the memories! I'd post the video, but it's incredibly inappropriate ;) They sang me a song about my boyfriend "Dick" and all the things I like to do to him. And toward the end, I even got to act it all out with a prop (an extra microphone - "big, black, and full of batteries, just like the one you have at home!" LOL).
This photo about sums up my expression for most of it... half bent-over laughing, usually looking AWAY from the big crowd staring at me and toward my friends over there to my right. Oh, do you like my fuzzy tiara? It has flashing lights, too :)

When the piano bar started filling up, we decided to go somewhere we could dance (which never really happened, mostly because I started crapping out early, having been up since 7:30am), so we called the limo and headed over the Federal Hill. We went to Pub Dog and got pizza and beer, where I was also forced to take what amounted to a large SIP of a shot of grand marnier. It's gross, I don't recommend it. Our waitress brought two over on the house - Sam took one, and Dana and I split the other. I could've puked - I won't lie. I had to wash it down with LOTS of water!!! But anyway, I suppose that's all part of the fun. And really, everyone was very nice to me, and very forgiving. I really didn't want to get smashed, and no one tried to force me to. I've essentially moved past that stage of my life I think... the stage where I thought the heinous hang-over was worth it. I don't think it's worth it anymore. So I basically kept a good buzz going for most of the night and enjoyed my friends - it was exactly what I wanted it to be :) After our DELICIOUS Pub Dog pizza, we walked over to Mother's where we were planning to dance, but we just found a few tables and hung out for about 45 minutes, just winding down and laughing. We didn't get anymore drinks, and I was about ready to pass out anyway (from sleepiness, not from the alcohol!). Dana and Kristy spent one more night with me and had to head home the next morning, but it was SO wonderful to see both of them - they live the farthest away (CA and upstate NY). It was just so wonderful to have everyone together... all my best friends in one place, all mine :)

So, all in all, my parties were WONDERFUL and I can't thank everyone enough for all they did to make them so special for me. A special thank-you goes out to Ben's lovely sisters - MY lovely sisters - who took on the brunt of the responsibility for planning and executing all this. I love you both more than words can say, and I can't wait for all the memories we'll make as we build our families together :)

Thank you SO MUCH to EVERYONE who made trips, cooked food, spent money, brought gifts, and sacrificed time and energy to be with me this weekend. I had SO much fun, and I'll never forget all that you did. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!