Sugar and Spice

So this weekend I had my Honeymoon Shower, hosted by my lovely sister Leslie. I am pretty new to this bride business, obv, so I didn’t really understand how all the shower stuff works. And let me tell you, my southern momma was not happy when I decided to opt for a small, intimate Honeymoon themed shower rather than a large traditional shower. First of all, I didn’t even know that was “required” per se, but apparently it is. But by the time I even figured that out, it was far too late in the game to begin planning a full out shower, and our families live so far apart it probably would require two showers. And apparently that is a thing? I live under a big ol’ wedding rock apparently. When we sent our invitations, we sent our gift registry cards with the invitations, with the mindset of if someone would like to purchase us a wedding gift, they could do so by having that information included in our invitations and bring a gift to the wedding. It wasn’t meant to be rude or presumptuous – we simply wanted to offer that to those that would like to purchase a gift for us, and it was in place of having a separate bridal shower. Looooooord child, I didn’t know I was breaking all the etiquette rules. But, it is spilled milk now and it is what it is y’all! Bring a gift to the wedding. Or don’t. Or do. You know. 

ANYway, like I said, I opted to instead have a very small shower with my sisters, momma, and a few very close friends/family. In the end, after several people couldn’t come, it ended up being about seven of us. And it was perfect!! Leslie decorated her house SO beautifully, allllll in purple. Exhibit A:

I of course squealed at all the purple when I walked in. I don’t understand why the whole world doesn’t love purple. I wonder what it is like if your favorite color is green. Like, half the world is green – grass, trees, plants – what does it feel like to walk outside and LIVE in your favorite color? Andrew says this is all an irrelevant questions because “normal” people aren’t obsessed with their favorite color like I am. He says “normal” people may have a favorite color or a preference, and they like it, but they don’t become quasi-emotionally unstable for 30 seconds upon viewing their favorite color. And they probably don’t decorate entire homes in their favorite color. But seriously, if grass was purple and trees were purple?!?! I would spend entire WEEKS just roaming around endlessly outside smiling and euphoric and blissful. 

…………………

I digress.

Anyway, in addition to the beautiful decorations we also had a smorgasbord of food, that were all designed around my picky palette. Everything was made the “Micha Way”, aka, completely plain Jane. I don’t like a lot of fuss in my food. AND Leslie surprised me by making homemade fried mac n cheese bites, and let me tell you – life changing. 

And just look at this Pinterest WIN that my sweet momma made for me!!!

And aside from the beautiful décor and yummy food, we also had lots of games and presents! I wanted everything to be honeymoon themed, and the girls did not disappoint! I have SOOOO many beautiful pieces of lingerie to take on my honeymoon, along with other fun things. Hehe Both of my sisters gave me awesome gifts. Mary Beth made up a travel bag (purple) for me, already packed and ready to take on my honeymoon – mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant – all travel size and all my brands that I normally use. How awesome is that?! And Leslie made me a “Honeymoon Drawer”. She decorated the inside of a dresser drawer, even hung little pictures inside of it of me and Andrew and all the puppies. Then she filled it with ALL KINDS of goodies! She even put in our first bottle of Woodford Reserve Kentucky Bourbon to crack open when we hop in the hot tub on that first night. It was so thoughtful and unique! See?!

The other girls, and even my momma, hooked me up with lingerie, bath and body stuff, gift cards – oh, it was all just SO great! I am ready for this honeymoon now.

But, above all else, the MOST fun of the day was the games. Leslie had a bunch of games lined up for us to play throughout the afternoon and I have to say I have not laughed that hard in a looooooong time.  I had two favorites. One, was that when we all got there everyone had to put on a fake engagement ring.

 The trigger word of the day was “Andrew”, so any time someone said his name, they had to take off their ring and give it to the first person to catch it and call them out on it. At the end of the day, the person wearing the most diamond rings won a prize. Well, Andrew was the perfect word to use because of course we all kept saying it constsantly!! Finally, I realized some strategy needed to be involved, so I began finding little ways to trick the others into saying his name. For instance, at one point I said, “Does anyone know his middle name?” and my mom immediately said, “I do! I do! It’s Wilson. Andrew Wilson Gehring.” To which I said, “Yep! Now give me your ring.” She looked at me like she was so betrayed. Hahaha I actually ended up winning the game, so it was totally worth it. 

My top favorite game of the day was HILARIOUS. Maybe you had to be there, but truly I laughed until I cried. Any ladies out there need a shower game? Goes like this:

Give the bride a sheet of paper, and secretly tell her to just sit there and write down EVERYTHING everyone says during the next five minutes.

Give each guest a piece of paper and a pencil. Then ask them to keep their legs straight, put one foot on the piece of paper, and bend over and trace their foot without messing up. 

So we did these two things, and I wrote down everything they all said, which in itself was quite humorous because we are NOT flexible ladies. I heard the following phrases, and wrote them down:

“Oh…OH….OHHHH!” 

“Ain’t NO WAY.”

“I need a longer one!!”

“Wow, this is HARD!”

“I stripped ‘backer HOW many days before this?”

“Oh! I can do it! I can DOOOOO it!”

So, we’re all laughing and I wrote all this down, all of the girls completely unaware that I was recording their efforts to trace their foot. Then Leslie take the piece of paper from me, stands up and says, “Okay. The name of this game was Things You Will Hear On Micha and Andrew’s Honeymoon”, and proceeded to read the list outloud.

Go ahead. Re-read those phrases now with that in mind. HA!!! Right?!

After fits of laughter, we all needed a moment to recoup. So each of the girls took turns writing down pieces of advice for a long, happy marriage and they put them in a jar for me to keep. One of my favorites was something that my great-grandma Gladys said years ago and Mary wanted to include it.

After stuffing ourselves with food and laughter, we let the boys come back – Andrew, Daddy, and Colin. We took a bunch of pictures and they helped finish off the food and we went home exhausted and happy. It was such a great day with my friends and family. So much laughter. I really, truly appreciate those who are closest to me, and I am so blessed to be able to count my family as friends. They are truly the core group of people who never fail me, always support me, always show love, and will always have my back. They all love and adore Andrew as son/brother/friend, too, and it is so fulfilling and amazing to sit back take it all in as I head into the last couple weeks of wedding mania. 

I leave you with parting words from my Great Grandma Gladys:

“The first year of marriage, every time you have sex put a penny in a jar. Then beginning with the second year, every time you have sex take a penny out. You’ll never go broke.” – Mammaw Gladys

Think about that for a second. HA!