Simply Sasha: Showered with Love

Last weekend was the first of two of my bridal showers. This shower was held in Scottsdale, AZ and was hosted by one of my long time family friends, Barb Johnson. Barb has known me since I was three when she was our neighbor in Texas. She has watched me grow up and she really wanted to host a shower for me, plus it doesn't hurt that she's pretty much Martha Stewart. I'm serious... if she made party planning her full time job Mrs. Stewart would have some tough competition.

Oh, and just a warning, there are tons of pictures. There were too many pretty ones to choose from :)

Practicing my bouquet toss. Gotta love my gaudy ribbon bouquet/veil! This thing is ginormous!

So now that you know that Barb is "Martha Stewart" you can now get an idea of how amazing and gorgeous this shower was. The pictures really don't do it justice. The theme was an afternoon tea so keeping with the theme we had tea sandwiches, salads and scones. The food in itself was amazing and PLENTIFUL: 6 different tea sandwiches, 2 salad, currant scones, lemon scones, strawberry scones, fruit tarts, homemade donut holes, mini cupcakes, shortbread cookies, wedding cookies, almond cookies, and chocolate covered strawberries! And she made everything herself!

The spread!

Part of the spread... the DESSERTS!!!

In true "shower" fashion we played a few bridal games which were so much fun. There was the recipe game where we had to fill in the missing ingredients, bridal pictionary, guess the # of dark chocolates (my favorite sweet) in the jar, name that kitchen utensil, and a "JOSH" scattegories game. With each game there was a winner and a prize, but I also got a gift from the hostess with every game we played! Barb really spoiled me!!

Josh's mom playing Bridal Pictionary

Unbeknownst to me, the shower was a "pounding". Apparently this type of bridal shower is really popular in the south (thank you Chelsea Jo for that lil tid bit). So for those of you who don't know what a pounding is (like I didn't), a "pounding" is where everyone brings a pound of any type of pantry item to help stock Josh and I's pantry and then bring a recipe that incorporates this pantry item. Now I have a pantry FULL of food and lots of new recipes to try. I LOVED this part of the shower because now I have people's favorite recipes; oh and about 8 pounds of powered sugar! I better start baking! My neighbors and Josh's Marines better get ready for all the baked goods I'm going to be sending their way :)


Gifts galore!! I think I opened gifts for about an hour! It was like Christmas morning :)

Thankfully I had some help

The aftermath of all the gifts

The shower was absolutely perfect and the greatest time ever!!! I feel like the luckiest bride EVER! I was surrounded by people I love and I felt so blessed to share such a beautiful day with them. Its the first time I've really felt like a bride and the first time that the wedding has felt like its close. I think the wedding hasn't really felt real because the groom is gone; but this shower definitely made everything real. And it made me so excited for all the other wedding festivities to come!

With some of my bridal party: my flower girl, MOH (maid of honor) and bridesmaid!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Barb!! Thank you thank you thank you for all the hard work and effort you put into the shower! You made me feel so special and you created a day I will never ever forget! You hosted such a beautiful and fun shower!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

My AMAZING shower hostess Barb. THANK YOU!

And another thank you to everyone who came to the shower! You all made me feel so loved and it was so wonderful to have you there! Thanks for showering me with all your love and making me the happiest bride ever! I love you all and can't wait to celebrate with you again at the wedding!! :) Here are just a few of the beautiful people I got to share this day with.

The fam fam!! A BIG thank you to my sister Kristina for being the photographer of the day and for packing up all the gifts into the car!! You are a lifesaver!