As I've previously mentioned, 'tis the season for showers galore, and next on the list was to celebrate our upcoming bride, Jessica.
With a wedding theme of vintage lace and purple flowers, I hit up the local antique shops to get the basics for my crafting.
I thrifted doilies, wrapped mason jars in burlap and lace with strings of pearls, converted old silver serving plates to useful chalk boards, covered a woodwork G with moss, and performed an experimental photo transfer onto a wooden plaque.
I enjoy making my own flower arrangements, which is also extremely cost effective, but managed to get the biggest eye roll from a grocery store florist when I asked for wires to stabilize my roses. Apparently that's an old trade that's not commonly practiced anymore, which I think is a huge mistake. We shared words on the subject and both had to agree to disagree.
The trickiest part of all was managing to pass all the scrap book paper around at work to gather words of wisdom and well wishes without Jessica noticing what was going on.
Everything was coming together perfectly.......that is, until the actual day of the shower. But what would life be without a few bumps in the road here and there?
Originally taking place at Chuy's, who refused to take reservations but ensured us hosting our shower would be no problem, I arrived with all the supplies 1.5 hours early.......you know, to be extra prepared. It would be at this very moment they broke the news that not only were they declining me even a single table in their almost completely empty seating area, but they also wouldn't be letting a single person sit until half our party arrived.
After getting no where with begging and pleading, I advanced to threatening and talking to the manager.......which of course just lead to empty promised shrugs. This just wasn't going to work. No way, no how.
It was scramble time.
I re-loaded all the decor into my car, called the girls, and collaboratively made the decision to hightail it to Abuelo's, who's hosted several of our showers, where I'd be profusely apologizing for a last minute accommodation for a table of 20. They quickly arranged something for us, and just when we'd gotten everything decorated and organized beautifully, the General Manager showed up out of no where to tell us we couldn't utilize the 2 extra tables the waiters had helped us put together for our decor unless we wanted to reserve the entire room for a whopping grand total of $800. Geez, what a steal.
This couldn't be happening. It just didn't make sense. I refused to fail at this shower. Two out of the three of us may have had giant bellies at this point, but we wouldn't be going belly up in this battle.
I composed my hormonal emotions and re-approached the bench for a little negotiating. It wasn't easy, but after a heart to heart, we managed to work something out. The down fall???? We'd have to move everything we just set up to the other side of the restaurant!
Determined to make everything as perfect as possible for our beautiful bride, we took a deep breath and got to moving for the third time, now racing the clock, while also editing e-vite's, calling work to notify people of the location change, and texting anyone and everyone we could to spread the word.
It's a good thing we had cake to look forward to, since alcohol is currently out of the question. A little bit of whipped icing makes everything better.
And so does seeing that really big smile on Jessica's face!
Kinks smoothed just in the nick of time for our guest's arrival, it all worked out in the end. A lovely shower for a very deserving girl.
If she didn't know how much we love her, she sure does now!
A few people didn't get the memo and still showed up a Chuy's first, but they were quickly directed to where the "angry shower girls" went.
Could Jasmine be any cuter? I'm still waiting on her to try the cheeseburger taco.
And Gabriel, man, he had quite the love affair with that menu.
Just ask the innocent waitress that tried to pick it up after our orders were placed.
What's the moral of this story? Show up early, never give up, and don't take entertainment away from a happy baby!
(Oh ya, and don't try to host a shower at Chuy's. EVER!)
Posts
