Stafford Family Bridal Shower

Chronologically, these posts for our Wedding Showers are out of order. (not that it matters now) My Bridal Shower that I’m sharing today, actually was the first event that kicked off the grand wedding countdown!

Also, I need to mention one of my best friends, Amy. She graciously cleared her calendar to be at every shower that I had and snapped EVERY single pre-wedding you’ll see in these posts. It was her gift to me, and one that I will cherish forever to be able to look back and share these special times with our kids and grandkids one day. (Who I’m sure will laugh at what we’re wearing, what colors we picked out, basically everything I laugh at when I see my parents’ wedding photos.)

This shower was planned and hosted by Stephen’s family in their hometown in late July. Guests included Stephen’s side of the family, his parents’ friends neighbors and co-workers, church family from his parents side…you see where I’m going with this. If you knew the Staffords better than you knew the Flatt side, you were invited to the Baxter shower. 

My mother-in-law and so many other ladies in the family worked SO hard to prepare for this day and make sure it just perfect!! Everything was so beautiful & elegant from the flowers to the food displays.

And now, for the traditional shower photo poses…

FYI to all you brides in training…don’t do this all turn and face one direction thing. What were we thinking?! I mean, really. My mom sister and grandma should’ve faced in towards me instead of this awkward everyone quarter turn to the left thing we’re rocking.

Needless to say, this was the first time I had met several of our guests. The amount of love and excitement shown toward us that day was BEYOND OVERWHELMING!! I will admit I was pretty nervous going into this day. It was my first shower and with most of the guests being complete strangers to myself. I’ve hosted, and hosted and hosted showers for friends, family and church members more times than is probably reasonable but to finally have the attention turned around to me…it was quite surreal. (As was most every aspect of planning our wedding…it was all surreal that it was for me. I was the one trying on dresses. I was the one picking out music. It was my name on the invitation. Whoa nelly!) Everyone was genuinely so excited for us, it calmed my nerves quickly and allowed me to enjoy the afternoon with my Stafford family and friends!

The ladies served chicken salad on croissants, fresh fruit, veggies and dip, spinach dip and crackers, and DELISH chocolate raspberry cupcakes and lemon cupcakes!! (Shout out to the kitchen help..aka my brother in law, the chef extraordinare. You’ll see more of his handiwork in the Rehearsal Dinner post!)

Everyone seemed to have such a good time laughing and chatting; I don’t think many people paid a whole lot of attention to us while we were opening our gifts which is just fine! And I had to include this pic of Stephen with his Aunt Jo….I just think it’s so precious. She is his grandmother’s sister…and she cracks me up! She’s so meek and gentle that you wouldn’t assume her to be hilarious, but she is!!

 

When the day was said and done, we had racked up in the Fiesta department! SO MANY DISHES!! In fact, after all of our showers were over, we had SO many that I returned as many as we kept…and I kept TWO settings of EACH color. It was A LOT of Fiesta. My apartment looked like a distribution warehouse there for about a month! It was crazy.

I am so thankful for all the love that was shown us on this special day. From the ones who planned for months, helped set up, brought gifts, stayed in the kitchen working the entire time, it was all appreciated more than I can express.

It was the perfect afternoon to officially “kickoff” our wedding season!!

Up next this week, I’m sharing my family’s shower on Wednesday and on Friday I’m sharing all about my Girl’s Night!!

If you’ve missed any wedding posts so far:

Nursing Girls Shower – here

Our Church Family Shower - here