The Bachelorette Party & The Bridal Shower

I love a good get-together with my friends, and it's been such a blessing to be able to celebrate my upcoming wedding with so many of them! My friends and family are the greatest, and have spoiled me rotten with a bachelorette party (NYC) and a bridal shower (Philippines). I just wanted to share a couple of photos so you all could see what's been happening lately, wedding-wise!

The Bachelorette Party

I'm not one for wild outings, excessive alcohol or dancing till dawn, so my friends in New York catered my bachelorette party to my tastes perfectly. They managed to surprise me (I seriously had no idea it was coming) with a dinner at Cafe Un Deux Trois, followed by drinks and then capping off the night with a karaoke session at Chorus. All in all, a successful and classy event indeed!

The Bridal Shower

A little over a week after I flew halfway around the world to get home, on August 10th precisely, I attended the most magical bridal shower. I call it magical because it was exactly what I would have wanted, and that was all thanks to the efforts of my dearest family and friends, particularly my mom, my sister Melissa, my mom-in-law and brother-in-law, who did an excellent job of planning. I literally walked in and was completely overwhelmed with feelings of awe, joy, respect and love -- and it was wonderful!

The shower was travel-themed, as you may be able to tell from the photos below. My mother-in-law brought all the knick-knacks that were used as centerpieces for the tables (I wish I had photos of all of them!), while my brother-in-law designed the paper cutout landmarks on the windows. There were also pretty blue and white pompom balls and a perfectly displayed giveaway table. I was completely in love with the way they had brought my love of travel to life!

I didn't get to eat a lot because I was overexcited and possibly slightly hyper. BUT what I did have of the food was absolutely delicious, and the pictures below do them justice (even though two of the dishes ended up not being photographed because they were cleaned out). There were plenty of leftovers to share at the end -- except for the cupcakes, which were gone in the blink of an eye!

And then there were the games! The games were one of the best things about the shower, and kudos to the events team for coming up with them. We started with the relatively easy "hot potato" type game, where packages were passed around until the music ended. (I ended up with one and had to wear a tiara!) The next game was "he said, she said", where the guests had to hold up either a mustache or pair of lips to guess whether the answer to a given question was from me or Macky. This game was a hoot, as guests got to find out things about the both of us that they might not have known otherwise! There was also the bottle cap game, the gift game, the toilet paper wedding dress and guess the movie quotes -- all of which were spectacular fun. My sister did a fabulous job hosting!

But what really made this shower so special to me were all the people present. It was such a blessing to be surrounded by the women who I love most in the world, and to have such a good time too. My shower was infinitely more beautiful because the people in the photos were all present and accounted for. While there were certainly people who were missed, it was definitely a top special occasion in my life!

As I've already said many times, I'm a very lucky girl, and blessed to have such incredible people in my life. Both of these events will be special to me for the people I got to share them with! Now, since there's only 13 days (!) left until the big day, I've got to skedaddle and finish up some last-minute details. I'll definitely be sharing more wedding-related stuff soon(ish), I hope! xo