The Shower

Oh, the epic bridal event that is the shower. With its ladies gabbing and adorably arranged trays of food and games of toilet paper wedding dresses. What to do with you, wedding shower?

My lovely aunts have offered to throw me a bridal shower and I feel really mixed about this whole event. I'm extremely flattered that they are willing to go through all the effort for me and I know that whatever they put together it will turn out spectacularly (One of my aunts is, after all, referred to as Franck. As in Franck from Father of the Bride because she can throw down some fabulousness!) It really does make me feel all warm, fuzzy, and special that they would go out of their way to do a shower for me.

I'm all for the gathering of the ladies and having an afternoon of mingling - I just don't know what to do about the whole gift giving tradition. The mister and I have lived together for the last three + years (sinners!!!) and don't need or want many things. We live in an apartment that is already full with our loads of gear (two bikes each, skis (alpine and cross country), snowboards, camping gear, etc.) I don't feel like we can even register for enough to cover a shower AND a wedding! Also, I feel bad asking for gifts twice. "Hey, come to two separate events just for me where I will require gifts of you both times!" Awkward.

My aunts are pretty traditional, though, so I can't stray too far from tradition on the shower. I was mainly hoping to come up with a shower theme that would ease the gift burden of the attendees and allow for more time for fun and mingling (aka less of the staring at me as I open things that I put on a list for people to buy).

Here are the ideas so far:
- Books, Booze and Beauty "The bride would appreciate gifts of great literature, nummy drinkables, and Aveda goodness!" (These items can come in wide, wide ranges of cost. There is many a great bottle of wine for under 10 bucks!)
- Themes such as "month of the year" gifts where each guest is responsible for a gift that goes with a month of the year. (aka scarves for January and a beach towel for June)
- Just let the older ladies get whatever and trust my friends to know me better and get something fun and creative that I could actually use (like books, booze, and aveda gift cards for nummy, nummy goodness)?
- That's it. I'm out of ideas.

Any other ideas?
What are your shower plans?