La Mariée Future

Ever since we returned from our Christmas vacation this last January, I have been working hard on an enormous project. I couldn't write or post pictures, because it was supposed to be a secret. Well, now it's all over and done with and I can finally tell you what I've been up to with all my free time the last three months!

Heather and I met in 7th grade, when we both moved to the little town of Shelley, Idaho. I treasure Heather because she is the first person I'd ever met who really challenged me - intellectually and spiritually. My first memory of her was when we were taking tests for the Gifted and Talented program in middle school - she finished her tests before me. She got up, handed in those tests, and walked out the door. All while I was still working on mine. Wait....what? She did --- what? She finished ..... GASP! Who was this girl?

Soon after I asked her to eat lunch with me, and we became inseparable after that. She was a "good" girl - and I....well, I had just been yanked 1200 miles away from my childhood home and best friends - not to mention my father -- and I still had a lot of learning and growing up to do. We weren't active in Church then, I didn't care to be active in the church, and I was missing a solid male figure in my life (not an excuse, just the truth). Heather didn't judge me when I hung out with the wrong crowd, took up swearing, and even pierced my belly button (you can tell in these pictures, in case you're wondering). In fact, she did the opposite - she clung tighter to me. She, in all honesty, saved me. It is because of her I came back to church, took out that belly button ring, stopped swearing, cut ties with my "bad" friends, and gained a testimony of my own - after leaning so long on hers. We would write endless notes and fill journal after journal, passing it back and forth between each other. I read through one of those journals a few weeks ago. I never realized until then - just a few short weeks ago - how selfish and ignorant I was. What a terrible friend I was. And she only gave me love. Years later, her 14 year old self is still teaching me lessons. Does that paint a clear enough picture of how wise she is now?
We have been through our good times and bad, Heather and I, our thicks and our thins. But always, we come out stronger.

Now, this sweet lady is getting married. He is a lucky man, I tell ya.
And because our lives somehow brought us both to the East Coast, I had the pleasure of throwing her a Bridal Shower. Keep in mind, I am an English major throwing a party for an Event Planning major. The pressure was on.

With the long-distance help of her other bridesmaid, and my other best friend, Robyn, I decided to make the party French-themed, as all three of us had taken French together in high school, and Heather and I had spent a week in France just one year ago (read about that here, here, and here.)

First, the invitations:

which were then sealed in pink envelopes and stamped with the HOMEMADE Eiffel Tower stamp that my husband HAND-CARVED out of a pink eraser. He is awesome.

Then, the welcome table:

Hand-painted welcome sign, homemade tissue paper flowers (which I made while watching countless episodes of Friends), a schedule of events, name tags, and 12 homemade berets for everyone to wear (at least for the group photo!)

The gift table:

Digital photo frame playing over 100 photos of Heather I creepily snuck off of Facebook, a cute, hand-decorated jar to hold a Wish for the Bride, more tissue paper flowers, and a cute poster made with paint, cardboard, Mime scrapbook paper, and Modpodge.

The Food Table:

Vintage-edited photos I took in Paris on twine, hand-painted Cafe-cup menu sign, scrapbook paper poster, 35 homemade crepes, powdered sugar, chocolate and caramel syrup, Nutella, whip cream, strawberries, bananas, berries, raspberry jam, croissants, ham, cheese, butter, cream puffs, oranges, grapes, 3 gallons homemade strawberry lemonade -- not to mention the adorable banner lining the table (also made with hours of Friends in the background). Plus! I read tons of articles and books on the art of Macaron-making and had one practice session -- and I produced a beautiful batch of Homemade chocolate macarons (though I hesitate to mention the failed batch of raspberry macarons I left at home. aaaand the fact that the chocolate ones got smashed on the way down....but they still tasted great, even if they looked ugly!). Complete with hand-painted French labels for everything!

The Games:

Then we played some silly games with silly prizes, of course. I had a He said/She said game with different things Heather and her fiance had said on Facebook, and everyone had to guess who said what. That was another nasty bout of Facebook stalking, but it was pretty funny. 

The next game required me to get some answers from the Groom, so I set up a time to Skype with him (since he lives in England, and all). Heather had to guess how he answered my questions, and had to put a marshmallow in her mouth for every wrong answer. 

Last, what else but a game including blindfolds, an extra-large pair of panties, and a little too much intimacy?

:

And of course, the gift-opening (which I will spare you the details and Heather the embarrassment):

Finally, the Departure Table, which I did not get a picture of:

Hand-painted Au-Revoir sign, more tissue paper flowers, my favorite homemade poster of all, and a homemade gift bag for every girl that contained a mini-canvas print and a homemade necklace. 

This was my first time ever planning a party quite like this. It was tons and tons of work and time and planning and money, but it was lots of fun and I'd say a success! 

And I have to give a shout-out to my husband, for all his help with everything too. He even drove down to DC with me, helped me unload everything from the car, set up, and then just cruised around DC for two hours while us girls partied. He was so patient and helpful and I really could not have done it without him (two days straight of cooking and baking and last-minute preparing + already sore and swollen feet + a ginormous belly and 40 extra pounds = one tired mama). I love these photos he took while waiting for me:

Lessons learned in Paris

Oh France....

The relationship we have is very much a love/hate one. This is where I did my most learning - and I will always remember that about France. I've got to separate my lessons: one from Paris, and one from the rest of France. We did Paris in about 1 1/2 days. I would love to go back to Paris. It was my favorite part about France, hands-down.

France also began the game of "Worth it or not" ---

- France is where I left my family to join Heather. This is the point where my entire view on how I carried myself and presented myself to strangers began to shift. I mean, I was paranoid when I was with my dad. But now that we were two young, attractive (at least Heather) women traveling alone --- my paranoia increased by about 77%

- When you pick a meeting spot, stick to it. If things aren't looking so good...pray. God is the only one who knows where you are, and who knows where they are, and can make the universe collide in such a way that you two will meet. (hey, that sounds like love, too. If you don't know what you're doing - just stay where you're at and pray, and God will lead you to them. Interesting side note).

This makes everything all better.

-When you make a reservation for a hotel, print off your reservation number, the phone number, the address of the hotel, and the exact name of the hotel. Unless, of course, you want to get off at the wrong bus stop because there are TWO hotels with the same name in very close proximity to each other and then when you tell the French dude you obviously don't have the address with you or else this mistake wouldn't have happened, all he can say to you is, "Wow..." with a cocked eyebrow, roll of the eyes, and a loud sigh.

-You can sleep in a dirty, hairy bed. You can. It's just one night. You will survive. (although I'm not entirely positive you won't get bed bugs, or something closely related to them, as I noticed a bunch of small, itchy red dots on my arms and hands when I got home. Meh. oh well -they're gone now!)

-Pick a good travel buddy. One with whom you can exercise patience and receive patience in return. Or at least where you fit each other's gaps. I planned the big stuff (airplanes, hotels, destinations), Heather implemented the little stuff (which train to take to get to the Louvre, when/who to ask for help, etc)

-Hostels are interesting specimen. They have a very warm, welcoming atmosphere that I immediately gravitated to, clinging onto anything familiar in such strange places. Everyone is young (well...usually....), everyone is traveling, everyone is out on an adventure. Are hostels worth it? It's a good deal for the price. The downside is, of course, when you're LDS and don't drink/party and/or you're married and are therefore an old geyser and like to go to bed early, you must be prepared for late-night disturbances. I would suggest earplugs to drown out the midnight returns, and a sleeping-mask to blind yourself from the little Asian man with no sense of privacy who strips down to his skivvies before making his bed (which requires a lot of hands-and-knees-type-bowing when you're on the top bunk). 

Steps in Paris Hostel

Our first hostel, in Paris, we loved. The next one in St Malo was more like a cheap hotel with a toilet in the room, hidden behind a curtain (no number two's in there - nuh-uh. Not allowed.) We felt a little sketched there, but that was mostly due to an incident at the bus station that pretty near got us involved in a gang fight.

Our hostel in Montpelier (one of the days we were supposed to be somewhere else) was quite sketchy, too, but we fixed that problem fast (more on that later). Nice, Bern, and Austria Hostels were similar to our Paris one - the youthful, friendly environment. And I think the difference is that they were actual hostels, and not just a cheap hotel (be careful with that one - it matters). If you want the names of where we stayed, email me and I will get them to you. 

-The line into the Louvre is definitely do-able. And worth it. And, so is the Mona Lisa. 

People said she was small, a let-down, disappointing....blah,blah,blah. She is amazing. Just to be in that room, cheek smashed against the shoulder next to me, raising my camera high above my head just to get a decent shot of her above the crowd until I could weasel my way to the front (and weasel I did) Thrilling, and yes, worth it. 

(oh yeah, other things in the Louvre are worth it, too, once you stop caring about getting lost/looking for specific exhibits and just enjoy the art and beauty of it all. We hit up the crown Jewels and Napoleon III's apartment display, both lovely.)

-We visited Notre Dame; This became one of those, meh, check-it-off-the-list type of touristy destinations for me. I decided from day one in Rome that I was going to respect all signs that said "No photos" inside churches (wouldn't I want the same from them if they were visiting a temple open house?), and it is nearly impossible to take a picture of the outside that hasn't already been shot before. If you like old beautiful cathedrals, then by all means! But, I think I could have enjoyed other parts of Paris more. Worth it? Not as much.

-Eiffel Tower - Worth it? DEFINITELY. I had had people tell me that the Eiffel tower was just a touristy waste of time and to only see it if I "absolutely had to." Well, apparently I did absolutely have to and I'm soooo glad I went. It was one of the biggest surprises about Europe - how ENORMOUS it is. I seriously had no idea it was so stinking huge. I loved it. It is such a big ugly construct, but I fell in love with it.

-Crepes from a street vendor are heavenly. They are worth every cent you will ever spend on them, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

-Champs-Elysee/ Arc de Triomphe - not so worth it. We took a picture of the Arc (on the run, even), and left. I'd rather shop at stands along the side of the river than in shops on this street.

-Jardins de Luxembourg - very worth the break. We rested here when we didn't know where else to go, and stumbled upon a relaxing afternoon break. Flowers, Eiffel Tower in the distance, green grass, trees that seem to never have lost their leaves.

-Sacre-Coeur - our hostel was directly at the foot of this church, so it was worth it because it was easy for us. Had the day not been cloudy and gray, the view would have been incredible.

- Despite what I'd heard from other people, Parisians were friendly, warm, and helpful. I approached them with what little French I knew and they replied with what English they knew and we just made it work in Paris.