The Connecticutian

Last weekend my sister threw a wonderful bridal shower for me! Leading up to it, I was getting a bit nervous. A friend who recently got married told me she had read in Emily Post (after her own bridal shower) that you’re not supposed to ooh and aah over gifts that you receive off of your registry. Instead you are supposed to merely thank the giver for her generosity, otherwise it looks like you are fawning over your own great taste. Questions began swirling in my head: How do I act? What if I get too excited? What is the proper etiquette for the bride?

OMG, did I google etiquette for the bride?? OMG, am I a bride? Holy Crap! I’m a bride.

On the Thursday morning before my shower I realized that I am indeed a bride. I had not though about myself in those terms. I was genuinely freaked out about it until about 7th period lunch, when enough of my colleagues assured me that I wouldn’t make any faux pas, that as the bride, you really can’t unless you don’t thank someone. One of my many mantras in life is that Emily Post is for the birds. (I firmly believe that all birds should follow proper etiquette.) What my little breakdown was about was that word. By the time I got home and looked into my handsome groom’s eyes, being a bride was suddenly a very good thing again. He is pretty handsome, after all (even if he does like the musical, Rent).

So the shower was quite lovely. My sister ran a tight ship. One of the best touches to the shower was how everyone brought (or wrote there) a bit of advice for Sujal and me. My sister coordinated it so that she read the advice aloud as I was opening the gift from the advice-giver. Tres cool. I also got lots of good recipes, more impetus to get me a-cookin’. I’ve always wanted Sujal to serenade me with a little Hank Williams.

I was also amazed at how generous everyone was, both with their time, efforts, and gifts. We got some very creative gifts, some risque gifts, and one gift that was wrapped about 10 times, that had to be passed to various individuals around the room. Fun was had by all. We really did have a good time. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been generous with shower gifts before, but it is different when you are on the receiving end. I just didn’t expect such generosity!! The only down side was that we didn’t get to chat with guests as much as we’d have liked. Several guests came from pretty far away, including Sujal’s mom and sisters. My friend Kirsten and her aunt drove for about 7 hours to come.

I’d been sad that my grandmothers could not attend. I was telling some colleagues that Thursday at lunch that all the other granddaughters in my family got the traditional big shower thrown by my grandmother and that I was a bit sad that I wasn’t going to get that. My cousin Cindy got at least three crock pots at hers! Of course my colleagues thought that I had done something that offended my grandmother. Alas, my grandmother could not be at my shower because she passed away a few years ago. And while I did get the traditional shower, and I am very grateful for it, I did miss having my grandmothers there.

Oh — and Sujal and I are supposed to have 5 kids — I broke 5 ribbons. I was going for as many as I could, trying to defy biology. Sujal said that I shouldn’t do that because I might have quintuplets. My mom called this AM and told me that I don’t need to buy onesies, because she inadvertently got 36 of them. Even 36 might not tie over our quintuplets…