Recipe shower in Virginia

Here are some pictures from an amazing shower we had in VA that a couple of my mom's friends threw for us Father's Day weekend. We had a great mix of family and friends in attendance. We had a lot of fun and it was so great for a lot of them to finally meet Michael--yes, he came to the shower too :) My dad was there too, but funny enough he volunteered to take the gifts as we opened them to the car and so he wasn't seen much. He CLAIMS he was there to see me open up each gift--but Mom and I aren't too sure about that :)


Practicing cutting the cake for our wedding day :)




Michael and me with the wonderful shower hostesses ("Miss Ginnie" and "Miss Paula")












Some of the many AMAZING gifts we received!!



The yummy spread of food :) Miss Ginnie even matched the miniature roses (from her garden) that were in the center of the cake to colors that reminded her of different aspects of the wedding :)



My sister and me with 2 of our cousins (Ally and Lauren). They will be attendants in the wedding :)


Some of our wonderful friends and family that were there :)

FINALLY....the recipe for those strawberry flowers :)

WOAH! So busy!! (and surprisingly not too badly with wedding stuff) :)

Since the ivites have been sent, Mom and Dad have received a steady flow of response cards. :) VERY exciting. Michael and I head to Northern VA (my home) for the weekend for a shower. We are so excited :)
I had my bachelorette party this past weekend and I had a BLAST! I will blog about it as soon as my bmaids send me more pictures that they took :)

*****

Many have asked....sorry it has taken so long. These strawberries are from the AROUND THE CLOCK shower that my mom and I hosted for one of my best friends. Enjoy!



Strawberry flowers with coconut cream
(Makes 2 ¾ cups)

1 (3.4 oz) package coconut cream instant pudding mix
¾ c sour cream
¼ c heavy whipping cream
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
¾ c confectioners’ sugar
1 t coconut extract
1 qt strawberries, washed and dried
Garnish: toasted coconut

In a small bowl, combine pudding mix, sour cream, and cream. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well combined.
Reduce speed to low; add cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and coconut extract beating until well combined. Cover and refrigerate 30 min.
With stem side down, make 2 vertical cuts from tip to ¼ inch from stem end of strawberry. Gently spread apart to form 4 petals. Spoon or pipe coconut filling into each strawberry. Garnish with toasted coconut if desired.


Have a great day!!

Monogram Shower!

What a fun shower this was!!! Some of my bridesmaids decided to throw me a shower in Knoxville. The theme was monogram. I registered for a lot of monogrammed items and I am OBSESSED with the new monogram!!! It was not required to bring a monogrammed gift but many people did. We got a good variety of gifts :)




I have the BEST friends!!! Everything was so cute!! (from the MAGPIES cake, heart shaped ice cubes, yummy food, cute invitations, fun games to the cute favors) Enjoy the pictures!!! There were a few guests that left before we got the chance to take their picture.

Another Chattanooga Shower

We had a shower mother's day weekend in Chattanooga. (I realize I am a little behind in blogging this one) We have been referring to this shower as the Cornerstone shower. Michael's parents' sunday school class (the Cornerstone class as they are commonly called) threw us this shower. The Gentry's hosted the shower at their home on the Council Fire golf course. It was so much fun.



The decor had a summer soiree flare and it was called "The First Year of Good Cheer". Guests were assigned a month of the year to theme their gift around (similar to Around the Clock, but this was months of the year). When we opened gifts we started with September (the first month after we are married) and then went through the rest of the year and ended with August. We got a lot fo really cute things.






Here is a picture of the awesome cake they had. In case you didn't already know, I am obsessed with our new monogram....so the fact they had a monogrammed cake was PERFECT!!!!!



We got a lot of fun gifts :)

Work Shower

My co-workers threw me a shower at work! It was so fun! They made some yummy food too :)


Here's my department at HGTV :)






Some fun gifts we got :)
I think I was showing my excitement for Michael when I opened the pizza stone. That was something he picked out to register for--so I knew he would be thrilled!! :)

Since my mom was in town for the week, she got to come too :)