Tamii's Bridal Shower

One day after Tamii's Bachelorette party (http://kerijam.blogspot.com/2007/12/tamiis-bachelorette-party.html) it was time for Tamii's Bridal Shower. Tamii has been a pescatarian/vegetarian for years, and she has been moving more towards a vegan/vegetarian/macrobiotic diet. In addition, she is quite passionate about jogging. Therefore, we decided to do something original and relevant for her shower and selected "Health and Fitness" as the theme.

Tamii was told in advance to reserve all of Wednesday night for an event but had no idea about what was planned. We blindfolded her when she came home, so that she was not able to see any of our preparations. As she got ready upstairs, we quietly ushered in her many guests.

Earlier in the day, we transformed the house to match our Health and Fitness theme. For example, we had exercise videos (e.g. Taebo, Pilates, etc.) running continuously on 3 or 4 laptops around the house; pictures of women completing various workouts pasted on the wall, a hula hoop, and other props such as weights, tennis rackets, etc. placed in various spots in the living and dining rooms.

Once we were ready to start, we asked Tamii to come downstairs and sang "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" as she glided down the staircase. Tamii was shocked/pleasantly surprised to see all of her good friends gathered to celebrate her.

It was a fun filled night. We served vegan dishes which were all well received, even by the heartiest meat eaters (for more on meat eaters see: http://kerijam.blogspot.com/2007/07/interview-with-meat-eater.html).

Tessa guided us through a team karaoke challenge and...

...my team won!

We then had other exciting games like the hula hoop competition,

the 'trying to hit a water bottle over with balls tied around your waist' game and

the 'who could squat for the longest' challenge.

I ended up being one of the last two in the squatting contest, but decided that as one of the hostesses it probably would not look right for me to win another competition. (Ok, the truth is I listened to the strong hints from others and bowed out gracefully, sadly/maturely accepting 2nd place)

Then it was time for showering Tamii with gifts. Tamii received numerous presents, most in line with the theme, and she now has many more running outfits, socks, towels, raw food/vegan cook books, etc. There were a few unmentionables also presented, which I am sure Tamii will be enjoying with her hubby.

As part of the gift giving segment, Tessa and I presented Tamii with her first bicycle and also a promise of biking lessons. This was quite a significant gift for us and I will share the history with you at a later date, but suffice it to say that Tamii screamed and was close to tears when she saw her shiny new bicycle. Yay!

We then concluded the evening with a word of advice section, where we asked the guests to offer words of wisdom to Tamii - we got to hear many insightful comments from 'marrieds' and 'unmarrieds'. Tamii graciously thanked her guests for coming and the evening was officially over.

Unofficially, the event went until the wee hours of the morning as we 'karaoked', chatted and laughed until we could no longer keep our eyes open.

Successful event #2, next step the wedding!

(P.S. Angel sneaked in at the end of the Bridal Shower and we didn't have the heart to turn him away *smile*)