Full of Blessings in Fergus Falls

[The pictures for this post were uploaded shortly after the fun day, but there is so much I've been wanting to say, it's taken a while to finish. At this point, though, I thought I would just publish the post and trust that you know the huge level of thankfulness I wish to convey!]

I was blessed with a beautiful bridal shower in Fergus Falls! It was such a lovely day, filled with fun people, delicious food, thoughtful gifts, and lots of blessings. I have been so blessed to call Bethel my home church, and while I haven't lived in Fergus for two years now, it will always feel like that. It's been so fun to start attending our Lutheran Brethren church in Appleton, and I know we will continue to grow in the fun friendships we've started there, but it was also so fun to be back in Fergus and feel so loved and missed.

THANK YOU to each of you who were able to come to the shower, THANK YOU to those of you who sent gifts, THANK YOU to the wonderful friends who helped host it. I felt so incredibly blessed and returned to Brent on cloud nine!

These dear little friends helped distribute all the gifts.
Here are the wonderful friends who helped organize everything.
O and A also helped greet people or offer punch.
My mom was able to be there, and a wonderful added bonus is that our annual national church convention was going on, so there were other fun family and friends in town for the day. At first I started getting nervous that it would be too big of a conflict, but it ended up being a wonderful bonus to have so many out of town friends there! As some people have said, I'm a "national" woman, and it was so fun to have this become a "national" shower! Here you see a familiar face to this blog, especially from my time living in Seattle in 2007, my mom's cousin June! It was so fun to have her there for my shower and she's able to come back for the wedding as well!
Some of my dear Fergus friends who were able to come.
Opening a lovely gift. Brent and I feel SOOOO blessed as we look around our house now!
My friend, Mandy, and her dear little guy (who has the best hair!).
Christine helped with organizing everything, and she asked me a few multiple-choice questions so that I could answer them and introduce a little about Brent to everyone there. I'm not at home at the moment to tell you what some of the questions were, but I will say that Brent laughed loudly at a few of them when I shared them with him later on!
Candis gave a little history of specific wedding traditions and then tied in a spiritual aspect to them. This was especially fun thinking back on ALL the MANY wedding conversations we've had together over the years! On a side note, I am so incredibly blessed that she agreed to be our wedding coordinator, since I really have been talking about weddings with her for years! I know that any one of a hundred things that could surprise us on our wedding day will go just fine, as Candis will handle it exactly how I would want!
One of my dearest friends and bridesmaids, Jenn, and her girls helped stock our cupboards by reading a fun poem that included many things like "pledging" our love to each other, having a "fantastic" "life" filled with "joy" and so on and so on, and gave commercial items of the same name for us to enjoy! Rumor has it that her husband, Ryan, who I have known since I was 15, especially liked helping write the poem! :)
WHAT A FUN SURPRISE! My team-leader from my trip to Africa last fall happened to be in town for the church convention and was able to stop by the shower! Trisch shares my love for Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and has loved following my love story with my very own Mr. Darcy. She has prayed for us, asked how things are going, and is even able to make a trip out for the wedding! It was the first time I had seen her since Brent and I have been engaged and it brought tears to my eyes seeing the tears in her eyes when she saw me filled with joy. She's an amazing woman that I am so blessed to call my friend!
My mom's cousin, Ginny, (in the pink) and some of her dear friends who are some of my dear friends as well!
Some of the beautiful red and yellow decorations (yes, I've been hinting at our wedding colors by the background theme on my blog!). The yellow pot is even A's flower girl "basket"!
OH MY WORD! My dear friend, Carrie, who was so disappointed to have to miss the wedding but so excited to be in town for my shower, made me a beautiful gift! She is a fellow quilter, who has made more wonderful gifts for people than maybe anyone else I know. She also is a kindred spirit with my love of fabrics, and also with dishes! She completely understands my love of a 1950's style kitchen as well! Well, she faithfully follows this blog so when she read about The Lakehouse, she knew just what to do. She quilted this wonderful picnic blanket, complete with waterproof backing so it can sit on the grass. Then she filled a picnic basket with wonderful vintage tableware so that Brent and I can enjoy a picnic out on our dock or lawn! How incredibly thoughtful! I LOVE this gift!
[I need to say here, that one of the wonderful, amazing things about this shower is that there were so many wonderful gifts like Carrie's! People have been so incredibly generous, it's been quite overwhelming! And shower's at Bethel are so fun because a bride knows she'll get many lovely things from her gift registries, and she'll also get many lovely gifts that have been picked out or made just for her! I love knowing that Sally was praying for me and Brent as she crocheted a gorgeous doily, and Brent's already enjoyed the homemade jam/jelly that Vonnie is known to bless a bride with and there are just so many other lovely gifts I'm actually sitting her with tears in my eyes thinking of the HUGE blessing you all are to me!]

Here we are as the shower is winding down, and you can see that June helped me prepare for the wedding rehearsal by making a "ribbon bouquet" to carry that night.
Her husband, Joel, is one of my favorite people and he even stopped by to say hi. Thanks for your bravery, Joel... coming to a ladies shower! :)
After the guests left, my mom and I were able to enjoy some time with Jenn and Barb while we cleaned up and ate dinner as well. It took a bit of time to pack all the gifts up because there were so many we were blessed with!
As you can see, this is a post full of blessings! I know I was told that my final gift of the day is that I don't need to write thank you notes for each individual gift, but THANK YOU again and again for the wonderful shower of blessings I received!