NC Visit, Part Two: Jackie Shower

I was in North Carolina last weekend for two of Jackie’s bridal events. I started my trip off in Chapel Hill with the McFs then ventured down to the coast on Friday. Wilmington is about a two and a half hour drive from Chapel Hill, and Jenn and Michael were so kind to let me borrow one of their cars for the weekend. (Thanks so much, y’all!)

I got into my old graduate school town late Friday afternoon, took a quick tour around downtown while running a few errands, dropped some things off at the shower location (my fellow bridesmaid Katie’s house), then met Jackie at her house. I hadn’t seen her since my baby shower last June, so it was really nice to know I’d have so much time with her all weekend!

I also got to meet the two infamous kitties, Moonfart and Nermal. (Strange names, I know.) Nermal is still in the crazy-psycho-kitten stage so she tore around the house most of the time, while Moonfart spent almost my entire visit sleeping in my suitcase.

 

The bridesmaids had decided to keep Friday night casual and relaxed (which Jackie approved), so we stayed in, ordered pizza, and played Rock Band and Dance Central on their X-Box Kinect. We had a houseful of people, including a few boys: Pat, Katie’s husband Brad, and one of Pat’s uncles. Then there were the girls. Pat’s mom is one of four sisters, and they were all present and accounted for on Friday night, plus Jackie, Katie, me, and a few others. None of the older ladies hesitated one bit to jump right in and join the fun, which we all loved!

I hadn’t stayed up past midnight in a really long time, so that made it a bit of a challenge to roll out of bed the next morning to get ready for Jackie’s shower. I told Katie I would get to her house early to help her set up, and I’m glad I did. We barely had everything done by the time the first guest arrived at 10:30! All of the food was great, attendance was good, and I think Jackie enjoyed herself. A successful first portion of the day!

It’s customary to have the guest of honor iron your pants before a bridal shower, isn’t it? Good; I thought so too. (Sorry, Mom, but she insisted! Besides, Nermal helped.)

  

Once the shower was over, we headed back to Jackie’s house to change for the next activity. I found Moonfart sleeping in my luggage (again), Brad arrived shortly after we did with all of the gifts in the back of his truck, and then we were off like the wind to our next destination.

  

The bridesmaids wanted to plan something for the afternoon since we wouldn’t be going to dinner until 6:30, but it was Jackie who actually came up with the idea of painting pottery. We brought the leftover drinks and food from the shower and journeyed to Paint ’N Play for an afternoon of painting, more socializing, and yes, more eating and drinking. It was a perfect, relaxing thing to do before our night out on the town.

And, all of the bridesmaids had secretly conspired beforehand to each paint an ornament for Jackie to keep, instead of doing something for ourselves. Plus, the shop was running a special so we each actually painted two for the price of one!

Decked out in my LSU polo (it was game day, after all) and with Kenny texting me score updates (we ended up killing Kentucky), I produced two pretty decent ornaments for the bride-to-be. Although, I did tell her I may want to keep the oval one; I was way impressed with my hand-painted fleur-de-lis. I also did the star, Katie did the one with the “W,” and Francie did the palm tree peeking out of the bottom left corner. Jackie and Pat’s tree is going to be even prettier than before come this Christmas!

We headed back to Jackie’s house after finishing up our pottery projects, to get ready for the evening festivities. You’ll have to wait until next week to hear about those shenanigans, though.

Have a great weekend, everyone……Geaux Tigers!