can we talk about some awesome friends?

i wasn't planning on having a bridal shower; many of my friends are in school, or have just graduated, and money is tight. i also thought that bridal showers were just an excuse for the bride to get even more presents, and that really didn't matter too much to me (we weren't even thinking about making a registry until another couple recommended that we do so, lest we end up with 4 sports themed chip-n-dip bowls).

one of my very best friends, jana, asked me several days before my birthday to take me out to lunch the day after my birthday. thinking nothing of it, i figured that we would go to parc, or another fancy restaurant bordering rittenhouse park (where i take my outfit pictures every day). she asked that i be at her house by 3:15 so we had time to make it the restaurant in time. i biked over in the 90 degree heat, sweating and panting by the time i got to the door. when i opened it, i saw my a bunch of my girlfriends and my mom, with a table full of food - decorated like an english tea party!

left to right: amanda, jana, bernadetta, julie, me, kailey, julie, and jen. my mom is taking the picture.

i cannot believe that the girls planned this all, without me knowing, for the past several weeks. bryan and jana and i always tease about how i never let anyone surprise me - and it's true. but this time, i was completely and totally surprised. they did such an amazing job. the whole table was decorated for a tea party, complete with a giant variety of tea, flowers, sandwiches (complements of amanda and julia), scones (kailey), a tasty brownie with tons of fruit (julia), little raspberry cakes (my mom), bruschetta, a spice cake (jana's mom's recipe), and hummus. it was absolutely delicious. bernadette wrangled up a whole bunch of her mom's teacups and pastry holders, and jana used her grandmother's embroidered linens for the table.

one of the pretty teacups!

kailey got us this gorgeous print by eek design. we have another one of the same prints hanging in our stairwell. i absolutely love them!


julie, the genius behind the gorgeous things at juliepeach. she gave us a pair of her gorgeous napkins, which match our new kitchen perfectly.

bernadette! she has been a lifesaver during the wedding crafts process.

i love this picture! chowing down.

annnddd...more eating. there was lots of that.

i'm still in shock with how amazing everything was. this was definitely the best weekend i've had in a long time - from leaving my job to the beach to dinner to the bridal shower to ahem, true blood (how crazy was that last scene?!), i'm still smiling. i'm very lucky to have such an amazing group of friends.