The Nest

The Mad Hatter shower and Me

Posted Monday, July 09, 2007 8:51 PM

It’s been a long time since I was the center of attention. Thus, I was kind of nervous the morning of my first bridal shower. It wasn’t that I mind being in the spotlight (I’m more afraid of antique stores than I am about public speaking), it’s that I was in a situation I could not prepare for, no matter how hard I tried. I’m a planner – as you could probably tell from the other posts in my blog – and this was a shower I had no control over. My hostesses (my aunt, my dad’s girlfriend, two of my bridesmaids and their mothers) insisted upon it.

When my aunt Karen and my bridesmaid Elana (my younger cousin) first brought up the idea of hosting a shower, the three of us were at Target during Halloween. They joked that I should have an “Adams Family” kind of shower with ghosts and scary music and pumpkins, because of the proximity of the wedding to Oct. 31. I said, “Sure, why not?”  knowing that these ladies knew me pretty well and that the shower would be fun no matter what they decided to do.
 

Turns out that plan didn’t work, so they opted for one of the coolest shower themes I could have asked for: A Mad Hatter Tea Party straight out of “Alice in Wonderland.”

Elana designed the invitations; her mom, Sheri, hunted décor down on e-bay; bridesmaid Stephanie created the games (including a “how well does Shana know Adam game”); her mom, Linda, was unable to attend but brought in ideas for the day; aunt Karen contacted the tea lady; Joan helped pick out the gift the hostesses would give me.


Everyone was told to wear a silly hat – I, of course, opted for white Mickey Mouse ears with the veil I bought on Mouseshoppe.com. There were “Alice in Wonderland” characters on the buffet table: an Alice doll Karen bought at the Disney Store, a Cheshire Cat I bought Adam when I took my little sister to Walt Disney World last year; and a Queen of Hearts doll that would yell “off with her head!” when you hit her on the back. The cupcakes were decorated with signs that said “eat me”; the DVD of “Alice in Wonderland” played in the background the entire time.

 

There was tea and sandwiches, plus scones, fruit and so many desserts that we had a really nice leftover dinner that night. I did so-so on the Adam game (I confronted him later about some of his answers, such as Harry Potter being his favorite book, which it isn’t); and my friends all kicked booty on the Disney trivia game (luckily I knew all the answers, even though some of the questions were a bit tricky. It was hard for me not to play hostess -- I kept walking around wanting to make sure everyone was having a good time (old habits are hard to break).

My father, my uncle, my cousin, Stephanie’s brother and Adam went to do manly things for a few hours (my uncle joked he would have to spray down the house with testosterone when he returned). When Adam came back, I think he was more overwhelmed than I was.

 

My friends and family were incredible! They were all so thoughtful when it came to giving us gifts – moreso than I ever would have imagined. It was a kitchen gadget shower, and boy did we ever get gadgets! I was hard to believe that the items we picked out months ago were sitting in front of us. It was like magic.

 

The entire experience was one that will stay with me forever. I have two more showers before the wedding, but I will always hold dear the craziest tea party outside of Anaheim where, for a few hours, I held court with characters so amazing even Lewis Carroll himself wouldn’t have been able to dream it up .