And yes --- we made the toilet paper wedding dresses!

YES!  The bachelorette party and shower for my baby sister Christy are over!  As soon as I came home from vacation, I descended into the depths of bridal crazy land and have finally emerged mostly unscathed.  We launched into the weekend with the bachelorette party on Friday night.  Everyone agreed to keep it under control (heck, I had to keep it under control because I was blessed with being one of the designated drivers) since the shower was the next afternoon.  In case you needed anymore proof that doing shots is not a good idea:

Yep, that looks delicious!

We got to experience a girl on the dance floor attempting to use her date as a stripper pole (she literally jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his waist) --- prompting a woman to approach my sister and say, "Take notes.  If you do the exact opposite of what she's doing, you'll have a happy marriage."  Then, for who knows what reason, there were two guys at the bar dressed in animal costumes battling with glow sticks.  I'm not really sure what they are.  Perhaps a fox and a bear?

I guess I'm getting old because that was a new one for me.  Speaking of getting old...big sigh.  I didn't get carded.  I know it's ridiculous.  I am 35 and all, but when we approached the bouncer he said, "You two are fine (meaning me and my 40 something sister), but from the rest of you I need IDs."  My 30 year old sister gets carded and I don't?  WAH!!!!!  Maybe it's time to finally start coloring the greys.  Okay, I concede that maybe I don't look as young as my 21 year old cousin (left in the photo below) or my 26 year old sister (right in the photo below), but to not card me???  Heinous, I tell you.

The shower yesterday was a big success, but super hot and sweaty since it was held in an air conditioning free church basement.  There was way too much food (my mom and the groom's mom clearly had a communication problem on that), but my family and her future Macedonian relatives seemed to hit it off.  There was a brief moment of hesitation when I whipped out the toilet paper for the dress game (they don't play shower games at Macedonian wedding showers), but her fiance's foreign relatives ended up embracing it with gusto.  Here's them posing with their model Daniella:

In the end, we had some interesting dress designs ranging from my niece Hannah (which her team dubbed "the Hawaiian bride")

 to my sister's fiance's brother's girlfriend Brandy (her team called her look "risque Vegas"--- she's 2nd from the right in the group photo at the top of the page).  Red had a blast being a wedding dress model and assisting with gift delivery during the gift opening process.  I guess we bought my sister the right gift.  Who knew someone could be that excited about flatware?

All in all the shower took about 6 hours including set up, actual shower time, and tear down.  Wow--- I had some hurting feet last night.  I was pretty proud of our crafty/DIY showing for the event.  Since my sister's a daisy fan, I made the centerpieces out of a metal bucket bought at TJMaxx, a shasta daisy from the grocery store, and raffia.

My sister and her best friend tried their hand at a Martha Stewart candy bouquet (instructions are here):

 Overall, it went well, the families got along, and she got a lot of nice gifts.  

What more can you ask for?

Now---on to the wedding!!!