how we celebrated: dc bridal shower edition

Friends: if there is one thing you should know about my mother, it is that she is a consummate fete-thrower. No tiny detail is too small to be overlooked; no place card should ever be without a whimsical, decorative touch. I bow down to her mastery of party planning.

As you can imagine, my second shower -- held in DC at the Four Seasons in Georgetown a few Saturdays ago -- was a true work of Kat. The theme was a bridal tea and I wore my most pretty party dress. It was a wonderful afternoon and I shall tell you about it through pictures.

We started off with a lovely toast to yours truly. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends, family, and friends of my mom and Mike's mom who traveled from as far away as HAWAII (Hi Stephanie!) to celebrate with me. The moms mixed and matched the tables so everyone could get to know each other before the wedding. For those of you planning bridal showers for yourself or friends, I thought this was an excellent idea and I hope some of my attendees left with new friends. Aw.

It was a tea, so of course we had tea accoutrements like scones and clotted cream. Have you ever had clotted cream? It is the Angelina Jolie or Ryan Gosling of milk products. In addition to the traditional pastries, we also had house-made macarons, whoopie pies, Oreo mousse and tiny little cakes. I will tell you that my mom wasn't the biggest fan of my dessert choices, but I'm very grateful that she let me indulge in my favorite wacky favorites.

Our actual lunch was an assortment of little tea sandwiches. My favorite were the mini-lobster rolls. Lobster is always my favorite. In the background you can see my present, which I'll get to in a minute.

Guest books are one of my favorite mementos from events and we set ours up with a floral arrangement and an AWESOME photo of me in one of my first wedding dresses (there were many, obviously).

After lunch, we allowed the menfolk in. My dad and one of his best friends, Graham, sang a traditional Filipino love song which was beautiful and so sweet. Love you, Pops.

On to our party favors. This was probably the most Kat-like aspect of my shower. My mother actually made over 50 personalized boxes, each one with a different card or ribbon. Mine featured two of my favorites: Eddie Redmayne and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Sorry, Mikey. What was inside?

Every guest received an antique handkerchief, which my mom has spent weeks -- nay, MONTHS -- sourcing from various stores and websites. Here she is explaining the design to a few of the lovely ladies at the shower. In addition to my handkerchief, my mom also surprised me with this:

This is my "something blue" and will get sewn to the inside of my dress. I have a huge love of monograms and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to see this.

My sister flew all the way from California to be with me! It's pretty rare to get the four of us in one state, let alone in one photo, so here is evidence that we all were occupying the same hemisphere.

Thanks to my mom and Bonnie for such a perfect day! I love you both.

You can also read about my New York shower here.