The Sweetest Shower

Well, you've all seen the cakes.  Now it's time to get this party started!

Some of the set up crew with the cakes.  FMIL Pudding is in the middle.

On the morning of the shower, FMIL Pudding chased me out of the house so that her and "the crew" (her sisters and mom) could set up the house.  In the meantime, I went to visit Mama and Sister Pudding at their hotel.  We spent the morning eating in bed and generally bonding - I have missed just hanging out with them!  We also prettified together, which in true Pudding Ladies fashion, made us half an hour late to my own shower....at least we made an entrance!

Sister Pudding and I

The shower started with some lovely appetizers and a salad bar. We really wanted to keep the lunch light, since we knew that we would be gorging ourselves on cake very soon.

Mr. Pudding holding my plate while I loaded on the food.  Navigating the salad bar was seriously a two person job :p

The weather was beautiful that weekend (unlike every weekend since), so we all took our salads onto the patio.  After some munching and a lot of socializing, it was time for some shower games.  Mr. Pudding's Grandma P had 11 children, so she loves organized activities like this!  She was all over the shower games!

Grandma P is standing in the middle, while Grandma G looks on. Check out Mama Pudding on the left, and Sister Pudding with the cute black/white/pink skirt.

One of the games that we played helped us establish the household roles within our relationship.  See the blue bucket in the picture above?  It was full of household products.  Grandma P had a list of chores, and asked us to decide who would do each chore.  The person who took responsibility for the chore got a related gift.

Mr. Pudding agreed to cook, take out the garbage, clean the cat litter box, and keep the family schedule.  I took on the responsibilities of washing the windows and cleaning the bathrooms.

After the games, it was time for the cakes!  In my last post, some of you wondered how we were able to narrow it down to just two cakes.  Trust me, it wasn't easy!  I tried pitching a cake buffet idea to my FMIL, but we decided that for our 200 person guest list,  She would have to make between 10 - 15 cakes!  That would be completely overwhelming.  So, instead, we came up with an ingenious scoring system:

Every guest got a score card (that was backed with beautiful cardstock) and was asked to rate the cakes based on taste, texture, and appearance.  After tasting all of the cakes, Mr. Pudding and I collected all of the cards, tallied the results, and than used our personal vetos to make the final decision.

Adding up score cards in my "Domestic Diva" apron given to me by Grandma G.

The decision was not an easy one, but it looks like most of the hive would be on board with our choices.  We decided on "Caught in the Rain" (coconut cake with pineapple filling, toasted coconut dacquoise and cream cheese and white chocolate frosting) for the main cake, and "Bella Noche" (tiramisu cake with white chocolate and cream cheese filling, Kahlua and espresso syrup and bittersweet chocolate).

After we finished tasting the cakes, it was time for presents.  And let me just tell you, our guests were very generous.  Among other gifts, I received this:

 
Along with the mixer that is every bride-to-be's dream present, the ladies also gifted me with laminated cookie recipes, and each one gave me a cookie cutter that was symbolic to them.  I was even let in on some family secret's including a recipe for Mr. P's great grandmother's molasses cookies!

And Mr. Pudding was not left out of the gift giving action - his Grandma G gifted him with a 6 pack of Red Bull wrapped in a bag that looked something like this:

(source)

Hmm.... I think Grandma G is trying to tell us something...

All in all, the shower was a great success!  We all had so much fun, and the event really made me feel like I was part of Mr. P's family!  Thank you FMIL Pudding for the thought and effort that you put into this party!

Are you having a shower hosted by someone in your partner's family?  Tell me about it!