Day One Hundred and Fifty Seven- Deidre's Wedding Shower

Dear all,

In the build up to the Big Day in September, today was Deidre's Bridal Shower! Any Brits that happen to be perusing this page will be immediately thrown into confusion as yet another subtle cross-continental variation to a centuries old traditional pops up into the limelight.

In the UK we have 'Hen Parties', in North America the bride-to-be in given a 'Bridal Shower'; a gift giving party held in anticipation of the imminent wedding and is most common in the US, Canada and Australia. The history of the custom is interestingly a means to provide goods and financial assistance to ensure the wedding may take place. Nowadays, Bridal Showers are more centered on a big gaggle of girlfriends consuming copious food and wine and involving themselves in various shenanigans, trivia about the bride and/or groom and games that are more than usually filled with a strong sexual content.

Deidre's shower was wonderful. Darren was [quite literally] the hero of the day and offered to drive me down to Toronto after displaying *concerns* over my total inexperience in driving in downtown traffic, driving on the Highway, navigating the complex Toronto transport network and not having done a parallel park since my driving test aged 17.

We arrived at the house at around 8:30 and the party was in full swing. We had been instructed to all wear white and luckily I had picked up a cheeky vintage number in Bullfrog the other day. Deidre was resplendent in pink and as soon as I walked through the door I was passed a fish-bowl of Sangria and swept up into the first game.

The theme was Midsummer's Night Dream and the food and decorations where fabulous. The house belonged to Janice, one of Deidre's closest friends and it was nothing short of beautiful. I have imprinted her Moroccan Style porch in my memory to one day recreate in my dream lakeside cottage.

One of the highlights was the 'Underwear' game where we all had to bring a [new] pair of knickers that reflected our personality and Deidre had to pick whose was whose. Under the advice of the all-knowing D, I went for some running briefs which [of course] Deidre got instantly. Rather joyously she mentioned she would be able to wear them at the gym so great to see the get some good use.

Darren picked me up amidst a rampant storm and even popped in a barrage of whooping from the girls and managed to sneak in a quick glass of wine before we took to the road again back to Collingwood. It was a fabulous evening and I am so excited about the wedding!