Zett's Surprise Bridal Shower - Houston style

I just realized that I never did a post about my most recent bridal shower - the surprise extravaganza we pulled off in Houston for Zett.

This is Zett - the BRIDE :)

The rundown: Zett lives in Houston with her fiance and all her friends are scattered across the country. With the wedding in Panama, she assumed that she wouldn't have a shower because of all the traveling everyone is doing to get to Panama. We (her friends) never mentioned a shower one way or another. It just wasn't discussed.

Then the power of email came together and before we knew it we were all booking flights to Houston for a weekend in April! 

The plan was simple - surprise Zett over and over again with more friends, more laughs, and more fun. It was awesome.

The first treat was Lauren (one of the college BFFs) being in town for work. She lives in Berkeley, CA and arrived on Wednesday. The excitement of Lauren being in town was enough to satisfy Zett for a while. She finally had a girlfriend in town to discuss wedding details and shop for accessories. They went to her dress fitting together on Friday afternoon, followed by "dinner" with Bryan.

Lauren

When Zett walked into the restaurant, there she saw her other college BFFs - Hollie (in from MA), Jenica (in from SoCal), and Paula (in from CO). And her mom (in from NM)! Bryan's parents were also there (local), and Zett couldn't have been happier. They had a great dinner followed by her favorite dessert - Carvel ice cream cake!

Then...SURPRISE! I walked in the door (in from PA). More shock and amazement from Zett - more friends - HOORAY! We finished dessert and hijacked Zett for the evening. Bryan had already prepared an overnight bag for her, and we stayed up into the wee hours of the morning (4 am!) catching up and telling old stories. A good old fashioned sleep-over.

Hollie, Lauren, Jenica, and Paula

The morning was a little hectic and unbelievable, but thankfully Zett is amazingly gullible. We assumed she would sleep in, but nope - she was too excited to sleep and we were all up by 8am. We had to stall until noon! With 4 girls sharing a bathroom it's not too hard to drag it out, so we did. Lauren and Jenica managed to escape under the guise of a strange but believable white lie - the search across town for a broken breast pump part (Jenica is a new mom). That kept them away for 3 hours! Zett totally bought it. I snuck away to pick up the cupcakes while Zett thought I was running to Target to pick up some flip flops that I hadn't packed. Several unnecessary runs to Starbucks later, Hollie and Paula got Zett to her house just after noon where - SURPRISE! - her high school BFFs Sarah and Amy (in from FL) were waiting at the door along with a local friend Matilda and the rest of our gang! At this point we told her the surprises were over (which they were) and we had some yummy food and cupcakes, followed by a traditional bridal shower.

Group hug with Zett, Sarah, and Amy

The theme was Obama - as it was while working on his campaign that Zett and Bryan met. Red, white and blue everywhere, we had a great time at the shower, followed by dinner later, and more girl time at the hotel. We had plans for a night out in Houston - complete with mechanical bulls and cowboy boots, but with some early flights in the morning, Zett preferred that we just all spend more time together at the hotel - and we had another great night of laughs and memories.

Jenica made the Obama banner, coasters, and name tags - great job Jenica!

Cupcakes from Frost Bake Shoppe - read my review HERE - delicious!

Me, Zett, Hollie, Jenica, Matilda, Lauren, Paula, and Zett's Mom Marybeth

Some of the girls in Houston aren't able to make it to Panama, so this weekend was really special to Zett, and us. We love you Zett!

Sarah, Lauren, Hollie, Paula, Jenica, Me, Zett, Amy