By: Samie

Travel Dates: June 1st-4th, 2022

Day 3

(Alyssa’s Bridal Shower)

DISCLAIMER: If you are unfamiliar with the show Bob’s Burgers, a few references in this week’s post may not make sense to you. I will do my best to explain the important ones, but in my personal opinion, you would be doing yourself a big favor by going to check out Bob’s Burgers on Hulu. You won’t regret it!

Day 3 of our LA adventure brought us to the main reason we had made the trip there, Alyssa’s bridal shower! Evan and Alyssa had picked September 3rd as their wedding date. In the very first episode of Bob’s Burgers, Bob (the namesake of the show) is confronted by his disgruntled wife Linda about him not realizing it was the day of their wedding anniversary. She exasperatedly makes the argument that he has no excuse not to remember their anniversary because it’s 9/3, and 9 is divisible by 3!

Alyssa and Evan, like Luke and myself, are enormous fans of the show, and so when everything serendipitously lined up to match the anniversary of our beloved Bob and Linda, they were delighted. Because of this, we would have been remiss not to reference it in some sort of wedding event, and the bridal shower seemed to provide the most reasonable and convenient opportunity.

Starting with the invites, the front had a Burger of the Day board with all the relevant info. Another important thing you should know if you have never seen the show is that every episode features a different and wonderfully punny burger of the day on the restaurant’s burger board. We also happened to be hosting the bridal shower on July 3rd, so I was able to play on the original quote of “9/3 because 9 is divisible by 3” and instead say “6/3 because 6 is divisible by 3” because it is! Another serendipitous moment!

I turned the back of the invites into a Bingo game board that would be used as one of the games for the bridal shower. With many of Alyssa’s close friends and family literally being spread across the country (from LA to New York City), the only way we would be able to include everyone was via Zoom. Fortunately, it was very easy post-pandemic to create a Zoom-based Bingo board. Each space contained something that could realistically take place throughout the duration of the Zoom call. If someone was able to connect 5 spaces in a row, they would announce a Bingo, and I would email them a Target gift card (and yes, I did individually put together each card to have a different sequence of Bingo spaces).

Luke and I had gotten picked up by Alyssa and Evan from our Airbnb around 11:15 so that we were still able to have a relaxing morning and have plenty of time to prepare and make sure everything was in place for the shower. Some people had shipped the gifts directly to Alyssa and Evan’s apartment so that she could open them during the shower, so I had to make sure all the presents were accounted for and ready to be opened. One of Alyssa’s friends and neighbors was a baker and offered to make cupcakes that looked like tiny hamburgers in theme with the party, so we also wanted to get those set up and get pictures of them taken before the party. Lastly, I wanted to make sure my Zoom link was active and working so that when it was time to host, all guests would be able to access the link and enter the waiting room with ease.

The time went by surprisingly fast, and 3:30 Pacific Time rolled around before we knew it! Those of us present in-person for the Zoom bridal shower found places around the house’s living room coffee table. Those present included myself, Alyssa, and her two roommates Jaclyn and Izzy. Luke was of course there too, but he was mostly there as support and our personal photographer.

For the first game I had put together for us to play, it is absolutely necessary that I provide you with another key detail from Bob’s Burgers. The eldest daughter in the main family is Tina. She is a quirky 8th grade girl that loves horses, boys, and possibly the most, boy butts. To pay homage to this caring, awkward, but impossible not to love character, I had put together a game called Guess That Butt. Yes, you read that right. I had every guest that was comfortable to do send me a picture of their rear ends. I asked that everyone wear black leggings and have a generic background in case I wasn’t able to remove it so that Alyssa had to base her guesses specifically on our booties. It provided many light-hearted laughter and allowed us to break the ice with those we didn’t know so well as we got to sit back and listen to my sister explain why she was assigning each rump to who she thought it was. Even better, Alyssa did shockingly well at correctly identifying our derrières.

The next game I had put together was a classic Kahoot. If this word is utter nonsense to you, 1.) you are definitely not an educator and 2.) the way you play is pretty simple.

It’s pretty much a virtual trivia game. When I click host, the game code pops up and players go to the kahoot.it, type in the game code, put in their game name, and wait for me to click start! I created a series of questions that related specifically to Alyssa or Alyssa and Evan. The question would pop up and then players would have 4 choices. They have to pick which option they think is correct. I have a time limit set for each question and players can earn points by getting the question correct, and they get more points the faster they answer. However, if they answer incorrectly, they get no points. Not only is it an extremely fun and engaging review activity in a classroom setting, but it’s easy to get pulled into the trivia fun in just about any other setting as well!

I shared my screen on my iPad and hosted the game while players/guests used their own devices to play. Once a winner was crowned, I was able to email them a gift card as well for their prize!

The last part of our bridal shower fun was presents! While Alyssa unboxed her gifts on camera, I was taking notes to make writing thank you cards easier for her and also taking pictures because I know I like to have as many moments documented as possible because big events seem to end up feeling like such a whirlwind when they’ve passed.

At some point during the Zoom, someone had found a way to manifest a few squares of their Bingo card and were able to shout Bingo before the shower came to an end. Before I could send the final gift card their way, they said to invest it in a gift card for Alyssa instead, which was incredibly thoughtful and nice.

While we couldn’t share the tasty and savory-looking cupcakes with the rest of the shower guests, we closed out the Zoom by showing them off and having Alyssa take a few bites before saying our goodbyes, sharing some final well-wishes with Alyssa for the time being, and expressing out excitement for the impending wedding in the fall!

After the shower came to a close, Alyssa, understandably wanted a few posed and in-person photos, so the smaller group of us present had our own mini photo shoot with the bride-to-be and the delicious burger cupcakes. Luke served as our personal photographer.

Because it was Bob’s Burgers themed, each of had chosen a character whose look we lifted and made our own. Alyssa and I had both wore outfits inspired by Tina. She went with a blue dress to represent Tina’s iconic blue shirt and navy skirt and added glasses when it was time for pictures. I picked a light blue shirt and swapped her navy skirt for a white one that matched her tall white socks instead, and my glasses already matched pretty well. Izzy wore an outfit inspired by the youngest and spunky daughter Louise. She had a bright pink cap for Louise’s recognizable pink rabbit ears with a green dress. Lastly, Jaclyn wore an outfit inspired by the loud and optimistic Linda, a red shirt with blue pants and large-rimmed glasses to top it all off!

Taking photos was fun, and the burger cupcakes were absolutely delicious. The chef did an astounding job because they genuinely look like little sliders, but every single ingredient blends to make a sweet dessert instead.

We sat around and enjoyed each other’s company for a while longer, but eventually we began to disperse and do our own things. Jaclyn and Izzy went to their rooms, and myself, Luke, Alyssa, and Evan got to spend one last relaxing evening all together. We ordered some Door Dash for supper, watched Ready or Not, and had some time relaxing out on the patio or couches just being together. We knew we had one last day together before Luke and I had to catch our flight home, so we made the most of it. I can’t say anything particularly memorable happened, but I remember the feeling of just comfort and content being with people I loved so much!