Ruben and Mark's wedding shower

My friends Ruben and Mark got engaged (or man-gaged) in early 2006. As their wedding approached, I decided it was incumbent upon me, as one of their best gay friends, to throw them a wedding shower. I couldn't really call it a bridal shower, since there's not a bride. I didn't know how to throw a shower because I had never been to one. In our group of friends, the women have showers every time one of them gets married and now when a woman gets pregnant. But these showers are strictly V.O. (vaginas only), so I'm not invited. In spite of this ignorance of showers, I pressed on. Ruben and Mark wisely decided to have the shower on a Friday or Saturday night so alcohol could be an essential component of the shower experience. I think that this is a tremendous improvement over the V.O. showers, which from what I understand usually occur on a Sunday afternoon. Since Ruben works most Sunday mornings, we selected a Friday evening. I took that day off from work to prepare. I spent most of the day running around like crazy to various gourmet grocery stores and bakeries. I went with a high tea theme and served finger sandwiches (cucumber, watercress, vegan eggless egg salad, cheese and mayo), scones and jam, fruit tarts, and fussy fun things like that. It was quite an effort for me to cut the crusts off scores of sandwiches. My friends seemed to be impressed by the spread I laid out, particularly since I don't cook very often. Most importantly, the group was able to fete Ruben and Mark with a fun evening preceding their nuptials.

A few notes on the photos: I found napkins at Target with Ruben and Mark's initials: RP and MW, so that was fun. Sarah French and I both wore turquoise shirts, so we matched. Ruben and Mark registered at Target, and one of the items they registered for was a flyswatter, which Sarah French bought for them.