Last month my friend Cinnamon and I hosted a bachelorette weekend for her sister (and one of my sweetest friends), Dentyne! Dentyne and I met our freshman year of college and I couldn’t be more grateful for our relationship. She’s a gem. And she totally deserved a memorable bachelorette weekend with her girls! Throughout the planning process we learned a few things that I think you’ll find especially helpful if you’re throwing a bachelorette weekend yourself!
Listen To The Bride.
This one sounds obvious but it was definitely the foundation for Dent’s bachelorette weekend. We knew she wanted a casual, relaxing weekend at the beach with her bridesmaids and a few other ladies that mean the world to her. Nothing too crazy! Ask the bride what she has in mind for her bachelorette weekend before coming up with a plan. Chance are she’s been thinking up something for quite some time!
We kicked off the weekend with a lingerie party at my house, followed by a trip to one of the bride-to-be’s favorite local restaurants (The Surf) for dinner and karaoke. Fun fact – this was the restaurant I worked at in high school. Hostess with the mostess! 😉 After dinner (and a rather embarrassing performance of Ice Ice Baby with my girl, Jess) we came back to my house for a good ol’ fashioned sleepover, complete with chick flicks and smores.
The next morning we brunched at my house (the menu included both glitter donuts and biscuits and gravy!) then made our way out to the Omni Amelia Island Plantation for some poolside fun! If you’ve never visited the Omni, it’s a must! The pools and rooms overlook the ocean and the hospitality team takes THE best care of their guests. Oh, and I should mention they have the most delicious fish tacos, I’ve been raving about them for years! Seriously, y’all. Get the tacos. After spending all day by the pool we went back to our rooms and got ready for a late dinner at the Falcon’s Nest.
Sunday morning we said goodbye’s over breakfast at Bright Mornings in downtown Fernandina. Such a fun way to end the weekend – exchanging stories and happy memories from the days before, over pancakes and coffee!
Make sure everyone’s on the same page!
To ensure the bachelorette party crew (or as we referred to ourselves, the “bride tribe”) is on the same page, be sure to send out a group text or start a facebook convo a few months out to discuss the nitty gritty details. Things to discuss in advance: what to wear, who’s joining, when to meet, and what to bring. When the weekend finally rolls around, have a paper copy of an official “itinerary” for each gal to hang onto. We included ours in the welcome bag each gal received. Ps. I still have the itinerary and signage templates I created, saved on my computer in case anyone wants to use them! 🙂 Just shoot me an email.
Definitely have a swag bag.
Assembling the welcome bags for the weekend was probably my favorite part of planning! Each gal received everything she needed for the weekend as soon as she came to town on Friday night. We included a team bride hairtie, personalized chapstick (that’s actually AMAZING!), sunscreen, the printed itinerary, sunglasses, Swoozies stadium cups, and Amelia Island koozie (my favorite touch!), local reading material, and a bride tribe gold foil tattoo! Cinnamon found the adorable beach bags at Target a few months before the party and monogrammed them, she’s mega talented!
Side note – The poor older gentleman at the UPS Print Shop was probably extremely confused when I had him print this sign. I’m now mortified and later realized I should have explained what on earth it was for. We asked each gal to bring a pair of panties (in the bride’s size) that described their personality and the bride-to-be had to guess who brought which pair. Highly recommend doing this! It’s loads of fun and the bride goes home with lots of loot.
A fabulous weekend playlist is a must.
Y’all know the foundation of any good party is a killer playlist. I think I spent 4 hours assembling a playlist for the weekend. We listened to it ALL day while setting up and still loved it when the festivities began. I should probably mention that I still jam to it during the workday sometimes. You can find our playlist, here. It’s a combo of girly classics, upbeat awesomeness, and a few newer songs that seemed fitting for the occasion.
All in all, we had an absolute blast and most importantly, the bride loved it! Her wedding is October 1 – eeek! After the wedding Dent is moving to Alabama to start married life with her groom. I’m SO thankful we got to have one last girls weekend before the “I Do’s”. All of my bridesmaids (other than my little sister – she needs to wait about 10 years) will officially be married this year! Crazy how time flies, things change, and people fall in love – all in the blink of an eye.
xo, mckenzie
