Girls Just Want to Have Fun

The past few weekends have been so busy again! Time is really flying these days. Two weekends ago Toni, Michele, Sara and I headed down to Dewey Beach for a little girls weekend away and had a great time!! I am glad we got to spend some time sans boys and lay in the sun, drink and gossip. I hope that even as time passes, we can still make effort to bridge the gaps in geography and circumstance and make time for each other. Since Toni did such a great review of the trip, I will skip the play by play.

This past weekend I hosted Sara's bachelorette party.  I rented two rooms at the Sheraton Society Hill Philadelphia for everyone to stay over. One of the other bridesmaids and I decorated the rooms with typical bachelorette party paraphernalia, snacks and lots of alcohol. The maid of honor even brought homemade fruit infused vodkas that made for some pretty banging martinis.

I had each girl bring a wrapped gift of lingerie for Sara that best represented their personality without putting their name on it. So once everyone was settled, I had Sara sit down and open all her new goodies and guess who gave her each one based on how it looked - naughty, nice etc. She did pretty well and got a lot of great little gifts for the honeymoon!

The Bridesmaids and Bride

Next, we headed to dinner at a BYOB Italian restaurant in the city for a bite to eat. The food was great and we polished off three large bottles of wine between 9 people which got us primed and ready for a fantastic night out.

Next we went to Duel, a dueling piano bar in center city. They really cater to bachelorette parties, we had a table that was front and center in front of the pianos. They have a lot of wedding themed drinks and play really fun music. They even called Sara up on stage and did a funny little roast for her which was the perfect balance of embarrassing and cute. You can request any song imaginable and they will play it for you on the piano -- we had a great time there.

At around 11 pm we headed on to our next stop, Plough and the Stars. This is one of my favorite dancing bars in Philadelphia and one that Sara and I had spent a lot of time at during our single years. I thought it was only fitting that she get Plough'd one more time before walking down the aisle. The music is good and its a really fun/crazy atmosphere. At this point everyone was hammered and fading fast and by 2am we were ready to head back to the hotel which was only a few blocks away.

Once we got back, I unveiled my last surprise of the party. I had made cute gift bags for everyone and a special treat for Sara. Included in these gift bags were little bottles of vodka, gum, raspberry Ghirardelli chocolates, a cucumber face mask, cherry chap sticks, and a Kind granola bar. I got the idea from this blog. I used some of the things they mention in their post and improvised a little. I think they came out super cute and everyone seemed to like receiving them.

For the bride I made a special gift:  I got her a tote bag with a bride on the front that she can use to carry things in on the day of the wedding . Inside was a bottle of Skinny Girl White Peach Margarita, a bachelorette picture frame signed with well wishes by the entire bachelorette party, bride and groom luggage tags and a "Soon to be Mrs. Penwarden sweatshirt" that she can wear the day of the wedding while getting ready! I thought it was pretty cute:

All and all the party was a great success and everyone seemed to have a great time. It is always stressful when you are planning something on behalf of someone else and are not sure how the group will interact. I think the key is in the details though, we had a lot of really great little details that turned an average night out into a great time and hopefully something she will remember for a long time!

Showers of Happiness

This past weekend was my friend and former roommate Sara's bridal shower which, as a bridesmaid, I have been helping plan for the last few months. I think everything turned out wonderful, despite my ultimate nervousness day of! Sara's mom chose a tea shop in Sara's home town to host the event. The tea shop provided a good assortment of sandwiches, quiche, and sides for lunch as well as teas both cold and hot. The  I felt no party would be complete sans alcohol, so the bridesmaids also prepared a pitcher of mimosa's for the guests to enjoy. It was a big hit with guests both young and old. It was a perfect drink for the occasion because it gave a festive feeling without being overpowering on such a hot afternoon.
I also wanted to share a few of the details that I worked on in order to make this a special day! I found that I have quite a knack for shower/bachelorette party planning and have enjoyed the process for the most part. I was in charge of the invitations. I chose to do a printed invitation from a website called Zazzle. Upon scrolling through pages of invitations, I fell in love with this one because of its subtle nod to Philadelphia's Love Park Statue.

On the front of each of the invitations, I included a personalized address label which I made on the computer and  again complimented our LOVE theme. (ok so maybe this isn't exactly what mine said hahah!!)

The bridesmaids and I looked at many different favor choices but ultimately decided to again stick with the LOVE park theme and went with a set of 4 glass coasters tied with a pretty silver ribbon that we found online. I thought this was a fun yet practical shower gift that people would actually use!





For shower games we decided to limit ourselves to two games so that they were fun but not too much where guests were annoyed by them. The first game we chose was the purse game. Everyone got a partner and a list of 50 things you'd typically find in a purse. The team with the most things on the list inside their purse won a gift basket. The next game was called 'present bingo'. We gave each guest a bingo board and had them fill the squares with presents they thought Sara would receive during present opening. As Sara opened gifts she announced each gift until someone had 5 in a row and yelled bingo. The games really brought out everyone's competitive side and I think everyone had fun!

The day was a lot of fun and Sara walked away with a lot of great gifts to start her new life with Steve. Showers of happiness to both of you for a long, healthy, and happy life together!!