The Wedding Series: The Bachelorette Party

The Wedding Series: The Bachelorette Party

Ok, I know it's a little weird to be broadcasting my bachelorette party- but honestly, I'm a blogger and textbook over-sharer. Nothing really phases me, and to add the cherry on top- nothing really scandalous happened. 

To put things in perspective- for my wedding, I have 0 bridesmaids.

"No bridesmaids?" I hear you gasp.

I know, I probably gave you all a shock that I'm not harassing my 5-10 best friends into doing a bunch of shit for me.

But here's the argument I lay at your feet-

My friends don't live close to me. One is in Texas, one lives in Southern California, one DOES live close to me- but she works basically 6/7 days a week and is a very busy lady.

It was just honestly unrealistic to ask a bunch of grown ass women to shuttle themselves back and forth for showers, parties, the dress fittings, finding MY dress, etc. And then on top of that, they have to shell out money for the dress, the hair, the makeup, the bachelorette party, help set up the showers and parties... it was just nuts. 

And to put it in perspective, when I told one of them I wasn't doing bridesmaids- her exact words were, "Oh nooo, you mean I don't have to shove myself in an ugly dress and be at your beck and call? What a disappointment."

Which, made me laugh real hard when I read it.

And also, here's my argument for the no-bridesmaids thing:

You get to include all your friends into the fun stuff.

Nothing is more insulting than trying to pick 5 out of 7 of your friends and designate them as "the best". And the truth of weddings is- bridesmaids are kind of a nightmare to pick, Because in addition to picking only 5 of your tight group, now parts of that list MUST be family which takes it down to 2 and God forbid you have more on your side than the groomsmen side- because apparently it looks "tacky" and "lopsided, and "really Samantha, do you have to show off how many friends you have?"

So, my option was to remove the entire equation and hit delete. It just seems silly to throw my friends in dresses than look like sausage casings and then separate them from their husbands to sit at a designated table where NO ONE ACTUALLY KNOWS EACH OTHER. It's stupid, guys.

So I should preface that my friends are really, really cool. I've known all of them for at least 10+ years and frankly more. (Some of them my whole life). They are also a very wide range of "types"- one is adventurous, one is pragmatic, etc. 

But the thing they all have in common is they're good listeners. And when I told them, "Hey, for the bachelorette party, I kind of just want to do a girls night, or a trip and skip the gross, penis themed stuff and the stripper stuff."- they actually listened and ended up creating probably not only the best trip I've ever been on, but definitely the best bachelorette party I've ever been to.

CAUSE MY FRIENDS TOOK ME TO DISNEYLAND.

I hope you're jealous, because it was great.

I didn't have to schedule anything, I didn't have to worry about anything. I wasn't in charge of any of the plans. I don't think I've ever had this much fun in a weekend in my life. And by not doing bridesmaids, I got to invite little sisters and my cousin to the party without feeling like they weren't part of the group- because they really are. These are little sisters I treat like family, and my cousin who's been helping me pretty much with EVERYTHING about the wedding. (Sorry Katey, I know making bridal shower games is kind of the worst).

So Natalie, who really I would designate as Maid of Honor if I had bridesmaids, I have known my entire life. We grew up down the street from each other and pretty much did everything together (except sports, I suck at tennis you guys- like I REALLY suck.) 

Natalie is also a concierge in Texas. And I don't know what voodoo she did to make this happen, but we got rooms at not only one of the nicest hotels, but we got FANCY rooms with a view of the fireworks at night.

The hotel is called the Hotel Indigo in Anaheim

http://www.ihg.com/hotelindigo/hotels/us/en/reservation

It's in walking distance from the park, next to a CVS and it's trendy as hell.

Which my friends and I promptly destroyed minute one with signage, alcohol, and exploding suitcases..

The bride to be signs were brought my Katey and I don't know where they came from- but she also found bachelorette themed cups and "team bride" pins.

THEN, because my friends are precious, adorable people, they all brought their own little gifts for everyone. I don't know if they planned to do that? Or if everyone was just on the same wave length?

So "little" Sarah, brought Jamberry nail wraps- which if you haven't tried before they are REALLY fun. They're nail stickers for people who suck at nail art. BUT, they have Disney themed wraps!

https://www.jamberry.com/us/en/

They're really fun, and pretty easy. (More difficult for me, because I was about 2 drinks in when I was trying to figure them out.)

"Big" Sarah ended up bringing flash tattoos, WHICH ARE ALSO REALLY FUN AND ADDICTING. I'm not 100% sure where she got hers, but they pop up all over the place and you can probably find them on amazon- but basically if you're really into wearing jewelry but also really like temporary tattoos or anything relating to Coachella, these are the stuff. On top of that, she brought those hair ties that are knotted at the ends (do those things have names? I have no idea. I'm a terrible beauty guru) which ended up being really handy.

Katey in addition to all the signage, brought the tiniest bottles of wine I've ever seen (which I kind of didn't even know existed).

And then on the practical side of things- Gracie organized pretty much all the dinners and was our general tour guide on where to find the best things (apparently cream cheese filled pretzels exist there and I HAD NO CLUE. Also, she somehow scored us fancy name pins that were bedazzled and I didn't know those were a thing either.) And Natalie was in charge of tickets, the hotel and the car.

Now for those of you that know me pretty well, you know I usually do all the planning for trips because I'm that guy. Anal, and annoying. I know, I'm SORRY,  Ok?!

So I couldn't back seat drive my friends and didn't know what else to do- so I spoiled them to fun things too.

I had sweatshirts custom made from an Etsy shop called Bride and Entourage (link below). They were incredibly great to work with, customized the order to my specifics and the girls LOVED them. 

And they weren't that expensive either! I think with shipping it was probably less than $40 per sweater. And they do all kinds of different stuff. Definitely worth checking out if you're looking for bridesmaid gifts, or gifts for the moms or something. (Definitely thinking about ordering more for the wedding!)

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BrideAndEntourage

I know they're a little hard to see, but they all say "bachelorette party" on them (except my "Bride" sweater), then there are glitter bows, and on the hoods I had them all specified to have their own names on them. Because as Katey would say, "It's gangster."

We got stopped, I couldn't even tell you how many times, by people asking where these came from and where we got them. For some reason there were actually 2 or 3 other bachelorette parties there that weekend and we definitely looked the coolest.

(And for those who want to know, yes the glitter bows and lettering stayed on through several washes and I haven't had any problems with peeling. Mine looks just as nice as when I bought it.)

My other big gift for the girls was customized 31 Bags that had their names on them. I opted for a bigger bag that was lined so they could use it to store tablets safely, or to put more "breakable" makeup in.

https://www.mythirtyone.com/msesock/shop/Catalog/ItemDetail/8256?refCategory=S106&isSummary=False

I did the black and white stripe pattern because it's claaaasic. 

But I figured, my girls are spoiling me, so I should spoil them.

But really, it was just one of those occasions where everyone was in the right spirit and mood and fun just kept rolling in.

We pretty much did EVERYTHING- World of Color, the fireworks shows, the Mad Hatter tea party rave thing.

And to be fair, it kind of helped that it was also pretty much half of our groups birthdays in the 2 weeks surrounding the trip so we had a lot to celebrate and people were pretty much trying their hardest to spoil us the entire time. 

Like Gracie's mother in law bought us all drinks at the Napa Rose, which by the way was so much fancier than I expected and I maybe shouldn't have rolled in with a Jansport backpack and sweat covered tank top like some hillbilly, but it was amazing.

(Which, by the way, Gracie if you haven't told your mother in law thank you, from me, I'm going to smack you on the mouth.)

And Natalie let me basically force her to try on every hat we came across to the point where I pretty much made her her own tumblr and hashtag for it.

#nattyhats2016, yall.

So as for bachelorette party advice, I don't really know what I can tell you other than be honest about what you want or don't want.

Straight up though, I just have a bunch of really amazing friends who are just good AT being my friends.

I mean look at these weirdos, could you ask for anything better?

(Side note, we re-took this hotel lobby picture about 5 times and this was as good as we could get it- but it really says a lot about us as a group. Also, can we all appreciate that none of us gave a shit about ruining the picture?)

-SamanthaK