Wedding Wednesday: The Bachelorette Party

I have been anxiously anticipating this post all week and now that it's time I find myself utterly unprepared! Also, I am apparently really into alliteration!

Where do I even begin? [Maybe with an apology for all of the cell phone pix. The real camera pix have not yet been sent to me, but I'm too excited to share]

Two girls had to leave early for work, but this is the gang of us + our go cart driver

When I got engaged, I told all of my bridesmaids that I wanted the bachelorette and the bridal shower to be a surprise. I'm really into surprises and no one had ever thrown me a surprise party before. I did pick the location of my bachelorette party [San Diego] and which weekend it would be. From there, the rest was up to my maid of honor and bridesmaids.

They did such a great job!!

Instead of a couple of hotel rooms to house 9 of us, they found a house with enough bedrooms through AirBnB. I was the only person who had used the site before, so they were all a little weary before we arrived.

Surprisingly, we made great time on Friday and got there around dinner time! [Woo hoo no traffic!] The house had 4 bedrooms with room to sleep 11 comfortably; 2 bathrooms; a kitchen; living room; dining room and spacuzzi.

It was awesome!

Cards against Humanity! 

Obligatory "Bachelorette" cup and penis straw while drunk picture 

Spa stuff / typical girls' night! 

The first night we did a spa night. There were only about six of us staying the first night. We didn't actually get to the masks and facials because we got too drunk. So basically we painted our nails and eventually ended up in a luke warm spacuzzi. [I have pictures, but they will not be shared because my new bathing suit was too small].

The next morning we woke up and ate breakfast before heading to Coronado Island. It is just beautiful! I'd only ever been one other time because I am scared of the bridge to get there, but I will definitely go back!

All of us by the Hotel Del Coronado sign. This picture is really blurry :( But I know they took one with a real camera, too. 

This was a fun picture :) 

I am so happy that the rain from the prior week was gone! 

Full Bachelorette regalia at the really fancy hotel

Lunch time!

:) 

Yum! Gelato :) 

Lauren, my best friend from pre-school

Emily, my best friend and neighbor since i was 12

My maid of honor and best friend, Molly! [if you can't tell, she and Emily are twins]

Katy, my partner in crime 

All of us in the bright gelato shop! The ladies working were so sweet! 

We walked around, ate, enjoyed the beach...and then went back to get ready to go out!

Around this time some strippers "showed up" aka a couple of my friends invited them because they didn't realize I didn't want strippers. I took one look at the guys outside the door and said "I'm out" and barricaded myself in my room until they left. The girls said they were handsy and had only ordered one stripper anyway.

I love this bag! It's hot pink though, not orange. 

I think male strippers are creepy...or at least the idea of them coming into my home. I could go see Thunder Down Under ANY DAY!

After we got ready, we took an Uber [If you use code V39H6 you will get a $20 credit for your first ride!!]   to Downtown San Diego to go out!

Krystal, my newest best friend. She is Iman's best man's wife and we spend so much time together! 

We ended up eating at Bootlegger. It seemed really awesome at first but then our service started to suck. As in, she forgot to ring in my food! MY FOOD. Which was the easiest because I ordered a hamburger and I filled out a sheet for her. I wasn't the only one to do this though, so I'm not sure how she misplaced mine.

Attempting to look like we enjoyed Bootleggers

The security guard was pretty cool. He wanted to take a picture with me? 

Also, they took forever to "rush" my food out to me. Drinks cost $10 for the size of an old fashioned. I.e. 1 shot of alcohol...so we left there and I was pretty sober.

We walked a bit and ended up at Altitude, a rooftop bar. I love rooftop bars. This one was smaller but I was stoked anyway!! We ended the night at Bang Bang! An Asian Fusion club that has a Ryan Gosling bathroom which I heard wasn't worth the wait in line.

The San Diego skyline! 

This guy gave us all a free ride because he gets paid by the advertising

Home again on Sunday morning, all hungover and awesome.

All I ate was Jack in the Box for all of my meals. Then I had a piece of cake for my future brother-in-law's 15th birthday and got a stomach ache. Another Jack in the Box taco fixed that. #hangoverproblems.

My bridal shower is this Saturday and I am so excited!

Also, check out this awesome Color Me a Warrior Queen giveaway below! Don't forget to head over to our Etsy shop :)

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Simple and Fun Baby Boy Shower

On Sunday I threw what I have to say was the perfect baby shower! I had never thrown a baby shower before, but with a friend of mine we were able to get everything pretty much done the day of the wedding (with a few DIY projects the day before).

Maggie, Amanda and I - shades of blue! 

If you're ever in a time crunch - these are the perfect ways to throw an amazing party!

Refreshments and Snacks

 Blue lemonade
Mason jars with name tags
Boy Baby Shower straws

Blue lemonade: frozen lemonade mix, water and blue food coloring. 

Snacks - pasta salad, veggie platter, fruit plate, chips and dip

We decided to do snacks because it would be too expensive to feed everyone a meal, and more time consuming. We chopped up celery, carrots and cucumbers. Although we didn't have the tools this time, one of my favorite ways to make a veggie tray is to core a cucumber and stick a carrot through it, then using a special cutting tool, crinkle cut the two. It looks like this:

Via

Decorations

 We had minimal decorations, but it was the perfect touch so that it wasn't overwhelming.


Polka dot garland

"It's a Boy!" banner and balloons

Table top - marble scatter, blue baskets for chips, clear dishes for dip, "It's a Boy" kisses

Treats! 

Pretzel stick favors, Vanilla baby cake

My mom made the cake. She has a side business of treat making! She makes the best desserts. For this cake, she used her frosting recipe, and gum paste to make the feet and buttons.


Our DIY Projects


The dipped pretzel favors are beyond easy to make!



Ingredients:

• Pretzel Rods (I used Snyder's of Hanover, found at the grocery store) 
• Melting Candy (I got two color's at Michael's for 2.99 each) 
• Sprinkles 

Directions:

1. Microwave the candy. Pour them into a microwave safe dish and microwave at 1/2 power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave at 1/2 power for 30 seconds. Stir. Keep microwaving in 30 second intervals and stirring until liquid. *It is important to use half power so you do not burn the candy!* 
   
   
2. Dip pretzel rods into dish to cover. Let drip into the dish so that it doesn't look runny. 
   
   
3. Sprinkle with sprinkles 
   
   
4. Let dry for 24 hours. 

Mason jar name tags!

Supplies:

• String (we also used this for a baby game) 
• Textured paper 

Directions:

1. Cut circles on textured paper
2. Hole punch
3. Tie string around mason jar, putting the name tag on the string at this time. Knot.
4. Tie a small bow with the string. 

Baby Shower games! 

I do not have any pictures of the games, but we played Bingo!, a cute game called pass the gift and the traditional "measure the belly" game. I have a few more games we didn't play, but that I've played at another baby shower. Here is the free download I put together. 

For our prizes, we bought cheap candles at Michael's and wrapped them up. 

And that's a wrap! But here is an adorable picture of my niece who is about to be a big sister!! 

She had a lot of sugar while we were cleaning up, so we tied the balloons to her so she couldn't run as fast. 

Have a great Tuesday! 

Holiday Gift Guide

Well, it's Black Friday and I'm sure many people have been up shopping for hours. Unfortunately, that means that many more people have been working for hours. I refuse to shop on Black Friday because of the years I spent in retail...I respect people's right to not work on a holiday.

So, why not have a little fun with a Holiday Wish List? Not just any Holiday Wish List, but a TWLOHA wishlist!! And a Scentsy Party!!! :)

By now, you probably know that To Write Love On My Arms is my favorite charity group. I've worked with them a few times and often get emails from their publicist because of my Music Magazine job. When Rachel contacted me about doing a TWLOHA gift guide I got super excited. I'm not receiving anything for this post, but I love sharing TWLOHA. :)

I actually like this shade of orange

Love this Men's Zip-Up

I saw this on Instagram and fell in LOVE. 

It comes in a Women's Tank Top, too! 

Aren't these all just the best? When you're out shopping today, don't forget to think about giving someone something more than just a gift. These clothing items are not only a great physical gift, but they give the gift of hope to people who see you wearing them in public. This clothing gives back through donations and showing support to those quietly suffering!


This week, I've teamed up with Vicki @ My Vickilicious Life to host an online Scentsy party for Black Friday! My party will run until Dec 13th. All you have to do is purchase through this link. I'm hoping to have enough in sales, to get the Scents for my wedding covered! If you missed my previous Scentsy post, you can find it here. 

I love this Scentsy Warmer wrap, totally Warrior Queen

I am super excited to hide "Happy Go Lucky" in warmers around the reception room for our wedding. I just want to have a uniform scent!

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. For every e-book purchased I will receive commission. 

 Creating a Beautiful Little Christmas.

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