my wedding party is comprised of my 3 cousins and 3 best friends from home. one of those best friends from home happens to be my BFF :), my maid of honor, who i have known since 1st grade, and we have grown up together, literally. i am so happy to have all of these women with me on the most important day of my life thus far, and am so excited to recap the amazing weekend they planned for me. sometimes i think the value of a girls night out, or time with the ladies, is underestimated. but to me, it's more important than you might think. time to unwind, talk about life and love (with tons of laughter in between), and time to catch up with those special ladies who have helped make you who you are. i apologize in advance for the length of this post, but it was too much to put in a little summary.
as a reminder, i had NO idea what we would be doing. i tried everything. facebook page stalking to see if anyone would reveal any clues, asking my parents, pat, their parents, everyone. it was killing me not to know! i am so OCD about planning and i always like to have everything buttoned up. so to not have a CLUE about where we were going, drove me nuts! but the mystery was worth it!
so on friday afternoon, my friend erin and i drove up from guilford to meet christine in west hartford, where we would spend the night before our early departure saturday morning. what started as a "laid back" dinner ended up as full blown bar crawl, and it was so much fun to hang out with christine's friends up there and just being silly with the girls.
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right before we took a "grape" bomb. grape vodka and redbull = DISGUSTING. |
so, needless to say, the early morning drive on saturday was a bit hazy. i actually felt ok, but i think the excitement pushed the hangover out of the way.
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| christine's camera |
at this point all i knew was we were driving north. it was me, christine and erin in erin's car, so i didn't even know who else would be coming with us! about an hour and a half later, we ended up somewhere off the mass turnpike for a breakfast stop at cracker barrel. when we pulled in the parking lot, i was so excited to see my 3 cousins waiting for me! at this point there was only 1 person missing from my wedding party and she showed up about 30 minutes later... and then there were 7 :)
so here we were in cracker barrel and at this point i'm dying to know what the heck we're doing! they had me guess what i thought.. i said newport, block island, cape cod, martha's vineyard, nantucket... at first i thought maybe jersey shore but since we were heading north i knew that was out of the question.
so the girls handed me a bag and inside was a veil, tiara, garter (yay! a
garter!), and a freaky looking tomato from my aunt pam's garden (it was a joke), and... a card!
ogunquit, maine?!? i NEVER in a million years would have guessed it!! so perfect and so unexpected. while i was in the bathroom putting on my veil (there were rules, and at all times i was supposed to wear bridal paraphernalia, which was hilarious because where we were going was the last place you'd picture a bachelorette party, so people kept asking me if i was getting married that day!), the girls went outside and took car markers and marked up all the cars in our caravan. the car i was riding in said "bachelorette on board" with all kinds of pretty pictures that i'm sure you can imagine on the windows. the other 2 cars said "bachelorette or bust!" it was hilarious. we had to pull over a few times on the way to maine in saturday morning traffic and people were honking and waving at us. one car actually slowed down next to my cousins' car and asked "is that the real bachelorette from TV?!" haha! so the ride up was LOTS of fun.
then we finally made it to ogunquit. ogunquit is a small beach town with lots of fun bars and restaurants and did i mention, very gay friendly. could it get any more perfect? for once, we could go out and dance our hearts out with ZERO chance of any creepy guys trying to "smoosh" us. it was AWESOME!
so when we got there, we checked in to our cute little beach motel (very trendy rooms too!) and got our beach gear together with coolers, chairs and towels in tow. we all walked to the beach and drank champagne and hung out, soaking up the sun and staying until the sun went down. it was a perfect afternoon!
when we got back, the girls decorated the room i was staying in, and gave me my checklist for the weekend; a list of tasks i had to do before the weekend was over. this list included things such as "ask someone for their autograph as if they are famous" (check!), "start a conga line and make 2 laps around the room regardless if anyone joins you" (check!), "holler, give 3 loud tarzan yells!" (check!). apparently this list was compiled via email chains with the girls, and my cousin, who is a graphic designer for american greetings, turned it in to a cool handout. but the funniest thing on this to-do list, was the rules to follow all weekend - everytime i mentioned "california", i had to drink. everytime i clapped, i had to drink. and lastly, and most hilarious, was everytime i mentioned my blog, i had to drink. i guess i have become that girl!
so saturday night we headed out on the town. i was told to wear a "skanky" outfit (i didn't think i had such a thing so did my best with a cute dress), and meanwhile the girls all wore jeans and cute tops, haha. i also had to wear the tiara which was made for a barbie doll and squeezed my temples all night, haha! we went to dinner and then from bar to bar, dancing with the locals and having the time of our lives. it was amazing and SO much fun. but the BEST part was the gay bar we went to, with techno music and shirtless guys serving drinks, with no interest in us. that is where the conga line took place, and trust me, we were not alone! also, everytime i saw a guy without his shirt on, i would yell "now THAT'S a situation!" like jersey shore, and NO one got the joke!! so funny. photo recap below :
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| trolley ride to the bar on saturday night |
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| my cousin courtney, after discovering the UNISEX bathroom! haha! |
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| our pal who wanted to hang out with us all night. he was very funny but after a while, very annoying. the time had come to switch bars (and his husband was not a fan of us) :) |
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| now THAT'S a situation!! |
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| me and my pretty ladies! |
a great night was had by all, and i woke up with no voice the next day. mission accomplished.
the next day, we hit up a local breakfast diner for some greasy grub. almost all of us got a bacon, egg, and cheese and it was really funny. i tried to pay for the girls breakfast but the waitress told the table, "um, the girl with the veil is trying to pay" - i guess you can't really blend in when you have a veil on everywhere you go!
after breakfast, we did a little shopping in town and then headed to the beach again. overcast or not, it wasn't going to ruin our day so we bundled up and sat under the umbrellas with a light rain surrounding us. christine blended cocktails and we ate sandwiches with the coldcuts that erin brought. it was a PERFECT day. photo recap below:
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| a perfect afternoon with the best company i could ask for |
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| i thought the reflection was cool! |
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| my amazing maid of honor, christine :) |
after the beach we all went back to the rooms, showered up and got ready for another night on the town. we all got very dressy in pretty dresses and did our hair and makeup and headed to one of the most amazing restaurants i have EVER been to in my life,
arrows. arrows is a james beard award winning restaurant and they grow all of their own vegetables and only use organic/sustainable farming for their food. it was beyond words. photo recap:
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| taxi ride (the girl in the middle is my cousin breanne, or "mini me" - some people mistake us for sisters!) |
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| a glass of prosecco for me, pomegranate martinis for them :) |
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| the whole crew |
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| the backyard at arrows... beautiful gardens!! |
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| christine set up a personalized tasting menu that had filet, lobster, heirloom tomato salad and more. it was outstanding! |
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| and for dessert, they wrote "congratulations" in chocolate on my plate. the dessert was unbelievable! |
we left classiness at the restaurant and proceeded to a "locals" bar afterwards. this could be considered our "crazy" night out, because i failed to mention that our dinner also came with customized wine pairings for each course, so we left just in time before our group got loud! so by the time we got to the bar, i still had a long list of things i had to check off my list, and only 1 night left to complete them. so we got right to work :)
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| right after the shot they made me take. it's in his hand, you know what it is. |
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| then i took over as DJ at the bar. then the bartender gave me "time out". it was hilarious and so much fun. |
all in all, it was probably one of the most amazing weekends of my life. every detail was taken care of, and so perfect. i knew i shouldn't worry about what we'd be doing, because it would end up just the way it should, but i never could have imagined a weekend like they did for me!
and now that it's over, it really brings me to the final stretch to the big day. 20-something days away and there's nothing in between us and the wedding anymore, all the events are done, all the showers have been had, bachelorette and bachelor party weekends and hangovers are done, and now it's just a road straight to september 25th. and i can't wait :)
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| a perfect ending to a perfect weekend. |
