Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Graduation Party

Recently, I spent a weekend celebrating a BIG event- Mark's graduation!!

We had been looking forward to this weekend for a long time and it was well worth the wait. My parents, Mark's mom, and Mark's brother came down to visit and we had ourselves a graduation cookout.

We had all of the classic cookout foods- burgers, hot dogs, bratwursts, deviled eggs, potato salad, coleslaw, chips and dip, soda... and that's really not all of it. Our families were very generous in the amount of food they brought! Of course, the crown jewel of the food (in my opinion) was the cookie cake!

I made this sweet little "Celebrate" banner for the food table using scrap book paper for the flags. I found some big glittery-gold letters on sale at Hobby Lobby (score!). The table was also covered in graduation cap confetti, which I am still finding in the carpet!



We put up as much "class of 2014" decorations as we could! Including some festive "2014" streamers wherever we could fit them. I also decorated the chalkboard in the living room, which I try to do for any special occasion!

While searching Pinterest for decoration ideas, I kept across graduates holding signs that said "I'm done!" and I just loved that idea. I'm not sure Mark loved it as much as I did (I think it's really hard to plan stuff for boys, or is that just me?), but he was a trooper and let me take his picture holding it. I think he actually got into it after a while because he started posing with it- adorable!


My favorite decoration was the picture collage in the form of "2014," as you can see in the picture below. It turned out so great and Mark loved it! It was so fun to look through the scrap books his mother had made in high school and to see what a stud my man was back in the day. Mark's mom also emailed me some old pictures too, which I just could not get enough of!



Overall, the weekend was a success and we had a lot of fun celebrating. I have been so proud of Mark and all of his hard work over the past few years. Now, to look forward to life without school!! Congratulations to all of the 2014 graduates!




Thursday, May 15, 2014

Savannah Bachelorette Party

This was the first weekend bachelorette party I have ever attended or planned and I consider it a major success! If anyone is thinking about going to Savannah, GA for a bachelorette party, I highly recommend it! It was the place to be for bachelorettes!

We arrived to our hotel Friday, changed into our tutu's and went to eat at this yummy mexican restaurant called Cilantro's that was walking distance to the hotel. I had the most delicious chicken tacos! I called them that morning and they graciously took my reservation for 10 people.

After dinner we walked down to the end of the block to wait on our bike tavern, so of course we all got a drink to go--- this is a perk of Savannah, you can take your alcoholic beverage from whatever establishment you bought it at and take it with you!
                                          

We met up with the bike tavern crew and loaded up! (FYI you have to sign a consent for not wearing helmets). The bike tavern was SO much fun and it's a great group activity!! Don't let them fool you though, you work hard and pedal a lot during the tour.

Our tour was specifically for bachelorette parties, so we had a scavenger hunt list of silly activities for the bride to complete. The tour guide told us that if the bride completed everything on the list she would get a t-shirt, so that became my mission for the rest of the tour!


{My biggest complaint about the bike tavern was that alcohol was not included, which I felt was very misleading. I suppose I could have asked about it, but being that it was called a "tavern," I had just assumed it would be included. During the tour we made stops at several historical bars around Savannah and bought drinks there. However, this didn't dampen our experience. We had our playlist going and all the gals looked like they were having a blast pedaling around!}

After the bike tavern ended we did a little bar hopping and danced the night away. Well, the bachelorette danced the night away for sure- so much so, that she won a dance contest!!! It was a great way to end the evening.


The next day we woke up and headed out to Tybee Island and spent a few hours on the beach. We came back and everyone got ready for the lingerie shower! Our rooms shared this big terrace that over looked the river and part of River Street- it was so beautiful! I set up a little bar in one of the rooms and we gathered on the terrace outside of the room while Brittany opened her gifts.


After Brittany finished opening gifts we played the "quiz the groom" game and her fiance impressed everyone with his adorable and funny answers!

After the lingerie shower, we headed to dinner at the Moon River Brewing Company. I don't know about everyone else, but I had something called "The Tacodilla" and I suggest everyone try it. It. was. so. good!!

Last, but definitely not least, was Savannah Smiles- a dueling piano bar. If you have never been to a dueling piano bar, I suggest you plan to visit one this weekend... ASAP! I can't even begin to tell you how perfect this place is for a bachelorette party. I think there were about 7 or 8 other bachelorette parties there and one bachelor party. The place was crawling with soon-to-be-wed folks! I highly recommend anyone in the Savannah area visit this establishment (even if you're not there for a bachelorette party).

Overall, I think the trip was a success. The food was good, the beach was fun, and we found some cool bars to hang out in (or bike on!).

Have any of you ever been to or helped plan a weekend bachelorette party? I have another one this year during November and it will be in New Orleans.

If you have any ideas for weekend bachelorette parties or suggestions on what/what not to do, please comment below!





Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Quiz The Groom

"Quiz the groom" is one of my favorite games to play at a bachelorette party during the lingerie shower. I love that the groom gets to be involved in the party-from afar. It has always turned out to be a fun time and the guests always love to see how many questions the bride will get right! Not to mention, it's a treat to see what the groom says about the bride.

Here's how it works:
Whoever is organizing the party sends the list of questions to the groom before the party and patiently await the grooms response. I usually ask the groom first to see if he is comfortable participating- I haven't received any "no's" so far! Feel free to use the list of questions I provided, but you could also come up with your own or have invited guests come up with questions! I like to cut the questions into individual strips of paper and pass them at the party so everyone can have a chance to ask questions.

While asking the questions, the bride takes a shot/a sip (depending on how many questions you have, 20 shots might be excessive...) of her drink if she gets the answer wrong. All the guests take a shot/sip of their drink if the bride gets it right!

I have used a couple different versions of this game, but this list of questions is by far my favorite:

1. Who was your first kiss?
2. What is your most embarrassing moment?
3. If you won 1 million dollars, what’s the first thing you would buy?
4. When did you know the bride was “the one?”
5. What is your favorite physical feature on the bride ?
6. What habit of yours does the bride find most annoying?
7. Which of your physical features is the bride’s favorite?
8. What was your first impression of the bride?
9. What part of the wedding are you looking most forward too?
10.  Where did you and the bride meet?
11.  When was the first time you said “I love you?”
12.  Complete this sentence: A perfect wife is one who___________________________
13.  What would you want to eat as your last meal?
14.  Do you think the bride looks best in: PJs, Tshirt and Jeans, or a sundress?
15.  Where is the craziest place you two have had sex?
16.  What is the bride’s most embarrassing moment?
17.  What bra size would you buy the bride?
18.  If the bride could change one thing about you, what would it be?
19. If you could change one thing about the bride, what would it be?    
20. Who is your least favorite person in the bride’s family?

My favorite questions were numbers 2, 11, 16, and 20- talk about revealing!

For the most recent bachelorette party, I had the pleasure of knowing the bride and groom from the start of their relationship. This meant that there was a lot of story sharing going on because so many of the questions brought up good memories. Just another reason I love this game.

Another of my favorite things to do is to write down everything the bride says while shes opening up her gifts. Announce that you will be reading a list of the things the bride will be saying on her wedding night and read all the statements you wrote down. You'll be surprised how funny this turns out to be!! I definitely recommend it.

What are some of your favorite bachelorette party games?

Looking forward to posting about a getaway bachelorette weekend in Savannah- be on the lookout!