Today I’m sharing all about my bachelorette weekends! Yes, I had two. And it was one of the easiest decisions in wedding planning. I had a large wedding party and didn’t want my friends to have to fly all over the country. I also invited a few close friends who weren’t in my bridal party to extend the celebration. So, I had an East Coast bachelorette party at my parents’ Chesapeake Bay house in Virginia for my East Coast friends, and a West Coast one at a cabin in Lake Arrowhead for my gals in the West!
Also, in a way this post gets back to my blogging roots after weeks of all-things-wedding: both of my bachelorette weekends involved road trips and dogs! I wouldn’t have had it any other way :)
I had my East Coast weekend in June and my West Coast weekend in July, leading up to our August wedding. They were two of my favorite weekends of summer.
First up: East Coast! My wonderful maid of honor (and little sister) did a lot of the planning on this one, and it was a no-brainer to spend the weekend at my parents’ adorable cottage right on the water. When I got there, my mom and godmother (who had been there the week leading up to my bach party) had decorated the house with a bridal theme! I wrote a whole post about my parents’ Chesapeake cottage last year, if you want to see more pictures of it.
And my sister put together adorable little swan floaties with bachelorette goodies! She had these amazing custom cups made.
The first night was so much fun waiting as everyone got there one by one! Some friends I hadn’t seen in a year or more (who live far away). It was the sweetest reunion and we ate a delicious homemade meal on my parents’ cozy porch and drank wine catching up til the stars came out.
The next day we got up, had a slow morning, and then headed out for lunch, wine tasting, and shopping! The first stop was the Carwash Cafe, one of my favorite places in the Chesapeake area with the BEST softshell crab sandwich. If you’ve never been to the Chesapeake Bay, crabs are the big local product, and there’s even a seasoning named after the area (Old Bay!). I grew up partly at the Chesapeake and there is nothing better than local crab and oysters to me.
The softshell sandwich at the Carwash Cafe
The Chesapeake area of Virginia also has a bunch of vineyards, and the wine from that area is awesome! Next up, we went to the Dog and Oyster vineyard for a delicious wine tasting.
We got caught in a huge rainstorm on the way to the wine tasting, so as you can see we were soaked while we sat in the tasting room! But it was so much fun.
After wine tasting and once the rain passed, it was a beautiful day! We headed back to my parents’ house to spend some time outdoors and went swimming off our dock. One of my best friends brought her adorable corgi, Butters, and much to our surprise he jumped off the dock and went swimming too (in his life jacket)! It was too far for me to bring either of my own dogs on the trip, so I was so glad Butters could be there—he was the mascot of the whole weekend :)
After enjoying the sun and the salt water, we got ready to go out to dinner, and one of my best friends had the HILARIOUS and amazing idea of having temporary tattoos made of Grace’s face. We all put them on and then went out to eat in town!
We went to my favorite restaurant in the area, Merroir. It’s owned by the Rappahannock Oyster Company, and oysters are predictably their specialty, so we had to get some on the half-shell. All the food was amazing and we had so much fun sharing a bottle of rosé and chatting into the night.
The setting of Merroir—gorgeous.
Butters came to dinner too!
Hanging out on the dock by the restaurant :)
My wonderful maid of honor!
The next morning it was time for my friends to head home :( I stayed with my sister for an extra night and flew home Monday, but everyone else had to head back to work and left Sunday. But, it wasn’t too sad of a goodbye knowing I’d see everyone again for the wedding in 6 weeks!
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ROUND TWO: West Coast Bachelorette! Just two weeks after my Virginia bachelorette weekend, I headed with several friends to a cabin in Lake Arrowhead, California, for my West Coast round! And because Lake Arrowhead is just a road trip away from LA, I got to bring my dog Bean with me! The first event of the weekend was picking up one of my best friends who lives in Portland, Oregon, from LAX and driving up to the cabin. Of course we had to stop at In-n-Out on the way there—her first time trying it!
It was already dark once we got there, and the first night was spent being silly, playing games and checking out our accommodations. In the morning, we had an amazing breakfast cooked by my friends! One friend made an amazing shakshuka egg bake and another made my favorite pancakes.
After that, we headed down the mountain for a lake day! Lake Arrowhead is beautiful and we had a lot of fun strolling around the little town and hanging out on the shore.
Of course my Bride swimsuit had to make another appearance . . . there is only a very short window of time when you can wear one before it becomes very weird, haha!
In a parallel from my East Coast bachelorette when the same thing happened, we got caught in a rain storm! We decided to head back to the house and hang out/do girly things/watch a movie. The movie we unanimously decided was perfect? Parent Trap!
Hanging on the couch with little Bean!
Sheet masks with friends
During the movie, we said that Bean is like the boy at Camp Walden who shows up thinking it was an all-boys camp. This won’t make any sense if you haven’t seen the movie, so I hope you have.
We also had some amazing snacks, featuring the hilarious decorations my friends put up.
And later we got dressed for dinner, took some pictures and popped champagne out on our beautiful porch, and walked up the street for some awesome Mexican food and margs.
After dinner it was more cocktails plus a viewing of Troop Beverly Hills. Our movie selections were supreme if I do say so myself.
The next morning on our way out of town, we stopped by The Tudor House for the most amazing champagne brunch! It was so yummy AND I got to bring Bean in with us (in my purse!). He did so well and was adorable.
Bean’s little face in this one is so hysterical to me
We weren’t ready for the weekend to end, but at the same time I was so excited because at this point, it was less than a month until our wedding.
Thanks for reading this extremely long post letting me relive two of the best weekends of the summer! I would say they were only second to August 4, 2018 :) If you’re torn about how to celebrate your bachelorette, why not have two?! I highly recommend it. And, of course, dogs are the best guests of all to have at them!