Here I Come, Big Apple!

Not this upcoming weekend, but the next, I am heading up to Connecticut to Mrs. Gallery Place's home (she's my amazing Matron of Honor) for my bridal shower with a bunch of my friends. Immediately following the shower, we are hopping on a train to...

New York City!

Apparently my bachelorette party is going to be a night out in the Big Apple! I have no idea what’s going on for either the shower or the night out in New York City, and the suspense is KILLING ME! The rumblings I have heard have been such a tease. The one thing I do know was that there is a dress code, and even though it’s based pretty much one what I wear regularly, I wanted an outfit that was special. I didn’t want to roll up to my party in an outfit that could double for going to work.

The dress code is jeans, fun black top, fun shoes. After some searching, I came out with a pretty awesome outfit.

This ruffle tank. It’s black, even though it looks gray on screen.

Under this ruffle cardigan. (Did you know that I love ruffles?)

Fun zebra shoes.

…and this little fun bag from J Crew.

Not only am I looking forward to it from a “OH MY GOD! WEDDING!” perspective, but it’ll be nice to have a little mini weekend trip away from the DC area, too.

What are you guys doing for your showers/bachelorettes? Are you/did you have fun picking out your outfits?

talking it out

Right now, just over 3 months from the wedding (holy what?), the main thing I'm focusing on is hammering out the scheduling for the week-of and day-of. Maybe a little far in advance but since I'm having family members do some of the big stuff (flowers, cake), and places people are staying are kind of spread out (Herndon, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria), I really want to make sure we're thinking of everything in advance so we're moving efficiently leading up to the wedding.

It's a good thing I'm doing this now because I had been planning to have the bachelorette party the Thursday before the wedding, but after going through all the logistics I've realized that is just not possible, so we're going to have the bachelorette the evening of the day of the shower (end of next month). At first when I thought about it, seemed a little anti-climactic to have it that far in advance but it will still be way fun and I would much rather do it then, than be stressed out trying to make it happen the week of the wedding. When are you all doing your bachelorette parties?

Also! My MOH and I are trying to think of semi-non traditional ideas for what to do for the bachelorette. Someone suggested a sexy-themed scavenger hunt in an art gallery (finding all the nudes I guess??) which sounds like a cool idea but I'm not sure that's what I want to do exactly. But new ideas like that are what I'm looking for.

Other kinds of talking it out going on right now is the pre-marital counseling discussion. Mr. Fairfax and I have been on the fence about hiring a pro, figuring we could go through the list of things usually discussed in formal counseling and sort of do it on our own - however, after Meg's post the other day, we are way more convinced we should go ahead and find a pro to work with. Really want to make sure we're doing this the smart way, and probably going to this kind of counseling now when we're happy and there's nothing wrong, may help us feel more comfortable seeing a counselor in the future if we find ourselves in a rough spot (in addition to the obvious benefit of having these kinds of discussions facilitated by a pro).

N'awlins!

Is there anything more fun then a bachelorette party in New Orleans? Answer: NO. This past weekend, me and 7 of of my close friends, invaded New Orleans for my bachelorette party. First, I have to say how flattered and honored I was that 7 people spent a small fortune to attend! Thank you Becca, Laura, Laura, Christine, Cathy, Mairin and Lillian! You guys mean the world to me and I had the time of my life!

The weekend started with a bang! We got in on Friday. The first thing we did was explore. We went up and down Bourbon street, stopping periodically for drinks of course. (did you know you can drink on the street there?!) After a mini nap, we went to dinner at a local suggestion, The Alpine, where we got Po' Boys, Jambalaya, gator, ribs and other Cajun yumminess. We then took part in the Haunted Ghost Tour, which I have been on before. This is where they guide you all around the french quarter and share hauntings! So much fun! The picture below is us right before the ghost tour, can you tell its HUMID there? (remember my hair from previous posts!)

Once the tour was over, we headed back to the hotel, where we had separate rooms, but a shared balcony. Yes a balcony!!! SO FUN! I was surprised with a lingerie shower! I got so many goodies, I am so excited and flattered my girls would do that. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures. My sister in law, Stephanie, also sent us a bottle of champagne and 8 glasses for a toast. My Matron of Honor send a huge basket filled with crackers, cheese, wine, olives, cookies, candy, you name it! I felt to special from all this!

The rest of the day was spent eating beignets at Cafe Du Monde, taking the trolley to the garden district, eating at my favorite place, The Gumbo Shop, and shopping for knick knacks! We also spent some time in the Hustler store looking for honeymoon stuff, wink wink :)

Later that night they dressed me up and gave me a pinata. It was filled with candy, thongs, lip gloss and glow necklaces!

MOH Becca's sister Meg, designed our AWESOME shirts. New Orleans themed, they are Tarot cards! The front says "Madam Rachel's"


Check out the skeleton holding a a diamond in one hand and a timer in the other! Notice my hot bridesmaid's with bouquets of daggers. SO RAD, right!? Thanks Meghan!

And of course, it was time to go out on the town! My favorite part of th enight, which thier are no pictures of, involved us singing Kareoke at "The Cat's Meow" singing, "It's Raining Men" We tore it UP!
The ladies

2 for 1?

Love you guys!!! Thanks again for making it the best weekend ever!

How to NOT begin a bachelorette party

Thanks to NY Magazine's Grub Street, I found this article on one girl's experience in throwing a bachelorette party pretty funny:

I organized a bachelorette party at the Clover Club a couple of weeks ago. The celebrant wanted no fanfare but I decided to bring a couple of accessories, to make the occasion feel slightly more special than a girls-night-out. I brought four white balloons, not shaped like penises, and a banana cream pie from a fancy bakery. I was wearing a pretty suit. When I met a group of 5 women there, we attempted to tape our white, non-sexual balloons up to mark our table for our arriving guests. When he noticed this, the host, a poor-man's Michael Stipe, descended on us and asked if we got clearance from the owner to modify our space. He explained that the owner had taken meticulous measures to design the bar just-so and that our four white balloons were interfering with her vision. He didn't make us remove the balloons, but he warned us that there might be retribution if the owner stopped by that night. We stared blankly at him for a moment, exchanged a few confused words among ourselves quietly, as a reality check, and proceeded to order stuff.

He turned us over to our waiter, who was very pleasant and seemed to turn a blind eye to the banana cream pie, which I would have been nervous about by that time had I not called ahead to get permission to bring it. Shortly thereafter, the owner showed and, as predicted, threw some Miranda Priestly shade our way. Our group was 10 by then. The waiter "noticed" the banana cream pie suddenly, became uptight and advised us that we should have called ahead to get their policies on such things. I told her that I had indeed done that but that I could not remember the name of the woman who had taken my call. Maybe I was supposed to complete an online application or something to bring a pie to this bar. The owner walked over and looked at the pie and me like I was Jed Clampett bringing a tin of vittles to dinner at the White House. She offered to "plate" our pie in the basement, and return it to us, waiving the $25 plating fee. We politely declined, on principle, and made a little mess. But not before the waiter confiscated our paper plates (white chinette) because the owner felt they were "trashy." She actually said "trashy" to my face. Oppressive. Power back to the people.

For the full Grub Street article: Clover Club Cracks Down on Balloon-Happy Bachelorettes. I'm not sure I can fairly comment as I have not been to Clover Club and don't know what kind of ambiance the place has. I may be okay with a simple balloon maybe for the celebrant, but many balloons and you get close to tacky. I might have also left the pie at home or waited to eat that in the limo later in the night.

I actually would much rather a relaxing day at the spa with massages and lunch with my girls, but I know not everyone shares my tastes. What do you have in mind for your bachelorette party? Any special requests?

Photo Credit Melissa Horn via NY Mag