Bachelorette Party in San Antonio: Day Two, Saturday

 Hey there princess!

Saturday morning we woke up ready for an action-filled day! The girls loved sleeping in their matching pajamas - and I think that something like this would be the perfect thing to be able to reuse for the morning of the wedding. The tops of the pjs have buttons going down the front, so you could remove them without messing up your hair and makeup. It's all in the details!

Mornings like this are also why it was so handy to set up a coffee bar with snacks and breakfast bars in each room. We were set to meet up at the Alamo at 10:00am, and I wanted to let the girls wake up when they wanted to instead of mandating a breakfast get-together. I think they enjoyed the slower pace for getting up in the morning, since this was going to be a long day of lots of walking.

For those reading this who have never been to the Alamo, it is one of my most favorite places in the state of Texas. Some of the girls had never been before and didn't know the history behind this site. I won't go into it here, but the bride and I grew up visiting the Alamo for family vacations, and I know that she loves it just as much as I do. You can't visit San Antonio without paying your respects. 

Word to the wise, entering the Alamo is free but you have to reserve a time to visit it in advance. You can book your ticket by clicking here. 

Also, you have to get the souvenir picture! We were all wearing our matching shirts, and I needed a token of the occasion. The nice thing about this is that they offered a digital download for purchase, so I could buy it and then text it to all of the girls. Easy peasy!

After a quick lunch and power nap, everyone was ready to spend the rest of the afternoon down at the pool! Our weather was gorgeous and super hot - so everyone loved cooling off. Plus, it was a great way to work up an appetite for dinner!

On the walk from the hotel to dinner at Casa Rio (if you come to visit San Antonio, you can't leave without eating here... it is right on the Riverwalk and is simply divine) we passed the Alamo, so the girls stopped and took some pictures together. They all turned out so cute, and I am glad that we stopped and smelled the roses a bit!

We were able to get an incredible table right on the river for dinner, and I surprised the bride with a headband that said "final fiesta" and sarape sash that said "Shailee's Final Fiesta" to match the theme. It was her special weekend and I wanted her to stand out! Casa Rio is such a classic dinner spot, and we all had an incredible meal after a long day. You can read more about Casa Rio's history, and view their menu here. 

The real stand-out of this trip was the private river cruise that my mom booked as a special treat for the bride to be! For this weekend, my mom and her best friend made a guest appearance at dinner and came to ride along the Riverwalk with us! 

These river cruises are typically PACKED! You might not get to sit together as a group, and you certainly wouldn't be able to get as many incredible pictures on a normal cruise. If you're able, I would completely recommend booking a private cruise. You can find information on doing this here. 

I mean, what a magical experience! Our tour guide gave us an incredible history of the San Antonio Riverwalk, and we were all able to relax and digest our dinner. I cannot recommend this enough. In the future, I might do this again just for a family visit!

After the guided cruise, we all got changed into our comfortable clothes and made our way over to Sisters Grimm for a ghost tour! I thought this would be a really fun way for everyone to learn some about the history of San Antonio, and just have a silly, spooky time! We all love Halloween, and all things ghosty, so this was a really fun activity for everyone. I got the bride a fun, spooky headband with a black veil from Amazon, and all of the girls got a mini flashlight in their bridesmaid bags. 

We had so much fun! The tour was about two hours long and we did tons of walking! One piece of advice - don't try to wear cute shoes. We couldn't have done two hours of walking on cobbled streets in anything other than sneakers. I also got the bride a special shirt to wear on the tour! This one had a little ghost and said "bride" on it.  By the end of this trip... the bride had a whole lotta shirts and accessories!

So what do you think? Have you been to the Alamo or Casa Rio? Would you do a ghost tour? Are you planning an upcoming bachelorette trip? I love all things party planning so I would love to hear about what you are thinking!

Sparkle on!

Bachelorette Party in San Antonio: Stocking the Hotel Rooms

 Hey there princess! 

When planning the perfect bachelorette weekend, I chose to follow the old adage "luck favors the prepared." We were going to be in San Antonio for 3 days with 9 girls and I wanted to make sure that when planning I could anticipate people's needs and make everyone as comfortable as possible during the "fiesta." 

In doing this, I wanted to fully stock the hotel rooms with some essentials so that the girls would be comfortable.

The first project I worked on was making sure that the mini fridges in the rooms had tons of water bottles! For pretty much every single party I throw I purchase custom water bottle labels online to give things a unique touch. I wanted to make the bride feel special and loved, and I thought these were just so fun! You can purchase the labels that I used (they matched the hand sanitizer that I shared yesterday) by clicking here. 

Next, I stocked the fridge with Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. This is a favorite beverage of the bride's and I thought it would be fun to have on-hand. You can find the labels I used here.

I set up baskets in all of the girls' hotel rooms so that they would have snacks and coffee for the weekend. Our activities involved walking outside in the Texas heat in the middle of the summer so hydration, caffeination, and keeping fed were all priorities. One of the cutest things I found were these plastic, reusable Otomi cups off of Etsy (click here for the ones I used). I plan on pulling these out for future fiestas! The wicker basket was a Target find, and I filled this with power bars, sugar, and a variety of different Starbucks drink mixes (things like this, this, and this). I also included some Starbucks Raspberry Refreshers packets for the non-coffee drinkers. I put creamers in little salsa bowls to keep things on theme and looking festive. 

Look how cute everything turned out! The flowers are from a local florist who has a booth at our farmer's market, and there are plastic ice buckets filled with snacks like popcorn and cookies for the girls to munch on. I also got these incredibly cute personalized napkins off of Etsy and my mom found cactus drink stirrers to tie everything together. 

Here is a close-up of the napkins - they were so cute! This little set-up was so helpful during the bachelorette weekend. The snacks were devoured, the coffee consumed, and everyone went home perfectly exhausted and content.

So what about you? Are you planning an upcoming bachelorette party or girl's weekend? I would love to hear about it! Let's chat in the comments below!

Sparkle on!

Bachelorette Party in San Antonio: Pre-Planning and Bridesmaid Bags

 Hey there princess!

If you have been named Maid or Matron of Honor for an upcoming wedding, one of the first things that you might be thinking about is how to plan the perfect bachelorette party. After being responsible for planning one myself, the number one piece of advice I would give is - have fun and keep it as unique as possible! The theme I chose was "Final Fiesta" and we all travelled to San Antonio to spend a long weekend eating Mexican food and roaming up and down the Riverwalk. 

Remember, this party is for the bride, and should be something that is both fun for her and manageable for you. For me, pre-planning was essential because we were leaving Houston and traveling to San Antonio, and we were bringing along with us a group of girls from all over the United States. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew what the plan was so that they could pack appropriately, set their expectations, and just relax and have tons of fun on the trip!

The first place I start when planning any event is with the invitation. After selecting the date and location, I wanted to give my guests as much advanced notice as possible since they would need to purchase flights and ask for time off of work. I always love going to Sweet Caroline Designs for invites. Her work is absolutely beautiful, and the paper quality is terrific! I addressed the envelopes myself using a style that is currently available in my Etsy shop here. 

Next, it was important to come up with an itinerary. I wanted to make sure that what I sent out to the girls was cute, easy to read, and something that they could keep saved to their phones for easy reference. I have used Canva for years, and always find it really user-friendly. For the actual schedule, I tried to create a balance between structured activities that I knew the bride would like, and downtime where the girls who still had energy could keep going, and the people who wanted to be more low-key could go back to the hotel and relax by the pool.

Next in my preparation activities, I wanted to create a bag for the bride and bridesmaids with all the essentials for the weekend. This included things like our matching shirts for when we visited the Alamo together, matching pajamas for photos the first morning, and a bunch of other things that just helped to make the girls feel special and cared for. 

My mom found these fun burlap bags for me to use, and I hand lettered each girl's name on them to set on their beds in the hotel. You can purchase the ribbon I used here.

Inside the bag were several goodies, and I really tried to shop small! I love supporting small businesses, and I find the best, most unique stuff on Etsy!

My mom found some multi-colored mirrors, and then I got decals from Etsy (click here to purchase) that I used to customize each mirror. 

Next, I got these incredible koozies - they were to die for, and made the perfect practical thing to use for drinks all weekend. I made sure to get an extra for the bride so that she had one that said "It's My Final Fiesta" and one with her name on it. I got them on Etsy here. 

All of the girls are major coffee drinkers and I thought it would be fun to create a snack and coffee bar for them in the hotel room (check back later for a post detailing what all that included). So that the cups wouldn't get mixed up, I got each girl a reusable Starbucks coffee cup (you can purchase these here) and put decals on them myself at home (these are the ones I bought). This was way cheaper than purchasing something completely custom online, and I really enjoyed the project!

I also got the girls these cute hair bands! This is a super practical accessory, and it was cute! You can find the ones I bought here. 

I am a super practical person at heart, and I had to include a hand sanitizer in each pack. However, we needed to cute it up and make it more on-theme so I found custom stickers on Etsy (you can find the ones I used here) and stuck them to some Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer. The scent I used was Watermelon Lemonade, which smells just like summertime!

One of my favorite things that I had made for the trip was custom cosmetic pouches. These came out so cute, and I always have use for little bags like this! I like being able to use something like this for my daily makeup, and for this weekend I filled the pouch up with some essentials. I was able to get travel-sized items on Amazon that were super useful over the weekend. In the pouches I included individually packaged Tylenol, Emergen-C, Neutrogena Face Wipes, Ring Pops, and Antacid.

Next, I got these super cute shirts for all of us to wear to the Alamo for pictures. You can find the same ones I got on Etsy. I chose these colors because they matched the bride's wedding colors, and I wanted them to be something we could reuse the weekend of the wedding. 

The real showstopper of the bags were these ginger jar pajamas from 8 Oak Lane. They aren't available on their website anymore, but I found them in another online store here.  The theme of the bride's wedding was ginger jars, so I thought these were great! Not only could the girls wear them during the bachelorette weekend, but they could be used for the wedding weekend as well. The quality on these was great, and I would love to buy other pjs from this company in the future. 

Check back later for more information on creating an incredible bachelorette weekend! If you have questions, or would like any help planning your own bachelorette weekend, or just a girl's trip - let me know! I love party planning!

Sparkle on!