Weddingbee Blog

I cheated and had two bachelorette parties. I wanted to go out of town for a wine-tasting weekend in Paso Robles, but I also wanted to crawl around San Francisco with a larger group and have some cocktails. It was really hard to decide between the two, which is not much of a defense, but it’s the truth and I’m stickin’ to it.

Part 1, the wine weekend, was chock-full of games and resembled more of a sleepover, with some daytime wine tasting via limo and a dip in the hot springs. Bridesmaid Allison hand-painted all the participants’ names on a wine glass with glass paint from the craft store; mine says “Bride”, natch. I was the only one who dropped hers (whoops), so Allison kindly made me a new one.

I wore my “Bride to Be” veil and necklace every chance I got; I can’t wear it anymore in a few weeks, right?

Why, yes, these hot springs do smell a little funny. But you feel ridiculously good and soft afterward.

Here’s a breakdown of some of my favorite games, in case anyone’s planning such a party for the future!

Balloon game: not fun for people who don’t like balloons, but otherwise good! Pieces of paper are rolled up into inflated balloons. The groom’s name is written on one of them. Everyone bats the balloons around like mad, and whoever ends up with the balloon with the groom’s name is the winner. Guess who won? This gal right here. *points*

The keyword game is a good one. Just don’t say a predetermined keyword like “bachelorette” or “wedding” to hold on to your beads, and you’re golden. A new word was added after every winery. An already-late victory was still wrenched away at the last minute, when I said a hot-button word at the very end.

My favorite was probably the video-questions game. BM April taped Mr. Taco answering coupley questions in various locations. They read the same questions out loud to me that weekend, recording me answering the same questions to see if they match. (They did, for the most part, I think.) My favorite question was “What item of clothing of his do you hate the most?” simply because he was wearing the jacket in question on the video. Hilarious.

Wigging out at a winery with the best stuff. Thank you, ladies!

Though the second cocktail crawl around SF was intended to be more of a “meet up if you feel like it, here’s where we’re crawling to” sort of event, BM April put a lot of fun touches on the event that I did not expect, given an already stellar wine weekend with bachelorette activities galore.

Let’s do this. Handmade flapper headbands by BM April!

BM Jerene couldn’t make it to wine weekend, so I was glad she could drink it up this time around.

Delicious sidecar. What straws?

Wearing a Christmas garland as the item of “clothing” I traded with a stranger. She got beads. What straw?

Glassy-eyed and happy. Water, one’s own couch, and soft pants cures all.

After successfully completing a bunch of tasks on which I cheated just a tad, I earned an unexpected reward: a San Francisco Lolita martini glass. I have several Lolita products, and they’re really fun to collect. I sent this to April, also a Lolita gal, afterward: a last-night out shooter glass to commemorate my ending Miss-dom.

Speaking of shots (old-lady alert), has anyone else found that they are no good at those? I always over-salt people for body shots (a couple years ago, poor A found salt in her bra for weeks). I initially did the hands-off shot well, until it all fell back into the glass when I tipped my head forward. Where’s my Manhattan!? *shakes fist* Good times.

I know everyone says this, but I couldn’t have asked for a better send off(s) into married life.

Did you have more than one bachelorette party? How were they different?