The summer of weddings is in full swing (3 down, 5 to go) and I am absolutely broke loving it! My sister got married this past weekend- I’m still dreaming about how beautiful it was. As the matron of honor, I had the awesome privilege of planning her bachelorette party a few weeks before. I spent hours researching ideas and trying to figure out the best place to stay, things to do, etc. and I (unintentionally) ended up with a book and craft theme. Very fitting for an English and Art major.
For anyone else who is planning a party for a bride inspired by writing and art, this should give you some fun ideas.
Invitations: I picked out envelopes in Anna’s wedding colors and cute little blank cards with a scalloped edge. Writing the information out was time consuming, but luckily I only had 5 to write. Plus at 75¢/each, I couldn’t pass this up!
St. Joseph, MI: Just about halfway between the Michigan girls and the Chicago girls, St. Joes was the perfect meeting place. We enjoyed breakfast and coffee together at Cafe Tosi, walked around the farmer’s market, and relaxed at the lighthouse beach for the day. We even witnessed a wedding ceremony happen at the beach where we were… crazy coincidence!
One of the bridesmaids brought her little 4 week old baby to party with us. It was Henry’s first (and probably last!) bachelorette party, and he peacefully slept through the weekend.
Lily Hill Farm: I have been hearing great things about Airbnb, so I decided to give it a try. Anna wanted to stay at a place that felt homey, and somewhere that we could all be together. I found Lily Hill Farm, an organic farm with a beautiful farmhouse on its property, which was about 45 minutes outside of St. Joeseph. We walked around the property and saw cows, chickens, gardens, and a few little toads. The farmhouse was huge! We had 8 bedrooms to choose from, a commercial kitchen to cook in, and a large family room to play games in. It was a place full of character and was easy to make ourselves feel at home.
Dinner & Drinks: All of the girls really enjoy cooking, so I assigned each of us a course to take responsibility of for dinner that night.
- Appetizers
- Drinks
- Salad
- Entree
- Dessert
We all helped each other out and enjoyed cocktails, salad, fish tacos, and freshly baked strawberry rhubarb pie from St. Joseph’s farmers market together. For breakfast the next morning, we helped ourselves to a parfait bar with yogurt and various toppings.
Decor, gifts and games: Anna has a deep appreciation for English and literature, so I asked each girl to bring Anna their favorite love novel. She now has a few more books to add to her bookshelf that will remind her of us. We also got her a few things to fill her honeymoon suitcase…
The house didn’t need much decorating, but one thing I did make was a “Happily Ever After” pinwheel banner made out of old book pages. I loosely taped the words “happily ever after” on the banner so she would be able to take them off reuse the banner in their house. The book pages were $1 at a thrift store, and the only other supplies I used were black ribbon and a hot glue gun. DIY instructions here.
And now the fun part… games. Bachelorette party games are the best. I had so much fun looking up ideas, but in the end chose “Dirty Pictionary” and “Porn or Polish.” In all of the art classes that Anna took in school, I don’t think she had much experience drawing the words that were in this version of Pictionary! The big white board in the living room was perfect for this. “Porn or Polish” was a quick, fun game to see who guessed the most titles correctly. The winner got a bottle of “Topless & Barefoot” Essie nail polish.
Can you guess what Anna’s drawing is?
Crafts: Ever since we were kids, Anna and I loved doing crafts. We hardly ever watched TV because we were too busy playing outside or getting our hards covered in paint, glue, markers, whatever we could find! I found two DIY bookmarks, which I thought were perfect for the underlining theme. We didn’t have time to make the Yarn Ball Bookmarks, but did have the time to make our own Leather Color Blocked Bookmarks.
It was great getting to know each other before the wedding! I am so thankful for these friendships my sister has in her life. Let’s plan a reunion soon, ladies!!
Eat, Lift & Be Married 