The Decorations
We had lots of decorations around the 8 bedroom villa we rented and my favorites are seen below. We had fringe, glitter and lots of penises per Kate's request. We printed a sign for the front door welcoming the girls to the party and had lots of fun setting up before Kate arrived.
Becky is ridiculous and created the most elaborate, creative and practical Bachelorette favors. She had a bucket for each of the 22 girls and inside was a reusable drink cup and straw filled with crystal light packets, candy necklaces, hair ties and bobby pins, a Bachelorette survivor kit, nail polish, penis rice crispy treats and a homemade apron for each of the girls that our mom made to go along with the cooking theme below. They were a huge hit and the girls loved all the fun surprises.
When we started planning the party months ago, one of the major concerns was cost. Going out to eat with 22 women no matter where we went would be outrageously expensive let alone the time it would take to rally everyone out of the house for every meal. We came up with the idea to divvy up the group into meal teams with each team responsible for the grocery shopping, cooking, presentation and clean up for their one meal. The idea worked out great and the teams definitely stepped up to the plate with each meal blowing my expectations out of the water. I was thinking BBQ and beer and what we got was definitely gourmet.
We ate homemade spanikopita, yogurt parfaits, pina coladas, grilled salmon, shrimp and chicken, homemade waffles, banana bread, strata, kale salad, cheese and salami smuggled all the way from France by one of Kate's high school pals returning from Europe the day prior and lots more delicious treats.
If you know my sisters and I you know how much we LOVE our games. For Kate's bachelorette we had to go all out and we planned "Survivor, Palm Springs." We split the girls into two teams and planned 9 challenges/games. After each challenge we voted two people off from the losing team(we picked their names out of a bucket vs. having people choose who to vote off ). The challenges varied from puzzles, penis carving, pool beer pong, newlyweds and banana toss, and in the end our own Bachelorette won the whole thing.
One of the great ideas my sister had was to NOT plan out the whole weekend and to give the girls time to do what they wanted. We had all of Saturday afternoon open and we offered trips to the nearby outlet mall, drinks downtown Palm Springs, but what everyone wanted and ended up doing was just hanging by the pool.
Saturday night we had a delicious dinner and then decided to head out downtown Palm Springs for a night out. We ended up going to a Karaoke bar, the Crazy Coconut and had a blast! Kate's friends love to sing, dance and put on a show and we dominated the mic the whole night. Kate rented her beautiful dress from Rent the Runway and looked absolutely stunning.
Kate and several of her girlfriends have a tradition of throwing a lingerie shower for each other to stock up on goodies for the honeymoon. Kate's friend Marissa was planning on doing a separate shower a few weekends after the Bachelorette party, but due to scheduling conflicts we decided to merge it into Kate's Bachelorette. Marissa made the cutest banner and the K on the table below were separate favors for each of the girls, lavender satchels! She hung several clotheslines around the room and hung the beautiful lingerie. I think Kate is definitely stocked for her honeymoon and beyond.
It was such a fabulous weekend and was great to celebrate my sister and hang out with so many incredible women. Kate is so loved and I can't wait for the wedding!
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