Life as a Maid of Honor – Part 6 – The Bachelorette Party!

Well, it’s officially Monday, and I’m back at it with work 🙂 This weekend was wonderful as I got to celebrate Christina’s final days as a bachelorette with her and her bridesmaids. Being the MOH means having to plan the bachelorette party, and I honestly had NO idea where to begin.

They say opposites attract, and I think that’s pretty true for Christina and me. We are alike in so many ways, but we are also vastly different. She is constantly pushing me out of my comfort zone (NOT a bad thing), and she can handle all my quirks, such as being super picky when it comes to basically everything in life. Christina is like most girls our age, and enjoys having a night out on the town. I am not that way at all. I had never been to a club, I don’t dance, I don’t tend to drink a lot at all, and am afraid of trying new things. That all changed this weekend when the bachelorette party began.

Before I get into details, here are some things to keep in mind when planning these things:

– Keep the BRIDE in mind! Ask her what she’d like, what she prefers, and be sure to have plenty of what you know she’ll enjoy around. If she is more conservative, respect that. If she’s more of a party person, respect that too.

– Be sure to book your hotel or wherever you are staying WELL in advance! We almost didn’t get to do what we’d planned because we weren’t sure we’d be able to find a hotel to stay in, even a month out.

– Leave room for changes! We had a bridesmaid that wasn’t sure she could come get word just a few days before we left that she COULD go, so we made sure to ask for a cot for her to sleep on. If you are booking a hotel, check on the cancellation policy too so you aren’t stuck paying for a room nobody will be in if someone cancels.

– Bring plenty of snacks and water! Hydration for everyone is key regardless of what you’ll be doing.

– Set a designated driver or plan for a taxi if you’re going out! Since I wasn’t going to be drinking like everyone else, I was the DD for the weekend, and drove the girls for food as well as back to the hotel at the end of the night.

And for everyone out there, remember this is the time a bride is supposed to party, so celebrate with her! She’s surrounded by her besties, and good times will be had.

SO. Over the past several months, I was trying to figure out when we could all head out to enjoy a weekend away while including as many bridesmaids that could be off work as possible. I set up a private Facebook group for us, and I took Christina out to dinner. While we ate our soup, I asked her where she wanted to go because I KNOW she hates surprises. I had attempted to surprise her with all these ideas of what we could do, but every single one fell through, and she reminded me that she absolutely HATES surprises. She said she loved Asheville, and really wanted to go there. The moment I got back home, I set out to find us a hotel. We ended up staying at the ONLY place that had two rooms left, which was the Downtown Inn. The reviews made me a bit nervous (again, I’m Picky McPickerson), but Christina assured me it’d be great. Quite honestly, the only complaint I had was that we weren’t informed that our room was a handicap room, so we literally had NO DOOR to the bathroom. Having three girls in our room and no bathroom door? No go. Pun intended. 

We’d arrived around lunch time, so we dropped our things off, and headed to Tupelo Honey, which was right across the street. It was crazy hot and busy, but we enjoyed our lunch, and that was the first time ALL of us girls were together since we drove separately. As our chatter died down and our bellies filled with yummy foods, our waitress came to ask us what we were celebrating. I told her that Christina was getting married soon, so we were doing her bachelorette party this weekend! She asked if we had any specific plans for Saturday night, and we truly did not. Christina had said she only wanted good food, and to try different drinks around Asheville, so we just planned to check out the local shops and stores, and do whatever she had in mind. And that’s when the waitress gave us two options – the first one being a night club that primarily served wine and beer (not really what any of us had in mind) and go go dancers, OR a gay bar right beside our hotel. We figured we’d see how the day went, and choose from there. Something interesting happened on the way back to the hotel, though…

This cute little ol’ man who was homeless was walking near us, and saw how happy we all were. He was closest to me, so he began asking me if we were visiting. I am friendly to basically the whole world, so although I knew were this was probably headed, I listened. This guy was like a little reminder to live life without worrying over money constantly, which is definitely something I’ve been dealing with lately (more on that later!). He told me about his daughter, how much he loved her, and then talked about how he had been homeless for so long. One day, a kind gentleman gave him $35 to help with whatever he needed. Instead of spending all of it on himself, he took almost half of it to his daughter for her to use however she wanted. He said that he knew he’d always have financial troubles, but he’d not always have time with his daughter, so seeing her happy would always be worth any sacrifice. He then thanked me for listening to him because most people don’t do that anymore. I smiled and told him he was sweet, I looked away for just a split second to avoid running into a pole, and then he was gone. He definitely left a smile on  my face though!

When we got back to the hotel to unpack, we discovered the bag of random things we’d bought from Party City. It had a feather boa for the bride, little pins saying ‘BRIDE’ and ‘BRIDESMAID’ on them, and Christina had also picked out a sparkly sticker to represent a Disney Princess for each of us. If you know her, this doesn’t shock you. After having some down time, she suggested that the gay bar would be our best bet since we wouldn’t have to worry too much about creepy guys hitting on us, and it was closer with more options for drinks if anyone wanted something different. Not gonna lie, I was nervous because I had no idea what the night entailed, and again, I am NOT a party person by any means, so the thought of going to any club of any kind was definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone. My first instinct was to find the closest table to the exit door and hide, but it was already taken, so we settled for the table next to it. I watched random people on the dance floor just out having a good time dancing, and that was honestly it. Everyone was friendly, they all cheered for Christina when the DJ called her out, and we primarily chilled at our little table that night, and just had a good time singing out lyrics and getting photos together. At closing time, we made our way to Cook Out for some late comfort food before heading back to the hotel to call it a night.

That next morning was an interesting one. Sadly, one of the girls (who is also one of my brides 🙁 ) got very sick overnight, and the other two girls decided it’d be best to take her back home. It was just Christina and me, so we made sure the others were able to leave without any troubles, and then we hit up the free breakfast bar. WAFFLES. So. Good. After that, we were pretty exhausted, so we requested a late check-out for 1pm. Around 9am is when we got a little knock on our door from housekeeping… I answered despite being confused since we had the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign posted, and had already told the front desk that we weren’t checking out until later. She kindly said she was just checking that we hadn’t left just yet since they were cleaning rooms for that day’s arrivals, and carried on with her little children following behind her. Yep. We were finally able to drift back to sleep for a little, but then got up around noon to pack and head out to the town once more before going home. Remember me saying there was no door? Well, Christina had left the room to go load the car when I decided it was my chance at some privacy to finally pee. Annnnnd in walks the lady from the front desk! Oh my! She had seen Christina leave, and assumed that we were gone. Nope, not quite 😉 And now my whole shy bladder thing has been even more confirmed. NOWHERE IS SAFE, GUYS. NOWHERE.

And that’s how our weekend went! I know many people on Instagram assumed it was nuts (it wasn’t – just a good time!), but it was exactly what Christina wanted – low key, enjoyable, and full of laughter. Oh, and we may or may not have hired her future brother-in-law to paint racing stripes on her car before we left…

Must-have food places when in Asheville that we tried this weekend : Chocolate Fetish, Tupelo Honey (also in Charlotte for any local readers), Karen Donatelli, and Twisted Crepe.

Have more suggestions for a future visit? Leave them in the comments below!