Travel Diary: Nashville, TN Bachelorette Weekend Itinerary 💍

      I recently got to plan my best friend Ciera's bachelorette trip in Nashville, TN! This was only the second bachelorette party that I've planned, and the first one that I've done that was a destination spot for all the guests. (Last year I planned my other best friend Julia's bachelorette weekend, but I was the only one guest traveled in for it, as we did it in Maine where Julia and everyone else invited lived.) 

      This was my third trip to Nashville, but first time going for a bachelorette party. Definitely a different vibe than my past trips for work and for a family vacation with my parents! I still need to get around to writing a full Nashville Travel Guide with recommendations from all my past trips for the blog at some point, but until then I just wanted to get up a little itinerary from the bachelorette trip while it's all fresh in my mind!

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Friday: 

      Ciera, her friend Amber, and myself all had early morning flights to Nashville so that we could maximize our time for the short weekend. We met up late morning in the Nashville airport, took an Uber to our hotel to store our luggage, ate a quick lunch at a great spot called Velvet Taco (I'll share more about that later) and then headed out for our first activity, and the one that I think Ciera was most excited for. Let me preview by saying this is not a typically bachelorette trip activity! 😂

      We headed down to Franklin, TN, which is about 20-30 minutes south of Downtown Nashville. Ciera wanted to visit Ramsey Solutions, which finance guru Dave Ramsey's company headquarters and radio studio! Ciera and her fiancé Patrick have both been big Dave Ramsey fans for a long time, and she had always wanted to visit Ramsey Solutions headquarters. It's open to the public M-F for free visits! You can watch Dave or the other radio personalities host their shows, and they have a gift shop with Dave's books and merchandise and some museum-type exhibits to check out as well. Unfortunately, Dave was traveling on the day we visited. But we were able to watch some of the other fill-in show hosts do the radio show and meet them.

      I had heard of Dave Ramsey before and knew of some of his key finance principles, but I can't say I personally have followed him very much. I was really excited for Ciera to get to visit Ramsey Solutions but wasn't sure how much I'd actually like it. What a surprise that this ended up being one of the trip highlights for me too! Since I work in radio, I loved seeing their radio studio and watching them do the show live. (Talk radio is obviously a different type of show than what I do in country radio, but still some similarities!) The facilities were also beautiful to see. And they have free coffee and tea lattes and cookies for all visitors. (Sign me up for free treats!) So glad we got to do this for Ciera, and I really did have a fun time too. If you're a Dave Ramsey fan, I feel like you'd love getting to visit Ramsey Solutions!

      We then took an Uber back to the hotel. The final two girls, Avery and Priyanka, arrived from their flights and met us. It was really nice to have a few hours of downtime in the hotel to spend as much time as we wanted to get ready for the evening. This is also when I assembled the goodie bags that I made for Ciera and everyone! After we all go ready, we took some pictures in the hotel room and then headed out for a late dinner and drinks.

      On Friday night we went to White Limozeen, which is the Dolly Parton themed rooftop bar at the Graduate Hotel in Nashville. This place is what bachelorette party dreams are made of! All of the decor is pink and frilly and over-the-top. They have a large array of cocktails to choose from, and a French themed food menu. White Limozeen has become a very trendy spot in Nashville, and it can be close to impossible to get reservations. Reservations for a specific date open exactly two weeks prior, at midnight. I made our group's reservation at 1:30am on the day they opened.... and already everything was booked from 4-8pm! Highly recommend staying up until midnight (or setting an alarm if you aren't a night owl) to get reservations for your date of choice exactly when they open. We had a wonderful evening at White Limozeen, and I'd definitely recommend for any bachelorette parties to try to get reservations.

Saturday:

      I think I forgot to mention anything about our hotel when recapping Friday! We stayed at the Home2Suites Nashville-Vanderbilt in the Midtown area of Nashville. We originally booked an AirBnb, but the owner of the house decided to cancel all bookings for 2023 a few months ago, so we decided to go with a hotel the second time around for booking lodging. While this isn't a luxury hotel, it was clean and comfortable with very spacious rooms. Perfect for our group! We also really loved the free breakfast, and it saved us a lot of money to take advantage of this. It's located right in Midtown Nashville, just over a mile away from Lower Broadway. My only complaint about the hotel is that we did have some hot water issues in our rooms that never got fully addressed. But I'd still recommend it for the great value and location.

      Late morning on Saturday, we headed to MissFit Academy for a group pole dancing fitness class. I had never done anything like this before, but a bachelorette party does seem like the ideal time to try it. 😆 Unfortunately, I was dealing with some bad hip pain while on the trip, so I ended up sitting out of the class. But it was fun to watch Ciera and the other girls living it up! MissFit Academy is a great dance studio, and perfectly catered to bachelorette parties. They also gave Ciera a bottle of sparkling wine and some other fun little goodies which I thought was a really sweet touch! 

      After the dance class, we did a little food tour for lunch at a few places near the hotel. We started at Cook-Out, which is a popular fast food chain in the Southeast that is a favorite of the bride. Apparently there are no Cook-Outs in Texas where she lives now! We then walked over the Velvet Taco, the same place that we'd have lunch the day before, as it was just so good. Velvet Taco is probably one of the best fast casual restaurants that I have ever eaten at! They had such unique varieties of tacos and queso. While I loved everything I ordered both days, the Chicken Tikka Masala Taco was truly incredible, and I've not been able to stop thinking about it since! If you live near a Velvet Taco (they have locations in a few states) I am very jealous. We finished our little Midtown Nashville lunchtime food tour with a sweet treat at The Baked Bear, a delicious ice cream sandwich shop that I actually went to on my last trip to Nashville as well.

     Next up, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit and then do a couple of bachelorette activities for Ciera! She requested that we do a roast for her, and each come prepared with funny stories about her to share with the group. This ended up being an absolute blast, and I had way too much fun writing my roast speech. I highly recommend doing this for a bride-to-be as an alternative to some traditional bachelorette party games! We also did a little "date night" shower for Ciera, where we all brought gift cards to different places where she and Patrick can have date nights at after the wedding. (This is a great type of shower alternative if the bride-to-be doesn't want a lingerie shower!)

     Then it was time to get ready for our theme night! At Ciera's request, we did a Bridgerton night! Bridgerton is her favorite TV show, and she was our "Diamond of the Season" for the night. I was so excited to find this Bridgerton diamond themed sash for her to wear on Etsy! Most of us wore dresses that we already owned, but Ciera ordered one to try to look pretty authentic to the actual show from Amazon. Didn't it look beautiful?! You can find her Daphne Bridgerton inspired dress here. 

     We then headed to Lower Broadway, which is where all of the downtown action happens in Nashville. My friend Emily recommended we try Blanco Cocina + Cantina while on the trip, so we had reservations there that night. It was a fun Tex-Mex spot with great decor and vibes. (I definitely recommend making to reservation in advance on OpenTable, although it was not nearly as much of a process as getting the one at White Limozeen! 😉)

     We then headed to check out a souvenir shop and one of the classic Honky Tonk bars on Broadway. After a drink at one bar, Ciera was good to call it a night and we all headed back for a cozy rest of the night at the hotel! I'm sure we were quite a sight walking around on Broadway in our Bridgerton outfits! 

     The next morning, most of us all had different flight times. Four of us had one last breakfast in the hotel, and then Priyanka and I got ready to head to the airport. Before getting our Uber, we did walk down the street to quickly snap some pictures with a pretty mural we had seen the day before. And then it was back home to Virginia for me! It was an honor to plan Ciera's trip, and I am very excited for her wedding celebration at the end of March! 

      Last year, I asked for the best bachelorette party planning advice on Instagram, and rounded up the best answers into this blog post. I referred back to it several times when planning this trip! I might write a post of my own soon with other tips and tricks for bachelorette planning that I learned myself from doing Ciera's Nashville trip and my other best friend's Julia's bachelorette weekend last year. 

      God Bless,

       xoxo Annaliese