Wedding Wednesday: My Bachelorette Party!

      I have enjoyed writing all of the Wedding Wednesday blog posts that you've seen so far, but this truly might be one of the ones that I was most excited about. It's time to recap my bachelorette party! Instead of an extravagant multi-day trip, I opted to just have one night of festivities that wasn't too far away from home (Virginia Beach). I have no regrets about doing things this way, and I've been looking so forward to recapping it all here!

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     I feel like sometime over the last decade or two, a simple bachelorette party became a thing of the past, and most brides started doing bigger trips to further away destinations with their bridal parties. I am well acquainted with these, because I've attended many and even planned a few of them! And there is nothing wrong at all with doing a "bigger" bachelorette trip. It should be about what the bride wants after all.

     When I started loosely discussing bachelorette plans after Ryan and I got engaged, I did throw out a few destination ideas to my bridal party. Unfortunately though, a few of my bridal party members for various reasons weren't able to do a bachelorette trip in 2024. (I appreciated them being upfront about this at the get-go!) I had three bridal party members that said they were able to do a bigger trip, but for some reason the thought of doing a bigger trip stopped really popping out to me. This was also around the same time that Ryan and I's wedding expenses were starting to amp up with vendor deposits, and it started being harder and harder to justify spending four figures between flight, hotel, transportation, food and activities on some elaborate long weekend bachelorette trip out-of-state because I felt I "should" do that. 

     So I didn't!

      I opted instead to have a more "old fashioned" bachelorette party. Just one night of fun, and fairly close to home. And I'm so glad that I did it this way! 😊

     It ended up working out to have a bachelorette party in my favorite little southern town of Edenton, NC. My bridal shower held was on a Saturday afternoon at The Granville Queen Inn in Edenton, and I invited all of the shower attendees to spend the night in Edenton for more fun optionally if they wanted to! I was delighted that 2/3 of the bridal shower guests ended up opting to book rooms at The Granville Queen and its sister inn, Captain's Quarters. 18 of my favorite ladies got to attend my bachelorette party! This is way more people than had I done a longer and more extravagant bachelorette trip. But because Edenton was low-key and easily drivable for most of those invited, I could have a larger guest list. And that made me so happy! There was a mix of friends from college, one blogging friend (hey Nicole!), my years in Charlottesville, and several local Virginia Beach friends. I didn't have any friends from my home state of Maine there, but I would say that with the ladies that did come to Edenton, it was a great sampling of the important women in my life from age 18 to today at age 30!

    Renting out two historic inns (next-door to each other) with so many of my close friends for a night is literally one of the most fun things I've ever done!! 10/10 recommend looking into booking a historic inn or B&B and renting it out for a low-key but fun bachelorette party. It felt like a giant adult slumber party. 

      Anyways- enough on the logistics. Let's get into the actual recap! My bridal shower wrapped up a little bit after 3pm on that Saturday. I built a two hour break into the schedule for those spending the night to rest and check into their rooms, and for bridal shower clean-up to happen in the Granville Queen lobby. The ladies and I all met outside of the inns a little bit after 5pm, dressed and ready for the evening! 

    The dress code that I picked was "Pink and White Night." Yes- that means I wanted my friends to wear white, not me wearing white despite me being the bride! 😉 I know that is untraditional, but sometimes it's fun to mix it up and be unique. When I found my pink and green matching set outfit a couple of months ago, I thought having my friends wear a mix of pink and white would be the best compliment, and really making my outfit pop. I think I was right! I just love how it turned out!! 

     After we all met outside of the inns, we made the short walk downtown to The Patisserie at Edenton Bay, which is the most charming French bakery. I rented it out for an hour for a private Happy Hour and treats reception for myself and the ladies! I worked with the owner, Lynn, to create a fun menu of savory snacks and pastries. Lynn also had wine and champagne for purchase. It was such a fun way to kick off the evening festivities!

    Next up, the whole group headed down to the Edenton Harbor to take sunset photos by the water! I was able to get individual pictures with each friend, and some fun group shots too. It had rained most of Saturday in Edenton (including during the whole bridal shower), so it was such a gift that the sky cleared that night and treated us to a lovely sunset!

     Then we all enjoyed dinner at my favorite restaurant in Edenton, The Herringbone! This is the largest nicer restaurant in Edenton, and they have wonderful food and drink menus. Since we were such a large party (19 including me!!), I didn't expect to all be seated together, but the staff was amazingly able to accommodate and had us all at one giant long table. I was really trying to be present in the moment at dinner, and shockingly I didn't get any photos from dinner. But it was such a great time. Below are a couple photos of a past trip I made dining at The Herringbone with my aunt and uncle who live in Edenton. 😊

    After dinner, we headed back to the inns for more fun. I had found a fun bachelorette theme idea on TikTok earlier this year, where attendees all dressed as things that the bride loved. I told my friends I wanted to do this and have a costume contest, and I was so excited to see what they'd all come up with for things that I love! Here was the end result:

L to R: Kelly-Anne, Kathryn, Bri, Emily B. and Michelle as my cat Delilah

L to R: Bea, Amanda D., Emily J. and Cara as Golfers

L to R: Amanda O. and Perrin as Ryan (my fiance)

Megan as Jazzercise

Meredith as Life in Virginia Beach

Nicole as Grocery Shopping at Food Lion

Kelly as Love is Blind

LeighAnna as the song Genie in a Bottle (my #1 karaoke song)

Caroline as Selling Sunset

Alex as Pitbull / Mr. Worldwide

    Aren't these costumes incredible?! I ended up making a TikTok of my own with everyone's outfits, and I still laugh out loud every time I rewatch it. A couple other games followed the costume contest, and they were all so fun! I think I laughed and smiled harder than I have in years while hanging out with everyone! 

     My white bridal pajamas I wore (with matching hairbow!) are from Printfresh. I was gifted them a few months ago for an Instagram collaboration, and had been saving to wear again for my bachelorette party. 

     Myself and a few of the other girls ended up moving back to my room, and we stayed up even later for more fun. I think I finally went to bed at 1:30am... very late for me! 

     The next morning, everyone met for the complimentary provided breakfast for guests at The Granville Queen Inn. Most of the ladies then headed home! I was glad people could hit the road early if they wanted to, and enjoy most of their Sunday at home. I didn't want to take up too much of peoples' weekends. Myself and three ladies did stick around a bit later in Edenton though, and for a great reason. I got to conclude my bachelorette party with a round of golf! 

    We played at a local public course, The Links at Mulberry Hill. It was my first time playing this course, and I enjoyed it. I'll have to come back with Ryan sometime on a future trip to Edenton. Since I hadn't worn white to dinner the night before, I decided to do an all-white golfing outfit, complete with a fun little veil! YOLO when you're the bachelorette, right?!

     And that was my bachelorette party! I made so many new memories I'll cherish forever in such a short amount of time. So grateful for all the great women in my life who were able to come celebrate me!! And my other bridal party members who couldn't make the trip to NC were still there in spirit. 💗

    Linking some of my outfit details from the weekend below:

Past Wedding Wednesday Posts:

Our Proposal Story // My Ring Shopping Experience // Local vs. Destination Wedding // My Wedding Dress Shopping Story // 9 Months Out Checklist + Early Wedding Planning Q&A // How Ryan and I Met // Our Engagement Photos // Virginia Beach Wedding Guest Lodging with Transcendent Stays // Our Engagement Party // 6 Months Out Checklist + Q&A  // How I Asked My Bridesmaids // My First Bridal Shower // 3 Months Out Checklist + Q&A // My Second Bridal Shower 

     God Bless,

      xoxo Annaliese