All of the guests who were flying in and staying at our house were due to arrive yesterday at varying times throughout the day. Originally, the plan was for me to pick up the two guys arriving in the morning, Garrett to pick up another in the afternoon, we both go to our prospective parties, and finally I pick up my bridesmaid that night. Plans are ever changing with us though! Due to the issues with my wedding dress (see this post for more details), I needed to be at my mom’s house in the morning to make sure everything was fixed and to help finish any final details that needed finishing. This provided a nice opportunity for Karen to spend some time with us and see my dress, but would also prevent me from picking the guys up in the morning, so that task shifted to Garrett. As if one complication wasn’t enough, life decided to throw another one in! His work decided that they wanted to replace his work vehicle this week, a decision that in and of itself was not the complicated part.
Garrett had previously reached out to the dealership to schedule the pickup of his new vehicle on Wednesday. This would be perfect, as it was before guests were due to arrive and he was on vacation, so he had plenty of time. When he got to the dealership Wednesday morning, however, he was informed that the person listed on his paperwork, i.e. the person who had to actively process the transaction, was not working that day. I’m not really sure why they would schedule the appointment on a day when the guy isn’t working, but what do I know? This error was annoying and could be problematic, but thankfully they were able to reschedule during the few hour gap between the morning and afternoon flight arrivals.
Yesterday morning arrived and Garrett set off to pick up the guys before heading back to the dealership. Everything was moving smoothly and the paperwork was being filled out; things seemed like they were going to work out just fine after all. That is, until the guy working with Garrett paused, looked up at him, and stated “this isn’t my name on the paperwork, I can’t process this for you. You’ll have to come back tomorrow when this guy is in.” Seriously? I mean, how hard is it to look at the paperwork and schedule an appointment with the right person on a day that they work?! Now thoroughly annoyed, Garrett made his way back to the airport to pick up the next guest.
After being informed of the newest change, I began to panic as Garrett had to be at the train station in the morning to retrieve his brother and everyone had to be at the venue for decorating prior the rehearsal, which meant I needed him there with the rest of the boxes on time. This also meant that he wouldn’t be able to pre-pack his vehicle as we had hoped, because he would have to swap vehicles in the morning and we didn’t know how much space would be in the new one. Gotta love a challenge! Thank goodness it wouldn’t be my problem…
My brother was on his way to our house from school and would be the first of everyone to arrive (except for Frank who had spent the night), so I gave him a quick call and asked if he’d be willing to toss dinner in the oven for me. He agreed and I told him that everything had already been prepared, it just needed to be put in the oven for an hour. Honestly, I owe him big time for this because he was a lifesaver! It was an absolute whirlwind when we made it back to the house. Somewhere between Cameron arriving and my mom, Karen, and I getting in, my dad got there from work, Heather came over, and Garrett made it back with everyone else. I’ve never had that many guests at one time, especially some I hadn’t met before, so it got quite overwhelming very quickly! Hugs and introductions were exchanged all around and we made our way to the kitchen to begin dishing up. We all had a nice chuckle at Garrett’s expense when we told the story about our birthday shenanigans a couple of days prior!
Karen, my mom, and I all scarfed our food down before whisking away to the Bachelorette Party. It was an hour drive and the event was scheduled, so we were definitely in a time crunch. A big big thank you to the guys for cleaning up dinner!
Commonly associated with crazy antics for the bridal party, Bachelorette Parties are a way to celebrate a bride’s last days/nights as a “single” woman. In today’s society, you are all but expected to get down and dirty at these events, so get down and dirty we did! Okay now, get your minds out of the gutter. I know what activities are typically associated with these parties, but we didn’t get that kind of dirty. We played with dirt! Unfortunately, due to timing and most of my girls being from out of town, my crew was limited to just four of us (me, my bridesmaid Heather, my mom, and Garrett’s mom Karen). Despite the small turn out, it ended up being a lot of fun!
My Bachelorette Party was hosted at The Sipping Plant, where a friend and co-worker of mine works. It’s an adorable little shop where they host classes on planting succulents and string art. As you have probably surmised, we chose the succulent class! The sipping part? Our bottle of wine, of course; delicious blueberry wine by Stella Rosa. There was a vast selection of succulents coming in two different sizes and a few containers to choose from. I selected one bowl and one hanging globe, my mom a hanging globe and three small square containers, Karen a hanging globe, and Heather a bowl.
There were bins in the middle of the table that contained the dirt, rocks of all colors and sizes, and moss in an array of colors as well. Jada, our instructor, welcomed everyone and got to work explaining the process to us. She definitely had her hands full as she has to lead both the succulent and string art classes simultaneously! We then each armed ourselves with gloves (had to protect our beautifully manicured nails!) and shovels while we began putting our succulent containers together! As instructed, we filled the bottom of our containers with river rocks followed by a healthy amount of dirt. Jada was very hands on and patient with us as we kept asking “Is this enough? How about now?” She was absolutely great and I can’t wait to go back again in the future!
When each container met Jada’s approval, we then moved on to planting our succulents in the dirt before beginning the creative part! Once everything was positioned and planted to our satisfaction, we were able to move on to decorating the containers. As previously mentioned, we had a wide assortment of colored rocks and moss. Using spoons and our fingers, we took each of these and designed our own little environments for our new plants! From there, we were able to select a little figurine to place inside (for example, I got little fish while my mom selected flamingos) and a wishing rock. We had an absolute blast and everyone’s containers turned out adorable! Here’s hoping I can keep them alive…Good thing I work with the instructor!
If you are in or around the Atlanta area and enjoy succulents, I highly recommend heading over to The Sipping Plant for a class. It was an absolute blast and even though there were multiple classes being hosted at the same time, you still got one-on-one assistance and it felt intimate. Definitely a fun girls night out!
