fling before the ring

Hey there, ladies!  Hope your Monday morning is off to a sweet start after another weekend.  Here in Memphis the weather has been absolutely dreadful since Thursday (with the exception of Friday) so I spent much of the weekend in my PJs while the thunder rolled and the rain poured.  I can't say that I hated it.

I love when the Lord shows favor on you so strongly that there is NO doubt that He's behind it all.  Wednesday night of last week the rain came in and it was forecasted to stay for a while.  Thursday was downright nasty, but I woke up Friday morning, the day of my bachelorette party, and the sky was clear and the temperature was near perfect.  It was in the upper 60's all day and I think I could have counted the clouds in the sky on one hand.  Thank you, Lord, for a beautiful day.  

Friday afternoon my friend and bridesmaid, Kayla, came over and we got to chat and catch up before getting ready for our fun night.  Now that Kayla lives in another state our time together is absolutely precious.  I can't tell you how much I miss seeing her sweet face at church, or how I wish we could go on a spontaneous double date like we used to.  She's one of my nearest and dearest friends and now that we are "long distance" friends I appreciate her and invest in our friendship so much more.  Grabbing a starbucks, chatting in the kitchen, and putting on makeup together was just the most perfect start to my little bachelorette night.

As we were putting the finishing touches on our hair and makeup my favorite girls started to arrive!  Here's a little self timer pic that we took to start the night. :)

Austin, Maggie, Betsy, Nicole, Carrie, and Kayla

I slipped into all my necessary "bachelorette" gear and we headed into Downtown Memphis!  We went to a restaurant off of main street called Flight.  The concept of Flight is really unique because you basically get to create your own dinner.  They have small portions of all of their entrees and you can mix and match to create your "flight".  They have wine flights, entree flights, dessert flights, after dinner drink flights... any kind of flight you can think of!  Most of us opted to just get one small plate instead of getting a flight so that we EACH could get a dessert flight.  Yes, you know where our priorities lie.  :) 

I got the chicken and waffles and it was TO DIE FOR.  Seriously, one of the best meals of my life!  The chicken was tender and crispy, the waffle was sweet, and the mushroom sauce was amazinggggg.  Man.  It was good stuff, y'all.

Bananas foster bread pudding, blackberry cobbler, and smores cheesecake.  Y'ALL.

We nearly devoured our desserts and then got our sweet waiter to take our picture... you know those guys must LOVE when parties of women come.  Not to mention that I left remnants of my obnoxious pink boa all over the booth.  

And then the REAL fun started... my lingerie shower! We headed back to my house (we kicked Tyler out for the night) and sat around Kayla's cute bachelorette decorations.  Girlfriend knows how to do it!

How cute are these wine glasses filled with "goodies"!?  I thought this was a great idea!

I love having a book to document all my showers!

I played a little game where I answered some questions that Kayla had asked Tyler... hm... there are some things we don't know about each other.  Ha!  It was really funny comparing some of my answers to his answers!  After a few questions I'd get to open a gift and we just had the BEST time laughing and talking.  

After I opened all my gifts we played a little game and named all my little "goodies".  I'll get to wrap them all up and Tyler will get to pick based on the names while we are on our honeymoon!  I seriously wish I could have recorded our conversations because I was DYING of laughter.  Seriously, it was so fun getting sweet things to take on our honeymoon from some of my closest friends.  I truly cherish their friendships and I am so thankful for women to share this special time with.  I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want just anyone giving me lingerie!  Haha!  I'm so overjoyed that I have such genuine and close friends to share this experience with.

Can I be honest?  I'm totally sad that it's over.  I feel like the wedding is getting SO close and I'm having all of these "once in a lifetime" experiences in a flash! As excited as I am to marry my love, I want to soak in every single little second of this engagement.  One day I'm going to look back and all this time giggling and planning with my best gals will be over.  I want to really LIVE in the moment these last 53 days.  I can't believe that's one more thing checked off the list.  This gal is almost married, y'all!

Now that my bachelorette party has come and gone I'm OBSESSED with them!  I can't believe how much fun it was and I'm ready for more friends to get engaged so I can throw some parties!  Haha!  

What was your favorite part about your bachelorette party or lingerie shower?  

If you're a future bride, what aspect of a bachelorette party are you most looking forward to?

PS.  Thanks for all your thoughts on Thursday's post!  Go leave your feedback if you haven't yet and expect a fun post about what is to come at the end of the week!