Bachelorette Recaps

We survived! My bachelorette party this weekend was SO MUCH FUN and I'm so glad that most of my girls and some other close friends were able to come and celebrate with me! We had a blast. My sister/MOH Callie and BM Steph did a fantastic job putting the whole thing together.

We started off just hanging out at my house. Well, some of us. Others met us at the hotel in Center City Philly. But MOH Callie, BM Steph, and my college roommate Jen met at my house where we had some strawberry sangria (made by moi), some mojitos (made by Callie), and lots of yummy food (also made by Callie). Steph also brought a hoagie pita pizza (an italian hoagie inside a giant pita shaped/cut like a big pizza - it was awesome). So we feasted and sipped our cocktails before we headed into the city to meet up with the rest of the gang.

Once we got to our hotel (the fabulous Embassy Suites in Philly), we met BM Nicole, BM Tina, and other college roommate Denise. We proceeded to check into our rooms and get ready to hit the city! Again, we shared some more sangria, pita pizza, and lots of laughs to kick off the night!

After everyone was thoroughly prettified (not like that's hard for my girls!), we headed out to dinner. Steph had made reservations at El Vez, but somehow we thought it was El Rey (both Mexican restaurants, both by the same restauranteur). We walked into El Rey and then Steph realized it was the wrong place. And since it was time for our reservation, Steph called El Vez while we grabbed a couple of cabs. Or one. A van. With no air conditioning. That was a steamy 9 blocks.

But we made it to El Vez and our table was still waiting for us, so we took our seat and started looking over the menu. YUM-O. El Vez is owned by Steven Starr, who has several restaurants in the Philly area. I have eaten at and loved several of them, and after Saturday night, I can safely say the same for El Vez. We got a couple pitchers of their Pink Cadillac margarita, which had tequila and cranberry juice and some other yummyness. We also got some of their hand-smashed guacamole. It was incredible. For dinner, I ordered the chipotle chicken tacos, and they were deeee-lish! Everyone else seemed to thoroughly enjoy their meals, as once the food was in front of us, we didn't do a whole lot of talking! It was a great meal to start off the night.




After we were sufficiently stuffed, we walked over to Jolly's Dueling Piano Bar. Dueling piano bars are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. Matt and I have been to several around the country (Arizona, Myrtle Beach, etc) and we always have a fantastic time. Jolly's was pretty great, too, but WAY smaller than I expected it to be! My brother-in-law had arranged for us to have an open bar, which enabled us to basically reserve a whole "section" at the bar, rather than just a booth near the pianos. At first, we were a little disapointed, but I think it actually ended up being better - we had plenty of room to dance and do shots...


and sing like fools...


and everything else that happens at piano bars. No worries, though, we did get up to the piano and onto the piano and...well, we had a BLAST!

Once we had finished our open bar time, we headed back into the city. The girls tried to "surprise" me and take me to a male strip joint, but I foiled their plan and put the kybash on that. You know how I felt about Matt going to a strip club, so I certainly didn't want to go to one myself. Plus, I wanted to dance! I didn't want to sit there and watch guys gyrate around me! So I made the cabs turn around (might have been a little bratty!) and take us back to Noche - bar and restuarat by day, dance club by night. And dance we did!

Here, towards the end of the night, is me with sister/MOH Callie. She's the bestest.
All in all, a GREAT time was had. And, for those of you following, Matt did not go a strip club. They had planned to take him, but he told them he wasn't interested. And he also passed out at 12:30. Silly boy. I love him.