Bachelorette festivities: a night on the town!

After our trip to the aquarium and soaking up the sun all afternoon, it was time to get ready for a night out! The bridesmaids and I got gussied up and headed out for a delicious dinner at Island Way Grill. We shared some edamame, drank a few cocktails, and noshed on some delicious dinner (mmm wasabi mashed potatoes? Yes yes yes). We did have to keep our eye on the clock however, because a sweet ride was coming to meet us!

We hurried back to the beach house after dinner to meet up with our limo for the evening! Mommy Buttons has clued MOH E in on a great Groupon that a limo company was offering, and she snatched it up for the night!

After getting settled in our limo, I was handed our itinerary for the evening. It involved some bar hopping in a few different locations. Fun! Of course, on the way there we had to pop open some bubbly. Well, not "we," more like "me," since none of the other girls were willing to open a champagne bottle in fear of taking someone's eye out! Thankfully, I have opened quite a few champagne bottles in my day, so I was able to help them out...

The girls even brought some sliced strawberries to add to the champagne! And, check out MOH E's fancy work on the champagne glasses! She made one for each of us; don't they look great?

We also bejeweled ourselves with some fabulous light up engagement rings - you twist the top and it lights up like a flashlight! Very useful...

I opened a few presents at this time too, which might have included a few "unmentionables." And...this is probably very messed up, but is it sad that I got THIS excited over a bag of pretzel M&M's that BM L got me? They are so good.

BM K made me an amazing bachelorette sash - how crafty is she?!?! I was so impressed with her handiwork, and it even matched my outfit pretty well! Score!

Well, it turned out that the limo driver was unable to locate our first destination on the list, so after driving around for about an hour, we finally made it to our second location. We were dropped off in the Channelside district in Tampa, where we headed into Howl at the Moon for some live piano music and a bucket of...alcohol. I'll be honest - the bar scene wasn't exactly hopping on a Thursday evening, but there WERE two other bachelorette parties taking place in the bar, so that was pretty entertaining!

We sipped on our enormous drink, sang along with the music, and even might have danced on stage for a bit. The girls even paid to have a message written on the mirror behind the piano...ha...ha...ha...verrrry funny ladies...

When it came time to return to our limo, we were tired. When we returned to the beach house, we promptly crashed in our beds. It had been a great night!

Are you planning a fun night out on the town/did you have a fun night out for your bachelorette party?

The wedding expo...

I can't help but love it when I have an extremely productive day. That can certainly be said about my adventures yesterday!

I had the rare opportunity to be off of work on Sunday, because I really needed to take the opportunity to do some wedding-related things. It just so happened that there was a wedding expo at the St. Pete Times Forum in downtown Tampa on Sunday, so mom and I got up in the morning and headed over!

Hmm, looks deserted???

We arrived a few minutes before they opened the doors to the event...as we walked up to the building, the two of us were wondering if anyone was actually showing up to this shindig; it looked pretty deserted out there! I shrugged and said "well, at least we'll get through the entire event at a decent time!" The clock struck noon, and we were allowed to enter...

Now, this was my first official wedding expo that I attended, and there are some tips that I would highly suggest you implement in order to streamline your visit!

1 - Bring address labels!!! Honestly, this is a complete and utter lifesaver! You are going to want to sign up for every single giveaway at every single booth, and your hand will pretty much fall off from filling out your address, phone, email, etc on each form unless you have these with you. I brought along a sheet of return address labels from home, and it cut down the time it took me to fill things out significantly! I almost didn't do this...but thanks to my Aunt, who kindly suggested this method, I was saved!!! Thank you Aunt S!

2 - Be methodical!!! Yes, it is exciting and a bit haphazard when you enter the event...you smell food from caterers, hear music and see lights from DJ's...there is a ton of stimulation going on...FOCUS! Being a perfectionist, I figured out a plan of attack before we began; starting from the back row of booths, and snaking our way up and down the aisles to make sure that we did not miss anything. I didn't even refer to the guide that they gave at the door (although if you are only looking for specific vendors, I'd suggest targeting only those!). I was eager to take in the entire event, however.

3 - Sign up to win...everything!!! Ok, so I know its already a given that you'd enter to win whatever each and every booth is giving out...but seriously, it could work out well for you in the end! Many of the vendors have some great prizes...and who knows, you could be a winner! As for me...I got the most delightful call this morning from Mostly Roses, one of the florists at the event; I won $500 worth of flowers for my wedding! My trip paid off!!!!

Signing up to win a lovely prize!

It took mom and I about an hour and a half to work our way through all of the vendors, which I thought wasn't too terrible! I was able to skip over the informational speech portions of many tables, as I already have my venue, dress, food, and photographer taken care of! And, I must add, I couldn't help but feel a bit puffed up after perusing the other photographer's displays...there was nothing with as much life as Chad's photos...hooray! No buyer's remorse for me (Not that I was expecting any of course; I just love the satisfaction that was involved)!

Attempting to push my way through the crowd; it certainly wasn't deserted inside the event!!!

From the expo, mom and I headed over to the new IKEA, and I managed to find myself a schnazzy new desk to use in my new apartment in Virginia...now I need to find the proper desk accessories to organize all of my things (is it sad that this thrills me this much???)! I also picked up a new pillow that I'm loving...its a memory foam pillow; you insert it into a cover (you can pick between a microfiber one and a real goose down cover; I picked the microfiber because its 1/2 the price, and I get allergies sometimes with real feathers)...it is glorious!!!!

Ahhh, a sigh of relief after a busy and productive day! We arrived back home and put our feet up for the rest of the evening, and I sorted through the plethora of material that was collected at the event:

A sea of informational brochures!

Note: my trusty sheet of address labels in the bottom right corner!

Ah, a job well done!

It's all about the shoes...

Now, for those of you who know me well, you would never think that buying a pair of shoes would be something that had the ability to frustrate me beyond belief.  I own far too many pairs of shoes for my own good, and have accumulated quite an impressive collection over the years.  Life is too short to be wearing boring shoes!

But first, a little bit about the dress...I'm not going to publicly divulge the specifics on my dress (and definitely not any photos!!!!), but I bought it a few weeks back at CC's Boutique in St. Petersburg, FL. My consultant, Monica, is absolutely fabulous, and I highly recommend asking for her if you are dress shopping in the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area.  She and I discussed exactly what I would want to have in a dress, and she went off to the back of the shop to pick some out for me (they don't have any dresses out on racks).  I ended up loving this, contrary to what I originally was thinking.  I am such a control freak, and I am super SUPER picky about anything related to the clothing that I wear.  I had been shopping at some other dress boutiques before I went to CC's, and I had been much more successful at selecting the dresses that I would look good in in comparison to what the consultants were pulling.  However, by not having the dresses in view, I wasn't able to confuse myself in a sea of white...fabulous!  Of course, wouldn't you know it, the very first dress that Monica pulled was "the one."  Of course, I had to try on about 20 other dresses first in order to solidify the decision, but hey...I got there eventually!  

Don't get excited...this is NOT the one...but I hemmed and hawwed over it!

So, I will say that the dress is all lace...which of course makes for some more complicated alterations.  I'm getting a custom length done on the dress...so I found out that in order to get my measurements taken, I have to have the shoes at the time of the fitting!  ***Gasp*** Me, the planner of all planning, completely forgot to take that into consideration.  I had NO idea what kind of shoes I wanted to wear.  Panic immediately set it.  Thankfully, they were willing to let me take a few weeks to purchase shoes and let me return at a later date.

So, the shoe search began!  Now, you know, whenever you are actually LOOKING for something, you will never find it.  I even have a "shoe boyfriend" at Nordstrom, my beloved Victor, who never seems to fail at knowing what I will like.  I naturally started my search there...I'm not willing to purchase a shoe anywhere else for the most part.  I tried on shoe after shoe, and wasn't too excited.  I ended up spending $285 on a pair of kate spade slingbacks in rose gold.  They were pretty...but something wasn't right.  They weren't fun enough...it was bugging me!

And then...I found them!  I have 2 pairs of this shoe already in different colors that I have accumulated over the years, and I saw that Enzo Angiolini has their 'Merry Ann' pump in 3 wedding friendly colors this season; yellow, white/pearl, and pastel pink snakeskin!  And what is even better is the price; $79.95.  These are one of the most comfortable pumps that I own; I can wear them all day, and I have worn the dickens out of the 2 pairs that I already have.  There were only 17 pairs of size 7 1/2 left in the country, so I had to ship them to my house.  I have been impatiently waiting for them to arrive for over a week, and my (im)patience paid off yesterday!

Ahhhh, so sassy!

I am loving how they aren't extremely yellow...but have a bit of a gold sheen to them as well!  I could NOT be happier!  A girl and her shoes......it doesn't take much more to make me happy!