It’s official. These rookies want to pick up our homes and move west to the beautiful town of Sonoma, California. I can just picture it now…we’ll spend our days exploring the gorgeous vineyards, snapping photos of the scenery, all while sipping the delicious local wines. Heck, our blogging may suffer (hard to type accurately when your diet consists of consuming wine all day)…but we would be mighty happy!

Okay, okay…that isn’t going to happen. But we did actually live out this daydream 2 weeks ago when we headed to wine country for my bachelorette party! It was a trip I’ll never forget and today I’m spilling the beans about our journey…

Get ready for lots (& I mean lots!) of eye candy from our bachelorette trip to Sonoma! 

Casey’s Bachelorette Trip to Sonoma

 

Where We Stayed

We had a group of 16 for our 5-day trip, so we knew we would need to choose the right accommodations for our large group of women. My mom ended up finding 2 gorgeous homes for us. One home was in downtown Sonoma and it was within walking distance to all of the shops and restaurants. The “older” crowd (who lovingly referred to themselves as the “Antiques”) stayed in this home, while our group of “younger” ladies stayed elsewhere. Our house was about a 7 minute drive from downtown Sonoma and it was a spacious ranch on a large piece of land. We had a pool, garden, and large kitchen. Let’s just say we felt like celebrities!

Even though our accommodations were lovely, we didn’t spend too much time at the houses. Instead, we enjoyed seeing all that Sonoma has to offer. The scenery is just breathtaking, and we were lucky enough to have some gorgeous days…cool mornings/nights, and sunny and warm afternoons.

Our Group of Ladies

My mom and I reached out to all of the important women in our lives last fall, to see who might be interested in our little outing. We thought maybe we would get a handful of girls for the trip, but we ended up with a total of 16! My grandma, mother, future mother-in-law, sisters, aunts, cousins, bridal team, and friends all made the trek out for our weekend festivities. There were so many times when I looked around at this group and said a little prayer thanking God for all of these amazing women.

One of my favorite days was our official wine tasting tour day. We rented a bus and had a driver take us around to 3 different vineyards and a picnic area for lunch. All of the wineries were fantastic…and they seemed to get better and better as the day went on (or perhaps the more wine you have, the better it tastes!) It was so fun to sip, laugh, and chat with our group…all while taking in the sunshine and fresh California air.

Bachelorette Party – Personal Touches

My fabulous mother (who called herself the “M.O.B.” all weekend long, seriously that just might be her new self-proclaimed nickname) and Bridget truly outdid themselves in the creativity department. I’ll briefly chat about just a couple of the adorable things they did to personalize our trip.

1. Basket of Toiletries: I absolutely hate it when I travel and I forget an essential, like toothpaste! My mom ended up creating 2 adorable baskets (one for each house) and they were stuffed with small toiletries. I think the ladies really appreciated this and it was nice to have everything you needed while on vacay.
2. Wine Charms & Water Bottle Covers: Wine & water were our two drinks of choice on this trip. My mom made adorable charms for our wine glasses with everyone’s name on it. She simply used a stamp and some old jewelry to make each glass one-of-a-kind. Then my sister found cute water bottle covers with initials on them. That kept everyone hydrated and didn’t get our water bottles mixed up. Genius!
3. Photo Game: Finally, Miss Bridget came up with a fun game that we played throughout the weekend. As you guys know, my new last name will be “Finn”. So in honor of his name, she brought along a stuffed animal fish who we lovingly referred to as “Finn.” We brought him everywhere, and took some hysterical pictures with him. At the end of the weekend Bridget gave out prizes for the best pics of the weekend. This little photo game kept us entertained all weekend long and now I have some weird pictures of little Finn forever!

Bachelorette Party – Festivities

From the moment I started wedding planning I knew one thing…I didn’t want a traditional bachelorette party. My guidelines: No stripper, nothing shaped like a male organ (sorry about the absence of penis straws, Aunt Paige!), and no crazy sashes or tiaras for me! Instead I wanted a fun night with my ladies, with plenty of wine and laughter (and perhaps some new underwear too!) That’s exactly what I got.

I think the bachelorette festivities deserve its very own post, because it is chock full of cute DIY ideas and fun pictures. So I will save all of those details for another day. For now, I’ll just say I had a wonderful night on the town with my favorite ladies, and I even wore a scandalous little white dress (like super scandalous…do you see that thing? I felt kinda naked)!

So there you have it…a picture dump of our amazing bachelorette trip to Sonoma. I’m sad it’s over, but I know I’ll always cherish the memories I made with all of those beautiful ladies. Next on the wedding event list…the bridal shower! Let’s just say I think my white dress will be a tad more conservative for that party. 😉

Casey