When Dan and I started discussing marriage, we agreed on all the big things, including the length of our engagement. We both wanted a short engagement. We figured if we were already set on committing our lives together, we didn’t need to have a long, drawn-out period of time between the proposal and our wedding.
That said, there are benefits to having an engagement longer than our five months, and I’m enjoying them vicariously through Libbi and Henry’s engagement. Henry proposed a few months before Dan did, but they needed the extra time to plan their upcoming NYE wedding. As one of Libbi’s best friends and bridesmaids, I’ve had the privilege of attending two of her bridal showers and her bachelorette weekend.
Libbi’s first shower was back in September, hosted by the close friends of Henry’s mom, Lori. The whole thing was absolutely charming, very casually elegant. Instead of playing traditional shower games, we made our own perfumes!
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The gracious hostesses decorated with both a few bold choices and then several small touches. Like I knew which house to enter because of the large I DO spelled out on the door. The table decorations included white pumpkins with Mr. & Mrs. painted on them. My favorite decorations, though, were the Scrabble letters. Yes, I’m a huge nerd, but the letters were so perfect for our “couples” friendship. Dan, Henry, Libbi, and I have played Scrabble together on several occasions in the last two years.
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More recently, Libbi and I road-tripped to Philadelphia together to attend the shower hosted by Christine, her sister/maid-of-honor. Ever since I moved from Columbus to Findlay, I’ve really missed my one-on-one bestie time with Libbi. We used to live on the same street, and we were at each others apartments all the time (usually drinking wine and noshing on cheese).
When Christine invited all the bridesmaids to the shower, I jumped at the chance for more bestie time. Yes, the drive from Columbus to Philadelphia is a bit long, but we spent the whole time rocking out to Taylor Swift, the Frozen soundtrack, and some mixed CDs. By the time we arrived at her mom’s house Saturday evening, my throat was actually hoarse from our singalong. Then we spent the night being giggly with Christine and Lindsay, one of Libbi’s oldest friends and another bridesmaid.
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The bridal shower was a tea (like Libbi and Angela threw for me earlier this year!) in a local tea house. The group of guests was awesome, ranging in age from 15 to of a certain age. Even with such a wide variety of ages and life experiences, it was so easy talking to everyone. The conversation flowed as easily as the hot tea.
Finally, this past weekend was the one we’ve all been waiting for: the bachelorette party in Nashville! While several awesome women contributed to the planning, the bulk of the work was done by Brittany (fellow Kappa and bridesmaid!) and Christine. All the bridesmaids attended, plus five other close friends of Libbi.
We rented a super-cute house for the weekend, and we primarily relied on Uber for transportation. Activities included a pole-dancing class (which was an amazing workout), a pub crawl that included awesome historical information and a trivia contest (my team won, no surprises there!), and a nice dinner followed by bar hopping.
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Unsurprisingly, Libbi has amazing friends. It was so great to meet all these women she’s mentioned to me over the years. It’s surreal in a way to realize I’m actually the newest of her closest friends. The majority of the other women all met Libbi during college, with a few having known her even longer. Libbi and I have only been best friends since we interned together at Kappa in 2011.
Anyway, all of us got along really well, and we can’t wait to hang out again in less than two months. Who knows, maybe we’ll make epic weekends to Nashville an annual or biannual affair…
Most of the group left Sunday morning, but Libbi, Brittany, and I had later flights, plus Whitley (a Kappa and a bridesmaid… sense a trend yet?) lives in Nashville. The four of us went out for a fancy brunch, and we met up with one of Brittany’s high school best friends and one of my high school best friends. Yes, it was a weekend full of best friends! I haven’t seen Kimi since my wedding reception back in April, so it was great to catch up on Sunday. She and I even had time to go to the art museum, where we enthusiastically critiqued all the pieces without knowing much about modern art other than what we like or don’t like.
For more insights and photographic treats of Libbi’s wedding festivities, see my Instagram feed or look up the hashtag #RettewSaysIDo. Celebrating alongside her has been a fantastic journey, and I can’t wait for the big day on New Year’s Eve!
To my married readers, how long was your engagement and why? To all the single ladies, how long is your ideal engagement? I’d also love to hear about your bridal showers or your dream bachelorette party! Leave me a comment!
This looks like it was so much fun! I love it all!
It’s been a blast. I always have fun with Libbi, but this is a very special time to celebrate!
I adore the pink dress you are wearing in the first photo 🙂
Thanks!!! It’s one of my favorites that I actually featured in a blog post last month. 🙂
Looks like fun! My boyfriend and I half-seriously say that some day we’ll just tell our families we’re running errands or on vacation, and then come back married. But we’ll probably end up just being formally engaged for a few months and then having a small ceremony and celebration.
My parents eloped. Their 30th wedding anniversary is next month! Dan and I compromised on elopement by having a ceremony with our parents and siblings only, followed by three receptions.
My husband is in the military so we had a shorter engagement just based on his job. We knew if we didn’t marry before Memorial Day we’d have to wait until Fall or the following year and just didn’t want to do that. So he proposed in December and we were married the following May 1. I had one bridal shower and a bachelorette weekend before the wedding, it was perfect! We kept it low key (lunch at a winery, massages, pub Trivia and chick flicks) and it was just right. Wouldn’t change a thing.
Your low-key bachelorette weekend sounds perfect! That’s the kind of weekend I’d love to have with my girlfriends a few times a year.
A pole dancing class sounds like a lot of fun! I would probably laugh my way through it, too! I also really love the idea of making perfume! I’ve never done that before. Did yours turn out well?
Lamar and i had an 8 month engagement, which was the perfect amount of time for us. I had my bachelorette weekend in Charlotte, NC and it was so much fun! None of us had ever been there, but my sister (MOH) planned so many fun activities. Mostly going out, eating yummy food, and lounging by the rooftop pool and sipping cocktails. YUM. She also put together these amazing survival kits!
Thanks for linking up with me for the coffee date! I loved hearing about your fun weekend!
Oh, we were cracking up the entire time. We couldn’t even manage our “sexy walks” without giggling.
Making the perfume was so easy! The hostess provided several different fragrance oils which we mixed in our preferred combinations with a base. I forget what the base was, rubbing alcohol, maybe? I love how mine smells.
Charlotte is a great city, with so much to do. I miss living in the South!
This is so fun! Making your own perfumes? That is impressive. And pole dancing class? I can imagine that would be a workout. I’ve always heard it is very challenging. You have creative friends 🙂
It’s really been a blast leading up to her wedding. The perfumes were surprisingly easy to make, and mine smells so good! (I’m biased, though). Once Dan and I figure out where we’re moving next, I hope I can sign up for a series of pole dancing classes to workout. It all depends on if we’ll live somewhere big enough (and not too conservative).