This past weekend my sweet girls treated me to the most fabulous celebratory weekend in St. Louis, jam packed with all sorts of my favorite things!
We started with dinner at the Roommate's precious little house - homemade roasted tomato soup and white cheddar cheese, homemade bread, and rosemary chicken-apple-walnut-blue cheese salad. I miss living with her...
Up next was frilly-gift time followed by an hour or so of watching Gigi & Finley (Roommate's roommate's dog), chase each other around the living room. I loved having all of my favorite girls in one place - such a treat.
Saturday morning, we all met up at the London Tea Room for breakfast. If you're ever in St. Louis, you simply MUST go to the tea room - it's indescribably lovely. I had a pot of the Duke & Duchess blend with a cranberry-orange scone covered in clotted cream and fresh strawberry jam. Pretty much the best breakfast ever.
The plan was to then grab coffee (yes, we like caffeine that much) on our way to our mani-pedi appointment. Our plans were blindsided (literally) by a couple of (again, literal) party crashers. A Ford Taurus came out of nowhere and t-boned Roommate's car in the middle of a rather busy intersection. Thankfully, Little Sister keeps calm in crisis situations and had it pretty much handled by the time I'd even processed what had happened. No one was hurt and we were able to get it sorted out fairly quickly.
Dealing with a car accident was not at all how we wanted to spend our morning, but we had some nice downtime waiting on the cops and the tow truck, then enjoyed a stroll through the SLU campus. All in all, it really didn't put that much of a damper on the day.
We finally arrived at the salon and enjoyed a very girlie hour of manicures & pedicures - note to self: wear a "Bride-to-Be" sash EVERYWHERE. People are SUPER nice to you ALL THE TIME!
Afterwards, we had lunch at one of my favorite spots - Companion - then headed back to the hotel for a quick change before our tour of the Botanical Gardens.
Since it was so late in the afternoon, the Gardens were relatively quiet (except for the no fewer than three weddings setting up as we walked around). Plus, the weather was delightful - making our tour even more enjoyable.
After our tour, we spent time driving around the city and made a stop at Kaldi's Coffee for a caffiene boost before dinner. Y'all...they have a Baked Maple Pumpkin Latte...BAKED. It actually has BAKED PUMPKIN in it. AND maple. If you aren't hearing me...baked pumpkin. It was phenomenal.
We had dinner on the Hill at Zia's - fabulous as always - then spent a few hours at Bailey's Chocolate Bar. Also excellent. I had a Chai martini - chai ice cream, rumchata, and vanilla vodka...OMG.
All of that on top of the fact that I got to spend an entire day with my girls - I couldn't imagine a better weekend.
The next morning, we enjoyed crepes, coffee, and mimosas at City Coffee House & Creperie and found out who'd won our Bachelorette Bingo Instagram competition (spoiler, Vicky won).
To fill you in, we all had a sheet with 25 squares on it - each describing a different thing we had to find throughout the weekend. The objects were open to "creative interpretation," and some of the photos we snapped were my favorites from the trip. More details at the end of the post.
Unfortunately we all had flights to catch or lesson plans to write or puppies to pick up, so the weekend had to end. I hated hugging everyone goodbye - but I'm sure January will be here before I know it and they'll all be back!
Ladies - thank you SO much for an amazing weekend. I'm so very blessed to have such a sweet set of friends. I cannot fully express how much each of you means to me. Can't wait to see you in January!
Til then!
This is a collection of my favorites from the weekend, laid out on the board in their respective squares. There were two we struggled to get: Momma & Me (as she was having WAY too much fun with her buddy Rhonda), and Me talking about Paul (which Brittany DID get, but it's in video form, so not included). The full collection is available below (and also on Instagram under the tag #alanasgettingmarried). Enjoy!
We started with dinner at the Roommate's precious little house - homemade roasted tomato soup and white cheddar cheese, homemade bread, and rosemary chicken-apple-walnut-blue cheese salad. I miss living with her...
Up next was frilly-gift time followed by an hour or so of watching Gigi & Finley (Roommate's roommate's dog), chase each other around the living room. I loved having all of my favorite girls in one place - such a treat.
Saturday morning, we all met up at the London Tea Room for breakfast. If you're ever in St. Louis, you simply MUST go to the tea room - it's indescribably lovely. I had a pot of the Duke & Duchess blend with a cranberry-orange scone covered in clotted cream and fresh strawberry jam. Pretty much the best breakfast ever.
The plan was to then grab coffee (yes, we like caffeine that much) on our way to our mani-pedi appointment. Our plans were blindsided (literally) by a couple of (again, literal) party crashers. A Ford Taurus came out of nowhere and t-boned Roommate's car in the middle of a rather busy intersection. Thankfully, Little Sister keeps calm in crisis situations and had it pretty much handled by the time I'd even processed what had happened. No one was hurt and we were able to get it sorted out fairly quickly.
Dealing with a car accident was not at all how we wanted to spend our morning, but we had some nice downtime waiting on the cops and the tow truck, then enjoyed a stroll through the SLU campus. All in all, it really didn't put that much of a damper on the day.
We finally arrived at the salon and enjoyed a very girlie hour of manicures & pedicures - note to self: wear a "Bride-to-Be" sash EVERYWHERE. People are SUPER nice to you ALL THE TIME!
Afterwards, we had lunch at one of my favorite spots - Companion - then headed back to the hotel for a quick change before our tour of the Botanical Gardens.
Since it was so late in the afternoon, the Gardens were relatively quiet (except for the no fewer than three weddings setting up as we walked around). Plus, the weather was delightful - making our tour even more enjoyable.
After our tour, we spent time driving around the city and made a stop at Kaldi's Coffee for a caffiene boost before dinner. Y'all...they have a Baked Maple Pumpkin Latte...BAKED. It actually has BAKED PUMPKIN in it. AND maple. If you aren't hearing me...baked pumpkin. It was phenomenal.
We had dinner on the Hill at Zia's - fabulous as always - then spent a few hours at Bailey's Chocolate Bar. Also excellent. I had a Chai martini - chai ice cream, rumchata, and vanilla vodka...OMG.
All of that on top of the fact that I got to spend an entire day with my girls - I couldn't imagine a better weekend.
The next morning, we enjoyed crepes, coffee, and mimosas at City Coffee House & Creperie and found out who'd won our Bachelorette Bingo Instagram competition (spoiler, Vicky won).
To fill you in, we all had a sheet with 25 squares on it - each describing a different thing we had to find throughout the weekend. The objects were open to "creative interpretation," and some of the photos we snapped were my favorites from the trip. More details at the end of the post.
Unfortunately we all had flights to catch or lesson plans to write or puppies to pick up, so the weekend had to end. I hated hugging everyone goodbye - but I'm sure January will be here before I know it and they'll all be back!
Ladies - thank you SO much for an amazing weekend. I'm so very blessed to have such a sweet set of friends. I cannot fully express how much each of you means to me. Can't wait to see you in January!
Til then!
Bachelorette Bingo
This is a collection of my favorites from the weekend, laid out on the board in their respective squares. There were two we struggled to get: Momma & Me (as she was having WAY too much fun with her buddy Rhonda), and Me talking about Paul (which Brittany DID get, but it's in video form, so not included). The full collection is available below (and also on Instagram under the tag #alanasgettingmarried). Enjoy!
A Giant Shoe made out of Shoes
Lauren
St. Louis Arch
Emma
What the What?
Heather
Alana’s Ring
Brittany
Fairy Lights
Gigi being Cute
Underground
Someone Laughing til they Cry
"A rose by any other name…"
Alana Caught by Surprise
Vicky
Favorite Meal
Pretty in Pink
Coffee
Alana with at least THREE of her Bridesmaids (no posing)
Kaitlin
Ten Little Piggies
True Love
You forgot the part about the Girl Scouts singing "Firework" as we were leaving the Botanical Gardens! ;) So glad you had a great weekend!
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