YOU GUYS….

I truly have no words to describe how amazing this past weekend was. It literally blew me away and exceeded every expectation I had as to what my bachelorette party would be. For starters, I’m not the biggest drinker, nor am I a “partier” so I was concerned that I would either a) let down my bridesmaids but not having a raging bachelorette party or b) be pushed and pulled into things I did not want to do for the sake of it being a “bachelorette” party.  Neither of those things happened and it was definitely a weekend I’ll never forget!

I’m going to breakdown my bachelorette party in a few different posts because I have so much I want to document and remember for years to come! Let’s start with the itinerary.

I’d spent weeks searching with my sister and girlfriends for the perfect Airbnb. I’d definitely say we found it (more on that later). After booking the place, I created a list of places; restaurants/bars/etc that I’d seen on Pinterest and sent them to my sister. She put together the perfect little itinerary, totally encompassing a weekend fit for me and just my style. Luckily, my sister and one of my best friends, Natalie, got the airbnb an extra night and were able to go down Thursday to prepare and decorate the spot before I got there.

My bachelorette party took place Friday, July 12th to Sunday, July 14th.  I got to the Airbnb on Friday morning, around 10 am. Amilee, Natalie, and Vanessa were already all there, and then I drove down with 2 of my other bridesmaids, Cynthia and Stephanie. I was blown away when I walked into the house. It was beautiful, I’m going to do a separate post highlighting all the decorations and details so forgive me for glazing over it here!

Once we all got there, we enjoyed a mimosa together, toured the house, opened our goodie bags, and then started getting ready to hit the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I’ve always wanted to go but it was under maintenance for awhile and they just started running it again this month! The timing was perfect! We spent about 3 hours going up to the top of the Tramway and walking around- the views were breathtaking!

After the tramway, we headed out to La Serena Villas, to have appetizers and drinks at their bar area called Azucar. It was such a gorgeous place and the drinks were amazing! We left the bar around 5 pm and went back to the airbnb where we played games, got in the pool, my girlfriend Stephanie and I put on a little impromptu concert for everyone (which was a blast), we danced and sang the night away, had pizza for dinner, and ended the evening with a little game of Midnight Taboo. And just like that, Day 1 was done! It went by SO fast!

Day 2 started with brunch at The Farm, in downtown Palm Springs. We got all dressed up in the most adorable Bride/Bridesmaid tees I’ve ever seen. We enjoyed brunch and walked around a bit and then it was back to the Airbnb for a total pool day. Natalie and my sister filled the pool with the MOST AMAZING FLOATS, one of which was a pool pong floatie that got a lot of use. We snacked, drank (the girls made a “Franco potion” drink that was pretty damn good & just my style- not strong in the slightest & also purple), sang every song that came on the bachelorette party playlist (sharing it soon!), danced, and took waayyyy too many photos. My phone storage is packed and it’s totally fine by me!

Around 6 pm we started to shower and get ready to hit the town. It wouldn’t be a bachelorette party without your standard “everyone wear black & the bride wears white” dress code, right? Well, I like being a little different, so I wore my favorite color- purple- and decided to forgo the whole white thing. Not to say theres anything wrong with it, I ‘m just going to be wearing a lot of white for basically everything and I decided I wanted to switch it up and wear a color that I actually love, you know?

Once we were all ready, we got an Uber, and went out for dinner to a place called Las Casuelas in downtown Palm Springs. Funny coincidence, my dad had his bachelor party in Palm Springs and had his “night out” dinner at the same place. (I had no idea until after I’d told him where we went). We enjoyed dinner and drinks out on the patio, listening to the live music (the band even gave us a shoutout!). After dinner, we got another Uber to go to a place called Bootlegger Tiki, on the way there, we passed two of the most popular clubs, both of which had lines around the block to get in, IT WAS CRAZY and once we saw the line, knew right away that that was not what we wanted to do with our night. Once we got to Bootlegger Tiki, we were told for a party of 6, it’d be about a 40 min wait. So we sat down to wait, starting thinking, and shortly decided that it’d be more fun to head back to our house and play some games and drink our free alcohol .

So that’s what we did! Of course we had some X-rated games, as you’d expect- so laughed the night away as we played them all in our pjs. Natalie even jumped in the pool at like midnight, just for the hell of it. Our house had a pretty amazing backyard space, so before going to bed, we sat outside under stars and just talked about how fast the weekend had gone and how amazing everything was. Day 2 was a full day of fun in the sun and I was so bummed going to bed that night, knowing that the next day would be the day we said goodbye.

Sunday, everyone slept in till like 8 am, knowing we had to get everything cleaned and out by 10 am. Let me tell you, that never would have happened if it weren’t for the bestie Vanessa. She’s used to getting up at like 5 am and sure enough, got up at 5 am that morning and STARTED CLEANING AND PACKING EVERY. SINGLE. THING. UP. I got up at 7 am and walked out to the kitchen to everything laid out and ready to be packed. I was shocked, (Vanessa you are an angel and I cannot believe all the work you did. I cannot thank you enough!)

We packed everything into the cars and drove out to a local coffee shop- Ernest Coffee, which I heard had the best chai tea in town. Chai tea is my signature drink so I had to see what the buzz was all about. Sure enough, I can attest, it was truly the best chai tea I think I’ve ever had, blows Starbucks out of the water.  We sat, sipped (*that’s right Cynthia, I said it), and shared photos of our weekend for about an hour before saying our goodbyes and heading home.

The weekend truly was one that was absolutely amazing and meant so much to me. The amount of detail and effort that everyone put in honestly shocked me and made me a bit emotional. Seeing how everyone was just down to do whatever I wanted and just be together to support me was amazing. I’m walking away from this weekend with such a full heart and feel very blessed and lucky to have the girls I do. I have the most supportive, kind hearted, selfless, hilarious, outrageous girls around me and it really made this entire weekend a dream come true.

Amilee & Natalie- I know how much effort, money, stress, and time you put into making this weekend perfect. And I’ll be the first to tell you, you nailed it. Honestly. I’m a pretty detail-oriented person and like things very Instagrammable (head to my IG: @mrsamandafranco for the proof), and they decorated EVERY corner of the airbnb. There wasn’t one space that was not a total photo-op and lets just say, that’s very on brand for me 🙂

To my girls- I love you so much and have counted on you all for so much. Thanks for always having my back and for being the absolute best friends a girl could have.

Here’s till Part II!

xoxo,

Amanda