The Bachelorette

To celebrate my sister, a group of her friends went to Charlotte for the weekend for a last hoorah before her wedding. It's been a long time since I've spent a weekend like this, but it was a blast and so worth voluntarily seeing 1 am.

On Friday, Jennie, Caroline and I headed to Charlotte mid-morning. Once we got there we spent almost 3 hours in Ikea. (Awesome!! I found the chairs I wanted to go with my new farm table! So excited to get them out to the farm!)

After we checked into the hotel, we freshened up, then met a bunch of Jennie's girlfriends at Ario for dinner. We enjoyed a great dinner before heading to Rooster's for a drink (or two).

 We called it a night after that in preparation for our busy day Saturday and plans to go out big on Saturday night!

I was most excited about Saturday morning because one of Jennie's friends, Carrie, had arranged for a personal shopper at Nordstrom's. I knew Jennie was going to love this! And she did, even bursting into tears when we revealed the plans in the dressing room.

 Her stylist had filled the entire dressing room with awesome outfits, shoes and accessories for the honeymoon and wedding parties.

Jennie tried on tons of things and found some great things! A few others got in on the fun, including myself. I came home with 2 dress possibilities for the rehearsal dinner along with several other awesome finds!

 The stylists that helped us, Jordan and Amy, were awesome! They truly took all 8 or 9 of us, crammed into the dressing room with opinions and requests, in stride and did a superb job. (This a complimentary service Nordstrom's offers, and I have to say, I may never shop any other way again!! Loved it!)

Caroline with everyone's packages. Fun fun!!

After lunch and more shopping in Southpark, we headed back to the hotel for Jennie's lingerie shower.

 She got lots of great things! It was a fun shower.

 

 We went to Vida's for dinner.

 And then our first stop of the night was Howl at the Moon. This is a dueling piano bar that is loads of fun. Although, I will say their customer service isn't all that great. They have some odd rules (no moving the chairs around, having to pay for each drink as it's brought to you), but the atmosphere was fun and the music was entertaining. And the jello shots seemed to be popular ;)

 Jennie on the piano with a lady who was celebrating her 50th birthday. (This lady was having a great time - I asked her to take our picture and now I have a not-so-flattering close-up of her face as she took the picture with the camera facing her!)

I knew our next stop would be another of Jennie's favorites and it was! (Mine too!) One of Jennie's friends, Ginny, is married to Dale Earnhardt's race engineer. And Dale happens to have a night club in Charlotte, Whiskey River. Well, Ginny treated us to the VIP treatment here! I knew the VIP status would go over well my sister!

When we arrived, we were given wristbands that identified us as VIP and led to a roped off section of the club. We had our own private section that was a level higher than the dance floor (which stretched out in front of us.) We could come and go as we pleased, only needing to show our wristbands to the bouncers on either side of our section. It was awesome!! A night club experience without dealing with the crowds and unwanted advances a night club brings.

We did venture into the fray to ride the mechanical bull. There are pictures, but I think I'll try to keep all the new friends I made this weekend by not showing them :) Believe me though, it was fun and those of us who tried it succeeded!!

 

 Our table - you ordered the bottle of liquor you wanted and our own personal waitress mixed the drinks right here so we didn't have to go the bar at all. The silver cage is where the liquor was kept with the key on the waitress' wrist. It really was a neat experience and I know Jennie had a blast and loved it!! Thanks again, Ginny, for an incredible night!!

Girls, what a great weekend! I'm not sure I'm going to recover any time soon, but it was worth it! I am so glad Jennie has such amazing friends. I look forward to seeing you all at the wedding in a few weeks!! I know that will be another awesome weekend!!