What Happens in Savannah

... stays in Savannah. Ok, so it's not Vegas, but it was still a fabulous location for a Bachelorette party! Last weekend, I enjoyed a girls weekend in Savannah, Georgia for my friend Emily's Bachelorette party.

The 10 of us rented a beautiful house in historic downtown Savannah. It was within walking distance of the bars, restaurants, shops, etc. and surrounded by a neighborhood full of amazing historic homes. It was the perfect option for us so that all 10 of us could stay together the entire weekend. Emily's Maid of Honor, Kristin, used this website HomeAway to find the rental.

Important things you need about my connection to Emily...this will be relevant later in the post. Promise.

1. Emily's fiance, Mike, and my husband were in Kappa Sigma together in college. In fact, I actually was friends with Mike before he even started dating Emily.
2. Mike and my husband are both from the Florida Keys originally. Not the same town, but the Keys are so freakin' small, it's pretty much the same thing.
3. Emily and my sister-in-law, Erika, were sorority sisters in college and Erika is one of her bridesmaids.

So yeah, we've got a little 6 degrees of separation going on here. Greek Life at FSU is quite a small world. Moving on...

Friday night, we arrived in Savannah and just hung out at the house. Kristin, the MOH, cooked us dinner and we played some Bachelorette games.

First, we received our party favors for the weekend. A family friend of mine owns The Embroidery Shoppe and she made these adorable koozies for us! Each girl had her own monogram on one side of her koozie so we could easily figure out who's drink/koozie belonged to who.

Then, we had a little lingerie shower/drinking game. Each of us bought Emily a pair of panties that reminded us of her and she had to try and guess who brought which pair. If she guessed wrong, she had to drink, and if she guessed right then the person who brought them had to drink.

 We played some other Bachelorette games which will not be mentioned here on the blog because posting pictures of panties on here was more than enough inappropriateness for one post :)

There was one that involved red lipstick...which mostly justified why I never wear red lipstick. 

On Saturday, the other girls went to the spa with Emily while Heather and I went to frolic around historic downtown Savannah. #1 highlight of Savannah = no open container law.

Heather and I had lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons, which has been on my bucket list for years now. Check. The food was amaaaaazing. Plus, Heather and I got to meet Paula :)

Finally, it was time for our night out on the town with the Bachelorette!

Prior to going out, everyone was required to write a message on this chalkboard and take a picture with it. The message was supposed to be something to do with your relationship to Emily.
This is what I wrote...

Yes, I know... inappropriate. I blame the pink champagne that we were drinking while getting ready for my naughty message and my poor grammar. I won't tell you what my grammar error is here, let's see if you can figure it out :) PS - Told you my fun facts earlier in the post would be relevant eventually.

And off we went for our night of fun-filled Bachelorette activities...

Of course there were ring pops and naughty-shaped straws involved...

The Bride with her Bridesmaids

When we arrived home from the bar, everyone had to write another message on the chalkboard. This is what Heather and I wrote...

It's a Kappa Sigma reference. Once again, see fun facts from earlier in the post for relevance. If you know anything about Kappa Sig, you'll understand this. Otherwise, just have a good laugh at our expense because we look pretty stupid and intoxicated.

We had an amazing weekend and I can't wait to come back and visit Savannah again soon!

Throwback Thursday

Tomorrow I am leaving for Savannah, Georgia and I am very excited about it! My friend, Emily, is getting married in February and we are celebrating her final months of single-dom with a bachelorette party this weekend. I haven't been to Savannah since sophomore year of college when we went there for my husband's fraternity formal. Therefore, this week's Throwback Thursday is dedicated to the fabulous little town of Savannah.

Throwback Thursday: Savannah, Georgia

Kappa Sigma Formal 2006 

My husband and his best man...they are silly

All the Phi Mu dates

...and Side-pony Saturday was born. 

Sorry Lindsey and Kaleigh for posting this lovely photo of us on the internet. Good times :)

Antebellum Trail - Day 4

I promise this is the last installment of my Antebellum Trail trip posts. Read all about day 1, 2 and 3 of our Antebellum Trail trip here: Antebellum Trail - Day 1, Antebellum Trail - Day 2 and Antebellum Trail - Day 3. Now, moving right along the trail to day 4...

Tuesday, December 20

We ended the Antebellum Trail in Athens, Georgia on day 4 before driving back to Jacksonville. We frolicked around historic downtown and the University of Georgia campus.

Most of the historic Antebellum mansions in Athens were acquired by the fraternities and sororities of UGA. The Greek organizations saved these Antebellum homes from falling into disrepair or being torn down. They are responsible for preserving the historical integrity of these homes, thus enabling us the ability to enjoy this essential part of Athens' history.

 Of course we had to visit the Phi Mu house!

...and that brings us to the end of our Antebellum Trail tour! Hope you enjoyed it :)

Antebellum Trail - Day 3

Read all about day 1 and 2 of our Antebellum Trail trip here: Antebellum Trail - Day 1 and Antebellum Trail - Day 2. Now, moving right along the trail to day 3...

Monday, December 19

We explored Madison and Watkinsville, Georgia on day 3 of our Antebellum Trail trip. Madison was absolutely adorable and I was very tempted to buy one of the Antebellum mansions and move there. We spent most of the day walking around the towns oooh-ing and ahh-ing at the beautiful Antebellum homes.

My dream home...

While touring these homes, we learned about where some of the idioms we use come from. For example, the expression "sleep tight" comes from the beds that were in these homes. They were rope beds which means that they had a wooden frame and rope weaving back and forth under your mattress to hold it up. As the ropes would become loose, you had to tighten them. So when someone says "sleep tight" they are referring to tightening the ropes under your bed. 

The expression "don't let the bed bugs bite" comes from the fact that their mattresses were stuffed with straw, so sometimes the straw in your mattress would have bugs in it.

If you have ever heard someone say "don't throw the baby out with the bath water" it comes from this time period as well. A household would often only have one bathtub and everyone would use the same bath water. You would bathe oldest to youngest, so the father would go first and the baby would go last. Since the families were so big, by the time the baby got to bathe the water would be so dirty that they would simply open the window when they were finished and throw the bath water out the window. So that expression reminds you to fish the baby out of the dirty bath water before you chuck it out the window. 

Antebellum Trail - Day 2

Read all about day 1 of our Antebellum Trail trip here: Antebellum Trail - Day 1. Now, moving right along the trail to day 2...


Sunday, December 18

We spent day 2 of our trip visiting Milledgeville and Eatonton, Georgia. Most of the day was spent in Milledgeville, which is the Antebellum Capitol of Georgia. Meaning, during the Antebellum time period, Milledgeville was actually the Capitol of the State of Georgia. The State Capitol was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868.

While in Milledgeville, we visited...

The original Governor's Mansion

 Georgia College and State University

The original State Capitol

various historic Antebellum homes 

Fun fact that we learned while touring homes in Milledgeville...all of these houses still have their original windows in them and in the daughters' bedrooms you can still see where the girls' names are etched into the windows. Apparently, during this time period it was customary for girls to use their engagement rings to try and scratch their names into their bedroom window immediately after getting engaged. This way, they could make sure that their fiance gave them a real diamond. We saw this in pretty much all of the homes we toured in every town along the Antebellum Trail.

After leaving Milledgeville, we drove to Eatonton where we took a walking tour of the historic homes that surround the town square.