Bachelorette Party - Masquerade Style

Last Saturday, we celebrated my little sister's bachelorette party -- masquerade style! Festivities began with dinner and games out on my parent's deck. They have such a great space for hosting parties. We were a bit concerned about rain, but the most we had to deal with was wind... I'll take it! 

I had spent months making all the decor myself. I was very thankful for all those years of hoarding craft supplies, paper samples and other whatnots... all of the decorations were made with stuff I had on hand and a $30 trip to the Dollar Store and Hobby Lobby. I'm also super glad Santa bought me a Silhouette machine last Christmas. 

I'm not a party planner by any means... nor do I know how to decorate. With a hodge podge of ideas saved on Pinterest, I opted to go with a black, white, silver and gold color scheme and did my best to create a look that said "elegant" instead of "mardi gras." 

My Silhouette and I made up some photo props. I had some great silver and gold paper samples on hand to cut out glasses, moustaches and lips.

Games included a "How Well do you Know Ashley" trivia game as well as a bar crawl scavenger hunt. Our cousin, Laura, knew Ashley the best. The scavenger hunt fizzled out shortly after arriving at the bar... oh well. 

Yeah, my ass squeezed into that dress. Good God. And then there were Spanx... omg the Spanx. *shudder*

Ashley's bridesmaids... 

After dinner, we loaded up and headed to Grand Rapids. Our first stop was Mojos... and the rest is history.

Overall, I consider the night a success. We had a great turnout, great weather and I successfully kept my sister upright and alive the entire evening. Definitely a win. 

A huge thank you to Mama Z for all her help preparing/serving food, hosting and the clean up once we took off for Grand Rapids. Couldn't have pulled it off without you. 

T-minus 14 more days until Ashley and Adam tie the knot! 

S+L Hitched: Laura's Bridal Shower

In addition to my sister's couples shower this past weekend, we also celebrated my cousin Laura's bridal shower! 

The ladies in our family did a wonderful job with decorating and everything came together so nicely. We watched the weather radar religiously all weekend and thankfully everything dried up just in time to have the shower outdoors at my parent's house. 

Mama Z had me print out their wedding invite that I had designed on some tracing paper so she could mod podge it onto a candle. High five mama, well done!

The beautiful bride-to-be... looking stunning as always! 

Shameless plug... Laura blogs over at Relatively Offbeat, so make sure you go check out all her chic outfits, recipes and adventures with soon-to-be hubby, Steve, and fur child, Syrus!

Beautiful bridesmaids! 

Brody was a huge fan of bridal shower bingo. He helped Grandma Z with her card... and then he proceeded to pour the jars of buttons out all over the yard. Thanks, kiddo. Mama appreciates it.

Lil Man also took a page out of Ryan's playbook and decided to pursue this older and taller cute blonde at the party. Ermahgerd... adorable. Someone's gotta teach that kid some subtly though. He practically followed her around the yard the entire shower and never took his eyes off her. Aww, to be young and twitterpated. 

Anyways, it was another beautiful shower spent celebrating with family. I can't wait to celebrate with these lovebirds in September! Side note, does anyone else binge relentlessly on those butter mints at showers and then slip into a food coma? Well, I guess if your weekend ends in a food coma, then you were doing something right. Right?

Happy Thursday kids! The weekend is near...

Love and Goulets: Couples Shower

T-minus one month until my little sister ties the knot! Wait... one month?! Well shit, I guess I better get going on that MOH speech and figure out how I'm going to squeeze into my bridesmaid dress after all the wedding festivities these last couple weeks. What a pig.

Anyways, Adam's family hosted a couples shower this past Saturday evening. Sadly, I went stag. My main men were too busy with sleepovers at Aunt Cindy's house and working out of town. Boooooo. :(

The evening got started with a hilarious round of "whose leg is this?" Adam and Ashley took turns being blindfolded and groping everyone's legs. The goal was to identify one another. 

Ashley narrowed it down to Adam, his dad and his uncle. Hmm... apparently the Goulet men have very similar legs. However, she successfully singled out Adam after further uncomfortable groping. 

Adam managed it narrow it down to Ashley..... and his sister Ashley! Oooooh, that's awkward. Thankfully, he chose the right Ashley (for his own sake.)

Best photo of the night!

Most of the bridesmaids...

And then there's these dorks. Awkward touching and flipper arm, judgmental Ben and those two lovebirds in the middle sharing a special moment. No dull moments anticipated at this wedding.

Obligatory maid-of-honor and best man photos. Ash and I look cute... well, I guess so do those two weirdos.

And of course the mamas and the papas...

Overall, the evening was wonderful. The rain let up just enough to have some of the celebration outside, the food was amazing and there was booze. Duh. Plus I got to briefly catch up with Adam's people who are all guys I graduated from high school with. Welp, better get going on that MOH speech. Uncomfortable stories about why we nicknamed Ashley "Stinky" and her laundry list of ex-boyfriends are acceptable topics, right? ;)

God Bless 'Merica

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend as much as I did! New things were planned/happened each day and for once I wasn't such a hermit. Even though Brody was scheduled to be with his dad all weekend, I'm very glad I had Thursday and Friday off from work so we were able to spend two whole days together. Ryan, who was supposed to be in New Jersey working all weekend, had a change of schedule so we got to spend the entire weekend together as well.

Ryan is quite the experienced landscaper and volunteered to spend his first day off in months working on the front of my house. He did such a fantastic job... I can't believe the difference it made! Lil Man and Zora spent most of the day perched in the living room windows watching him work and barking out orders. 

What a guy! :)

Lil Man, Zora and I hung around the house Friday morning until it was nice enough for pool time at Grandma and Grandpa Z's house. Despite being on the crabby side due to teething, he's also apparently going through a huge growth spurt. Slept for 14 hours straight, took a 2 hour morning nap despite only being awake for 90 minutes, then slept an additional 3 hours in the afternoon. Holy cow, kid! We did sneak in a little bit of pool time together before he left for his dad's.

Once Brody left, Ryan, Mom, Dad and I got ready to go out and have some dinner at The Deck and watch Steve Rivers perform. We met up with quite a few family members and friends and the weather was perfect. 

Of course, who could pass up a beautiful night without a walk out on the pier? 

♥

Mom and Dad Z always said the true test of a relationship is how well you can survive together on a tandem bike, so the four of us hit the road and made the loop from Muskegon to Grand Haven and back through Spring Lake and Fruitport. Being the first real trip of the season for all of us, the buns were a bit sore, but it was a great ride and much appreciated time together. For the record, Ryan and I did just fine. ;)

It was also our duty of lifelong Michiganders to show the Indiana native what a real lake looked like. After our bike ride, we loaded up the coolers with a picnic dinner and got the boat ready. Although a little choppy, we gave Ryan the official tour of Muskegon Lake, Bear Lake and Lake Michigan. 

We dropped anchor in Bear Lake where the water was a bit calmer and ate our sandwiches just like we used to do when Ash and I were kids. Oh the memories...

...and of course, what long weekend isn't summed up by a picture of all 3 dogs and both the guys snoring? 

I hope everyone else enjoyed the long weekend and hopefully Monday wasn't too unbearable!