Bling Bling – Bachelorette Finale Party Recap

July 31, 2015
by Emily

For those who don’t watch the Bachelor or the Bachelorette, I get it.  Maybe it’s not something you’re interested in or you have a hard time dedicating two hours of your time to a reality TV show every week.

I urge you to change your mind about the premiere and/or the finale though!  Since Kaitlyn’s season (#11 for the Bachelorette and somewhere in the low thirties for the whole franchise) was ending on Monday night I had a group of ladies to my house to all get together and watch.

Out of the 11 of us, I was the only one who had watched the entire season and only three others had been casually watching.  My mom did manage to at least Google a season recap so she at least knew the three major players’ names…  Don’t worry though; we still called Nick “the Other Guy” for the whole night!

Even though so many of the girls had no idea what had happened all season we had a great time.  Of course, we had a pink lemonade wine punch and everybody brought food.  The most discussed crowd pleaser was probably the ricotta cheese and truffle oil dip.

My favorite “suite treat” were the ring pops.  It was fun for us to watch while wearing our own rocks.  Even the one Shawn picked for Kaitlyn couldn’t compare to the size of those!

We had so much fun gossiping about the show, catching up with each other and making predictions about the next bachelor.  (I know it’s rumored to be Ben H, but I don’t buy until he signs a contract.  I’m sort of hoping it’s Andi’s ex-fiancee Josh.  I think Ben H would be boring for an entire season.)

Something I did that was really fun was make “Team Nick” and “Team Shawn” buttons.  The group was overwhelmingly Team Shawn or Team Reject Them Both, but a couple people felt bad that Nick had no one on his side, so I did see a couple of Team Nick buttons leave the bowl.

The gamemaster Dara even put together Bingo boards featuring various probable moments (blatant Neil Lane diamond product placement, Chris Harrison says “the most <insert adjective here> season yet, someone says “future husband or wife”) and we used M&Ms to keep track.  She even brought prizes for the first two bingo winners – bouquets of roses!

Already looking forward to the premiere for next season.  I’m hoping to have everyone do predictions and then reread them at the finale!

**All photos credited to Dara McBride.  Isn’t she fab for helping me out?

Wine Trolley

July 22, 2015
by Emily

After getting a fabulous tour and tasting of the Auburn Road Vineyard & Winery back in February with my cousin, we thought it would be so fun to come back for another visit when it was a little warmer.  Lucky for us Auburn was teaming up with several other wineries that form the Two Bridges Wine Trail in South Jersey and hosting a wine trolley event.

So simple – start at Auburn and also get to taste wines from Chestnut Run Winery, then head to Cedarvale Winery, stop for a “farm to fork” lunch at Cecil Creek Farm and round out the day with a tasting at Wagonhouse Winery.  The best part?  An old time trolley was the transportation between each spot!

We had such a fun group of girls together for the trolley and we loved visiting all of the wineries without having to drive.  Two Bridges runs the trolley every few months, so keep an eye out here for upcoming dates!

Night in White

July 13, 2015
by Emily

This year I’ve tried to really make an effort to be a “Yes Girl,” that is someone who will accept any invitation barring previous plans.  I realized that no matter the event, you can always find a way to have fun with friends and you never know who you’ll meet or what you might discover about yourself.

When one of my girlfriends told a group of us she had found this event called Night in White in the nearby village of Arden, of course, I had to say yes.  Basically we dress all in white, design a tablescape all in white and have a great night out with friends.

Other than that I had no idea what to expect, but this was one of those times when everything I could come up with was completely exceeded.

I have a great group of girls who organized us, divvying up the menu and decorations.  As the date got closer we only got more excited.

We all arrived at the historic Gild Hall and then processed with the entire group to an Arden resident’s backyard where the event would take place.  The house, barn and guesthouse on the property were all beautiful – a Pinterest lover’s dream.  The barn even had two sofa swings, perfect for intimate chats at the event.

By the time we arrived at the event’s secret location we were all pretty hungry, so of course got right to work setting up our tablescape and laying out the food!  While our tablescape was definitely a coordinated effort, it turned out so cohesively gorgeous.  Gretchen did a great flower arrangement in one of my mom’s yard sale find vases, I had some battery operated white pillar candles and Ash not only donated white wedding lanterns, but also wedding chair decorations.

The spread was amazing and all of the contributing chefs did a great job.Although we didn’t display a printed menu like our neighboring table, we had so many great options – a cheese and charcuterie plate, sweet curry chicken salad lettuce wraps, summer peanut broccoli slaw salad and caprese and basil-melon skewers.  To top it off, Gretchen (@gebriz) and Dara (@darakmcbride) worked together on a gluten free, two layer cake with a blueberry vanilla filling – not only beautiful, but so, so delicious.  (Keep an eye out for recipes!)

Photo credit: Gretchen Brizendine


The rest of the night was filled with great conversation with everyone from our own table as well as all of the artists and patrons from Arden.  Bonus: Ashley and Steve had actually had their recent nuptials blessed that morning, so everyone loved that she wore her wedding dress and chose to spend her second wedding night with them!

Following dinner, the winners for Best Tablescape and Best Dressed Couple were announced, along with the raffle ticket winners.  Ashley and Steve won Best Dressed, of course.  I mean, how could anyone compete with an actual wedding dress on the day of the wedding?

Lucky for me Ashley and Steve had one of the winning raffle tickets but are so #humble they didn’t feel it was right to win twice so I gladly stepped in to accept their raffle prize – a free dance class at the Gild!  What a cool thing, especially for a Yes Girl.  I’m thinking about using my free class to learn Israeli dance.  How many people can say they’ve done that?

We wrapped up the night with the entire 150 person group doing a sparkler sendoff.  It was honestly one of those moments that was truly enchanting.

It really was just such a beautiful night.  I’m so glad I had such a great group to share it with!

*Dress is from Francesca’s, last summer