'Rach'elorette Party Weekend in San Diego

 Yay! Christian's dad and best friends are in town! While they are off exploring Southern California, my sis and I have been checking wedding stuff off the list...we leave for Mexico in 4 days!!!

One thing we checked off the list a couple weeks ago was my bachelorette party (aka the rach-elorette party)!

Actually I flew into California from Amsterdam on Thursday night and took off for San Diego the next afternoon. My friend Smitty and I sipped on champagne upon the Pacific Surfliner bound for San Diego, met my sisters and some more friends for some brewery-hopping in San Diego and got to sleep early to prep for the next morning. 

The next day, my friends had strict instructions to take me to breakfast while some others prepped the party house. Julie rented a house for us in Ocean Beach just a short stroll from the beach and the bars! Once we got to the house, we chilled in the backyard, looked at the photobook prepared by everyone, sipped on local beers, champagne, and munched on all kinds of goodies from Trader Joe's (yum!).

The rest of the day was a blur of barhopping, fish tacos, gummy bear shots and 'Rachael jeopardy' hahaha! Unfortunately jetlag got the best of me around 9PM. But not until after I saw that my brother-in-law Mike prepared the world's largest charcuterie (cheese and meat plate)--one of my favorite things!

On the bright side, going to sleep early meant that we were ready to take on Pacific Beach on Sunday! But first, Chef Mike did it again and him and his two buddies came and cooked all of us breakfast burritos from scratch!

I loved my bachelorette weekend so much that I didn't return back to Orange County until Tuesday. I had never been to Ocean Beach before, but you bet we'll be back!! With all of my closest ladies in one spot and with the beach right down the street it was the absolute perfect welcome back to California after almost 6 years in Amsterdam.

Thanks, Twinnie!

{A huge charcuterie waiting for us back at the party house!}

{Twinnies!}

{Post bach-party in Pacific Beach}

An Irish Bachelorette

A few months ago, my twin sis got hitched. Part of my maid of honor duties were to ofcourse plan a bachelorette shin-dig like no other. She was not only marrying the love of her life but she was also getting rid of our proud Irish last name—O’Banion. Our family celebrates St. Patrick’s Day almost as festively as Christmas! My mom makes corned beef and cabbage, my family comes over and ofcourse we drink a bit here and there ;). Well in my quest to create the best bachelorette weekend ever and to theme it in a way that I know she would never forget, the answer was easy—an Irish inspired bachelorette! We had to give that O’Banion last name a proper farewell, right? Planning a bachelorette party 5000 miles away is no easy feat…fortunately the internet and some mutual friends (and bridesmaids!) of ours were able to help me out along the way.

Once the bachelorette finally came, myself, the bride and 14 other girlies were off to Viva Las Vegas! Christian was en route to the Bachelor party at a mansion in the desert with the groom + 40 frat boys and college buddies of his (yes 40!) with a no camera policy (I’ve still yet to get ANY details about how the bachelor party was). Vegas was an easy decision for us—clubs, pool parties and a 24 hour city! I provided each girl with a Vegas tote bag filled with leprechaun loot, Irish-inspired necklaces & buttons, and a mini leprechaun top hat to wear while we paraded my twin sis around The Strip. We dressed the Bride in a gold-sequined mini dress (leprechauns do need to protect their pot o’ gold don’t they?), gave her a scrapbook in which every girl made a page about their friendship (tears were flowin’ ofcourse!) pre-partied in our humongous suite at Planet Hollywood and hit the town! The weekend was the best weekend in Vegas to date--a mixture of pool parties, the luck o’ the irish, sushi at Sushi Roku, plenty of dancing and the bride-to-be standing on a poolside cabana couch yelling ‘THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!’ at the Wynn’s fancy-shmancy poolside club, XS. Mission accomplished? I’d say so :).

And ofcourse since St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, I can’t help but to share a few snippets of this crazy bachelorette party weekend…ya I pity her because she’ll soon be working on my bachelorette party…I’m curious what she’ll have up her sleeve! Although I don't think she can top this...typical twin quarreling words ;)

{Road trip!}