August 8-11th we went to IOP to celebrate the bride to be, Kenzie! She's marrying Chad's bff, Casey, in October and she's been a part of the crew for years since they first met in Oklahoma (where she's originally from and where they met on his fishing excursions). All of the bridesmaids pitched in to plan an epic weekend and one of our friends graciously offered up her beach house in IOP for us to stay at. SO nice! Here's the invitations I scored on Etsy that featured all the Bach details on the back...(itinerary, lingerie details + game plans, etc...)
her Oklahoma bridesmaids made epic swag bags and the cutest tanks...
the cutest, yummy cookies too...
Ok so let's back it up for a run down of the weekend...
First up, I left work early that Thursday and drove down that afternoon. Her OK gals + Lessie (who owns the house) came in on Wednesday, then most everyone else came down at some point on Thursday.
I stopped at Harris Teeter and the clouds were ridiculous...
as soon as I left, the bottom. fell. out. (least, that's what us Southerners say) I made it to the beach house and pulled under the garage where the gals had just come off the beach. We sat down there and watched the crazy storm, meanwhile two friends of ours that were going into Harris Teeter as I came out, got STUCK inside for nearly an hour. They said the manager handed out snacks. BAAAHAHA
It was crazy hail and torrential downpour. Insane wind too! Seriously, this is the pic our two friends took as they were finally in route from Harris Teeter to the beach house. Check out that flooding...(and the rainbow)
the calm after the storm... soooo much water on the beach. This was not high tide.
the gorgeous beach house, but during the storm guess what? the power went out. YEP. It was off for hours so we stayed outside enjoying the beach until dark...
We had planned on going to Morgan Creek for dinner but when the power went out we just ordered pizza and had a dance party in the dark...haha I think this is when the power finally came back on...
Lessie decorated the entire house and did a phenomenal job! Everything was amazing, from the big decor to the signs on our assigned rooms...
Friday we had a beach day aaalll day + Maggie cooked dinner Friday night (Mexican + we did margaritas) then we played games and had a fun lingerie shower for Kenzie! Apparently I wasn't very good at getting pics this day...
The next day, we decided to beach it again since her OK gals went sightseeing on Thursday before we got there. We posed in our cute new tanks...
then that evening we all had fun getting ready together and the Charleston Cool Bus picked us up at 7:30 to take us into downtown Charleston...
so the Charleston Cool Bus was recommended by customers/friends of mine and was the best price for a party bus. It's basically a school bus they've gutted and put pontoon seats (I mean hellooo she IS marrying a professional fisherman) in + tiki hut decor. Warning: it''s a bumpy ride so grab your drinks, play your music loud and hold. on. Gosh, I think we had more fun on the party bus than anywhere else!
seriously, so much fun. we blasted 90s jams (a lot of Salt-N-Pepa, Dixie Chicks and more...) and had the best time...
on Saturday night I had arranged for private dining (aka just about the only option you're going to get in downtown Charleston on COFC move in weekend when calling to reserve two weeks out. My advice: call two MONTHS prior to your big party event) All in all the private dining worked out to be amazing and I can't say enough great things about The Macintosh. The food was incredible and the staff was the most polite, attentive wait staff I've ever had in Charleston. They were amazing.
We had family style dining for a set price per person. Highly recommend this for a large group (we had 13) since we didn't have to wait hours upon hours for our meal on a busy Saturday night. Preplanned, quick, easy and delish. Again, this is the way to go.
The "Mac Crunch" a yummy chocolate mouse with a chocolate covered potato chip on top + potato chip crust. The perfect combo of salty and sweet. Do not miss this specialty dessert!
after dinner we walked just across the street to REPUBLIC, where we had a VIP booth to dance the night away... (or just sit and drink the night away bc #weold)
last women standing. everyone waiting on the cool bus after a long, fun night!
Sunday some of the gals had to head back home but I stayed on a bit for a boat ride + lunch at Red's at Shem Creek. It was fun to show the OK girls around The Battery, explain why Charleston is called "The Holy City", etc...
a really fun day UNTIL there came up another storm... y'all it was so bad...
We BARELY made it back to the marina without being struck by lightning. It was streaking down from the sky , popping all around the boat we literally were tucked down screaming and crying because we thought we were going to die. (dramatic, maybe) Seriously scary though. Never had lightning that close and the irony was Imagine Dragon's "Thunder" was playing on the boat.
(*cue palm to the forehead emoji now...)
So Lessie drove the golf cart with our captain and his girlfriend to get them to safety and I was in charge of the other golf cart...with no front windshield.... I literally wore these sunglasses to keep the salty rain out of my eyes as much as possible but I could. not. see. It was so bad , it was comical and I'm glad we can laugh about it now....
what a way to end the weekend, of course we had to take a photo to prove we SURVIVED!
so THAT is the craaaazy storm that was Kenzie's IOP Bach Weekend!
Our motto: We survived!!!!!!!! (still recouping, but we survived...)
Next up, our anniversary weekend...
Happy Hump Day and BACK TO SCHOOL WEEK!
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