Get ready to read about my nontraditional, but absolutely incredible bachelorette trip to Nashville. Yes, maybe it is cliché to do your bachelorette in Nashville with a majority of the other east coast brides-to-be, but you can certainly make the experience your own and that is EXACTLY what our group did!
What started as an idea to attend a concert with some friends turned into perfect opportunity to be my bachelorette party and include all of the people I love, boys included! My fiancé and three of my other best guy friends went on the trip with us and it was THE BEST. While the internet is always quick to jump to conclusions when the partner of the bride or groom attends a trip, I am SO glad I made this decision. We experienced some really cool things while we were gone and while I respect the more traditional girls-only approach, this approach was perfect for ME and I'm glad my fiancé was there to share these memories with me!
If I could give you only one recommendation for your bachelorette trip, wherever it may be, BOOK. A. PHOTO. SHOOT! I looked for a while before booking our session and every time I found a photo on Google or Pinterest that I absolutely LOVED, it always led me back to Mandy Liz Photography! Now, I'll save the sad stuff for another time, but this trip was born on a bit of a sad note and what happened made me realize how important every moment is now and how important every memory will be one day. So, I wanted to capture this trip with photos that would last forever, of the people I love the most, and that is exactly what we did! Mandy was incredible to work with and we ALL are SO happy with the results!
If you're wondering what this super cool confetti-like substance is, well, it's Ecofetti, the best water-soluble, non-toxic, and biodegradable confetti on the market! Order some today for your next photo shoot! Don't worry, it comes in every color you can imagine, so it's perfect for more than bachelorette parties!
In true Katie fashion, I had our entire weekend planned! Working around the photo shoot and with a big group of people can be challenging anywhere, so we did the leg work many months prior to our visit and made as many reservations as we could!
On Thursday, my fiancé and I arrived early for a quick night to ourselves. We hopped over to The Factory at Franklin where we checked out Urban Sips, Five Daughters Bakery and several other super cute shops! We had an incredible dinner at Perry's Steakhouse - top 5 dinners of my life! I don't think you could go wrong with anything on the menu, but they are famous for their pork chop and the one we saw from across the room was almost as big as my head!
On Friday morning we got up and headed to our next reservation for breakfast at Loveless Cafe. I had really high expectations for this based on hype from everyone else and while it was a good breakfast, it didn't knock my socks off. I'd say 6.5 or 7/10. A cool experience to see the many signed photographs on the walls from all of the celebrity visitors over the years. Glad we went, but would try another spot next time!
After breakfast we headed back to the airport to pick up all of our friends! We rented an Expedition for the weekend and it definitely cut down on the number of Ubers/Lyfts we had to take. After getting checked into our Airbnb and all settled, our first night was spent with dinner at Pharmacy Burger (8/10!) and then we hit Broadway! I'd been to Nashville several times before, but not since Casa Rosa (Miranda Lambert's bar) had opened, so that was our first and only stop on Broadway. It was packed! The live music when we arrived was so great! We hung out until the DJ was on for a while and then at about 10:30 pm made our way outside. The line for everything was crazy long and with our photos the next morning, we decided to call it a night.
Getting an Uber was a NIGHTMARE because the Friday night concert had ended along with a couple sporting events. I had to bribe our first Uber driver to go back for the other half of our group because they couldn't get a ride home. It was insane, but the only real negative of the trip was the Uber/Lyft situations.
Saturday morning we got up and out for our photo shoot! After we wrapped up the shoot, the girls and guys split off into separate groups so the girls could make a reservation at Pinewood Social and the boys could explore whatever they wanted all over town. The food at Pinewood Social was pretty good and our server had a fun personality! I would definitely go back here. The drinks are pricey, but overall loved this place! Definitely make a reservation! The wait at a couple other spots was 1.5 hours for a group of 7 at 11 am, so we stuck with our confirmed reservation here for 12:30 instead.
After brunch we headed over to 12 South which was also PACKED! Found the last parking spot in a paid lot and walked to check out Stoney Clover (cute, but pricey), Draper James, and a few other spots. Draper James is the beautiful Reese Witherspoon's store and home of the charming blue and white stripe mural you'll see online often. Directly across from it is the "I believe in Nashville" mural, another super popular stop! 12 South is also home to many more murals that make great photo ops within a walking distance. Plus, restaurants, dessert shops, boutiques and more! You can't go wrong spending time in 12 South!
We went back to the house for a few hours of rest - it was already hot in Nashville in mid-April, and ordered in from Five Points Pizza so we didn't have to worry about a dinner reservation before the concert. GREAT decision, if I do say so myself. Pizza was great and the convenience was even better. Plus our group ate all of the leftovers when we got home from the concert!
Our last event for the weekend was the Luke Combs concert and we caught the opening acts from Lainey Wilson and Riley Green. Luke Combs always puts on a good show, always! We were all thoroughly impressed with Lainey and Riley too!