Kaleena's Bachelorette Party
Oh my gosh! 3 parties in 3 weeks. How did I do it? With lots of help & lots of sticky notes of to-do lists. This past Saturday was Kaleena's bachelorette party! It was an all day & all night event and a TON of fun.
This is Kaleena. She's a regular here at the Craig blog. You've seen all the pictures from her bridal shower back in May. She's getting married Labor day weekend in upstate New York. I'll be a bridesmaid (don't ask how many times I've been a bridesmaid- its sad).
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
We started Part 1 with a Taste of Carolina Food Tour in Durham. You have a personal tour guide that walks you around from restaurant to restaurant. Each restaurant gives you a little sample of whats on their menu. I had never been on a food tour before. My friend Heather had done it once and thought it might be a good idea for a group of girls for the bachlorette party. Well, it turned out to be a GREAT idea.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
Here is the group before the start of our tour. Some of us were strangers at this point but we all quickly became great friends and had a ton of fun together.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
The tour started out a little "slow". Most of us had not eaten and we were starving when the tour started at 1pm. The first few places that we started literally teases.
Our first stop was Scratch bakery. They gave us a donut muffin. It was chocolate donut mix but into a muffin ban and then sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar. I wasn't a huge fan but whatever. Unfortunately I was still starving.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
My younger sister was in town too so she joined us and it was a special treat!
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
Next stop was the Piedmont Restaurant.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
This was the restaurant I was looking forward to most. The Piedmont owns their own farm (which of course I looked up on my side and looks like we contact them twice a year for surveys). Everything they serve is local & usually purchased the morning of at a local farmer's market. So when they served up this "little" dish with literally one scoop of melon on it, to say I was a disappointed was an understatement.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
The 2nd dish @ the Piedmont was to die for but of course two little squash fish sticks wasn't going to do the trick either.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
But luckily, they gave us some champagne to hold us over.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
The Piedmont ending up being a great place for a photo opportunity with the bride & her hosts.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
Our next stop was Parker & Otis. This had to be my FAVORITE stop on the tour. One reason was that it provided our little hungry eaters like Jenni & Nichole a chance to get a real meal and they were both super excited about that. This would be Jenni flipping out about all the food she could have. I assume this was Jenni's favorite stop since they had little pigs everywhere as decorations. I liked it too- being the Hog stat that I am! I was tempted to count all the little hogs but though I'd better pay attention to the party! ha
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
The next reason why I loved it so was because it was a photographer's heaven. The restaurant also has a country store and there are a TON of cute things with bright colors to photograph. I was like a kid in a candy store when I walked in the door. To the point that it actually overwhelmed me. My mother-in-law is coming to Raleigh next week & I'm totally taking her here for lunch. Number one because I know she'll love it and number two so I can get all the shots that I didn't have time for on Saturday.
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| From Collages |
And the 3rd & most important reason why I love Parker & Otis? Because the food is DANG food. Yep, I said dang!
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| From Collages |
After that we were all feeling good & back on the road. Somebody said we actually walked 3 miles during the day. I couldn't tell because I was so entrapped by all that downtown Durham had to photograph. Its amazing that I didn't hurt myself while walking & taking pictures. I tend to be a klutz!
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
Our next stop- a authentic Mexican restaurant called Dos Perros. Dos Perros means two dogs. For someone who doesn't like dogs, this restaurant was DANG good too! Yep, a 2nd dang.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
We weren't actually suppose to go by Dos Perros but since one of our restaurants had to cancel because they didn't have any electricity, Dos Perros agreed to let us visit. And oh, was I glad that they did. They had chips with shrimp & cilantro, plantain balls & sweet potato empanadas and some pretty good margaritas to wash it all down. This is definitely a place that I'm going to take Todd. He'll love it!
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| From Collages |
This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. This is Kaleena & her college friend Chrisi- or Shep as Kaleena calls her. Kaleena has 3 really close best friends that she knows from college. All of them are bridesmaids and all of them were suppose to be in Raleigh for the party. Unfortunately the weather was so bad along the east coast last Friday that 2 girls had their flights cancelled. Chrisi was the only one that was able to get out of New York & come to the party. We absolutely LOVED having Chrisi- she was great! And this picture shows you how much Kaleena loves her. I hate that the others couldn't make it but I look forward to meeting them in September.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
Our last & final stop was to the very cool & modern Revolution.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
We sat at the bar & they loaded us with tons of food. I was so full by this point that I couldn't eat. So instead of eating, I took pictures of the place. It was gorgeous. Not sure who the designer was but oh man. This place was modern, sleek and gorgeous. The lighting was too cool too.
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| From Collages |
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| From Collages |
That was the tour. Hungry? Well, we weren't. We were STUFFED!
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
If that wasn't enough, we still had Part 2 of the party- a bash back at my house.
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| From Collages |
Not sure how we all continued but we did.
After a quick outfit change & a little application of some make up & deodorant we were ready for Part 2.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
We ate more (can you believe that?)and did a few games and then Kaleena opened some presents.
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
The last & final part of the day/evening was my favorite (even though nobody else seemed as excited as I was). My husband is famous for his signs so I had him make a sign that said "Kaleena's Dance Party". I kept the disco ball from the Rockstar slumber party, downloaded some booty music and we proceeded to have a dance party for all of 15 minutes! I thought this was going to be a huge hit but I guess everybody was pooped from the day.
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| From Collages |
It was a long day but such a GREAT time with great people, great friends & great memories.
I know Kaleena enjoyed herself & I hope she knows how much we love her. I'm proud that I'll be standing by her side when she says "I do" in just a few short weeks!
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| From Kaleena's Bachelorette |
Love you!
Candice
And because you know I took over 600 pictures, here they are- don't worry, I threw out half. Enjoy!
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| Kaleena's Bachelorette |
Great shots girl! looks like you guys had a blast. I always wanted to do a food tour but never got around to it. boo.
I love that you own a disco ball.
Candice I must say that I am absolutely in love with the photos this post - I'm so impressed with not only the composition and quality of the photos, but also the way you arranged them with the little collages. I love that you used (but didn't overuse) the tilt and how you utilized an effective depth of field.
I also love your commentary - you're so DANG adorable.
And of course, I love YOU!
such a fun day:) great post. sorry the dance party did not take off, give me AC and no bugs and i would have danced the night away, plus i was soooo tired, ha. at least we did do the cupid shuffle!