If you follow us on social media, you know that we had an LDB wedding recently. Steph and Matt got married in a truly awesome, fun and wonderful wedding weekend in Boise, Idaho, the place they first met 8 years ago! But more on the wedding later… Because a month before the wedding we celebrated with a Bachelorette party New Orleans Style!

One night in New Orleans and three nights in a beach house on the Mississippi Gulf made for a truly epic Bachelorette weekend. Here are some highlights from the weekend!

Night 1: We somehow coordinated Kelly’s flight from Sacramento, Steph’s sister Cassie’s from Spokane, Brittney’s from Boise and Steph and Jamie’s drive from Monroe to all coordinate and arrive at the airport at the exact same time! Though the real miracle was getting all our luggage to fit in the car. Our first night in NOLA consisted of charbroiled oysters and fried gator at Drago’s, Popeye’s chicken, Bourbon Street, Hurricane’s at Pat O’Brien’s and lots of dancing, laughter and fun!

Since we had appetizers late, we hit Popeye’s down the street from our hotel before hitting Bourbon St. It was absolutely pouring, in true Louisiana fashion, but we bought umbrellas from the corner store and braved the storm!

Day 2: We checked out of our hotel and walked around the French Quarter, ate beignets at Cafe du Monde, heard live music at Jackson Square and got brunch at Napolean House. Fun fact: this is the house the mayor of New Orleans at the time was going to give Napoleon, had they been able to “rescue” him. There is just so much history like this in New Orleans! We’ve already decided we need another trip to explore more.

Night 2: After strolling around New Orleans, we checked out of our hotel and picked up Lauren from the airport. We made a pit stop at Costco to stock up on food before driving to our beach house in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The first night we ate pizza, drank plenty of wine and played both Cards Against Humanity and the wedding spin off, Cads About Matrimony.

Day 3: Each morning we relaxed with coffee and Lauren’s amazing scrambled eggs (seriously, she’s a pro), sitting out on the porch watching the ocean. Saturday we then went on a Swamp Tour! While we didn’t see any gators, we had a lot of fun on the boat and learned about the local wildlife. This started a theme for the weekend of sharing interesting animal facts. Turns out we know quite a few! (do not youtube how seahorses give birth. I repeat…do NOT).

Sitting on a boat is pretty demanding, so we’d worked up quite the appetite. Luckily The Shed, a famous BBQ joint, was on our way home. There’s a good reason it’s famous too…everything was amazing!

Day 4: It was so relaxing to end the trip with a day spent doing absolutely nothing. Well…if drinking mimosas, walking the beach, and laying by the pool count as doing nothing.

We did a little research and found out the entire beach we were on was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. While there are some beautiful new homes, like the one we stayed at, there are obvious remnants of the storm: pillars from docks that were never rebuilt, whole foundations left behind, one lot had just a staircase remaining…it’s hard to imagine the aftermath, and scary to think it could easily happen again.

Overall it was the perfect weekend. Half of the group hadn’t met before, and it is such a great feeling when friends from different stages of your life get together and magically everyone just clicks. There was so much laughter, some amazing food and even more to drink! We’re already talking about a bachelorette reunion next spring because we had so much fun. That’s a thing, right??

From Steph: throughout this entire wedding process, I realized I have some of the best friends in the entire world. I couldn’t ask for smarter, kinder, more hilarious girls to surround myself with. I’m so grateful for their friendship and their willingness to fly across the country to see me!

And that’s it! If you’re looking to plan the perfect bachelorette party, all you need is a great group of girls, one night of dancing, and three nights of beachside bliss. And taquitos. So many taquitos.

~Kelly & Steph