I was a young bride. So young, let’s just say that my twenty-first birthday was in the not-so-distant past. Although I was settling into a life with the man I loved, I still carried bold streaks of the college girl that he fell in love with. After all the rushed errands to dress shops, florists, bakeries, and the all-encompassing dieting, the bachelorette party elicited the most excitement amongst my small army of close girlfriends. South Lake Tahoe offered just enough naughty and nice to be our number one destination choice. One issue, a current that ran through much of my wedding planning, was money. Opposing groups couldn’t seem to compromise between five star resorts verses the cheaper motels. My posse of fifteen ladies ended up staying at three separate hotels with varying price points.
Money guilt was best drowned out with cheap casino cocktails, which wasn’t always a practical mix with my newly skinny frame from months as a wannabe Jenny Craig spokeswoman and a lowered tolerance for alcohol in order to get that desired waistline. Nevertheless, we powered through the monetary discrepancies and had a blast. At least, I think we did. Memory is hazy after a certain point of each evening. I donned the cheap bridal veil and requisite short skirt. We sipped cocktails by the lake during the day and accepted free Kamikaze’s from bars boasting live music at night. We avoided strippers in favor of girl time and consumed tons of food to soak up the booze since calories certainly wouldn’t count that weekend. I bonded with my girlfriends and delivered my mother safely to her hotel room at a reasonable hour before we continued to roam the chilly night air late into the morning. I ended up crashing in the cheaper rooms most nights since that was where the true party, our cackles echoing from the motel balconies until the hotel managers rushed out to shush us. I soaked up the attention, something I wasn’t used to as the shy, usually quiet girl in my regular life.
Sure I’d be stepping into the spotlight the next month in my princess bridal dress and slimmed down silhouette, but my bachelorette party loosened me up after the months leading up to the wedding of to-do lists and melodramas. My only tasks to complete that one weekend were rolling out of bed every morning and parking myself on a lounge chair. They say bachelorette parties are that last night out with girlfriends before devoting yourself to your husband. Bull!My party taught me just how important girl time is to my soul. There is nothing like giggling with friends with no man in sight. My girl weekends are just as needed now to take a breath from my marriage and my two kids. That bachelorette party marked the beginning of my commitment to my ladies, one I try to honor just as much as the one I vowed to my husband on our wedding day a month later.
