Wedding Wednesday: The #KissKennedyGoodbye World Tour

     

       

Having a bridal party {and a momma} that is scattered in 7 different states, none of which being the one you live in, is both a blessing and a curse. Downsides include having to make wedding crafts by yourself and going to dress fittings alone. The silver lining if you’re lucky like me, is that you get to celebrate this wonderful time of your life several times in fun places and ways. One of my many useless talents is coming up with hashtags, I'm who friends consult when they need a wedding or trip hashtag. With that being said I wanted a fun bridal hashtag so I thought of #KissKennedyGoodbye, feel free to follow me and look at more pics on instagram. Here is the recap of all of my bridal and bachelorette celebrations! First up...

Bachelorette Weekend: Orlando, FL

As you may have read in some of my other posts, I lived in Orlando for almost five years and worked for Disney. The environment there is like no other and the people you meet and work with truly become family. One of my bridemaid’s, Katie, wanted to throw me a bachelorette weekend in Orlando so I could celebrate with my friends there. My fiancé Brian surprised us with a hotel room downtown (for two night) so we didn’t have to worry about driving. The first night [Friday] I got there we went on a bar crawl with my besties in our beloved downtown Orlando and it was an absolute blast. The next day was spent lounging at the hotel’s rooftop pool and stopping by where Brian and I got engaged exactly one year before. On Sunday we had brunch downtown and went to one of my favorite spots, World of Beer, before heading to my old workplace…Epcot! I stopped by guest relations to see some of my former coworkers, put on my bride ears and began my last drinking around the world tour as a Kennedy. My last day [Monday] was slept in and went to brunch with friends before I made my way back to Atlanta.  

How cute are these hangover kits I made for my fellow Real Housewives obsessed friends?!

Bridal Shower: Hurricane, WV 

Being that we’re getting married in Cleveland, I knew that I wanted to have my bridal shower in my hometown of Hurricane, WV so  friends and family that won’t be able to make it to the wedding could still share an event with us. My mom has planned dozens of wedding and baby showers over the years but they were all practice for this one. She was eager to begin planning every little detail but was worried as to how the flow of the party would go since there wouldn’t be too many gifts to open…see we decided to forego a traditional wedding registry and have a HoneyFund honeymoon registry instead. Surprisingly it worked out very well! I still had tangible gifts to open and boy were they sentimental: my [93 year old] great aunt Ruth made me a set of custom made sheets to go with a quilt she made me a few years ago, a “Mrs. Schiffbauer” wedding dress hanger from my friends, and a hand painted canvas from my baby sister to name a few. The shower was held at the dance studio, Dancing Unlimited, where I started taking lessons at age two...so many of my favorite childhood memories were made there.

The food was delicious, the games were a blast, and the travel themed details and décor were beautiful…my mom truly outdid herself and it was the most perfect bridal shower I could’ve asked for. My last gift to open came in a beautiful magnolia box (my friends know how much I adore Steel Magnolias) but I was told I had to read the card first. Below is what was written on the inside of the card…

I love that it was written out "big sis night" rhyming style :) 

I was in complete shock! I opened up the box to find an adorable shirt and pair of seersucker shorts, cute pj’s, and the most perfect bride “glam hippie” headband from my friend Erika and Lilly print monogrammed koozie that featured my Kiss Kennedy Goodbye slogan! I was then told there was a limo waiting outside to take us to our hotel in Charleston and then to our box suite for the ball game. 

Surprise Bachelorette Party: Charleston, WV 

The decorations in the suite were so adorable! Banners and glitter glasses made by my sister, bar set up, stocked, and served by my friends Stacy and Kacie who also got up there early to make sure everything was set up. Everyone wore the adorable tanks and got a koozie like mine but with their monogram on it...the back featured my bridal slogan "Kiss [Miss] Kennedy Goodbye" and they all got me some really fun gifts that I'm so glad I didn't have to open at the shower! 

We had a little pre-party at the hotel that include hilarious games, stories, dancing, and of course champagne poppin. We then made our way to the ballpark only to be rained out but we ended up going to dinner with everyone including Brian before going on an awesome bar crawl downtown. I had so much fun and was so surprised, I have the most thoughtful sister, stepmom, and friends! Thank you Larissa, Erika, Erin, Stacy, Kacie, and Courtney for making my night so much fun.

July 4th with Kathleen: Houston, TX

I had celebrated with every bridesmaid except for Kathleen so she and Brian surprised me with a trip to see her in Houston. I originally thought Brian and I were spending July 4^th in Cleveland but a week before “our trip” I was facetiming with Kathleen and she broke the news to me and I was beyond excited! The weekend was spent doing some of my favorite things: shopping, trying “new to me” resturarants, a brewery visit, going to the movies, chats about the wedding, and most importantly catching up. My trip to Houston was the perfect wind down to all my bridal festivities and an added bonus I got to see another one of my dear Disney friends, Molly!  I’d love to plan another visit to Houston after the wedding but we realized New Orleans is pretty much a central meeting spot for us so maybe a trip there is in our future.

There you have it, my whirlwind of bridal celebrations! My family, friends, and fiancé sure do know how to make me feel loved. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who celebrated with me over the past few months, it means more to me than you’ll ever know! Only 73 more days until I officially  #KissKennedyGoodbye y'all!

                                                                                                            XOXO, 

                                                        Jordan