Jackie Fae Finally got "Carried Away" in Napa

My dear friend Jackie has been one of my best friends since the first day of our freshman year at UC Santa Cruz. Since then, she has been dating her now husband, Sean, on and off for close to 10 years! No joke, that's a long time! During those years through the heart breaks and happy times we always had each other and we always had our disc set of Sex and the City. We loved indulging in our own personal marathon of episodes with Carrie and the girls that we identified with so well. Jackie was our Carrie. Cindy the Miranda, Angela the Charlotte, and somehow I was left with Samantha ;) So it seemed only fitting that since Jackie was Carrie and she was finally engaged to her Big that we owed it to her to send her off in style at her bachelorette. We had already traveled earlier that year to Cabo San Lucas for Cindy's bachelorette, so we all agreed to try to stay fairly local. Before we knew it someone suggested Napa and suddenly I was booking a beautiful condo on AirBnB for the four of us. Now in full planning mode, our theme set on SATC, I was on to the decor.

Going with the theme I found inexpensive martini glasses at my local BevMo and glass paint by Martha Stewart at Michael's. My fellow bridesmaids supplied the cosmopolitan ingredients and I made her this adorable permanent chalkboard sign. 

To make the welcome sign I bought an inexpensive framed cork board at Ross and used chalkboard paint to cover the cork. (This method worked, but if I could do it over again I would have just painted some foam poster-board with the chalkboard paint and removed the cork board. It ended up having a really rough texture that made writing beautiful looking letters challenging. ) Lastly, I got chalkboard markers on Amazon and started on the design. I googled several images of SATC movie posters and image searches and settled on a city skyline with the phrase above it, "Jackie Fae is getting 'CARRIED' away!" The best part is that the other girls thought I did a custom drawing of the Manila city skyline since Jackie's family is from the Philippines, but it's not! I started copying a basic skyline I found online, but ended up improvising most of it to fit the phrase. The random martini glass drawing was an afterthought in case you can't tell... 

My BIGGEST project for this event by far was the re-creation of the classic Carrie tutu. 

Now keep in mind that I am not a seamstress... but I did get a great little sewing machine from my wedding registry and have some basic sewing skills. I scoured the internet and found this tutorial on the Lauren Conrad  website. I gathered the materials suggested in the tutorial (silk slip, satin ribbon for a sash tie, and I bought a spool of white tulle at Michael's in the bridal section). The directions from that site were pretty basic and I had to learn a lot through trial and error based on how my sewing machine reacted to the tulle fabric, but what I learned the most was that it will take many MANY yards of tulle to really make this look full and bouncy like the one on Carrie.  This sweet little skirt took several evenings after work on my sewing machine before I reached the desired fullness. 

You may also notice that she is holding a giant martini glass that happens to be full of flaming hot Cheetos... Why you ask? Well I found the large martini glass at Michael's one day and bought it thinking it just HAD to be a part of the bachelorette weekend. Jackie's favorite snack food (aka drunk munchies) has always been these spicy Cheetos so we thought what else could be more perfect?!

Lastly to complete the Sex and the City themed bachelorette, we needed the perfect keepsake. Of course it didn't take long for me to find these adorable "Carrie Necklaces" on Etsy!!! We got one for each of us with our own custom names of course and we all still wear them to this day. The final surprise for her came when we got dressed to go out the first night. She of course wore white, but we wore our respective character colors from the SATC movie when Carrie gets married.

My only regret is that Cindy and Angela (pictured below on the left) switched places for this photo outside the resort, but c'est la vie! All in all we had a fantastic girls weekend getaway with delicious food at amazing restaurants and most of all the best of friends. 

Love you ladies!!!!

Blisffully Ever Crafting,

Jennifer Lynn