You know those people who instantly make everyone feel welcome and so at ease? That is Ashley. She’s equal parts bubbly, joyful, fun and warm and so, so easy to celebrate!
Anna Maria Island Bachelorette Party
My best friend Merri picked me up at the airport on Friday and we made the drive to Anna Maria Island where we grabbed a large table at The Ugly Grouper, a casual local seafood spot, for an easy but delicious lunch. The food was great — it’s hard to beat fresh grouper — and once we were all sufficiently full, we drove to our house and were immediately so, so impressed.
The house was big and beautiful, walkable to the beach, breakfast and some local shops, and perfect for a group of 13 who knew we’d be spending a decent amount of time sipping drinks poolside and chatting away all weekend. (Each bedroom had its own bathroom which was also super helpful! This is the exact house we rented in case you have a large group who might be interested.) We all claimed rooms and hugged Ashley’s family hello before making cocktails to bring out to the beach for the sunset.
Can you believe this was the only time we actually spent on the beach the entire weekend!? We probably should’ve made our way out to the beach at some point on Saturday but hanging out at the house was just so darn appealing that we honestly never even thought to leave.
After our sunset cocktails, we walked back to the house, refreshed our drinks and ordered the Monkey Bus to take our group to dinner at SALT, another seafood hot spot with outdoor dining options located about 15 minutes from our house.
If you ever find yourself on Anna Maria Island and are looking for a fun way to get around, the Monkey Bus was honestly one of our biggest hits of the weekend. We rode it to a few different spots on Friday night and it was a blast!! Merri played DJ for our group and connected her phone to the bus so we had the best time singing our hearts out in what felt like a mini private club on wheels.
We spent the majority of our night at The Freckled Fin, a fun local bar with live music that ended up being an absolute blast. We sang and danced our hearts out and had no problem morphing back into our college selves for an evening, belting out “Don’t Stop Believing,” “Footloose,” “Friends in Low Places,” “Stanky Leg” and more.
We finally made it to bed around 2 a.m. and shockingly all woke up feeling tired but mostly okay. Bless the gigantic efforts we all poured into staying super hydrated all night long because I truly think that made a difference.
Saturday
Since our group is full of early risers, we walked to North Shore Cafe for a quick order-at-the-counter outdoor breakfast and much-needed coffees once everyone was up. By the time we walked back to the house we didn’t have too much time before my friend Leah arranged for a Amy, private yoga instructor, to lead our group through a flow.
Ashley is also a yoga instructor so it was the perfect Ashley activity — and the deep stretches and spinal rotations felt amazing.
Ashley’s younger sisters then arranged the next activity: Flower crown crafting! We all agreed making DIY flower crowns was oddly relaxing and entertaining. We watched a super short YouTube tutorial and hoped for the best and ended up pretty impressed with how they all turned out.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out by the pool catching up and just enjoying time in the sun together. At one point, my friend Laurel and I peeled off from the group to make a Publix run to grab a bunch of stuff for make-your-own subs from Publix which made lunch easy.
After a morning walk, yoga and pool time, in the early evening we were all in major need of showers so we cleaned ourselves up, changed into cozy whites at the bride’s request and had wonderfully relaxed but super fun night at the house.
We then had a local chef, Chef Reagan from Tsukino Sushi Bar, come to the house to make our group a private sushi dinner. I was in absolute heaven with unlimited amounts of sushi and sashimi at my disposal! (Truly my dream dinner.) We were all incredibly stuffed by the end of dinner and could not stop raving about the whole experience. It was so wonderfully delicious and relaxed! 10/10 recommend!
We spent the time after dinner sipping our drinks, playing various games — my friend Merri made up the most fun music game we could not get enough of — and just enjoying our time together. We all crashed hard when we finally made our way to bed on Saturday night.
Sunday was a travel day for everyone and after toasted bagels and coffee at the house, we all said our goodbyes and flew or drove back home. Goodbyes were a little easier knowing we’ll all be together again in about a month in Michigan to celebrate Ashley and Sean!
As for the week ahead, I feel like I’m in catch up mode right now after a weekend away so I’m off to get a handle on my to-dos for the week and jump back into day-to-day craziness. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
Glad y’all had so much fun! This is the beach closest to where I live, so it was neat to see that you were in my neck of the woods.