Wild Wedding: The Week Before

The week before the wedding was an absolute blur. From my bouquet not being done to frantically trying to pencil in a hair trial, it was a crazy yet fun week!

Since we had some unexpected visitors (who may or may not have filmed this whole week), we decided to have another bachelorette party! This time my mom came with and some of my favorite ladies came down to Ybor City.

We started the night off in Coyote Ugly and it was soooo busy there! We carried onward to James Joyce which is an Irish pub with beer pong, beer funnels and cheap drinks.

We ended the night in G.Bar and watched a drag show. It was a wild night!

The next day was a Sunday and we spent it trying to recover and get things done. We needed to make a seating chart, finish the bouquets, and figure out my bridesmaid situation. Oh...right. I don't think I ever mentioned that here...yet.

I was feeling a bit disconnected with one of my bridesmaids and I made the decision to change my bridal party. I know it's against like every wedding etiquette rule in the book, but I couldn't help it. I just knew that the only thing that was holding us together as "friends" was this wedding. I wanted my girls who were standing next to me on my wedding day to be lifelong friends. Unfortunately for me, another one of my bridesmaids declined being a part of the bridal party once she heard about the hoopla of the cameras. I respected her decision, but all of a sudden, there I was down two bridesmaids.

It was a bit dramatic, but I wasn't worried. I am fortunate enough to have several lovely ladies in my life, and I knew they would understand the circumstances as to why I didn't ask them to be a bridesmaid to begin with (we wanted a small bridal party) and why they were now being asked. And, I can say that I 110% believe that things happen for a reason...and I am very happy with how my bridesmaids evolved. That might sound weird or just plain wrong, but the girls who were standing up with me on the day of the wedding were the girls that I know I can count on now and in the future. I was very blessed.

Once my lineup was re-assembled, I had to secure dresses for my new ladies. I had never wanted matching bridesmaids, so we ended up with two girls in dresses from Lulus.com, two girls in J.Crew, and one girl in a random dress I luckily found at Ross three days before the wedding. While each girl looked different, it still seemed cohesive. I was happy about that!

On Valentine's Day, Scott & I had yummy grouper sandwiches for lunch and chatted about the upcoming week. It seemed appropriate to have a beachy cocktail on the sand with my husband to be. We knew the upcoming week was going to be crazy, so it was very nice to have some time to ourselves. He got me a bottle of Key Lime wine from a local winery here, Keel & Curley. It was delicious. :)

Other things to note this week: We decided on our first dance song ("I'm Yours" from the Casa Nova Sessions by Jason Mraz), I got a tattoo (more on that later!), I was pretty stressed, I got an artificial tan for the first time, we taste tested our specialty shots, and I couldn't believe how the day was almost here!