Charleston With My Magnolias For Jules’ Girl’s Weekend
Back at it again… this time with my favorite ladies in my favorite southern town! Now, if I haven’t mentioned before I moved to Charlotte from Charleston, SC so every time I go back there it is going “home”. I also moved to Charlotte in part due to these ladies in this photo: Sharon, me, Niki and Jules. Beside me living here, Jules’ is getting married here and this city is where I met Niki, which snowballed in to meeting these other two fabulous ladies. Needless to say Charleston is an extremely special city to all of us. There is a reason that Charleston wins best city in the US year after year {I’m not saying it’s because of us but it seems like quite a coincidence hahaha I kid I kid}. If you have not been… GO!
The beautiful brunette on the right is getting hitched this month and against what we wanted, she didn’t care for a “bachelorette” party, she just wanted a girls weekend with us lucky ladies. Weekend in Charleston with my Magnolias? TWIST. MY. ARM.
Now a little tid bit… These ladies in the pic call ourselves the magnolias because between all of us we hit every character in Steel Magnolias. Those ladies have been life-long, through thick and thin, friends and they each have their own little southern sass. While we have all met in the past ten years we have been through weddings, births, death, break-ups, medical issues, moving cities and everything in between. These are the ladies that I make my first phone call to as soon as anything good or bad happens in my life. They never judge, they know my good days and bad days and they love me just the same. They are the ladies that I am happiest with sitting on my front porch drinking wine and laughing at everything and nothing. They are my magnolias.
We started the weekend with three of us driving to Charleston together to meet the lovely bride-to-be {that in and of itself is always an adventure}. Check-in at the Francis Marion and time for some wine!! If there is one thing my girls and I know how to do… it is to drink some wine and bubbly! Time to get all fancied up and head to Jules’ event planner’s 30th birthday {did you follow that?}. Mr Luke Wilson “the wedding planner of Charleston” {seriously check out his site it’s redic! Luke Wilson Events} just happened to be turning 30 the same weekend we were there so naturally we crashed his big event. OH MY GAAHHH! We cabbed it about 20 minutes outside of downtown to Daniel Island Country Club where we entered, well basically, we entered a wedding reception… His name was in lights behind the most amazing band I’ve heard and the decor was insane. Free flowing bubbly, wine and drinks and a cake that would make some brides jealous. Well helllllllo start to our weekend, nice to see you!
- Dancing the night away at Luke’s 30th
We finally grabbed a drink, stepped outside while waiting on our cab, kicked our heels off, enjoyed the mini chicken sandwiches & parmesan garlic fries they were bringing around and made new friends of course. WHAT. A. NIGHT. Time to head back to the hotel put on pjs and drink some more wine.
Day 2: Today was portrait day for Miss Jules. We woke up early and went to eat at Rarebit… delish! Over the past 5 years they have completely redone upper King St and there are some of the coolest restaurants and bars to go to. I have been to most places to eat in Chas but Rarebit was one I had not been to yet. It was the perfect breakfast spot but their dinner menu looked amazing as well. We refueled, my dad popped in to say hi {he lives downtown Chas} and then it was off for the trial run of hair and make up. We dropped Jules at Stuart Lawrence Salon while we snuck off and set up the room with some “bachelorette” goodies {did you really think we were going to let her get away without bachelorette stuff? Paaalease}. We grabbed the bubbly and headed back to Stuart Lawrence to see the master piece. If you are in Charleston and need your hair done, GO SEE BUTCH. He was absolutely amazing!! Sorry can’t post pics because the final product is a surprise for the wedding day. Off to get the bridal portraits taken at Boone Hall plantation. If you don’t know about Boone Hall, get with it! Just messing… it is where Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got married, the Notebook was filmed here and it is just breathtakingly beautiful. The weather was perfect, the rain held off and the photographer got some of the most beautiful shots {easy to do because Jules is one of the most photogenic people on the planet, seriously it makes you not want to like her but you can’t because she’s just so damn nice}.
That night we did the usual bachelorette games of “what did Matty answer” {her fiance} while we drank wine and champagne and then got ready for dinner. Back down upper King to Macintosh for a late dinner. Now, I have been to Macintosh a few times and I swear the food gets better every time I go there. We had the front long table that looked out to the street so we could people watch while we ate and gabbed. Sharon and I got a light white fish dish and it was seasoned and cooked perfectly. Jules’ ordered the pork chop and loved it! Lame, I know, but we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel after our dinner.
Day 3: I was actually super excited about and dreading day 3 from the start of the weekend. Super excited because I made reservations at Husk, the number one new restaurant in the US for 2011 and dreading saying until next time. Now if you plan to go to Charleston this MUST go on your restaurant list but be warned you have to have a reservation. I made one while I was in NYC the weekend before eating lunch with Jules during my “guys weekend”. Husk is in a typical Charleston house and the menu is just divine!! Take your time, go through the menu and enjoy the ambiance if you go here. It was the perfect quaint spot to sip a mimosa with the girls and recap the weekend, what still needed to be done for the wedding, Sharon’s little chunky monkey {Tyler} at home and any other daily gab we had. I was sad to be saying until next time but I’ll be seeing these ladies so very soon for Jules’ big day.
Husk for our last gab session for the weekend
It was time to drop the bride-to-be at the airport then me, Niki and Sharon were headed back to Charlotte. Now I have one week ahead of me then it was off for surgery to get my tonsils removed and a callus removed from my vocal cords. Needless to say I was getting in as much talking as possible before I got sliced up. More on this later.
Until next time…
Amy
Just A Dash Of Glitter 