This past weekend I celebrated my bachelorette party in Nashville, TN!
This post would be amiss without saying how appreciative I am of my best friends who were able to travel all the way to Nashville to celebrate with me. They made the weekend incredibly special. It took me nearly all week to finish this blog post because I have SO much I want to say and share about our time in Nashville, but I know you guys don’t want to read a 100-page book!
When researching potential cities for my bachelorette, I was drawn to Nashville because it seemed like a convenient meeting point for my friends who were flying in from all over the country. And after just a quick google search of Nashville bachelorette ideas, I realized that there was so much to do and see in the city, including fantastic restaurants, bars with live music, and wine tasting. Most of my friends had never been to Nashville before, which just made the destination all the more exciting.
Thursday
Most of our group flew into Nashville by early evening on Thursday, and arrived at the Airbnb we rented by 6PM. By the time I got to the house, my sister-in-law, Morgan, and college friend Emily had already set everything up and picked up lots of delicious snacks for the weekend.
Morgan also put together these adorable goody bags for all of the girls.
Inside the bags were: matching grey tank tops that said “Rachelorette in Nashville”, pink sunglasses with each girl’s name on the stem, a bottle of gatorade (a bachelorette necessity), and an itinerary for the weekend.
Once everyone arrived, we popped a couple bottles of prosecco to enjoy while the girls got to know each other. My best friends are from all different points of my life: high school sports, college, my sorority, summer camp, etc., so for many of the girls this was their first time meeting. It felt very special to have so many of my favorite people in one room together!
We decided to keep it low key that night, and for dinner we picked up take-out from Hattie B’s Hot Chicken and Coco’s Italian Market. It was also my friend Kelly’s birthday (THANK YOU Kel for flying to Nashville on YOUR birthday!), so we celebrated with a variety of cupcakes from Gigi’s Cupcakes. If you’re an icing person, you’d LOVE Gigi’s Cupcakes because there was a TON of icing!
Pretty soon after dinner we decided to call it a night (it was already midnight) and headed to bed so we would feel rested for the next day.
Friday
On Friday morning my friends Liz and Rebecca led us through a quick 15 minute workout in the backyard of our Airbnb. Just by looking at us, you would have thought we worked out for 90+ minutes because we were DRENCHED thanks to the humidity and 90 degree heat that morning! I am not used to that kind of humidity, but it felt really good to get the day started with a quick and sweaty workout.
Afterwards, we quickly showered and got ready for brunch at Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant. Puckett’s was recommended to us by a couple of people and it lived up to the hype! We ordered pretty classic southern dishes, and I dove right a plate of chicken and waffles.
After brunch we drove to Belle Meade Winery for wine tasting. The tasting was held in an old barn on the property and was led by sommelier, Debbie Van Pelt.
We sampled five different wines and paired them each with a piece of cheese, meat, or chocolate. Since Debbie didn’t have another group after us, she graciously went over our allotted time to talk to us about the wines and answer our (many!) questions. If you’re ever in Nashville and have the opportunity to go to a wine tasting led by Debbie, do it! She was very knowledgable and made the whole experience lots of fun.
After the wine tasting at Belle Meade we went back to the house and played a few games. Without me knowing, my friend Kelly coordinated a really cute game involving Travis. She sent Travis a list of questions and had him answer them over video. At the party, Kelly asked me the same questions and I had to guess what Travis’s answer was. Some of my answers were spot on, but others I guessed completely wrong, which resulted in a LOT of laughter. I guess even after 6+ years of dating you don’t always know what the other person is thinking!
After the games we got ready for dinner and hopped into Ubers for dinner at FLYTE restaurant.
Our dinner at FLYTE was incredible! We sat at a large table overlooking the kitchen, so we could see the chefs at work.
Because we were celebrating, the restaurant generously sent us a round of champagne and some delicious snacks for the table to kick off our meal.
We all ordered different entrées and each of us raved over the presentation and flavor of each dish. Kelly, who is extremely knowledgable about wine, put together some wine pairings for the table, which was awesome! FLYTE has an expansive wine list and two in-house wine directors, so they were also able to offer some fantastic recommendations.
Our meal at FLYTE was a true highlight of the weekend, and I want to give a BIG shoutout to our fantastic server Todd, manager Will, Chef Christopher, the rest of the FLYTE team for providing us with royal treatment that evening. If you’re in Nashville, RUN, don’t walk to FLYTE!
After a 3+ hour dinner (and basically shutting down the restaurant), we jumped in Ubers towards Music Row for some bar hopping. We popped into a few different places with live music and danced the night away. My phone stayed in my bag for the rest of the night, so I unfortunately don’t have any pictures to share, but we had a blast!
Saturday
Our late night on Friday resulted in a very slow Saturday morning. We had plans to drive around Nashville on a “party barge” at 11AM, but we woke up to a thunderstorm, so our tour was cancelled. It wasn’t the worst result in the world because most of us were exhausted from the night before and benefited from a couple additional hours of sleep.
Once everyone was up, we ate a late brunch at the house, and played some more games. We were supposed to wear our matching tank tops and sunglasses on the barge, so instead just wore them in the Airbnb that afternoon.
That night, we had an early dinner reservation at Urban Grub. I opted to share a couple of dishes with my friend Emily, which was definitely a good choice because the portions were big! We were seated at a large outdoor booth with a GIANT Lazy Susan in the middle. It made sharing appetizers among a large group and passing drinks around the table much easier. I want one in my future home!
After dinner most of us ended up at The Stage on Broadway and listened to The Matte Gray Band, who was FANTASTIC!! They performed a mix of current country hits and older classics, and the entire audience was singing along and dancing to every song. It was such a perfect way to end our weekend in Nashville!
Sunday
Most people had early morning flights on Sunday, so I set my alarm for 7AM to make sure I was able to say goodbye to all of my friends. I can’t wait to see them again in September at our wedding!
My flight wasn’t until 3PM, so my friend Liz and I swung by EIO and The Hive for a quick brunch before heading to the airport. It was recommended to us by my friend and Nashville native, Laura Lea from LL Balanced. A healthy meal was just what we needed after an indulgent weekend.
(Update July 2019: Sadly, EIO and the Hive closed in 2018).
Luckily, my trip home went smoothly and I was back in my apartment in Los Angeles by 6:30PM. It felt so nice to be back home with Trav and Bessie!
If you’re planning a bachelor/bachelorette party in Nashville (or even just a weekend trip) and have any questions, feel free to reach out! I am definitely not an expert, but I’m happy to share more information about our itinerary and what we loved.
Thank you again to my friends who traveled to Nashville to celebrate with me! I love you all so much!
Liz @ The Clean Eating Couple
Looks like SO much fun! You’re glowing!! Hope you had the best time!! xo
Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)
Aww, thanks Liz!! It really was!!
Donna
Wow, what an amazing trip!! Love the “Rachelorette” play on words. Brilliant!!
Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)
Thank you Donna!! My future sister-in-law came up with it. 🙂 I can’t wait to see you at the wedding!!
Liz
Looks like you guys had a BLAST!! I haven’t been to Nashville yet but our good friends are moving there next month so I already can’t wait to visit. We we definitely be hitting up some of these restaurants!
Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)
Yes!! Let me know when you’re going and I can give you some more tips!
Jessie
Hi Rachel! We are heading to Nashville for my sisters bach in a few months and wondering where a good place to stay is for the air bnb. Do you happen to know what neighborhood you guys were in?
Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)
Hi Jessie,
So sorry for the delay! Somehow I missed this comment. We stayed in West Nashville, which I believe at the time was considered “up and coming”, but it was SO close to everything we did. The house was really nice and we felt totally safe the whole time.
Hope that helps!
Rachel
Sandy Hahn
Did everyone stay together at the Airbnb? Could you give me any info on it?? We are going to have a group for my daughters batchelorette/birthday party in June and looking for a place to stay!
Thanks!
Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)
Hi Sandy! Yes, we all stayed in a large Airbnb. It seems like there are a lot of them in Nashville that cater to large groups. Here is a link to ours: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13187523?s=51 – we loved it!