This weekend, y‘all. Busy doesn’t even begin to cover it, nor can I adequately explain just how much fun it was. Why? On Saturday night, Andrew and I had our couples shower!

Saturday was also my birthday! A few months ago when we looked ahead at spring, we realized because of Andrew’s intern year schedule, he would have a really hard time finding a weekend night he could 100% commit to. April 13th was the one weekend night this spring he felt comfortable with, so we decided to go for it!

Since you only get to have one couple’s shower in your life, I decided to move the birthday celebrations to Friday and keep Saturday all about the upcoming wedding. Our fabulous hostesses planned us a fantastic fiesta, and Andrew and I couldn’t wait to spend the night celebrating with our favorite people!

Scroll below for a few favorite images from the evening, then read on for all the details!

DRESS white otomi mini dress | EARRINGS liza yates earrings | SHOES white platform heels | MOM’S DRESS j.marie embroidered dress

It was actually pouring all that night, but you never would have known from the fun we had! Our amazing hosts filled the night with gorgeous fiesta decor (how much do you love our bride and groom pinatas and custom picado banners?!), delicious fajitas, festive couples drinks (an “Andrew Palmer” and a “Peach Me I’m Dreaming”) and tons of memories and laughter.

So many of our friends and family joined us, which finally gave me a taste of how incredible our actual wedding will be. All of your favorites in one place?! I can’t wait! It also made me realize just how difficult it will be to actually eat at my wedding. I hardly had a bite I was talking so much! :)

When the time came for everyone to go home, I have to confess… I got a bit sad! It was just such a magical night. Andrew and I get so little time together with his current schedule, let alone with all of our favorite people, and I didn’t take a second for granted. I truly cannot thank all of our hosts for making it such a special, memorable evening!

Now, on to what I wore that evening! Once I learned the party would be “fiesta” themed, I immediately began the hunt for a dress made out of my favorite pattern, Otomi! In fact, I love it so much that I decorated my entire apartment bedroom with it!

My vision? A white, simple mini dress with white Otomi embroidery.

When nothing came up from my initial search, I decided to try my luck at Etsy. It wasn’t long before I came across Arte Otomi. Talk about Otomi obsession! They had tons of beautiful Otomi pieces, from lampshades to furniture and nearly everything in between.

When I came across their Otomi wedding dress, I immediately reached out to the owner to see if they could create a custom silhouette for me. Martha responded nearly immediately, and within minutes we were dreaming up the simple, chic mini dress you see above!

A couple of weeks later, it arrived in the mail. My dream dress, y‘all. I’m seriously in awe of the quality and craftsmanship! The photos from the wedding shower don’t do justice, so I’ll have to take some in natural light soon so you can see the detail for yourself.

Needless to say, this will not be my last order from Arte Otomi! I’m already dreaming of this same dress but in multicolor! Martha, thank you for making this vision and dream of mine come true. It was absolutely perfect in every way. And friends, I’m thrilled to say that you can now shop my dress here!

To wrap it up, I am so thankful for this weekend, so thankful for such a wonderful evening and so thankful for all of the friends and family who celebrated with us. Now that my bachelorette party is over and our showers have all come and gone (I can’t wait to share more about my womens shower soon!) you know what the next thing on the calendar is… the actual wedding! Now THAT is a crazy thought.

I hope this recap was a fun one to read! You know I mean it when I say Wedding Wednesday posts are my very favorite, so thank you for tuning in!

Love from Texas,

Kate

P.S. Even though we technically celebrated my birthday on Friday, I walked out to see a massive pair of “26” balloons on Saturday morning. Cue the tears! Andrew Bowman, you are the BEST surpriser!

After a jam-packed day of fun in the sun thanks to Lilly Pulitzer, my girls and I showered, threw on our favorite Lilly shifts and headed to the beach for a few sunset photos! The Lilly team had a gorgeous roof-top dinner planned for us at The Pearl right at sunset. The air was cool and the light was perfect for a few shots beforehand!

My incredible wedding photographer, John Cain, snapped these images that I know I will treasure forever. Scroll below for a few of my very favorites!

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Aren’t these girls so precious?! I just love how John captured all of their personalities so perfectly, and how each different Lilly ensemble perfectly suits them. Here are the outfits we had on!

Each time my family and I have visited Seaside, we’ve done this classic beachside photo shoot. I love looking back on those images and seeing the changes over the years against a backdrop we hold so dear. Needless to say, capturing the same setting, but with my best friends this time, felt so surreal and so very special. Definitely a pinch me evening!

It didn’t take us long to capture these photos, and in no time we were headed to Rosemary Beach for dinner! As if the Lilly team hadn’t blown us away enough already, we arrived to a stunning cabana on the rooftop of The Pearl. Picture twinkling candles everywhere, gorgeous Lilly flutes and seemingly endless bottles of rosé chamapgne.

I wish I had taken more photos of the evening, but we were having too much fun we didn’t even think about our phones. Honestly, those are the moments I cherish the most, don’t you? We spent the night walking down memory lane, sharing stories and laughing until we cried.

When the time came to say goodnight and bid farewell to the Lilly Pulitzer team, who had flights out early Saturday morning, we were all so sad! We tried our best to convince Amy and Katie to stay the entire weekend with us, but alas, had to compromise on a reunion trip in the near future. I suppose that will have to do, right?

We headed back to our beach house and all but collapsed into bed. After such a full, fun day, we were exhausted in the best way!

When I look back on Friday, I can’t believe it was only one day and not the entire trip. Truly, the Lilly Pulitzer team packed in enough fun for the entire weekend! It was the most unbelievable start to my bachelorette weekend, and I’ll never be able to say thank you enough to the incredible people who went into making this dream a reality… like Lilly Pulitzer, John Cain Photography and Sanders Beach Rentals to name a few!

I’ll be back with more details regarding the rest of our weekend soon, but let’s just say, Saturday and Sunday were incredibly chill in comparison to our Friday fun. This was in every way the best day.

Wishing all of you a wonderful rest of your weekend! And if you’re new to the series, catch up on my bachelorette weekend recaps below:

Bachelorette Weekend Recap No. 1

Bachelorette Weekend Recap No. 2

Bachelorette Weekend Recap No. 3

Bachelorette Weekend Recap No. 4

Love from Texas,

Kate

Happy Friday, y’all! Typically, I reserve the last day of the week for one of my very favorite blog series… Latest & Greatest… but today, we’re doing something a little different!

Yesterday, I hinted that I’d be back with more details from my Lilly Pulitzer bachelorette weekend, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do!

After our stunning poolside brunch on Friday morning (see all of the details here) my girls and I headed into town for lunch. We enjoyed a break from the sun, some delicious seafood, and then returned to our house, One in a Vermillion, to see that the Lilly Pulitzer team and Elisabeth and Butter had set up the most beautiful array of afternoon activities.

First up?

make your own mojito bar

Elisabeth, who you may know from Elisabeth and Butter, is one of my very favorite people in this world. I had the privilege of meeting her about a year and a half ago, and have loved following all of her delicious recipes ever since.

She is so creative, and had a whole bar set up for us with fresh fruit, La Croix, mint leaves, and all of the other essentials needed for delicious, refreshing mojitos! They were surprisingly easy to make, and after we all concocted our own, we headed inside to the next activity…

watercolor cookie painting

For as long as I’ve known Elisabeth, I’ve dreamed of taking one of her famous watercolor cookie painting classes. Yes, cookie painting! I’ll be honest with you, it was even more fun than I anticipated, as if that’s even possible.

She had prepared adorable sugar cookie shapes for us that all tied into the theme of the weekend and the wedding… palm trees, diamond rings and even alligator cookies for me and Andrew’s move to Gainesville, the home of the University of Florida. I just about died, so cute!

After her demonstration, where we learned so many practical tips and tricks for making our own decorative cookies, my bridesmaids and I all buckled down on our creations. You could have heard a pen drop we were so focused!

We created lots of pink, blue and green alligators, pearl-embellished palm trees and patterned diamond rings of all varieties. I took to the simple circle cookie to recreate our wedding monogram. Y’all, it turned out so cute that I couldn’t bear to eat it!

Before we knew it, the whole afternoon had flown by and it was time to get ready for sunset photos on the beach before our final dinner with Lilly Pulitzer. By 4pm, I truly felt like I’d had enough fun for an entire week, let alone weekend. The best part, though, was that this was just our first full day!

Again, I can’t thank the Lilly Pulitzer team enough for orchestrating all of the fabulous fun and Elisabeth for spending the afternoon creating with us! If you’re ever on 30A, I can’t recommend her classes enough. Plus, she’s just as sweet as her cookies!

Wishing all of you a wonderful weekend, y’all! My birthday is actually tomorrow (eek!) and so my family and I are celebrating tonight with my favorite tradition, a crawfish boil!

Tomorrow, Andrew and I have our couple shower, and I can’t wait to show you the dress I’ll be wearing. Let’s just say the party is fiesta themed, and I took to Etsy to find something truly unique!

Love from Texas,

Kate

P.S. If you’re looking for details on our brunch ensembles, scroll below!

Photography by John Cain

A huge thank you to Lilly Pulitzer for planning such a fabulous day, Sanders Beach Rentals for hosting us, and Elisabeth for the amazing mojito bar and cookie class!