Boston Bachelorette Party Weekend!

Back in November, I got together with two of my really good friends from college – Neera and Janet. We had all gotten engaged and were all planning weddings for the summer – and we were all in each other’s wedding parties. So, we decided it’d be really fun to have a joint bachelorette party!

We handed off the planning to Katie, Silpa, and Dorothy, and they ran with it. We invited the bridesmaids for each of our weddings, so that they could all get to know each other. Since people are spread around the country, we decided to all meet up in Boston – that was where Janet, Neera, and I met, and it minimized the amount of travel necessary for the greatest number of people.

I got in at about 1:30pm. As soon as I saw Boston out the window, I couldn’t stop smiling – I absolutely love that city. It was raining, so I decided to take a cab to Pooja’s apartment near Harvard Square. I knew that taxis are expensive in Boston, but it really is crazy – because of the extra fees, you owe $10.50 before you even leave the airport ($7.50 in airport fees, $3 starting on the meter). So the 15 minute ride cost more than $40. Ah, well. At least I stayed dry. :)

Pooja was running a conference the weekend of the party, so she wasn’t at home. I went up to Silpa’s room (she lives in the same building) to pick up the key. Then I put my stuff in Pooja’s room and took a quick nap. Around 5pm, I went to Janet’s house, which was just around the corner. Stephanie’s flight got in around then – I warned her about the exorbitant cab fees, so she decided to take the T. Then she had a bit of a fiasco when she tried to take a cab the last bit of the way and ended up back in Boston instead of Cambridge. But eventually she made it to the right place.

Once we had Stephanie, we all went to Silpa’s apartment. We ordered pizza from Bertucci’s, and Silpa and Neera had picked up other snacks and drinks. It was a really awesome group of girls – Neera had Silpa and Omeleya there, I had Katie and Stephanie (Annette couldn’t make it and Paul came in on Saturday), and Janet had Jenna, Christina, Jess, Julia, and Liz. I knew everybody – mostly from MIT. It was amazing how many intelligent, successful women there were in that one room – multiple Harvard MBA and grad students, a doctor, a medical student, engineering PhDs, and all just generally super interesting people. Plus, they’re all really fun and friendly!

We chatted together, played Dirty Minds (which is a board game that was pretty good for a bachelorette party), and then played Apples to Apples. It was really fun to have a night in to relax with everybody. Even though Friday was supposed to be our early night, everyone stayed until 1:30 or 2am. Luckily, Katie, Stephanie, and I only needed to make it to Pooja’s apartment in the same building.

Pooja had actually planned to sleep at her neighbor’s while we stayed at her place, so she would be able to sleep and we wouldn’t have to be too quiet. But she ended up getting home later than us – at about 2:30am, so she stayed in her own place, which was nice, because I got a chance to at least say hi! She was up and out – on her way to her conference – by about 5am the next morning. Yikes.

Katie, Stephanie, and I got up around 8:30am, got ready, and went to Newbury Street. We met up with the other girls and all got manicures at Minilux. It was a really nice place, and they had really reasonable prices! It was a nice, relaxing way to start the day.

From there, we all walked up Newbury Street to Snappy Sushi. The sushi there was good, and I liked the place, though I was a little sad that Tea Luxe – the tea shop that had been in that location – had closed down. Paul met up with us towards the end of lunch. From there, we walked back along Newbury (shopping a bit on the way) and made our way to Kenmore Square. Along the way, I gave Paul and Stephanie my ‘memory lane’ stories – the restaurants where I used to eat, the convenience store we always went to in the middle of the night, the bus station that was under construction for as long as I can remember, etc.

Paul wasn’t allowed at the next activity (their rules – we would have brought him), so we dropped him off at Game On outside Fenway. His girlfriend was in town, though, so he hung out with her while we were dancing. The rest of us went to Boston Pole Fitness for a two-hour dancing lesson. It was actually really fun – I think all of the girls had a really good time. And it was surprisingly difficult – we got a pretty good workout.

When the lesson was over, we picked Paul up again, and headed back to Pooja’s to change and get ready. Katie had arranged for all of the brides to wear red and the rest of the group to wear black. After some very quick getting ready (and a nap for Paul), we took cabs to Lala Rokh on Beacon Hill.

Lala Rokh has Persian food, and was really good. Katie and I shared stuffed zucchini and lamb shank. Dinner took quite a while, so we decided to skip the plan of stopping at a bar and go right to the club. It was just on the other side of Boston Common, so we all walked there. The place was called Estate – I’d never been there before, but it was a fun place. We had arranged for a private area and bottle service, since with a group our size it was a pretty economical deal.

Katie had made three matching veils for each of the brides, and people helped us get those on. Silpa had printed out a list of activities for each of the brides to try to accomplish before the end of the night – like ‘get serenaded by a guy’ or ‘dance with a red head.’ They were cute. (I didn’t quite finish mine, but I think Neera did really well.) We all danced for a while, and then hung around near our booth. (Paul didn’t actually dance, but he was content to be the photographer, and I’m pretty sure he also bought me about 100 drinks.)

We stayed until just before last call, hoping that we’d have better luck finding a cab if we didn’t wait to the very end, but we were out of luck. It took us forever to get a taxi, and when we finally did get one, the guy was super crabby and stressed out. And I was feeling pretty chatty, so I asked him about it. My sister was pretty sure he was going to just drop us off in the middle of nowhere.

When I got back, I jumped on Pooja to wake her up, which I’m sure she loved. :) In my defense, she had told me earlier in the day that I should wake her up when we got home, and she never did specify how. We all chatted for a bit and then eventually fell asleep. (Katie, Stephanie, and I stayed at Pooja’s, but Paul actually walked back to his hotel – it took him an hour!)

On Sunday morning we were all really, really tired, and actually pretty sore from our dancing lesson, but we got ready and headed to Masa in South Boston for brunch at 10am. The food at Masa was great – it’s all Mexican-inspired – and they have an amazing brunch deal – an appetizer, entrée, and coffee for only $8! I had a plantain empanada and huevos rancheros – and shared some Santa Fe style eggs benedict with Katie.

After all of that food, we decided to walk a bit, so after saying good bye to everybody, Stephanie and I went with Katie to South Station, where she caught the bus back to New York. We met up with Paul and Kris there – they were also planning to take a bus to New York. We chatted for a bit before they took off. Then Stephanie and I fueled up on McDonald’s and Auntie Ann’s respectively and cabbed it back to Pooja’s apartment. We spent the last couple hours before our flight laying on the futon watching Doctor Who – a great Sunday afternoon activity. Eventually, we made our way back to the airport (cab again – just too tired to deal with the T), and caught a 7:15pm flight home.

The weekend was so, so fun, and really special! I was just so happy the entire time – being in a city I love, getting to see friends who are really important to me, and doing lots of fun activities with everyone. I was actually really sad when the weekend was finally over – which is the first time I’ve felt like that with wedding-related stuff. Maybe it’s a sign that it’s getting closer to the actual wedding. Or maybe it’s because this is one of the activities that I’ve been planning for and thinking about for a long time. And now it’s no longer one of the exciting things that are going to happen, but one of the exciting things that already did happen. It may be over now, but it’s a pretty amazing memory to have.