Bachelorette Weekend in Charlottesville

Invitations by Ten Acre Paper Co. 

When we first started looking at locations for a bachelorette weekend a lot of factors came into play. We looked at the idea of beaches in Florida, Nashville, Austin, and my total dream spot would have been Napa Valley. Since our actual wedding weekend requires some travel as well, we ultimately decided on a city 3-5 hours away from everyone to save a lot of money, time, and convenience. The original itinerary/plan for the weekend was to do a little bit of everything: go out for dinner/drinks downtown one night, have a relaxing morning at the spa, visit some wineries/cideries, and go snow tubing at the closest ski resort. We ended up having to be flexible about some of our plans but I would still highly recommend planning a weekend trip to Charlottesville with a group of friends! Read more below for the details of where we went each day!

FRIDAY

We all left from different cities on Friday but a majority of us left together in Raleigh around 11:30am. We chose to rent a large SUV so that we would all be able to ride together once we were there (I’d also highly suggest looking into limos/wine tours that can drive you around depending on your budget!). Our first stop once we arrived to Charlottesville was a vineyard that I had always wanted to visit… Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards. We all did a wine tasting, ordered a cheese board, and sat on their patio catching up, introduced my friends to each other, etc. This winery was beautiful and I am dying to go back sometime when it is warmer! My favorite wine was their ‘Zero White’. My friend, Gena, bought a bottle of it for me and we took it back to the house!

We stayed at Pippin Hill a little past their closing time (unfortunately, most of these wineries close at 5pm every day) and headed to our house we rented through Homeaway. The inside of this house was so cute and the size was perfect for about 9-10 people. It reminded me of a house in the French countryside and I don’t know why.

After everyone unpacked and got ready for dinner, we went downtown to a restaurant actually owned by the same people that own Pippin Hill. The restaurant was called Red Pump Kitchen and might have been the best food of my life. It was so delicious and I’d add this restaurant to the ‘must-eat’ list when you’re in Charlottesville. After this, we had gelato at Splendora’s. Another place we had planned on going was the Commonwealth Skybar; however, it was abnormally freezing cold and we had to wake up early the next day so we headed back to the house to prep for Saturday!

SATURDAY

Saturday started early at 7am and we all woke up, ate breakfast, and packed in the car to drive to Wintergreen Resort. We had a big spa morning planned and did the Wintergreen Resort Spa’s ‘party package’. This allowed everyone to choose either a facial or massage and a manicure and pedicure. I LOVED this place. The people were so nice and accommodating, the facility was gorgeous, and I’d highly recommend this for a girl’s weekend or even a couple’s weekend activity.

Our plan after the spa was to go over to The Plunge, which is Wintergreen Resort’s snow tubing park. I was SO excited for this but due to the 70 degree February we had, the spa ladies told us that they had recently closed the snow tubing park for the year. This changed our plans a bit but we found a really cool brewery right outside of Wintergreen called Devils Backbone Brewing and decided to have lunch there. This place was way cooler than I anticipated and we ended up staying there longer than planned. I really want to take TJ back here in the summer… they had a really cool outdoor patio area which reminded me of Sierra Nevada in Asheville if you’ve ever been there.

After Devils Backbone Brewing, we drove literally one mile down the road to a cidery, Bold Rock. This place also had a really cool laid back atmosphere and really, really good cider. I definitely wouldn’t mind going back here sometime too! We were planning on also visiting King Family Vineyards but we were running out of time and it was getting close to dinner time. I’ll have to add that one to the list for next time I’m in the area!

Anyways, we decided to have my favorite go-to meal, Chipotle catering for 20 (thanks to TJ’s Chipotle rewards card) take-out and bring back to the house for a mexican meal and margaritas. It was the perfect dinner after a long day and, after dinner, my friends surprised me with a ‘honeymoon shower’ complete with the cutest gifts ever that I can bring on our honeymoon to St. Lucia! I guessed which girl brought which gift and it was so much fun! We ended the night with roasting marshmallows, laughing until my abs hurt, and just spending quality time with my best friends.

I’m already missing all of my friends but I cannot wait to see them in the coming months! I also can’t believe we are almost two months away from our wedding day (insert emoji with the big eyeballs). Thank you to all of my friends and sisters who made this weekend a great one! <3

We also decided to make a rap video in our Etsy sweatshirts…

Just kidding, kind of. My girl, Morgan Martin, did however get some video footage of the weekend! Be sure to follow her on Youtube!