When my sister got engaged in March of last year, being a corona bride was not was she or anyone expected. Having to cancel all of her plans last minute and scale back the wedding to 10 people must’ve been extremely difficult for her. The wedding was beautiful, though, to say the least and I am so happy she and her husband, Kareem, decided to go ahead and get married instead of postponing.
Because nothing was going according to the original plan, I wanted to throw her the best surprise bachelorette/wedding preparation night she could dream of. She of course, knew we were gathering but she didn’t know what she was walking into.
Here’s how I did it, and here’s how you can too.
Decor!
These are the balloons I ordered. Unfortunately the champagne bottle balloon did come with a hole in mine, but Amazon’s customer service did make up for it. All of the decor looked great. I spread the balloons all over the house on the floor, I put the ring balloon on the bed where my sister slept and the dancing men were strung outside where we ate our dinner.
Spa night!
I ordered this LED lamp on Amazon right before the pandemic really hit out of coincidence. Even better investment now that salons are closed or have limited availability or just simply should still be avoided if possible. Here are the nail polishes I use but feel free to order any of your own. I’m not a professional, so I will not tell you which tools to use on your hands or feet but I purchased these $2 tubs from Target. They fit all of our feet (size 5-10) Epsom Salts, which can be found at Target or Ulta and This scrub in a variety of scents. Do your research on Google or on YouTube for how you’d like to do your mani/pedi and decide which tools you’d like to use. We used gel polish on our nails and regular polish on our toes.
Facials!
I like to use little razors to shape my eyebrows sometimes. These were fairly inexpensive from Amazon.
I already have a nice little collection of face masks from Formula 10 so we used these and everyone was able to pick a mask based on what their face needed. We did this while we did other things like prepping our hair or while I took off the gel polish that was already on my nails.
Food!
I preordered all of Alexa’s favorite foods/snacks from Walmart and did a grocery pick up about a week in advance to make sure we could get whatever was missing later. For the fresh fruit she requested, we picked up the night before. We also preordered all of the takeout to avoid any issues with delivery/pickup. We had sushi from a local Japanese restaurant for dinner, (chicken and) waffles for breakfast — only my little sister eats meat, and Panera for lunch which we ended up taking with us to the wedding venue. We also had lots and lots… and lots of champagne for all night, mimosas and during the day.
Clothing & custom things!
I made custom robes, slippers, and champagne flutes for us to feel a bit more luxurious while at my house. You can request custom items from my shop here. They definitely made the night more fun and came in use while we were doing our pedicures and while we were wearing our dresses and eating at the hotel. The champagne flutes were important to not mix up our drinks, especially during current times. All three items made for great souvenirs for our intimate, very fun, sleepover together.
The perfect word to describe my final semester of college would be “finally.” In addition to finally earning my degree, I finally had my first graduation ceremony after earning my high school diploma, as well as my associate’s degree. I finally became a member of the international non-profit organization, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. And I finally had an answer to the most asked question after finishing school: “what’s next?”
On November 12th, I became a woman of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, the first greek-lettered sorority created for African American women. Words can’t describe the emotions felt with the initial information released in September. The wait was finally over. After going through the process, I now have 32 sisters (co-initiates) and over 290,000 sorors around the world I can count on to be there for me whenever needed. I am able to participate in projects designed for the betterment of woman and girls and encourage others to be best leaders and scholars they are capable of being. I am blessed to be a member of this wonderful network of talented, educated, women and to carry on the legacy of my mother and the organization, and to do so alongside my younger sister who also was newly initiated this fall.
“What’s next?” is a question I have been asked countless times and I am more than happy to tell the inquirer I am employed full time at Duke University Press! Since May, working at DUP has been amazing. My colleagues have always been extremely welcoming, friendly, understanding, and encouraging. I couldn’t imagine a better workplace.
Camille Wright 