My Best Friend's Bachelorette - Part 1
The Kidnap
The Mother of the bride and I arrive to collect our girl right on time, and the blushing bride was not yet ready. Not a problem though, we know her so well we had planned for this!
We had kept the entire plan for the day a secret, so our bride had some questions about packing and what to wear. She was filled with nervousness & excitement. We had put some things on her "what to pack" list to throw her off the trail and prevent her guessing what we were doing. There were a few things on this list that she thought were a joke, and they weren't... but we'll get to that later.
Our blushing bride was presented with a box which contained the near mandatory bride to be uniform - her sash, feather boa, white flower lei's, and tulle (we opted for a skirt instead of a veil). The Mother of the Bride and I proudly wore our "Mother of the Bride" and "Maid of Honour" badges. We took some quick "before" photos and head out on our adventure!
Choose Your Words Wisely
A number of months before the big day the bride and I were talking about the bachelorette party... well she was talking and I was trying really really hard to keep things secret. I'm really not good at secrets, my words wont say anything, but the expressions on my face always give up the game.
Our beautiful bride said jokingly "I'm up for anything! I'll even run up a mountain in my underwear if you want!"... Don't write cheques that your hot arse can't cash my girl. As we were driving toward the location of our first stop of the day the bride was looking out the car window at her surroundings, Suddenly the memory of this conversation, the scenery, and our request to wear pretty, but conservative underwear all clicked into place in her mind. "Ohh no! Are we...?" hehehe. yes. yes we are.
When we arrived at the bottom of the mountain the rest of the bridesmaids were waiting for us. There was cheering, champagne, a mix of R&B songs playing, and a bunch of helium balloons which included a foil penis and foil pineapple to match the theme for the rest of the day.
The Empowering But Scary Walk
After welcoming and and excited hugs, a bit of girl talk and a glass of champagne the bride to be started to think that we weren't actually going to make her head up the mountain, sorry beautiful, that's a false sense of security.
One of the bridesmaids jumped in with "Well get on with it then!"
"Get on with what?"
"Strip down you two, up you go!"
"You're kidding right?" said our bride nervously but a bit excited.
"Nope, Jess is going with you so you're not alone."
"Really?" she looked to me, for reassuring solidarity.
"Yup. Skull that champagne, get some dutch courage, and up you go!"
It was at about this time that I started thinking that I had written a cheque my arse couldn't cash. I was nervous about showing off my body after having given birth to my second baby only 6 months prior. The adrenaline started pumping. The feeling was much like staring at a pool, knowing the water is cold and being too scared to jump in. I threw back the last of my champagne (which had been conveniently been re-filled by a bridesmaid only seconds earlier) and started to quickly strip down to my underwear and put on my sneakers.
"The faster we do this, the faster we can put our clothes back on!" I said to the bride. With cheering from the mother of the bride, and the rest of the bride tribe we started our (fast paced) walk up the mountain... we'd have run, but... it's a god damn mountain! We didn't want to explain the the paramedics & rescue team why we had chosen these outfits for our exercise.
Body Confidence
I was really surprised how quickly we became comfortable and confident in what we were wearing... or not wearing, Walking around in your underwear is the same as wearing a bikini to the beach or the pool (swap Lycra for lace & cotton), but people are rarely concerned about seeing people, or being seen by people in their swimwear. The underwear we were wearing definitely covered more "surface area" than your average bikini (...and maybe even more surface area than the dresses some girls wear for a night out in Civic).
Let me be clear - we weren't looking sexy. Our socks, running shoes, hats, and helium balloons all helped to make us look ridiculous. Before we knew it, just like jumping into a cold swimming pool, our minds and bodies got used to the new environment and the adrenaline started to reduce.
The Public's Reaction
Now that we were comfortable in ourselves, the next step was to see how other people climbing up and down the mountain would react to seeing something... ummm... unexpected? The first people we met were a couple who were very clearly tourists.
"Happy Birthday!!" yelled the husband with big smiles and thumbs up.
"Ohh it's not a birthday, she's getting married soon and this is a bachelorette challenge." I said. His wife also had a big smile on her face to see something fun, funny, and out of it's normal context... if there is a normal context for this sort of thing.
"Can I have a photo with you!?!" the wife nearly yelled with excitement.
"Of course!" I said. ...I dont know why, it just sounded fun. We posed for a photo, said goodbye and continued up. I still find it entertaining to think that this couple would have returned home from holiday and have shown that picture of us to their friends when telling stories about their holiday.
The reactions of people while we continued our journey were varied but mostly positive people praised us for being so confident, congratulated the bride, and wished her well for the upcoming wedding & wedded bliss.
Hot Tip: I found that people didn't initially know how to react to us and that yelling out "CAN I HAVE SOME HIGH FIVES FOR THE BRIDE TO BE?!?!" seemed to create context for people and let them know that this was more of a once in a lifetime thing, rather than something we just did every Saturday because we felt too restrained by active wear.
There were however some people who were clearly unimpressed about what we were doing. There was one couple where the girlfriend, upon seeing us, had worded up her boyfriend to stare at nothing but the ground. He did as he was instructed while she looked at as furiously. There were people who thought we were inappropriate and chose to give us death stares and silence while we said hello with smiles and continued on our way. We weren't offended by their anger, but we were a bit sorry for putting people in a situation they weren't comfortable with.
The Champagne Celebration With A View
We heard a familiar voice yell from the top of the mountain "WOULD YOU TWO HURRY UP!?!" We were near the top, and pretty relieved! The mother of the bride & the bride tribe (who had driven to the top) were waiting with water, champagne, cameras, music and most importantly to us, our clothes, dry shampoo, and deodorant!
We took some great group photos, including "jump shots" which we reserve for truly special moments together and had some great girls chat time. We had giggles, smiles, a wonderful view over Canberra, plus (bonus) had completed our pre-wedding workout for the day.
Important Life Lessons Learnt
1. Memories that last a lifetime dont need to cost big $$$.
2. Be confident in yourself.
3. Your positive attitude and confidence can empower others and make them smile.
4. Some people won't be happy about things you are doing, That's ok.
5. Experience life.
And to think... this was just the beginning of the first day!
Xo Jess
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