Crazy Wonderland

What a weekend! Holyschmoly!

Friday night my parents came into town to hang out for a bit before they flew out of Nashville Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous evening, so we headed downtown Franklin to enjoy dinner at The Mercantile before introducing them to Sweet Cece's. My dad is as much of a sweet tooth as I am, so I knew he's appreciate it. The whole car ride home he couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was...so I think it was a hit! :) We ran a few errands and then they helped me get a few things together for Saturday's dinner party.

Saturday morning we headed out early for breakfast at The Henpeck Market. It was raining pretty hard, but we still managed to do a little bit of shopping as well. We also did a lot of "what is the rain plan?" conversations in regards to the dinner party that was scheduled to be outdoors at Arrington Vineyards. They had to head out to the airport at 11am, and as they were walking out the door and we were eyeing the nasty weather outside, we decided it might be best to move the dinner party to my place.

Little did we know what was yet to come!

I called Ashley (we were throwing the party together...this was actually her supper club...I was just helping) and we agreed that moving it was the best plan, so we started making our phone calls to the girls. Everyone was on board, so we started moving at full speed to get things ready! Ashley came over and unloaded all of her stuff, we went to work rearranging my living space and setting things up...it was quite an involved process, but so-much-fun! We have been working on this for almost a month straight...collecting pieces at Goodwill and various other stores, creating a menu, shopping, shopping, shopping, cooking, cooking and designing. Once we put everything together, all the hard work was worth it. Our vision may have been altered by the weather pushing us inside, but it still came together just as we had hoped.

But the

rain

kept

coming.

We flipped on the tv an hour or so before the party was scheduled to begin and sat with our jaws dropped open as we witnessed what was actually happening outside just miles away from our homes. I thought this video captured the weekend in a very moving way...



My friend Steph headed out to make her way to the party...and literally could not get there because the roads were closed, the bridge was out...she had no choice but to turn around and go home. This began to be the case for quite a few of the girls that had planned to be there.

I think Ashley and I could have sat down and cried if we thought about how much work and planning had gone into the evening, but sometimes, you just gotta roll with the punches and not sweat it. Our friend Joy called...still tempted to brave the outdoors and make her way over...and asked "so how many people have to show up for the party to still happen?" I said, "Girl, if ONE person can make it, we are having a party!" She said, "I'm on my way!"

So we're down from 10 to 4 (Ash, me, my roommate and Joy)...and at this point, I am still just as excited about 4 as I was about 10. Just a few minutes later there's a knock at my front door and as it began to open I'm thinking to myself...how did Joy get over here so fast?! When my friend Julie walked through the door I think I almost peed my pants! I looked at Ashley (who was in the kitchen) with, I'm sure, a wide-eyed look of shocked excitement and said, "It's JULIE!" She was soaking wet (although, still ridiculously beautiful), barefoot, and carrying the largest bottle of wine I have ever seen in my life, and you would have thought she was a celebrity from our enthusiasm at her arrival! Shortly after, Joy arrived, and then not too long after that, Leigh Marie! We may have been down from 10 to 6, but that was still 3 more than we had expected at that point.

We turned off all the lights, lit candles everywhere, played the new Alice in Wonderland soundtrack in the background (which is so great by the way!) and enjoyed every delicious morsel of food. Ashley rocked the tea sandwiches, gazpacho and hors d'oeuvres. I made the desserts. The combination of all of the above was a perfect compliment to each other and we sat around the table talking, laughing, enjoying a glass of wine and listening to the rain pour down outside.

Eventually Julie & Leigh Marie braved the rain to head back to their homes and Joy & Ashley spent the night at my place. We slept in a bit on Sunday morning and then all of us put on our rain boots and coats and decided to head out and do a little exploring. It was still raining at this point (I think they said we had around 13-15" of rain?), but we were fortunate enough to be on the west side of Franklin...which was probably the least flooded of all places. We went to Starbucks for our morning "fix", shopped at Kohl's, had a bite to eat at Panera, and tried several other stores that were supposed to be open, but couldn't because employees were stranded in various parts of the city, unable to make it in to work.

Joy eventually took off when there was a break in rain...right before the next big storm came through. Ashley & I headed over to check on her house (which thankfully was fine other than a flooded driveway) and made our way to the video store to rent some movies and then the grocery store & Jet's for some pizza and snacks. It's kinda fun to be "rained in" when you're dry! :) The city enforced a mandatory 6pm-6am curfew, so once we were in, we were in for the night! We piled on the floor (I took all the cushions off the couch a made a "mini fort"), put our our pj's and settled in for the night.

Today I'm back to work and the sun in shining! I am grateful to be safe and dry and praying for all of those who are dealing with damage from the storms. I hope your weekend was a little less eventful than mine, but a great one nonetheless!