I am finally getting around to writing about my AMAZING trip out west to Vancouver Island, Canada. I was born and raised on the island and now that Tim, Leni, and I live all the way across the continent in Raleigh, NC, I definitely don’t get back to Canada as much as I’d like. Luckily for me, one of my best girlfriends was getting married this summer and asked me to be her bridesmaid and Leni to be her flower girl! I couldn’t think of a better excuse to fly out west and celebrate with the people I love!

I ended up having to miss her bachelorette party earlier in the year because I was at the NRA show in Dallas at the time, so I wanted to show her some love and get a chance to celebrate her big day before the chaos of the big day actually arrived. I put together some of my FAVORITE products (that also make great gifts if anyone’s in the market!) and organized a surprise photoshoot at a local vineyard! It took some serious planning between all the trips and craziness going on in my life, but I managed to pull it all together and it was perfect!

Masika May Photography is one of my favorite photographers on Vancouver Island – she shot my friend’s engagement and maternity photos and I am obsessed with the photos. I was able to book her to shoot some photos and she owns a BEAUTIFUL vineyard called Oak and Vine Estate, so we ended up hosting the party right there on site! She’s in the process of converting her property to a wedding venue with a beautiful, renovated barn. If you’re looking for a gorgeous venue on Vancouver Island, this is it!

Chelsea (Bride), Barb (Maid of Honor), Sarah and myself (Bridesmaids) spent the day at the vineyard drinking champagne by the pool, snacking on watermelon, and catching up on years of memories. It was just what the doctor ordered because I can’t remember the last time I stopped long enough to catch up with my friends like this! Along with the good company and girl talk, I had some goodies waiting for the girls with a few of my favorite items:

Yeti Custom Shop

If you follow me, you know I am always carrying around my Yeti Rambler. Not a lot of people know (yet), but Yeti has their own custom shop where you can personalize their mugs! This is the PERFECT gift for anyone really, but especially fun for an event like this so we could all have matching cups! I personalized them with our initials and the date of Chelsea’s wedding so we could keep them as a memory – I just shot way up in the friend department!

Anchor Beads

I’ve posted about this company before for Mother’s Day, but I just LOVE, love, love this brand and every piece of jewelry they offer! After losing her daughter to Leukemia, a friend of mine here in NC started this company as a way to raise money for childhood cancer research. So not only is the jewelry beautiful (I wear it constantly!), but it also helps fund a good cause. I’m a big fan of outdoor-inspired jewelry, and Anchor Beads is some of the best, with chunky pieces made from antlers, bones, shells, and wood. We worked together to create a custom necklace just for the bride and bridal party and it turned out beautifully!

Classic Rocks Couture

This is the other brand of jewelry that I LOVE and have blogged about before. Classic Rocks Couture is owned by Sasha Nugent (Ted Nugent’s daughter… like woah!!) and she creates some of the most beautiful combinations of stones, antlers, leather tassels, and just about anything else that she dreams up. She created a custom design for the bridal party necklaces and the girls loved them! Her bracelets are also gorgeous – it was hard to choose!

Between the beautiful view, amazing food and drinks, great company, and some of the best goodies to take home, I’d say the bridal party celebration was a success! Almost all of my friends are married now, so I’m going to need to come up with new excuses to get together with my girls and drink champagne by the pool!

I am working hard to get more blogs out. Let me know what you want to read about next – the more suggestions I get, the more blogs you’ll get!

Until next time,

Eva x

Side note: speaking of Vancouver Island, we finally opened up our Shockey family museum to the public! It’s in Duncan, BC and is full of 17,000+ square feet of taxidermy, artifacts, photos, stories, adventures, and everything else you can imagine from around the world. I’ll be writing a blog about it soon but until then, please check out the website for all the details – I promise you will be glad you did! Www.handofman.org

Photos by Masika May Photography

Keep everyone in the loop by sharing this post: