We celebrated my best friend Shelby's Bachelorette Party in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona! I love a good vacation itinerary and I had so much fun curating this very special weekend for her.
ITINERARY DETAILS:
FRIDAY:
We landed in Scottsdale just before 11am on Friday. In lieu or arranging for transportation we ordered 2 Uber XL's to transport us 10 miles away to our hotel. We stayed at The Scott Resort and Spa which was STUNNING and I've never seen a hotel that was more Shelby vibes. It was also conveniently located about 5 minutes from almost everything we wanted to do. It was perfect.
The plan was to drop off our bags with the hotel, freshen up/change, and head off to enjoy our first day in Scottsdale. The hotel wasn't able to promise early check-in (I asked the week of and called again at the airport that morning before we took off for our flight). However, we were pleasantly surprised when 2/3 of our rooms were ready to go! We were able to get most of the girl settled and freshen up/change into our wine bar outfits.
The Scott Resort actually offers a shuttle within a certain amount of miles within the hotel (I think within 3 miles if I'm not mistaken). So we were able to take this to our first destination. The shuttle is free but we made sure to tip our driver each ride! (He took venmo).
We had reservations at Wine Girl Scottsdale - the cutest wine bar in existence and also total Shelby vibes! We grabbed all the wine, cocktails, and appetizers - all nibbling on everything and sharing. They do have a minimum for groups of $45 which I estimated to be $57 per person after taxes and gratuity. (It ended up being $56 per girl so I was super proud of my math skills). I will say it was a little tricky to meet our minimum. We ordered a ton of apps, multiple bottles to share on-site, and cocktails. We still needed to order a bottle to-go to meet our minimum. I had a feeling this might be a possibility so I confirmed with them beforehand that this was allowed. Overall review of Wine Girl is it's definitely a bachelorette hotspot! I think every other table was another Bachelorette party. I know Shelby really enjoyed the cute details and the atmosphere so it was definitely a win! They also gifted her some bridal themed gifts upon arrival - An Engagement Ring Cookie that said "Wine Girl," and a gold necklace that said "Wifey." She's worn this necklace so much since which I loved! Make sure when making the reservation that it's under the bride's name! They had a sign that said "Welcome ______" and the reservation was under my name so I quickly erased that when I walked up lol.
After Wine Girl, we made our way back to our hotel. We sent the bride to the pool to grab a drink while we decorated her room and set up the other girls' room's with their gifts. *I'll do another post on decor and gifts! We let the girls know they could hang in their rooms/nap or head to the pool - whatever they prefer - before getting ready for our night out. We let the girls know whoever was ready and wanted to grab a drink before dinner to meet us downstairs at The Canal Club. It helped that our hotel had the cutest bar/restaurant! In reflection, this probably could've been skipped. I don't think the drinks or environment was our favorite of the weekend (They sat us outside on the patio which was fine but nothing to write home about). Dinner this evening was at Zinque - a super hip and vibey French inspired restaurant. We have a few of these around LA so it's worth checking out if you're in the area! This dinner was SO FUN - we got delicious cocktails, good food, and an amazing server. He ended up bringing us 3 rounds of shots... On the house... The most fun before a big night out!! Zinque wasn't a Bachelorette destination (we didn't see any other parties here) but I kind of liked that about it! It was super moody, vibey, and the food and drinks were great. Dinner ended up being $57 per girl.
For our night out experience we ended up venturing out to Tempe to go to Varsity Tavern. We wouldn't have gone here simply because it's out of the way when there's so much to do in Old Town Scottsdale. However, their manager at the time was a close family friend who very generously offered to hook us up with bottle service - two bottles on the house, we just needed to tip the bottle girls! I recommend not arriving before 11pm. We got in there around 10pm and I was little nervous - It was pretty empty and kind of an interesting crowd. HOWEVER, once the place started to fill up it was so much fun and such a vibe. If you have the opportunity to do bottle service I definitely recommend it. It's so nice to have your OWN table and get the special treatment for a big event like this. I know personally when I researched bottle service options in Old Town Scottsdale I felt it was out of our budget. I think when planning for a big group of girls you should always be considerate of costs while making sure it's special for the bride. I made sure to weigh out all options when looking at clubs, pool parties, etc. which I'll get into more later. Overall, we got very lucky to get this hook-up and had an amazing night. The two bottles were perfect for our group size (10). We got Shelbs up at the DJ booth, got out on the dance floor, but also had a place to keep our stuff safe and secure at our table. The bottle girls were sweet and accommodating throughout the night - my favorite part was the congratulations/bride sign when they delivered our bottles - such a fun experience for Shelbs!
We ordered Ubers/Lyfts back to the hotel. Some girls left earlier than others but we made sure no one got into a car alone! Always stay in groups!
SATURDAY:
We didn't make any breakfast plans Saturday morning - we wanted the girls to sleep in, do as they please, and get breakfast at their leisure. We reserved a group of daybeds at The Saguaro from 10am-6pm, with beverage service beginning at 11am. I researched the pool parties a TON because Shelby's one request was she wanted to hang by the pool. I wanted to find somewhere we could have a space reserved, a DJ playing good music, and overall a fun vibe. Some of the pool parties are incredibly expensive - Think Maya Dayclub, The W - basically all the top recommended places. I looked on Resort Pass to find alternative options. I'm familiar with The Saguaro because we've done Shelby's birthday at the Palm Springs location, along with many other trips. I also stayed at The Saguaro Scottsdale for another girlfriend's Bachelorette - so I felt confident in the choice. My intention was to reserve a Cabana for a little bit more $$ - I thought a shaded area would be ideal for the girls and who doesn't love a Cabana? Unfortunately within the 2 hours of email exchanges (and this was about 2 months before the Bachelorette weekend) the Cabanas got completely booked. I was super disappointed at first - I was super interested in just confirming some details and they filled up! However, they did have 3 daybeds available which I went ahead and booked. We originally had 12 girls so this seemed perfect for our group size and it definitely was! There was a $300 daybed fee and a $450 food and beverage minimum. All said it done it ended up being $123 per girl (Group of 10, split between 9 of us - covering the bride of course!). I think The Saguaro Pool club was the perfect way to spend the Saturday of a Bachelorette weekend. We ordered pitchers of yummy cocktails, food, enjoyed the DJ, and games on-site. We were able to bring over some umbrellas for some shade and enjoy being by the pool all day. We planned on being back to the hotel by 6pm latest (which we did) to start getting ready for dinner. TIPS: Head straight to the front desk upon arrival to check-in for your daybed/cabana rental. I recommend having the rates they quoted you in writing. They were telling me a different rate when I was checking in. Luckily, I had emails from who I worked with that I showed the front desk which they happily honored. It wasn't an issue but I'm glad I had the quoted price in mind and caught that.
We had breakfast reservations at The Canal Club (downstairs in our hotel) at 9am. Full transparency, most of us didn't make it lol. We planned to leave the hotel at 10am for our flight which worked out perfect! We had the best time celebrating Shelbs!
If you have any questions don't hesitate to DM me on Instagram! @haleyirene