Look, obviously I love every minute of sharing real bridal showers or creating bachelorette inspiration boards for you, but I often come across other little things, either in my personal life or via the interwebs, that I really want to share. Problem: Not bridesmaid related. Solution: This column! From now on I’ll use this space to share a few of the un-bridesmaidy things I’m loving right now.

Travel Log: A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Nashville with some of my close female relatives (the same group that made illegal U-turns in surreys last year in San Francisco—still searching for that footage). We stayed in a cute house in East Nashville, so I have a few recommendations for that neighborhood: hot dogs at I Dream of Weenie (see photo above), drinks at The Treehouse and dinner at Margot Cafe. My favorite experience in downtown Nashville was hands down the food tour we took with Music City Bites and Sites, and no Music City trip is complete without cruising the honky tonks on Broadway (we liked Legends and Tooties). And guys, I saw sooooo many bachelorette parties. Like, too many. At Tootsies, the band would call a bride-to-be whenever they saw one to dance on stage, and they literally had to do this five times in the hour we were there, sometimes with multiple brides on stage at once. I would loosely estimate I saw between 10-15 bachelorette groups in the space of three bars.

Summer Reading: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. One of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. Ursula is born on a stormy evening in rural England, 1910, but the doctor is kept away by the snow and Ursula doesn’t ever take her first breath. But everything repeats for Ursula, and rather than oblivion, she finds herself back in the country room, this time saved. The book follows Ursula’s attempts to make it further and further through life, aided by intense bouts of deja vu that subtly position her to avoid her past lives’ mistakes and move her through tragedies both at home and as a result of both World Wars. An intense read, but so rewarding and absorbing.

Love, Want: This hot pink gem-shaped speaker from Ban.do. Hi, you! You are so adorable. (Also: Great bachelorette prop, am I right?)

New York Minute
Governors Island is still a bit of a New Yorker secret, a place very few tourists know about. Situated off the tip of Manhattan, it’s a tiny little island accessible by ferry that opens in the summer mostly to host events like the Jazz Age Lawn Party, but it’s also a green escape for picnics, bike rides and a game of mini-golf. I didn’t take a trip over last year, but this article on its new 30-acre park makes me want to add it to my summer agenda again. They had me at the field full of hammocks. Photo via Brookelyn Photography.

Pinned It, Cooked It, Loved It: Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Cauliflower Soup. I’ve been addicted to cauliflower as of late, and I loved the heartiness of this soup. We made a few modifications to suit our tastes: Added chicken, substituted skim milk for the goat cheese (didn’t have any on hand and the boyfriend hates it anyway) and added a tablespoon of cumin to up the smoky factor. We make at least one soup a week and freeze the leftovers. This is such a good practice to help avoid defaulting to microwave meals or takeout. Soup heats up really quickly and you can have a homemade meal in no time on those nights when you are feeling much too tired to think about real cooking.

Bridesmaid Moment

In love with these coral rompers from ASOS—such a great twist on the typical. And these girls rock it out with their high kicks! Photo via Kelsey Combe Photography.