Not Your Mother's Book Club. Delicious Reads Book Club Retreat 2016

Last year was our first time hosting the book club retreat and it turned out so great that we decided to make it an annual event. Our fearless leader Kelly has been planning, stressing and brain storming on how to make it better than last year and let me say that she did not disappoint our members! She went above and beyond what anyone could have guessed. If you want to plan your own retreat then keep reading because we'll give you some ideas, suggestions and what worked for us.

We began looking for donations, sponsors and trying to secure a place to host our memebers since February.

The first thing you need to do is decide where you are going to have your retreat. We wanted to be away, it is a retreat after all, but not too far away. We ended up in Heber, UT which is about an hour drive for most of us. I got up there a little early to help with setting up things and sat watching the deer that were in the field next to the house we stayed at. It was beautiful.

{Decorations}
We kept the decorations simple since the home we stayed in had lots of stuffed sheep, I mean, lots of decor already. ;)

{Sponsors}

{Donated Treats}

PINK BEEHIVE COTTON CANDY

You may think all cotton candy tastes the same (like straight sugar) but then you'd be wrong.

PINK BEEHIVE COTTON CANDY puts a spin on the traditional by adding in dried fruit, cookie bits and infused flavors to all their cotton candy and creating a whole new delicious gourmet experience that will have you addicted after the first taste. We tried:

 -Caramel Apple

-Cookies and Cream

-Mango

-Signature flavor 

I couldn't stop "tasting" any of  the flavors, they were all so good and unique. I thought I'd have left over cotton candy when the retreat was over but I was sadly mistaken, there wasn't a drop left.

Pink Beehive Cotton candy WILL be a staple at my parties from now on.

LEMONADE KITCHEN COOKIES

WOW...

...if you want a cookie to change the way you judge every cookie you eat from that point on then you need to taste a LEMONADE KITCHEN cookie. These cookies aren't messing around!

We lucked out being close to the holidays and got to sample several of their holiday flavors like:

-Peppermint Crunch

-Sugared Gingersnap

-Pumpkin Butter

-Snickerdoodle

Lemonade Kitchen ships all over the nation and only uses fresh ingredients to flavor their cookies so do yourself a favor and order a batch your for next party, your guests will thank you.\

DOLCE BELLA by Erin 

If you follow me me on Instagram then you already know how much I LOVE macarons. I don't know what it is about these beautiful little cookies that gets my heart fluttering but I like to taste macarons where ever I find them. So, as you can imagine, I've tried a macaron or two in my day and believe when I tell you that THESE ARE ONE OF THE BEST MACARONS I'VE EVER HAD. I found myself going back to the kitchen again and again to try all the flavors because they were perfectly chewy and packed full of flavor. 
Erin make all kinds of beautiful cookies, pastries and cakes locally and you can find her all summer long at the Provo Farmers Market. 
You've got my vote for macaroon president Erin!

{Dinner}
Brooke saved the day and brought the BEST baked and sweet baked potatoes from the Ruby River for our baked potato bar.

As you can see, we weren't starved for food.

Robin put our "Dirty Soda" bar together which was a HUGE hit and a must at any party!
You can read all about it HERE and download this amazing printable!

(Ignore the excess of sheep)

{Gift Bags}

I am in LOVE with these Babylit tote bags that they donated and I kind of wanted to sneak one of each design when I received them because they are all so cute!
(If you're wondering, I didn't sneak any...or did I?)

We had SO many amazing donations for our member gift bags.
I made sure that each and every product donated was something I would personally love to have which was great except now I have a huge list of things I want for Christmas lol!

You should take a moment and look up these accounts and shops because they all have fabulous stuff!

 Each member had to draw a dare at random that they HAD to complete before drawing a number which would tell them what gift bag they won.

Our dare game turned out to be the best idea ever and provided us with endless laughs and giggles!

(Above) Whitney had to act out a death scene.

(Below) Hikari had to sing everything she said for the next 5 minutes.

(Above) Robin had to act out her favorite Disney princess. If you can't tell, she's brushing her hair with a fork as Ariel.

(Below) Ashley had to do the robot for 30 seconds and she ROCKED it.

(Above) Shalease had to read her last text message out loud which ended up being a really sweet one from her hubby.

(Below) Kelly, (I) had to walk around with a finger mustache for 2 minutes.

(Below) Bryn had to have a tea party with some of the many sheep in the room lol!

(Above) Julie had to rap "Twinkle, Twinkle little star!"

(Below) Alix had to walk the runway in whatever she had on.

Good times all around!

{Donations}

Oh, WOVEN PEAR how I love thee, let me count the ways....

Aren't these socks darling?!
You guys, I've been obsessed with these socks since they first came out and I've been wishing and hoping to have them to give out at our retreat for 2 years and thanks to my friend Alix who helped make it happen, my wish came true!!

Readers and cute cozy socks go together like peanut butter and chocolate.
Thank you Woven Pear!

Cents of Style

Cents of Style and Classy Cosmetics worked to get us these beautiful Tribe Bracelets at a killer deal so I could surprise every one of my members with one in their gift bags.
I wanted these because when I read the meaning behind why they call them tribe bracelets, I knew they were perfect.
"AT CENTS OF STYLE, WE ARE HUGE ADVOCATES FOR FINDING YOUR "TRIBE" IN THIS LIFE. FINDING THE PEOPLE WHO SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE, REFLECT HOW YOU FEEL, AND EMPOWER YOU IS ONE OF LIFE'S BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS."

{Photo Booth}

Thank you Jen and Kara for helping my vision come to life with this beautiful book page backdrop for our photo booth, it turned out so great!!

Now get ready to see an over load of silly photos from sleep deprived women with the most amazing selection of photo props by PAPER & PANCAKES who has some of the best props I've ever seen. These little paper beauties provided us with HOURS of fun, giggles and memories to last us until next year! You need to check out her Etsy shop for your next party because her prop collections and the quality and detail in ever piece is worth every penny.

Just see for yourself.

{Braid Bar}
Nothing says retreat or girly fun like a braid bar.
 And when you have as many talented hair girls in your group as we do then it's an inevitable activity that keeps the conversation flowing as the braiding is going.  

{Breakfast}

You'd better believe that after an all night party with 20 girls that the last thing we wanted to do was get up and prepare any kind of breakfast. Asking FLIPPIN WAFFLES to cater our breakfast might have been our best idea
EVER. 

And oh my word, these waffles tasted AMAZINGGG!!! There's nothing better than a fresh, hot waffle with melting whipped cream and chocolate...oh man, I wish I could have eaten every flavor option! I got 1/2 my waffle with "Nutella Dream" and the other half with "Boston Eclair" and they were equally delicious.

Thank you to all our sponsors and shops that donated product to make this our best retreat yet!