Let it go officially on record: Rachel and Jubs throw a damn good Derby party. I can think of few things better than getting all dressed up with friends, drinking outside on a gorgeous day, and two minutes of sports!
These two, though, went all out. From the adorable decorations, which I wish I had taken more pictures of, to the insane food spread, which I took NO pictures of, they completely decked their beautiful house out and I loved all the details.
Didn't hurt that their backyard was gorgeous, either...
...I think every combination of people there took photos by this giant, blooming lilac bush. Their space gave me serious renter's envy. And now I'm on Zillow telling myself I should totally buy a house just so I can have lilacs in my backyard.
More lilac pictures! (Claire, your arms DO look so good in this photo.)
Fun fact: J.Crew Factory carries this dress all the time basically, and I got it in four colors for $29.99 apiece on insane promo. Obsessed.
The fabulously sassy hostess with the mostest. I had severe shades-and-hat envy.
Rachel and I go all the way back to second grade Brownie Girl Scouts, so naturally we had to take a Girl Scout Law picture.
And the award for Derby Best Dressed went, hands-down, to these two. How are you both so freaking adorable at all times? You essentially need to move to Churchill Downs and take up permanent residence just so that suit can see the light of day on the regular.
Old roomie pic!
Fabulous hats, gorgeous dresses, juleps and cornhole. Basically the day in a nutshell.
Um, hi, the sunglasses game is so strong with these men. I'm also dead-dying-done obsessed with the suspenders/gingham/Neuzy's shorts action.
We ladies didn't clean up half badly either, though! I'm incredibly glad we took at least a couple nice photos...
...before the above and below happened.
The photo booth props made my day. Just another total attention-to-details thing that Rachel and her sister and Jubs knocked out of the park.
Things rapidly took a turn for the tipsy when I hit the champagne bottle-first.
And the race! You can kind of see on Rachel and Jesse's mom's backs that we all had bought in and gotten horses with odds, in keeping with the race. Molly ended up with Nyquist and won...which means I expect at least 15 extra minutes of open bar at their wedding in JUST THREE WEEKS! ;)
Colleen's hat looks so good on Rabes.
And Colleen just looks so good always in general. (I, on the other hand...yikes.)
Favorites, right there, encapsulating basically how the night ended: blurry but still fairly attractive ;)
Inaugural Derby Party: straight success. Can't wait for next year: someone hide the juleps!