This holiday season I wanted to do something extra special for my Cousins Crew (which is all my girl cousins on my paternal side). We typically do brunch or hangout at someones house for hours over drinks and food, talking endlessly. This time I thought it would be so cool if the night never had to end soo….. I planned a Cousin’s Crew Christmas Sleepover!
I knew the location would really set the tone, so I picked one of my favorite local hotels! It has very spacious suites, a bar and restaurant located in the lobby, and amazing views. I really couldn’t have selected a better place to host our slumber party (read THE AMAZING VIEW FOR PAUL’S 11TH BIRTHDAY). My first thought was to reserve the penthouse but after I found out the two bedroom option was booked– I decided to go with the 2 bedroom Multilevel Suite to maximize our sleeping space. The suite came with a river view, 2 bedrooms with king beds, sofa bed and a balcony. While the bedrooms and restroom were upstairs, downstairs was a living room, dining table and wet bar.
Once I confirmed the room, I created an invitation and asked all the ladies to bring a snack/appetizer and adult beverage to share. I decided to provide candy, chips and a signature sangria. We also agreed to wear matching pajama shorts for all the pictures we knew we would take. Fast forward to the night of our event and well.. as always I had a few cool surprises.
First, I went to Dollar Tree (best kept secret story for most things) to purchase decor for the room. Since we decided on buffalo plaid shorts, I wanted to get a few items to match. Lucky me I was able find 10 of the same socks and 10 super cool Santa Cups, a random backdrop and the cutest headbands and Santa hats for props. Let’s not forget the shot glasses and a few random sparkly items for the tables. It was Dollar Tree for the win! I also ended up ordering buffalo plaid plates, napkins and Merry Christmas signs from Oriental Trading.
Second, I reached out to Kile Walton at Kileidoscope Clothing & Co for custom Tshirts! He is my go to for all bulk orders dating all the way back to my bachelorette party in 2014. He handles all of our Ginn Elite Basketball orders, Family Reunions, Glenville Team Basketball, — literally any large custom order that I need goes to him. He is fast and reliable with has great products that wash well. Anywho, I told him I needed a cute shirt for all my cousins so we all matched and came up with a design, showed me the sample and he delivered. All within a week and a half.
I ordered buffalo plaid bags and gold letter stickers to personalize myself with everyone’s initials. I decided to gift the shirts as a surprise with the socks, but felt like that wasn’t enough. Soooo, I called yet another person on my go to list Brittany- at MemoriesByBee. I wanted everyone to have a personalized wine glass so we weren’t asking all night which cup belonged to who. The timing was perfect because she was running an awesome holiday special on my favorite stemless wine glasses. I thought the glass, the socks and T-shirts were the perfect welcome gift! Because I’m so extra… I couldn’t stop there. I figured everyone was bringing snacks but no one was bringing dessert… I decided to reach out to April at CookieFetti and placed an order for custom cookies with everyones names. This was my last and final gift, not only were soo cute, they were also so good!
On the day of the event, I asked everyone to arrive at 6:30pm. Considering it was a multilevel suite, I refused to let anyone downstairs until everyone arrived. So we got dressed together put on our make up and prepared for our night of fun upstairs. Then I welcomed everyone downstairs together where the bar was fully stocked and the food and snacks were all set up. I hung all the names of the games on the wall and placed all the gift bags front and center with everyones names. I failed to mention I spent a good hour or so coming up with games for us to play – then renamed them with Adult Phrases appropriate for Girls Night.
About an hour into the event once everyone had opened their gifts and changed into their shirts and socks, I let them know my photographer Natasha Herbert (who does all of my events) would be coming to the suite for a quick 30 minute photoshoot. There were pleasantly surprised and this was definitely the icing on the cake. We took pictures on the couch, in the bed and randomly having fun in the suite. As always, Natasha fully captured the moment and as you can see the images came out GREAT!
In the end it was a night of bonding and fun! We laugh til we cried and had vey deep conversations as we do. We drank and played games and did a white elephant self care themed gift exchange. I tried to make sure all the details were covered and that everyone had a great time. We had a blast! With simple adds like a speaker and taboo– it was everything you needed for a Cousins Crew Sleepover.
As always I encourage you to support all the local businesses I use for your personal events and be sure to mention #CourtneyCoversCleveland when doing so.
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