Last Toast on the Coast

Cena founder plans best friend’s themed 30A bachelorette

Taylor Swift-themed cocktails, cherub-shaped butter, a Mediterranean feast and bar hopping at the beach were just some of the many unique details of this 30A bachelorette weekend.

Best friends since high school, Jaynie Mitchell asked Elyse Thompson to be her co-maid of honor. As an event planner and founder of Cena, Thompson was more than ready to make her best friend’s bachelorette weekend one for the ages. 

“I knew I wanted to plan a bachelorette of her dreams,” said Thompson. “From Pinterest boards for themes per day, to texting with the bride sharing TikToks or Instagram inspiration posts, we began to birth a beautiful weekend.” 

Thompson’s business, Cena, offers bespoke, supper club-inspired gatherings and events service. Thompson provides table setting, table scaping event planning, dinner party hosting, in-house private chefs, cocktail curating, floral arranging, cake making and more. 

For Mitchell’s bachelorette weekend in Grayton Beach and Rosemary Beach, Thompson cooked all the food served in the house for the 15 women, prepared three signature cocktails for each evening, arranged tablescapes for each day, decorated for each theme, captured and documented content and coordinated with vendors, including a private party bus and beach bonfire through Momma Bear Bonfires. 

The first evening’s theme was inspired by Taylor Swift’s album “Lover.” Cocktail hour included curated creations based on Swift’s songs Lavender Haze, Archer and I Knew You Were Trouble, and appetizers of peach, honeydew caprese salad with prosciutto, burrata on orange heirloom tomatoes and lover-heart sugar cookies. Then the ladies headed out to Grayton Beach bars for the night.

The next morning was a Stupid Cupid brunch including pancakes, bacon, eggs and croissants, complemented by cherub-shaped butters. The gals enjoyed yoga and a beach day before transitioning into a Coastal Cowgirl theme, enjoying frozen lychee margaritas and spicy jalapeno-cucumber margaritas before loading into a party bus to dine and drink in Rosemary Beach. 

“30A is just one of the most beautiful places on earth,” Mitchell said. “The beach is absolutely gorgeous, and the restaurants and bars surrounding it are top notch. 30A is the perfect place for a bachelorette — it combines beauty, fun and relaxation, creating the perfect experience.” 

The final day was spent recovering in custom “Last Toast” logo lounge wear and relaxing in bathing suits by the pool at the rented home in Grayton Beach. Thompson served up a Grecian feast of feta pistachio dip, Greek salad, harissa turkey meatballs and Greek chicken skewers, accompanied by white wine sangria. At sunset, they headed beachside for a bonfire. 

“The decor, food, flowers, signage and more that Elyse provided truly blew all expectations out of the water,” said Mitchell. “I would recommend a service like this to other brides over and over again because it removed any and all stress from the weekend. From having a set itinerary to figuring out the food to having the perfect picture locations, there wasn’t a detail that was left forgotten.”