Your Most Frequently Asked Questions About my Friendship with Allison

Today’s post is a bit different but definitely a fun one! I get asked all the time about my friendship with my best friend, Allison, so I thought it would be fun to fill y’all in a little and do a whole post answering your most frequently asked questions about my friendship with Allison and spilling on how we built the friendship we have today!

I took to Instagram on Sunday and had y’all send in your questions so I could be sure to cover everything. Also, I got a handful of the same questions a bunch of times so y’all made my life easy! My friendship with Allison is one of the most treasured things in my life. I know how fortunate I am to have a lifelong best friend and I thank my lucky stars everyday that Allison and I met back in Kindergarten! I love you bestie! Keep reading for your most frequently asked questions about my friendship with Allison…

On Jillian: Dress (under $80!) / Purse (similar for less) / Loafers

On Allison: Dress / Purse (old – similar, similar) / Sandals (old – similar, similar, similar) / Scarf

I wouldn’t be a style blogger if I didn’t share a bit on our outfits first! I’m convinced that my blue and white dress is the most versatile dress! It can be worn for a day out and about like how I styled it but it can also be worn with a blazer (also love this one!) or sweater over it to make it work appropriate (it’s a smart workwear piece for this fall!). Plus, my dress is under $80!

I love loafers and probably have close to ten pairs because I wear them so often. I have simple straightforward loafers but also have fun loafers like these needlepointed hydrangea loafers. For needlepointed loafers, I recommend shopping By Paige or Stubbs & Wootton! My net bag is the most fun purse I currently own… shop the look for much less here! Allison stepped out in a darling red and white stripe dress. The dress is so cute that it made hearts pop into my eyes. You wouldn’t believe the number of compliments Allison received on it all day while wearing it around Nantucket! If you live in California, like Allison, then this is a great year round dress!

Your Most Frequently Asked Questions About my Friendship with Allison

1. Where and when did you two meet?

We met in kindergarten when we were 5 years-old. Neither of us actually remember meeting but that’s how the story goes!

2. How do you stay close/keep up with each other now that you live so far apart?

Great question! Ever since I moved, I get asked this all the time! Going from living together and experiencing everything together in person to living on opposite sides of the country was quite a shock. In all honesty, it was the hardest part about moving and took a lot of getting used to. We make up for the physical distance by staying in constant communication. On average, we talk on the phone about twice a week to catch up on everything at length.

It’s true that talking on the phone can be a time suck but the older I get, the more I realize that relationships are everything and usually whatever I’m doing can be put on hold to maintain those relationships. At any given time, we are also texting to chat, Instagram messaging to show each other different things we discover, and emailing to plan upcoming trips. The communication is constant so we never miss a beat! I think we both realize that a near lifelong friendship like ours is too important and special to let fall by the wayside because of the miles between us. (Do we sound like an old married couple!?)

3. What are your favorite best friend dates?

I love this question! We love doing so many things and definitely try to balance being creatures of habit by doing our favorite things with trying out new things together. A lot of our favorite best friend dates include either exercising or eating or both, ha!

We took tennis lessons together when we lived in Santa Monica so we always love a pick up tennis game as a best friend date! We also love to go to hot yoga and then walk to get smoothies to cool off. On the weekends, two of our favorite best friend dates are a spin class and then a visit to the farmer’s market or a hike and then a fun brunch out (after spin we are too sweaty to eat in public so the farmer’s market is perfect but after a hike we often look fine for brunch).

We are both foodies so we also love keeping an eye on new restaurants and then trying them together… we always like to share and try a bunch of dishes! A super fun best friend date we’ve done a few times too is paddle boarding, which is so easy if you live near an ocean, lake, or river (although we’ve found river paddle boarding to be tricky!).

We also love planning and throwing dinner parties! We’ll spend a whole Saturday or Sunday together recipe planning, shopping for ingredients at the grocery and specialty markets, and then cooking. We love setting a table and hosting our friends! When we lived together, we were pretty good at doing this a few times a month and sometimes once a week. I think planning a dinner party or a holiday party with a best friend is just about the most fun (long) best friend date (we also threw a big Halloween party every year we lived together called our Spooktacular Soirée)!

Perhaps the best friend date we go back to the most though is beach or neighborhood walks. We love walks because we get moving, get to be outside, we can go for as long or as short as we like, we can stroll or power walk, and most importantly, we can chat!

4. How long did you two share an apartment and where was it?

We live together in the cutest little apartment in Santa Monica for a little over 5 years. We lived in north Santa Monica in the Montana Avenue neighborhood. Also, we were a block off Montana Ave. and absolutely loved it. Regularly, we did evening walks after work to the beach, we did all our errands on Montana, and we loved all our neighborhood shops, restaurants, coffee spots, and workouts on Montana Avenue. If anyone is looking for a great neighborhood to live in on the westside of Los Angeles, then definitely give this neighborhood a look. We passed our apartment down to two younger friends we love so we still get to see it from time to time, which is fun!

5. Are you more girls girls or boys girls?

This question made me laugh! We are obviously great friends with each other but we both also have other amazing, beautiful, best friends from growing up and from college. We both have a very solid group of girlfriends who neither of us could live without; however, we both are often hanging with the boys. We obviously love spending time with Edwin and Tim but their guy friends are now our guy friends and we get together with them even if Edwin and Tim aren’t around or are out of town. We are also lifelong best friends with two twin boys (they were ushers in my wedding!). So, to answer, both!

On a sidenote, we both dress for women, not for men, ha! We both dress relatively conservatively and neither of us are afraid to try a fun look or silhouette that we know girls will understand but boys won’t get. Edwin and Tim have both definitely questioned our outfits before!

6. Where have you two traveled together?

This is a fun question because we love to travel together and do it as often as we can! We’ve traveled so many places together over the years. We’ve taken more trips than I could ever count throughout California to Lake Tahoe, San Fransisco, Napa, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, San Diego, and Orange County. Also, we’ve gone on ski tips together to Park City and Vail. We love to travel throughout the East Coast together… we took multiple trips to Charleston together before I moved here. We’ve also done New York City and the Hamptons more than a handful of times together.

We have been to Nantucket together three times (Allison got engaged on one of the trips there last summer!). We went to Hawaii together 10 years ago and will be heading back in a few weeks for Allison’s wedding! When we studied abroad in college, we traveled all over Europe together too! Our biggest trip so far has been to Asia the summer of 2016. My sister lived in Vietnam for a year so Allison and I went and visited for two weeks. We traveled throughout Vietnam and then the three of us traveled throughout Bali together. It was an incredible trip! We’ve also been to Mexico and Canada together… the list goes on! We have an on going list of places on our travel bucket list so stay tuned!

7. Are you in each other’s weddings?

Yes! Allison was a bridesmaid in my wedding and her fiancé, Tim, was one of Edwin’s groomsman! I am a bridesmaid and Edwin is a groomsman in their wedding next month as well! Allison and I both have sisters who were/are our maids of honor!

8. Do you think you will ever live in the same place again?

I hope! Edwin and I live in Charleston but have never ruled Los Angeles out. There may come a time when moving back to Los Angeles is the right decision for our family if it makes the most sense for Edwin’s career. Allison and Tim now live in Newport Beach so, without traffic, we’d live an hour away from each other, which will probably be as close as we ever get again! However, not a day goes by that we don’t try to convince Allison and Tim to move to Charleston! The world is a crazy place… you never know!

More on our story

Allison and I met when we are five-years-old in Kindergarten. Even at such a young age, a friendship was born! We had great imaginations as kids and played every make-believe game you can imagine. By middle school, we were attached at the hip. Our mother’s became best friends too and even though our younger sisters were in different grades, they too were great friends (Allison’s younger sister’s first sleepover was with my sister!). Yes, our dads are friends too – our parents have taken couples trips together without us kids! All through middle school and high school Allison and I were thick and thieves. We hated being separated so much that we opted to stick together at all costs. If one of us had an appointment to get our hair cut, then the other tagged along and sat one chair over so that we never had to stop chatting!

When college came we were destinated to separate… Allison looked at mostly only California schools while I looked at schools in Colorado and in the South. I ended up at the University of Colorado at Boulder while Allison went off to The University of Southern California. We remained incredibly close all of college though and visited each other every semester. I quickly became friends with Allison’s college girlfriends and Allison quickly became friends with my college besties. After we graduated, I moved to California for graduate school and Allison and I moved into the cutest little bungalow in Santa Monica. We lived there together for 5 years until I got married and subsequently moved to Charleston. We did absolutely everything together while we lived together, I mean everything! Rarely did I go to the grocery store alone, ha!

In middle school, Allison and I would tell people that we wanted to marry best friends when we grew up. Well, I think we manifested our own destiny… Allison met Tim at USC who was living with and best friends with my husband, Edwin. Allison and Tim introduced Edwin and I in the summer of 2010 and the rest is history! Edwin and I got married in October 2017 and Allison and Tim are set to get married next month in October 2018. Over the years, we’ve experienced everything together from the highest highs of engagements and weddings to the lowest lows of heartbreaks and the passings of loved ones. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way than to have Allison by my side!

On Jillian: Dress (under $80!) / Purse (similar for less) / Loafers

On Allison: Dress / Purse (old – similar, similar) / Sandals (old – similar, similar, similar) / Scarf

Get our Outfits:

Photography by Edwin Eversole