Before I can recap any of the wedding festivities, I need to back it up to about 3 weeks before the wedding. About 2 weeks before we were going to head to Milwaukee to finalize wedding plans, B gave me a fantastic birthday surprise. I came home from working out one Saturday, and he told me he had a surprise for me. H told me he had planned a weekend in Chicago with my two best friends from college after we would be in Milwaukee. I honestly didn't react how he thought I would because at first I was confused because I was supposed to be running a half marathon back home by us. After asking tons of questions..what? where do I get a hotel room for us? Wait, Kelly has to fly in? Do they know?...I found out that B planned everything. He booked us a hotel and even bought my best friend in DC a plane ticket to Chicago. I couldn't believe he planned all of this just so I could spend some quality time with two of my best friends in the whole world.
B and I headed off to Milwaukee on a Thusday night to spend the next day, Friday, finishing up loose ends and meetings..finalize cake, pick out ceremony music, plan ceremony, pick out table linens, finalize reception details etc. While in Milwaukee we also celebrated my 27th birthday a few days early with my family and went out to dinner with them. On Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and headed down to Chicago. B dropped me off at my hotel and he headed off to spend the weekend in Chicago as well with some of his groomsmen.
My two besties, Haley and Kelly, and I had such a blast that weekend. The three of us haven't all been together since we graduated from Marquette back in 2004. We all live in separate areas of the country so it was fantastic to relax before the big day and celebrate my birthday with them.
At Sprinkles, my favorite cupcake place, with Kelly and Haley!
Before doing some shopping on Michigan Ave, my favorite place!
The three of us headed out that afternoon for lunch at Nordstrom Cafe (which is, by the way, the best lunch I have ever had. I so wish we had a Nordstrom here-I would be there everyday to eat!). After lunch and catching up on life, we did some shopping, got cupcakes at Sprinkles, and got manis and pedis. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The three of us headed to Grand Lux Cafe for a fabulous dinner. Afterwards, we went to a nearby bar for some martinis, before ending up at another bar around 10:30 for some karaoke.
After getting dolled up for dinner
I've never done karaoke before, and to be honest, was a bit nervous about getting up in front of a crowded bar to sing, since I can not carry a tune at all. After about an hour, our names were called and we got up to sing a tune. The DJ announced it was my birthday and bachelorette, and the 3 of us got to singing a crowd favorite, Sweet Caroline. I don't mean to brag, but we had everyone in the bar singing with hands up in the air. We were quite the hit that night!
First song..Sweet Caroline
High fives for the Birthday Girl/Bachelorette..singing Jack & Diane
Ending the night with a little Bridesmaids action..Hold On
Groomy showed up around 1:30 am to see what we were up to!
We stayed there will the wee hours of the morning (Hello 2 am!), sung a few more tunes that got the crowd going before calling it a night. We all got to bed at about 4 am before waking up at 8 am. That morning, we lounged in the room, before heading off to get some gourmet donuts. Thank goodness my besties love food as much as I do
Sunday morning breakfast at Glazed!
Navy Pier with my besties
