First off, Bridesmaid Andrea flew in all the way from Seattle to help us with the looming tasks of selecting a menu, florist, photographer, and more in the way of decor (secrets I do not want to give away before the wedding!). Not only was she a great help, but it was also so nice to see her after 14 months of phone calls and skyping since our last escapades in NYC in July of 2010.
She arrived on Saturday afternoon just a few hours after us, and we spent that night relaxing with the Masghatis over Chicago Deep Dish Pizza (Andrea's first!), which is usually more entertaining than relaxing. On Sunday I showed her around Naperville and we hung out with Charly. For those of you who do not know, Andrea is one of Charly's aunts (and even further, Charly is my second dachshund, whom I brought into the family when I lived in LA in 2004). And of course, as we used to do while roommates in New York, we stayed up most of the night chatting and catching up.
And then Monday the madness began! Our alarms went off at 6 am and I rounded up the troops (Jay and Andrea) to grab breakfast/coffee to go, hop in the car, and head into the city with the rest of the daily commuters. The weather was cooperating and Chicago showed off its best side for Andrea's first visit.
We started off with a visit to one of the two photographers on the shortlist. General Ryan had already created a long list of recommended photographers (over ten!) and Jay and I had looked at each photographer's portfolio to determine whose style was most in line with ours. Luckily we were able to narrow it down to two who seemed perfect, and then simply had to meet them to see whose personality was a better match for the day-of madness.
The first photographer brought us down to the South Loop, which is where our wedding venue is. It was nice to drive through on a busy Monday morning and show Andrea this newly-developing neighborhood. We also grabbed some coffees and headed to another appointment in the Loop. We meandered around Chicago from wedding-related appointment to wedding-related appointment until 2 pm, and then met up with General Ryan at the Chicago Illuminating Company for our official walk-through with the caterer, rental company, and venue master. She had come straight from the airport to meet us for a quick 36 hour jaunt in Chicago.
I was so excited to see the space on a sunny day as I had previously only seen it in the rain. I loved it in the rain, but loved it even more with the beautiful rays of sunshine peeking in thru the skylights. We worked for almost two hours on layout and flow, and sorted out everything! We also brainstormed a bit and have developed some unique ideas for various aspects of the layout - I can't wait for you to see them!
After the walk-through we headed straight along Lake Shore Drive up to Lincoln Park for our menu tasting with the caterer. For anyone who has not worked on a catering menu before, prior to this meeting you select two of each type of item that you would like to include as an entree, so that you can pick your favorite of the two, and pick ten hors d'oeuvres so that you can narrow it down to your five favorites. One should NOT eat prior to a tasting!
I will not cheat and tell you what we tasted, but it was good! And the caterers at Limelight were extremely thoughtful in regards to Jay's vegetarian needs - they created a vegetarian version of everything we tasted, even the meat dishes! We also washed down our food with some nice white and red wines, which was our dessert as we are doing something a bit different/special for dessert on the night of the wedding.
On Tuesday morning, after passing out in an intense food coma, we trekked back into the city from the burbs to meet with two potential florists, another photographer, and select our decor. Luckily we were able to sneak in a lunch of traditional Chicago hot dogs at Portillo's and sat in Lincoln Park for a few minutes to catch our breath. You can't make a trip to Chicago and not eat a Chicago dog!
We dropped off Andrea and Ryan to head to the airport at 5 pm after a long, exhausting day. It was sad to say goodbye, but we still had more to go! Jay and I picked up my dad and headed to meet his brother and sister-in-law for dinner (and some more tasting...). It was a great night of catching up, and another night that ended in a food coma.
On Wednesday morning, after running some last minute errands, Jay and I headed back to O'Hare to continue on our journey to New York. It was a whirlwind trip, but we felt that we had made the most of our 72 hours in Chicago. We are eternally thankful to Andrea for generously donating her time to help us make some decisions (although luckily cake tasting and wine tasting are not exactly torturous).
UPDATE: We have since selected our florist, photographer, and decor, all based on meetings from our trip. Talk about good return on investment!!
Nice story telling. Seriously the planning and arrangement procedure is very interesting part of a wedding in my views and flowers make that arrangement more pretty and cool. Chicago Florist is also one of the greatest flower shop which provide a offer to their customers to deliver fresh flowers in Naperville.
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