Jackie's Day...

So last Saturday was dubbed "Jackie's Day". My good friend Jackie is getting married (1 month from yesterday, the countdown is on!) and we had her Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party all in one day. The phrase of the day was "You can do whatever you want, it is YOUR day". And what a day it was.

We started the day with her shower at a cute little coffee shop in Bucktown called the Ark Cafe. It was the perfect location and all of the staff there were extremely helpful. The food was wonderful, Holly picked out an awesome menu, and we were able to bring our own champagne to make mimosas for everyone which was awesome and a perfect touch(I love that you can BYOB in Chicago, stupid blue laws here). Jackie is doing her wedding in a green and brown theme with lots of polka dots and stripes, I love it! We tried to tie that in, and got cute mint favors from weddingpaperdivas with green polka dots and brown writing. We also found perfect napkins that were green with brown polka dots to use as a table runner. I think the shower was a success. There were certainly plenty of everyone's favorite black & white boxes and gifts for her to bring home...

After the shower, Holly, Jackie, Jackie's friend Jeannie and I went and got mani / pedi's which was awesome. It turned out to be one of the best pedicures I've gotten in awhile. I even veered from my normal boring color and got one of the new Essie fall collection pinks, I kind of like it...

I will keep the bachelorette description PG seeing as this is a family website, but I will state that we are all getting old and bachelorette parties aren't what they once were. That being said we had a great time. We started out the evening at Holly's condo for some cheese & crackers and Sangria. From there we headed to DelaCosta, a restaurant downtown, where we had our own private room reserved for "Holly's Party" and a 4 course meal. It was a great place, and awesome food, we were all stuffed when we left. We did a roast of sorts for Jackie, where we all told stories, which was pretty hilarious. The best part is all the stories were about Jackie, as it was "her day" so the rest of us just got to laugh... From there we headed to a couple of bars and then home by 1:30 (which was plenty late enough for me)... All in all I think "Jackie's Day" turned out to be an awesome day, hopefully she agreed!

All the ladies at dinner, we were in a Wine Room, it was pretty cool...

Girls Weekend, Chi-Town Style...

I just returned from a girls weekend in Chicago and let me tell you it was much needed and a wonderful time! My good friend Jackie is getting married in October and we had her shower & bachelorette festivities (which I will post separately about when I get some pictures from it, somehow I forgot my camera at home!) this past weekend in Chicago where she (and all the other girls for that matter) live. I actually got to see a ton of friends which was awesome, since as many of you know the majority of my friends live in Chicago and I don't get to see any of them often enough.

Friday night I got to catch up with friends from high school, Lina and my BFF Jaime, over dinner and wine. Saturday I spent a ton of time with sorority sisters that I haven't seen in ages, which was awesome. Sunday I met up for brunch with another friend Amy who used to live out in Boston with us and who I haven't seen in forever.

Jackie and Holly were with me the entire weekend and it was so good hanging out with them! It had been a long time since I had spent that much time with either of them and I really had a blast. We were all roommates in college for multiple years and have plenty of stories to tell (but we focused on the Jackie ones this weekend, it was "her" weekend after all). Holly was a trooper and let me stay with her all weekend. A big thank you to her for putting up with me and letting me use all of her stuff!

It has been awhile since I have been away from Audrey for that long, but I think I did pretty well with it. I checked in a couple of times, but that's normal right? I won't lie, I was definitely ready to see her when I got home last night. Charlie kept her up until I got home as it was a little past her bedtime. She greeted me with a "mama" which she NEVER says (why do they say dada 1st? don't they know that we are the ones that carried them around for 40 weeks????) and made my heart melt. Maybe she missed me too...

Happy Birthday Jackie!

My good friend from college Jackie turns the big 3-0 today! She lives in Chicago (with just about everyone else we know). I know she has a fabulous year ahead of her, the best part is she is getting married in October to a wonderful guy Alex. More on that in later posts...

Happy Birthday Jacks! I wish I was there to celebrate with you!