Katie's Bachelorette Party

On July 30th, I headed to Madison for the start of my sister's bachelorette party weekend. Everyone drove to Madison from the cities on Friday night, as a meeting point for our "destination bachelorette party" on Saturday, July 31st. We thought it would be fun not to let Katie in on any details of the weekend. So we gave her clues on Thursday (what to pack), Friday (where the first stop was) and Saturday (throughout the day about the next adventure). It was a great way to keep her on her toes. She had never been to Chicago, so we thought it would be a fun place to celebrate!

We got up bright and early Saturday morning, left Madison by 8:15, and were headed to the "Windy City" for the day/evening. Our first stop was 1154 Lill Studio to design our own purse (memento for the trip).

The crew - Mom, Jen Q, me, Katie, Nicole (Mike's sister), Amy, and Mary (Mike's mom)

Jen and Amy

Mary and Nicole

The place was so nice. We reserved the upstairs design room and had it all to ourselves. We were able to bring in food and beverages, so I made a little lunch to enjoy while we designed. The future bride enjoying her lunch before she had to make some big decisions....(on a purse that is)

Trying to visualize what we wanted was difficult

The hardest part was selecting the fabric...they were all so neat.
After the purse making session, we headed to our hotel (which we were unable to check into yet), and then hit Michigan Ave for a day of shopping (or just looking). We went into the pricey stores that I had never been in before...kinda fun, but I felt weird going in them...who can afford that stuff anyway? We also waited in line at Oprah's favorite popcorn place, but decided it was a waist of our time that day...(we did end up asking a nice group of girls Sunday morning if they would be so kind and buy us two bags before we left. The store opened at 10:30 and the line was all the way down to the end of the block at 9:30....yea right!)
After an afternoon of shopping, Mom, Katie, Nicole, Mary, and I went to Navy Pier. Amy and Jen went to check into the hotel.
Katie's first beverage of the day!

Before we headed to dinner we enjoyed some fondue in the hotel room as a little appetizer while we were getting ready.

We went to dinner at Buca di Beppo...YUMMY! We all wore black and a purple (Katie's favorite color) while Katie wore white. Simple, yet classy!

After dinner we tried to go to a few places for a drink, but the lines were ridiculous...we weren't about to wait an hour to get in somewhere. We ended up at some Mexican bar/restaurant and had some margaritas (or water in my case)

We didn't stay out too late, which was fine by all of us. It was a beautiful, busy day and we were all excited to hit the hay. Thanks for a great weekend! Congratulations Katie...can't wait until your big day (Saturday)