Home Sweet Mid-Rise

After becoming best buds with our real estate agent after spending more time with him than we did our friends for about two months, we found a place to call home. After the wedding, you can find us at:

360 W Wellington
Chicago 60657

We close on Friday, March 23 and start the heavy lifting that day. Painting commences soon after. (Hurry and sign up now as a volunteer mover or painter! Space is limited and highly desirable!) We won’t be fully moving in until after the wedding so that we aren’t leaving our things in an empty apartment for multiple weeks right away.

The vitals on our place:

• One bedroom.
• Enough room to fit all of our crud. Enough said.
• One side of the unit is entirely windows, so lots of sunlight and a great view of… the building across Sheridan. ;-) The other side of the building has lake views.
• A roof-top deck for sunning, taking in the view, watching the fireworks off of Navy Pier in the summer and a close-up view to the planes for the Air and Water Show as they semi-buzz our building. Ok, the plane part is an exaggeration… I think. We figured we’d be able to grill up there and were very excited about it, until we found that this is not the case. We can, however, take food and drinks up there at our leisure.
• Cheap laundry!
• A park and the lake-side running path are at the end of our block.
• We’re about three blocks north of Lincoln Park – 1 mile from the zoo, 2 miles from the beach. Bring your walkin’ shoes!

Parking is going to be a nightmare and we’ll be counting our pennies carefully, but we love the space and location and know we can live there happily as we adjust to living together after seven years of dating sans co-habitation.

We expect everyone to visit and visit often. Those bearing food will receive special treatment.

Kiddie Favors

We made the decision long ago to invite children to our wedding. They tend to be a hit on the dance floor, and everyone loves the chance to show off their little ones to family and friends they haven’t seen in a while. Plus, little girls are usually fascinated by the proceedings of the entire day and it’s really cute.

It’s well known however, that little kids are bad news when they’re bored. And we know they’ll have no use or interest in the favor we’re giving at the wedding. So in an effort to keep them quiet during the dinner and speeches at the reception, we made the kids their own flavor of wedding favor. It also assures that the little ones will let mom and dad know for weeks just how awesome Laura and Gavin are. Ha!

The element I’m most proud of, although it will likely be the piece the kids play with the least, is a Gavra coloring book. It’s basically just a wedding activity/coloring book. The big kids are going to be jealous.

I also went to the party store with Mom and picked up some sure-to-please goodies for the young set.

• Wooly Willy magnetic toys – the magnetic baldie that you put facial hair on with a “magic” pencil.


• Crayons for the coloring books.


• Crazy straws! No alcohol for the kiddies, but they can still have fun with their beverages.


• And what my mom claimed was a must-have in case a kid really starts to act up – Chinese finger traps!Apparently she used to trick us with them when we were little? I hate them… and that’s probably why.

Hopefully the youngest guests think they’re as cool as we do! If not, we’re taking them back, proclaiming them “MINE!” and not sharing. Go ahead. Tell on us.

One Month to Go!

It hit me as I wrote an e-mail to everyone that I work with yesterday about my upcoming time off that we have one month (now less) until the wedding. I can’t really say that time has flown by – we’ve been very cognizant of how quickly things were coming all along. I can say that I thought I’d be much more prepared at this point. I’ve been in hyperspeed every night and weekend for wedding-related “stuff,” including apartment hunting, and yet there is still SO much to do.

People can’t seem to believe that there could possibly still be things to do.

People, people, people.

This is the most tradition-filled, personalized event we will ever probably plan in our lifetimes, and it’s also the only time we'll get our entire set of families and closest friends in one room. No one has ever been to a wedding where people don't notice the details. Whether they’re critical or raving, they discuss everything - flowers, timeline, booze, food, DJ, etc, etc, etc. People love to complain about weddings, so it’s natural that the hosts would want to make sure they’ve done everything in advance to make sure it’s a fun, memorable day where everyone can have fun – not just the bride and groom!

Showered with Details

I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this very thing before, but the thing I love most about the wedding and wedding planning so far is how much it brings families together in the most joyous, giving way possible. I feel closer to many members of our families than I have because of how wedding planning really makes you need your family and gives you so many reasons to learn about them and their traditions while spending extra time together.

Saying that is partly due to the unbelievable amount of work that went into the shower my aunts threw me a couple weekends ago at Macaroni Grill in Wheaton – my favorite restaurant. My cousins and aunts clearly spent hours on all the little details that they know I notice, and I can’t even imagine how much time was spent behind the scenes in addition on things I don’t even know about.

We walked into the restaurant and you could tell from the entrance that the back had been closed off… and there were a LOT of people back there. I was blown away by everything when I walked in to the party room (by myself since Gavin peeled off for the bathroom and Mom had kept on walking while I tried to drag Mark with me and he dropped free mints all over the floor before fleeing to the bathroom after Gavin…). The room was FULL. I don’t think one more person could have fit in there.

Friends we hadn’t seen in some time due to busy conflicting schedules. Family I only get to see during Wally and Silke’s Oktoberfest. Family friends and friends’ parents I hadn’t seen in too long. And my closest family members – including the beaming grandmothers. (We had spent Saturday night hanging out with Nonna and Diane, both of whom were so proud that they had helped confuse me out of "knowing" the shower was that day... foxy Italians...)

I have to admit, I knew the shower was happening, and then doubted myself, and then knew again before arriving. How I knew is my little secret, but it wasn’t any one person’s divulging that tipped me off. I’m crafty like that. Despite knowing, I was still genuinely surprised – by the amount of work that went into it rather than the date and location of the event itself. Within seconds my event-planning eye took it all in – the amount of organization and the detail – and I was so flattered and amazed that everyone would take so much time on something for Gavin and me.

Details, details. I devoured them in an instant.

• The room looked like a perfect blend of Tuscan cozy charm and Valentine’s Day/wedding cute class.


• The flowers were a gorgeous splash of spring colors, tulips included.


• The tables were decorated with pink tulle to jazz up the restaurant’s stark white paper table cloths, and adorable place cards and favors waited for guests at each spot. (Heart-shaped measuring spoons: “A dash of love.” “A pinch of patience.” Etc. I made those two up... And heart shaped tins filled with M&Ms.)


• Hand-made chocolate covered strawberries drizzled in pink and white chocolate.


• A beautiful cake wishing us “All our dreams come true” circled by the cutest string of scrapbooked letters spelling “Laura and Gavin.” I kept the letters…


• And then… the embarrassingly ginormous pile of presents. I had never seen anything like it in my life, and felt like a guilty little kid on Christmas when I saw it since the registry is a little like a note to Santa. “Dear loved one, for my wedding this life, I’d like a toaster and 12 napkin rings.” Have I mentioned how happy a wonderfully wrapped/bagged present makes me? I get girly giddy – squealie even. Perhaps it’s a delayed reaction from my time at Hallmark? I wanted to take pictures of some of the presents before we opened them though!

I really felt like everyone GOT me. That's such a wonderful, surprising feeling. My family members clearly understand my tastes, loves and level of OCD-ness over things like a party. I’m a hard one to “get” since my interests, obsessions, demands, expectations are all over the board thanks to an overly-rounded (some call it well-rounded…) childhood and being raised as part of a generation weaned on self-esteem. I also have a perfectionist mother who taught me well! Gavin and I were happy and relaxed the whole time, blissfully unaware of the issues that were apparently happening throughout the party. (Ignorance is bliss in some situations. If something is going badly on the wedding day, we don't want to know if we don't have to!)

I couldn’t have imagined anything more perfect. Not possible.

As for how the shower itself went, we had a fantastic time. Gavin did, as he mentioned in his last post, smile for all of the present opening no matter what and the pictures look great. You don’t realize how much you’re under a microscope (or camera lens) until you see the pictures. Lesson learned for the wedding! We didn’t open a single gift that we didn’t like or know what to do with, and every time the (gorgeous) wrapping came off we were humbled by how generous everyone had been.

So… I’m sure there’s a different, hilarious, even painful perspective from the four guys in attendance – Gavin, Dad, Mark and Brian – but I for one felt blessed that Gavin and I had two of the greatest showers of ever two weekends in a row.

Photos:
1) The happy couple posing among the details.
2) Gavin and Mark's "surprise" entrance post bathroom-hiding.
3) Mom and me arriving.
4) My wonderful aunts! From left: Aunt Sue, Aunt Mary, Auntie Diane
5) The shower cake.
6) Opening a gift. Clearly, we're enjoying this!
7) The beautiful bridesmaids minus one - beautiful Jes!