Wedding week for my bestie in Chicago

I had a wonderful long weekend, complete with good food, friends, and a visit to the zoo to see the baby zebra. I will post pictures soon!

I'm so excited for this week!!! On Thursday, my cousin Katy's family starts flying in for her wedding. We have a pizza dinner planned at Giordano's for deep dish! The rehearsal dinner will be at Shaw's and the wedding is on Saturday.

I've picked up my gorgeous eggplant Amsale bridesmaid dress, which was tailored perfectly for me!!

Source: amsale.com via Emily on Pinterest

I cannot wait to get my hair and makeup done on Saturday too. Here are a few hairstyles that I'm interested in:Source: weddingchicks.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Emily on Pinterest

Source: blushingbridewedding.tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

Mr. F says go simple, or even have my hair down, but I love these updos.

I'm also super psyched for wedding party pictures around Chicago.

Source: stylemepretty.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: stylemepretty.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Elisa on Pinterest

Yay!

A Miami weekend!

Last weekend, I went to Miami to celebrate Katy's bachelorette party. It was 40 degrees warmer than was in Chicago.  It's a high of 47 degrees today and there's a windchill that makes it feel like the upper 30s. Katy's getting married in two weeks, on November 17th! We all arrived by Friday night, flying in from Boston, Chicago, and Baltimore. We stayed in a cute boutique hotel in Surfside, outside of Miami.It had a little kitchen that we made all our meals in. Saturday night, we had a mardi gras theme dinner and costumes! We ate King's Cake and dressed in green, yellow or purple with lots of mardi gras beads!  We went into Miami to a hip-hop dance club, called Buck 15. We heard awesome 80s and 90s music, including the Ghostbusters theme song, but the best part was our celebrity sighting! Shaquille O' Neal came to the club while were there! Katy gave him beads and I gave his girl friend some beads too. My beads, however, were incredibly tangled and when I tried to give a few to Shaq's friend, they all clumped together. So, Shaq, his girl friend and I spent 5 minutes untangling them together!!! When he finally separated them all, Shaq put them back over my head! I couldn't believe how nice he was, to help me with them all. I was going to give them all to him! 

We didn't get photos with him, but you can see his silhouette in the background here. 

With the exception of Heather, who caught a 6am flight, we woke up leisurely on Sunday to check out of our cute hotel. Fan and I got Serendipity frozen yogurt and saw Dexter's house on the way to the airport!It was a wonderful warm weekend but I'm really looking forward to Katy's wedding. I helped her with place cards this weekend and went with her to pick up her wedding dress!  I just picked up my eggplant Amsale bridesmaid dress and I'm so excited to dance in it! Source: amsale.com via Emily on Pinterest

My cousin, Katy's bridal shower

We drove from Chicago, to Wilmette, on a sunny Saturday afternoon to celebrate Katy's bridal shower.To add to this perfect fall day.......the leaves were changing and the mums were in full bloom! The Mother of the Groom's friends, the Mauies were the hostesses of this lovely party. They greeted us with cute cupcakes with Ks and Rs and St. Louis bacon.  (This is sugar glazed bacon, which is amazing!)

 The mother of the bride, the bride to be and the mother of groom had a few minutes for pictures before the rest of the guests arrived. Katy's nephew, baby Henry was a cute addition too.

 We had a delicious lunch of cheese souffle, fruit, sausages, cinnamon rolls and great company. After lunch, we had a fun question and answer video with the groom that I filmed and edited! (Please excuse some of the background noise. This was my first iMovie!)

Baby Henry tried to help with unwrapping the presents. I gave Katy fine china tea cups and saucers from her Bloomingdale's gift registry. Liz, Katy's family friend, made her a gorgeous fall table runner. Katy got a onion soup family recipe from her soon-to-be mother-in-law and a pot to cook the recipe in!

The groom arrived when the last of the presents were being unwrapped.  Baby Henry loves his Uncle Rob!

 I love making rehearsal bouquets out of the ribbons and wrapping paper, just look how this one turned out!

On our drive home from Wilmette, we stopped at Plaza del Lago to look at a few china patterns, picked up fresh pasta, and took pictures in front of the Bahai Temple!

[I had to look it up "Bahá'í literature directs that a House of Worship should be built in each city and town, and emphasizes that its doors must be open to all regardless of religion, or any other distinction. The Bahá'í laws emphasize that the spirit of the House of Worship must be a gathering place where people of all religions may worship God without denominational restrictions."]

Engagement and Anniversary Party in St. Louis

Mr. F and I celebrated the three day weekend in St. Louis! We got cupcakes at Jilly's cupcake bar and cafe, a shop near the in-laws house. The owner won Cupcake Wars a few years ago!How cute are these bee cupcakes, called the Bee Sting?! They were delicious vanilla cupcakes with honey lemon curd and lemon cream cheese buttercream! The honey comb was white chocolate bark too!

On Sunday night, we celebrated my sister-in-law's engagement and our four year wedding anniversary with Mr. F's parents' friends and a few family members that I hadn't met yet!I loved all the sunflowers at the party. I even brought some back to Chicago for my desk!