Dan & Emily's wonderful wild wedding

On June 28th, two of my favorite Chicago friends got married. Their wedding was held at the Crystal Gardens in Navy Pier. It was spectacular, but I missed most of the ceremony. Here is my saga.

I gave myself an hour travel time to get from my condo (on the North side) down to Navy Pier. Well I guess due to construction, the “L” was running super sssslllllloooooowwww. It took me 50 minutes to go only 8 stops and a total of 6 miles! I kept impatiently scolding the train to “GO FASTER”. When I emerged downtown, I hoped into a Cab to drive me to Navy Pier about ¾ a mile away. The balls deep traffic didn’t ease my mind as I watched the minutes ticking down. Now since Navy Pier extends a full mile out to sea, I didn’t want to be dropped off at one end and have to run a long distance in high heels. I had the driver ask a Navy Pier uniformed employee where the “Crystal Gardens” were, and she said it was at the far end. Once I was dropped off at the very tip, I ran around looking for the right signage. Frustrated, I practically tackled a uniformed employee and asked him to point me in the right direction. He said “crystal gardens, honey, that is at the very front of the pier….yeah, about a mile that-a-way”. I think he felt sorry for me because I was sweating all over my dress and completely beaten down, because he ran me over to a tourist trolley and told the driver to “take this young lady to the Crystal Gardens NOW”. The driver immediately took off with a few very befuddled tourists from England in tow. While the trolley driver is speeding down the access road, I am trying to fix the wedding gift. I bought a pair of oil paintings of Paris to celebrate their engagement there. Well during all the commotion, I put my elbow through the wrapping paper creating a giant hole. I ended up taking the card and re-taping it over the gaping hole. The trolley screeched to a halt and the driver shouted out “crystal gardens up those stairs, GO GO GO!” while all the tourists were confused because it wasn’t a scheduled stop. I burst through the doors just in time to see the couple exchange vows.

The reception was a blast. Basically any party involving booze and my Chicago friends is a good time. Aside from a Nazi bartender and some random tourists rambling into the party, the entire night was filled with merriment and stories. Some highlights were when the DJ played BOB and all the guys got back to their chair humping routine. Actually one of them humped four chairs in a leap-frog succession move. Later the whole gang moved on to the hotel bar / after party where a bridesmaid had to run interference with the bride’s mom because she was cock blocking a guy from hitting on a very attractive guest.