The Rehearsal Dinner AFTER PARTY

Excuse my tardiness. I’m a little behind on account of the fact I saw my friends’ show last night and stayed out too late at Second City’s new “1959” bar reminiscing about the good old days of the conservatreee. *I also learned that the bar isn’t new, I’ve just been out of the comedy loop for far too long.

And at this point I’m going to tell all of my Chicago friends to go see Jake and Michelle’s show at Second City next Thursday because it is awesome. Jake and Michelle play Kathy and Nancy, “two women of a certain again,” they take you on an emotional journey that will make you laugh, cry, and want to go home and put on your thickest cable knit sweater while you sip tea and think about what life would be like as Nancy Meyers. Or at least living life as one of her characters.

I wouldn’t speak so highly of a show and suggest everyone go see it if it wasn’t truly that good, but EVERYTHING IS FINE, is really that good.

Now here is their show poster because this alone makes me giggle.

Now back to the wedding recaps, shall we? Or are we tired of them? Humor me and hang in for a few more because I’m really enjoying reliving it with all of you.

Traditionally, rehearsal dinners are my favorites. I’ve had the privilege of attending quite a few in my life and I’ve always had a great time. I love the feeling of kicking off a great wedding weekend in an intimate little atmosphere surrounded by close friends and family. Ours was just that. Speeches were given and drinks were flowing.

My friend Roy, whom we’ve heard about a few times now, gave a speech about how I used to be a cat and actually hissed at people in college (you hiss a few times at a party and no one ever forgets it) but then Chris came along and turned me into a nice dog…. I feel like a litter box was mentioned as well.

Chris’s dad gave a great speech welcoming everyone as did his grandpa, and then Chris and I even got up to say a few words. (I’m never one to turn away a mic and a captive audience.) Although I don’t even remember what I said now that I think about it. I was too busy focusing on the bacon wrapped apps that were still being passed.

Like most Ore Houses, the lighting wasn’t great so we’ll forego most of the pics taken in there. Use your imagination.

Although here’s one of my brother, sister, and I with our grandpa Dick. Fun fact about the name Dick: it used to be such a popular name that when my grandpa was growing up he had three other classmates named Dick. So the teacher had special nicknames for each (I swear he tells this story, whether it’s true or not…) so there was Little Dick, Big Dick, and Dicky Dick. Again, who knows the truth of the story. But my mom can’t retell it without crying-laughing, so there it is.

Following the Ore House we had a cocktail party at the Grand Hotel. And this is where people really had the chance to let loose. All I want in life is for everyone to have fun, and I think it’s safe to say everyone had a pretty solid time at the “Mingle in the Mountains” party.

The photos from the evening tell the story better than I can.

The night was a blast because of the people who came. We’re so lucky to have so many fun people in our lives. I get giddy just writing/thinking about it.

And of course as every good rap song tells us, following the party was an after party. After we closed the bar down for the welcome party, everyone moved upstairs to the suites for dance parties, group huddles, and I don’t know what else.

Like any responsible bride, I wanted to go to bed “at a decent hour.” I recall looking at the clock around 2:30 a.m. and thinking, damn it I missed the decent hour. I think it was around 3 a.m. when the party moved down to the “boy suite” and I remember feeling like a party pooper for calling it a night so early… Every party has a pooper that’s why we invited you George Banks. 


But it had to be done.

This pic was around the time almost everyone had left and I was jumping on the bed screaming, “I’m getting married tomorrow!” Chris went to the boy suite and I made my first college roomy, Kate, sleep with me. It was just like our days in the Sandoz dorms, room 828.

It will always be a fun memory for me that Kate and I shared a bed the night before my wedding because we used to spend so many nights freshman year in our bunks, in our tiny little dorm  (it wasn’t tiny, it was actually huge but for sake of story let’s pretend it was tiny) talking about boys and how neither of us could ever find a boy we liked. And were we doomed to be alone forever?!

Ten years later we got engaged within three days of each other, have basically identical rings (swear we had no idea/didn’t plan this) and then got married within three months of each other.

It’s true what they say, sororities really buy the best friendships! (Happy recruitment week btw!)

Anyway…. this post has taken me literally three hours to write. I’ll wrap it up by saying that when my alarm went off the day of the wedding at 6:45 a.m. I had never been so tired in my life. The exhaustion I felt was actually painful.

So what did I do to recover? Find out next week on: “The Daily Tay Gets Married and Won’t Stop Talking About It. And Also Why Is She Referring To Herself By Her Blog Name?”

Happy weekending!