Great Fun in the City

This weekend, we were invited to the Chicago wedding of a gorgeous friend from law school, so we decided to make a mini-holiday of it. We drove in Friday morning, checked into our hotel, and hit Michigan Avenue.

Our list of stores to hit was long--in our town in Central Illinois, we have, uh, Macys, Gap, Old Navy, that's it....well maybe an exaggeration (a Banana Republic FINALLY opened a year or two ago), but still. We started at Neiman Marcus, where I had a return. We were molested by an salesperson pushing Hermès fragrances. I almost died in the shoe department where I saw these in real life. Actually, the in-store version was creamy patent leather, not the gold that originally enticed me. But really, they're more gorgeous than I even imagined. It was hard to walk away! In the Chanel accessory nook, I played with a beautiful pink ombre 2.55 quilted bag.

I scored at both Bloomingdales and Hermès--more on that later!

After a wonderful day of shopping, we were dying of thirst and hunger.


At Quartino, we started with Limoncello and Orangecello martinis and worked our way through four "small" plates of seafood and pasta, wine, and finally two enormous desserts and coffee. Then we headed over to Pops for Champagne for amazing champagne cocktails. If you live near Chicago, please go here and have the Vie en Rose sparkling cocktail. My God. My husband also speaks highly of the Black 75.

Saturday was the wedding, an all-day affair. Both Bride & Groom are Indian and the festivities were not only amazingly romantic , but exotic. Almost all the women wore colorful, opulent saris. The groom rode in on a white horse with an accompanying drummer and dancers. The wedding ceremony was traditionally Vedic, and we were given a booklet that described what was happening and the meaning behind the rituals. After a buffet luncheon, we had a couple of hours before the reception. Here we are (not shown, but I opted to wear the python pumps):

And later, in the photo booth, after a few martinis:

The food was Indian and thus hugely spicy; the music was pure Bollywood. Incredible fun on the dance floor, with all the gorgeous women in their silk saris and gold jewelry!

Sunday--Mother's Day--we met up with our oldest son for burgers at Kuma's Corner:




Good Times. Now back to reality. Sigh.