Thursday, July 25, 2013

the sweetest spot.



chicago has a lot of sweet spots. 
but my absolute favorite is buckingham fountain. 

to one side you're face to face with the skyscrapers that make up the chicago skyline.
and you feel outrageously small.
taking up such a small bit of space in the midwest's largest city.
and to the other side you see lake michigan as it stretches all the way to indiana. 

and that's it. 
there's no slow break. 
it's like the city comes to an abrupt stop. 
and the fountain is it's last little hurrah. 

one very hot summer evening, when "anna and pat" was about 4 months young, we were wandering around downtown and like everyone who comes across buckingham fountain, we stopped dead in our tracks to stare in awe.
i remember saying, "i want engagement pictures here." 

and four years later, almost to the day, the universe made that little wish come true. 

so much has happened in those years. but maybe the most important thing, the thing i want to hold onto, the thing that i hope is always true, is the fact that with each passing day i like pat more and more. i love him from the ends of my curls to the tips of my toes. he's my partner for life. and while my heart will forever beat to his, we don't have a story that begins with, "we always knew..."

we have a story that started in like. and crawled towards love.

but oh, did i enjoy the time we took moving from like to love.

enjoy our photos!



pat asked me out on our very first date just steps away.




pat's favorite
the same necklace i wore the day we got engaged.








the last one of the evening. 

all photos are due to our lovely and talented photographer, katelyn james

lovable.



a long ol' post with our favorite engagement pictures coming soon...


Thursday, July 18, 2013

get down with the get down

thank you for still making chicago feel like home. xoxo.

this past weekend was spent in my beloved windy city. it was a whirlwind of a trip, arriving early friday morning - and leaving tuesday morning at the crack of dawn. in that time i had my bachelorette party, took engagement photos, and spent quality time with our couple bffs.

the bachelorette part of the weekend was the bomb.com. we went through airbnb and found a great apartment with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a full kitchen. it was in a really convenient part of the city away from downtown, and it was much better than cramming 6 girls into two hotel rooms. come to find out...the guy we rented from...well he has a bit of a criminal record. would i expect anything else for my bachelorette weekend? nope. but lesson to be learned: google the owner of apartments you find on airbnb.

we did what we usually do on our girls trips but in addition to consuming disgusting amounts of dip, we also went on a wine tour, visited a restaurant i've been DYING to go to since it opened last year (balena), had cocktails at quite possibly the coolest bar in the world (no seriously, check out the aviary if you are ever in chicago) and were joined by my spirit animal, mary for the majority of saturday night. 

the best moment was on friday night standing in the kitchen and to my right were three of my closest friends from college chit chatting away like nothing had changed in the 6 years since we have graduated. and to my left was my oldest best friend and my newest best friend, hands in the air, excitedly discussing something like they had known each other forever. and my heart was so full of gratefulness i almost cried.

ladies, thank you for making it so easy to be friends with you - even when it's not always easy being friends with me.

and now...for some photos!

chicago you are seriously so gorg. 
this is called the bread boat (or bread bowl if your grocer has round loaves of bread). and it is delicious.
recipe credit: christine fitzpatrick
cocktail at the aviary take 1.
this was called the "lunch box" and it had an assortment of stuff that included peanuts so i could not enjoy it. 
cocktail at the aviary take 2.
look at that frozen mango! 
one maid couldn't make it, so she sent georgetown cupcakes in her place.
xo's to you wisty woo.