So after having never been to Chicago apart from flying through the airport, the month of December 2010 saw me in Chicago twice for two weddings. The second wedding was for a good friend and former roommate and Group Staffer Shannon Reichert/Williams.
I arrived in Chicago later than I was meant to after a pretty annoying delay at John Wayne Airport (in Orange County) because of supposed weather problems in Chicago, except that Chicago weather was actually fine so I don’t really know why everything was delayed. I finally made it in and got to see Shannon briefly in the hotel. Tracee Curlett (one of the other bridesmaids and another 2009 USAFA graduate) was kind enough to both offer me some pizza (I was STARVING) and invite me to join her family downtown the next morning so it made life easy for me in terms of getting Chicago.
The next morning I did join the Curlett family and we headed towards the are of Chicago with all the museums. Traffic getting in wasn’t too bad, thankfully, and we had the intention of going to the Planetarium, the Field Museum (which is a Natural History museum) and the Science and Technology museum. We didn’t quite have time for them all though, unfortunately.
We started at the Planetarium and were there in time for several shows. The first show was Journey to the Stars, which was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. It talked about the origins of the universe and about how stars form, live, and die. We then watched Night Sky which was a more traditional planetarium show that showed the night sky over Chicago and discussed where you could find various constellations, planets, and asterisms (which are parts of larger constellations. For example, the Big Dipper is an asterism in the constellation of Ursa Major).
After the shows we looked around the exhibits in the Planetarium. My favourites were the one that walked us through the history of astronomy and discussed the way that astronomy was studied through history and the Apollo exhibit that had Jim Lovell walk us through the Apollo program starting with basic rocketry, through Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
Finally we realized that if we were going to see anything else we should get moving on. We walked to the Field Museum and Tracee and I wandered around the museum a bit. Our favourite part was by far the exhibit with all the dinosaur skeletons. I’m not a huge fan of Natural History museums (in contrast to Michal who loves them) so I didn’t mind that we had less time there than we did at the Planetarium.
However, we didn’t have much time because we needed to get back to the hotel for the wedding rehearsal. We went through the “script” of the wedding and practiced it a few times, meeting the various groomsmen (Tyler’s brothers) and Jen, the other bridesmaid (Shannon’s sister-in-law). After the rehearsal we had the rehearsal dinner and then hung out in Tracee’s “junior suite” (which she got as part of the wedding package because Shannon’s parents didn’t want it) drinking the champagne that came along with it.
Our day started early on wedding day. Around 10am, the masseuse and hair and makeup ladies arrived. Shannon, Tracee, Jen, Shannon’s mom, and I rotated through the massage, manicure, pedicure, hair, and makeup. With all of us having to go through all of that (as well as run around and get last minute wedding stuff like decorating the stage and checking up on the seating chart) we weren’t done until around 4:30 when it was time to put on our dresses, tie up the sashes (thankfully Tracee’s mom helped us with that), and head downstairs for the wedding!
The ceremony started at 5:30 and I was very nervous. Basically I was expecting to completely eat it while walking down the aisle, in heals, with everyone watching. Also, I was the first bridesmaid to walk out meaning that I had to set the pace. If I walked too fast, everyone was too fast, if I was too slow, everyone was too slow. Pretty much a lot of pressure but its ok, I handled it, and managed to not screw up!
The ceremony was really sweet (it was technically not a wedding ceremony because Shannon and Kevin got married a while ago for Air Force purposes) and Pastor Dan gave a nice talk with some great verses that everyone, not just a newly married couple, should take into consideration.
After dinner, during the cocktail hour for the guests, we took pictures and eventually we were announced and we entered the Reception Room. Dinner was next which tasted amazing but unfortunately I had to sit up at the head table so I didn’t really get to talk to anyone during dinner. Tracee and I decided that we were just going to do a lap of the room in between each course to get to talk to more people, which we did.
Following dinner it was time to party! The wedding was on New Year’s Eve so we basically just turned the wedding party into a NYE party and danced until midnight. The toasts by the Maid of Honor and Best Man happened shortly before midnight and the we counted down to the new year and celebrated with champagne.
The next morning (not too much worse for the wear thankfully) I packed up my stuff and checked out of the hotel then met up with Anthony Ferrara, James Hall, and Tara Behr and headed into the city where we met up with Chris Schuette and Julie Douglas for lunch. It was really great to see Anthony, James, and Chris again and catch up on the last year and a half. Its amazing how you can be away from someone for over a year and yet just jump right back in like you’ve never been away. I absolutely love these guys and am so happy that I was blessed enough to be put in the same squadron as they were for one of the most formative years in my life.
Sadly I needed to leave just after lunch to head back to the hotel, to the airport, and back to England. I flew through Dublin and, thankfully, had a really easy flight and trip back to Oxford! And now its time to get back to work... oh boy......
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