Chicago Part 1: Bachelorette Party

A few of my friends & I left for Chicago at 7:00 AM on Saturday for Courtney & Katie's bachelorette party. We had great weather in Columbus on Friday with temps in the 80s but unfortunately a cold front came through because by the time we got to Chicago around noon on Saturday, it was only in the 50s with lots of wind and a little rain. Lynn, Megan, and I checked into our hotel, the Westin, on Michigan Avenue and immediately headed back out for some shopping. We went to a few stores, grabbed some lunch, and came back to our hotel room to relax and take a quick nap before getting ready for the evening. Since the weather was terrible, we all nixed wearing dresses and ended up just wearing jeans. Courtney and some other girls were also staying at our hotel so we went over to Gina's condo together. Gina only lived a few blocks from the Westin and was hosting the bachelorette party for the evening.

We started off with some drinks before enjoying the amazing food Gina made. There were 17 of us total and since most of us knew each other, we spent the first hour or so just catching up and mingling.

We had enough drinks to last us a long time....and this doesn't include the 5 other bottles of wine and a few cases of beer

Some of the food Gina made including a watermelon & feta salad, pulled pork sandwiches, and sweet potato salad

Cupcakes from Sprinkles

The bachelorettes, Courtney and Katie
Me, Megan, and Lynn
It was gonna be a long night so I tried my first 5 Hour Energy with Gina

After eating, we watched as the bachelorettes opened up all their gifts and played a game where Courtney & Katie had to answer questions that their fiancees were asked beforehand and see how closely their answers matched. Not surprisingly, they were both pretty much dead on with all their answers!

Courtney & Katie opening up some lovely presents

Megan, Lynn, Courtney, and I
Gina & I (yes, I need to get a tan but it needs to stop raining!)
High school friends....the Sexy 7 minus Lauren (I really wasn't drinking that much either so I'm not sure why I look extremely drunk in this picture because I definitely was not)
Lynn with the 2 brides-to-be

Some of us were feeling pretty good by the end of the night

Someone took my camera at one point and attempted to take a picture of the dance party that we started

We had intended on going out to the bars for some more drinks & dancing but with the weather being as bad as it was and all of us having fun at Gina's, we ended up staying at her place until 3:30 AM before walking back to our hotel. It was such a fun night and it was awesome to hang out with some of my best girl friends. It's crazy to think that the next bachelorette party I go to will be my own!