A Few Days in the Midwest and Planning for a Wedding

I am having a hard time sitting down and writing, of late. Far too many distractions for me have been allowed to interfere with upkeep of ye old fritzwinkle. Nevertheless, here’s a quick update. Ali and I spent a few days in Chicago over the Spring Break. It was fast and furious wedding planning activities or bust. Although, we did have time to spend a wonderful evening at the Monkey House, visiting with Ali’s brother, his wife and beautiful children (of course, the monkeys below will be assisting the nuptial festivities). It was great fun! Fortunately, we were extraordinarily successful with the main mission. As I watch Ali do most of the work in preparations, I have to say it is a rather difficult to plan a small, simple event, even. You would think that it would be much simpler than all that. The cake topper below is a testament to our journey.

Photo: Our Cake Topper Photo: Monkey House Kids

Still, all the food is settled, finally. Visiting the vendors made me think, “We should do this all the time.” You get to eat for free and the preparers are practically falling over in their rush to secure your business. I had to wonder how long you get away with faux planning for a wedding as a method of survival, perhaps for the struggling coed or practically anyone. I mean really all you would have to say to the follow-up reps is “We went with a different option.” Granted it is horribly dishonest, but it seems to me that you could live for a while in any major metropolitan area. Of course we did not do this and I actually felt almost guilty for not paying for the food that seemingly just kept coming to the table.

Our main course is completely settled and it is all barbeque, including a pig roast and chicken with coleslaw, potato salad, grilled vegetables, and cornbread. It is a regular country style extravaganza, courtesy of Uncle Bub’s in Westmont. There is a mildly amusing irony to such a messy feast at a what is generally considered a formal occasion. I am thinking we may need to make sure bibs are available.

For dessert, we have secured perhaps the greatest cupcakes I have ever planted securely in my maw. Rather than an actual cake, cupcakes fit with the kind of “roll you sleeves up and dig in” mentality that we are using. Plus, they happen to be quite the trend of late. So, surprisingly, our event will be rather fashionable, as well. Quite a combination. Anyone interested in cupcakes in the Chicagoland area, see the girls at Cupcakes in the Lakeview neighborhood. There handiwork of amazing flavors and creative ingenuity is astounding.

Photo: Cupcakes

Now, the only thing left is to hammer out a finely tuned guest list that retains the intimacy of a small gathering, staying within the limitations of a backyard wedding, and still gets as many people we would like to be there without upsetting anyone. I am pretty sure that accomplishing that is a small impossibility, but we have made it quite clear that we wanted to keep things a small, intimate, gathering, more about our sharing the celebration and less about lining up people in hopes of receiving a lot of gifts. However, anyone that has ever done this has to recognize that once you give an ounce of life to something like this it can quickly become the beast that ate the city. Everybody can be in quite a rush to want to help, which is great, but before you know it it is not the event which you had in mind.

Stay tuned.

One thought on “A Few Days in the Midwest and Planning for a Wedding

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.