The last time I was at Whole Foods I noticed they had these bags of “Dinner for Two” in their prepared food section. For $15.99, the bag included an entree and a few sides.. maybe a dessert? I can’t remember. The ones I saw were rosemary chicken, a meatloaf and a vegetarian mediterranean dinner. I was tempted to grab one just to try it out, but I didn’t. I could imagine this would be awesome for someone who doesn’t cook. Just grab the bag, maybe a french loaf, and you’re set! Single guys, I’m looking at you! Also, what a time saver! Working parents, I’m looking at you!
Dallas has been listening to this band called Real Estate lately and so when he saw they were playing at Lincoln Hall on Monday, he asked if Jess and I wanted to go, so we went. There were two opening bands – Julian Lynch and Big Troubles. I liked Big Troubles more than Julian Lynch. And Real Estate was really good. I’d never been to Lincoln Hall and I liked it for a venue. There’s an outside room that’s a bar and then the performance room in the back. The room is not huge, but does have a balcony where you can sit around 3 walls. All of the bands were in costume because it was Halloween. It was a fun show.
Oh, and before we went to Lincoln Hall we were just a few doors down at Lincoln Station. Dallas and I ate dinner there and then Jess met us for a drink. I ordered this baked potato and it was so big, Dallas and I ended up sharing it!
On Saturday Paul Baker and Kate got married. The ceremony was at St. Vincent de Paul Church in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. I hadn’t been inside an old Catholic church for so long, and this one was gorgeous. Tons of stained glass and sculpture and carvings. The ceremony was about 45 minutes long, just short of the hour we’d expected. A Catholic wedding in less than an hour!? Wow! It was a beautiful ceremony, though, and didn’t really feel like that long.
Kate & Her Mom
Kate
Alden, a groomsman
Jessica, Alden, Rachelle
Outside the church everyone gathered and chatted. Paul and Kate had some photos taken at the church. Look how gorgeous Kate looks! Her hair was so vintage Hollywood, but still modern. And when she was walkign down the aisle and passed us, Jess and I couldn’t get over how gorgeous the back of her dress was. Between that and her hair, I apologize in advance for how many photos I took of her facing AWAY from me! Also, her mom made the bouquets for Kate and her bridesmaids and the boutonnieres for Paul and the groomsmen and table decorations at the reception. They were so unique. No flowers. Peacock feather accents. I loved them. Very subtley fall-like.
We caught up with some FeedBurner coworkers from back in the day. We had about two hours before the reception was to begin and were figuring out what to do. Eric and his wife were going to check into their downtown hotel. Jon was headed home to get his wife before the reception. Alden was a groomsman and had wedding duties to attend to. That left me, Jess, Dallas, Chris and Lisa. We dropped off Jess’s car and then Chris and Lisa were nice enough to drive us to Old Oak Tap for a drink and then to the reception. Side note: Jess and I had a delicious cocktail called The Champfleur, made with Champaigne and St. Germaine elderflower liqueur, that was so good!
Salvage One
Rachelle, Paul, Dallas
Kate
Salvage One
Jessica, Rachelle, Lisa
With LEGS and LIGHTS
Salvage One
Jessica, Kate, Lisa
Rachelle, Jessica, Kate, Lisa
Salvage One
The reception was at Salvage One, which is this amazing space filled with salvaged materials. Anything from a bowl to a stone column to couches and lamps and windows and bath tubs. Everything you could ever think of. This stuff is all for sale, but Salvage One is also an event space. I can’t think of a better business model: Let’s sell merchandise and on the off hours we’ll charge people to use the stuff that’s not sold yet!
Salvage One is so unique and gorgeous inside, though. I loved how it was not just one wide-open room. There were so many nooks and corners and different seating areas. When we arrived drinks and hors d’oeuvres were being served on the first floor. We ran into Paul right away and gave our congrats and talked to him about the ceremony and the party. He said that Kate had been to Salvage One years before with her uncle and knew then that she wanted to someday have her wedding there. Dallas and I spent some time just walking around. There’s so much to see. I wanted to redo my whole condo with vintage, antique things. Later on we talked with Kate, told her how gorgeous she looked. She told us about the things her mom made. And how she was wearing her grandmother’s jewelry. So nice. Oh, and see her shoes in the dragon photo? We learned later on during a toast/speech that those were the shoes Paul proposed with. He gave her the shoes for a gift and the ring was tied in the shoelaces. So awesome.
Rachelle & Alden checking out the reply cards
Masquerade masks & candy
Eric & Christine before dinner
Chris trying his mask on
After a while we were ushered to the second floor where there would be dinner and dancing. There weren’t seating assignments to pick up, but we were still greeted with a table of goodies. There were masquerade masks and later on Halloween candy, for Halloween weekend. Paul and Kate had a doodle area on their RSVP cards and they displayed all the cards with doodles. They also had a “wish tree” where people could leave wedding wishes and advice and then hang it on a small tree.
Food Stations
Mashed Potato Magic Bar
Pasta Station
Harvest Martini Salad Bar
Salad
Wedding cake
Cutting the Cake
Cutting the Cake
Paul and Kate coordinated a very unique wedding dinner. Instead of a meal served family style or a buffet, they had stations. There was a carving station, a pasta station, a salad bar, and a mashed potato bar. At each station, except the carving station, you could customize what you wanted. So, the potato bar had regular mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and you could pick your toppings. At the salad bar you told the guy what you wanted and he mixed it up in a cocktail shaker and served it in a martini glass. Mashed potatoes were in a martini glass as well. At the pasta station you could choose from several kinds of pasta and pair different sauces and toppings. So fun. I never saw so many people excited for mashed potatoes.
For dessert, they had a funnel cake station! You could choose whatever kinds of toppings you wanted for your own customized funnel cakes. There was also two different cheesecake shots, fruit and wedding cake.
FeedBurner reunion! Chris, Eric, Joe, Rachelle, Jessica, Jon, Alden and of course Kate & Paul
I know Paul from when I worked at FeedBurner.. and Google. Paul is still at Google, but only a few of us are left there. It was so fun to see some of my old friends from those FeedBurner days. A couple I see often, but it was fun to have a mini reunion of sorts. I mean, even just getting eight of us together is like getting a third of the whole company together!
Marveling for the 100th time over Kate’s hair & dress.
Alden & Chris’s Thriller zombie dance.
Taking a rest after a long night of dancing.
Rachelle, Jessica, Alden
I don’t know who Paul and Kate’s DJ was, but someone told me he once played with Moby? I don’t know if that was just a wedding rumor, but he was good. He had people dancing all night. Except for one song that I didn’t like and the wine made me tell Kate I didn’t like it. Oops. Otherwise I had so much fun dancing it up with Chris and Lisa and Jess and Alden. What a great party with so many fun and unique details. Congratulations to Kate and Paul and thanks for inviting us to share the day with you!
I took this photo by accident one day while I was shopping on Michigan Avenue. When I discovered it later, I liked it, so I decided to post it here. But does anyone know why the manhole says “Lincoln Park” when I was on Michigan Avenue?
Before you read any of this, know that you have to sing the post title to the tune of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA,” because that is Brian’s favorite song.
Christine and Adam and to the left, Adam’s brother Todd
Larry and Lilia, Ang & Murph
Brian, Sara, Kelly
Larry is a giant.
On Saturday night we went out for Brian’s birthday. Sara, his fiance, arranged for 16 of us to have dinner at Sakura Teppanyaki. This was a Benihana kind of place where they cook the food on a hot grill in front of you and put on a show. Uh, not that I’ve ever been to Benihana, but I went to a similar kind of place on Mauai called Kobe Japanese Steak House way back in 2009. I haven’t been to anything like this since.
Lots of shrimp, scallops, lobster, chicken and steak.
Our chef messing with Brett & Kelly.
Setting up the onion volcano.
The volcano.
All of the teppanyaki dinners were served with a grilled shrimp appetizer, miso soup, salad, grilled vegetables and fried rice. Then you got to pick what kind of entree you wanted. There was a selection of different kinds of fish, chicken, steak, filet mignon, shrimp, scallops, lobster, or calamari. Or you could get a combo. I got steak and scallops. And I upgraded my fried rice to chicken fried rice. I liked everything I had, except I wouldn’t recommend the upgrade to chicken fried rice. It’s not worth it. Otherwise it was all good. Dinners range from about $18 – 30. Not too expensive for all of the food you get. I was so stuffed at the end of dinner.
As for our chef, he was pretty funny. He quickly detected which were the people to mess with and playfully teased them while cooking our dinner. He kept saying “No sake bomb, no happy!” so we bought him a sake bomb when we got a round for the table.
Almost all the ladies were drinking these 100-calorie martinis (on the left), sake bombs on the right.
Here’s the set up: Glass of beer, sake balanced on chop sticks.
All set?
Larry showing Brian how it’s done. Everyone pounds the table.
Then the sake falls into the glass. You can see Larry’s chopsticks flying and the sake glass inside the beer glass.
Our table had countless rounds of sake bombs. I think I had 2-3 total, but some people had more. A sake bomb is served with a glass of beer and a shot glass sized serving of sake. The drinker takes their chopsticks and lays them across the top of the beer pint glass. Then they balance the sake on the top of the chopsticks. This can be tricky after a few drinks. Ask Lynda. She accidentally dropped hers in early twice and had to drink her bomb before everyone was ready.
After you have the sake balanced you pound the table and it causes the sake to fall into the beer. The should be drank immediately. To be honest, the sake bombs mostly just tasted like beer to me, but because everyone feels the need to race and chug, and the fact that there is sake in there, it can make you drunk fast. Also, the sake glass falling into the beer can be really messy. I had a lap of beer on the first round. On the second I just dropped the sake in instead of doing the chopsticks and pounding. Not as fun, but definitely less messy!
After dinner we headed over to some really cheesy Lincoln Park bars. Good thing I was drunk because these were not my kind of places! I asked Brian if I was going to feel like an old lady at the bar we were headed to. You know… not old, just too old for the club, but he said just to sit back and watch and laugh, and so I did. So, we headed to Beaumont, which most people seemed to have been to but not for a long time and not proudly. And not so early. It was dead when we arrived. No one else was there. But in no time if was filled with single 20-somethings. It was actually kind of painful to watch.
The Store til Four
Don’t ask. It was late. I get the willies just looking at this photo!
Later on we went down a few buildings to The Store.. ahem… The Store til 4. Any bar with “til 4″ in the name is probably not a good idea. I’m looking at you Tai’s til 4! I learned that lesson a few times many years ago. But Dallas and I didn’t stay out anywhere near 4 a.m. I think we caught a cab home at 2 or so.
I didn’t see Brian on Saturday but I saw him for a while on Sunday at The Scout in the South Loop where we were eating lunch and watching some football (Packers won! Lions lost! We’re the best in the league!) and it seemed like he had a good birthday weekend!
