Paintin the town pink!

Empty champagne glasses, hastily removed heels and a trail of pink feathers surround me. My apartment is flooded with beautiful fall sunshine and I'm sleepily and happily recalling last night's events. I've officially spent my last night out on the town as a single lady and I'm ready to get married. J

I had SUCH a fun time last night for my bachelorette party – I didn't want it to end!

The evening started out pretty early with my three bridesmaids Christi, Amanda and Katie arriving at my house at 5:15 so we could visit a bit and then drive down to the Third Ward to Holiday House for our 6:00 dinner reservation.

We were seated at a table on the window, the dining room still pretty empty since it was so early. All four of us were starving, so after deciding on drinks, we immediately dug into the bread basket. The bread was warm and we dipped it in the delicious garlic-infused olive oil that was on the table.

The restaurant has a very happy feel to it, with yellow walls and fun art and big windows and flowers on all the tables. Black and white photos line the wall when you first walk in, twinkling white lights line the windows, and Frank Sinatra and similar tunes play over the speakers. I thought it was a great choice to kick off our big night out.
We toasted with our cosmopolitans and chatted while we waited for our appetizers to arrive. We shared Thai shrimp and sea scallops, which were both fantastic. For the main course, Christi had pasta, Katie and Amanda had pork tenderloin and I had filet mignon.

My filet was prepared a perfect melt-in-your-mouth medium-rare and was served with garlic mashed potatoes, sugar snap peas and sautéed mushrooms.

I knew that I didn't want to get stuffed and be sick all night, and so about halfway through my steak, I thought to myself "just one more bite" and then "ok, just one more bite." This continued until I'd completely finished my steak, as well as everything else on my plate.

Needless to say, I was the only one at the table who didn't need a to-go box, and I was also the only one who was complaining in the car "I'm so fuuuuull."

Our next stop was Blu, the bar on the top of the Pfister Hotel. I'd never been there before and I was really looking forward to it. We rode the elevators up to the 23rd floor, goofing off the whole way up. We composed ourselves before the doors opened, and we stepped into the most elegant, beautiful bar. It was dimly lit and the city lights surrounded us. Big cushioned chairs surrounded tiny cocktail tables, and couches and armchairs were scattered about in little clusters further from the bar, which sat in the center of the room.

We seated ourselves at a table on the window and promptly picked up the drink list. I knew I wanted a flavored martini of some sort, but in the end, I chose poorly. I opted for the "Classic Blu" because I liked the name and saw it had blue curacao in it, which I enjoy in other drinks. In reality, it was a straight-up gin martini with a little blue tint to it. It was absolutely awful and I could only manage about two sips of it. That was $13 down the drain! The other girls were happy with their selections, though, which included a refreshing raspberry mojito, a key lime pie martini and a blue cosmopolitan. Like good pals (and because I'm the bride, darn it!) they all let me take sips of theirs.

Amanda and I excused ourselves to the bathroom and were delighted when we entered to find that the bathroom, too, boasted floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the city. The end stall even allowed us to stare out over Milwaukee as we did our business! It was great.

After a lovely hour at Blu (and another group trip to the cool bathroom), we headed back to my apartment where everyone else was meeting us at 9:00. Heather, Jayne, Carrie and Beth came from Burlington and Tara came from Germantown, and then Jessica met us at the bar a bit later. Christi furnished us all with pink feather boas to wear for the evening and they were a HUGE hit.

We had some champagne and visited while we waited for our taxis to pick us up. We arrived at Buckhead Saloon around 10:30 and, even though we had a reservation for our party, had to stand in a ten-minute long line to get inside. Once inside, I momentarily wondered if I'd have any fun – I was still so full from my steak, and the bar was really crowded and smoky, as bars tend to be on a Saturday night.

We soon found our reserved table, though, and my spirits were instantly lifted. It was reserved for ME! And there was champagne and shots on the way.

A cover band was singing 80s and 90s tunes and the DJ announced that there were THIRTEEN bachelorette parties in the house last night. That's a lot of brides-to-be! We only saw a few of them, and they were all decked out in the standard veils and penises. Not that there's anything wrong with that – but I was very happy that my girls had gone for the classier Bride shirt for me (and Mrs. Nevicosi undies!) and flirty pink boas for the group.

The night was a blast, and a blur. There was a lot of dancing, a lot of picture-taking, and a significant amount of drinking – though I really didn't get out of control at all. We mostly danced in the area around our table, but we did spend some time up on the stage dancing and singing along to classics like "Shoop" and "Ice Ice Baby" and "Livin on a Prayer" while the band was on a break, which was so much fun.

By 1:30 or so, everyone was tuckered out and sitting on the stools around our table. Christi and I were still dancing, but we knew it was just about time to head out. We took two taxis back to my place and a couple of designated drivers took the troops home after we all said our good-byes.

Hugging everyone after just having spent such an awesome night with them, and knowing that we'll all be together again in two weeks for my WEDDING was just the best feeling!

(There are a lot more pics at the end of the post. I wasn't sure if I should post a whole bunch of them, but I decided they were perfectly appropriate. As far as bachelorette parties go, I'd say we had a lot of clean, harmless fun!)

So Dave's lil sis crashed on our couch and Christi and Tara stayed over, too. We all went to bed around 3 a.m. and woke up by 8 this morning. We spent a good hour recapping the night's events and laughing over the pictures we took. Dave got home from visiting his brother, Katie left to head back to Madison, and then Dave and Christi and Tara and I went out for breakfast. Nothing like a greasy omelet and diner coffee to cure a hangover!

Now it's just me and Dave, with the rest of the day ahead of us to just be tired and lazy. I have to clean up this mess and then I might just consider taking a shower.

Like every other wedding festivity so far, my bachelorette party absolutely rocked. (I think I said "I love my bachelorette party!" to my friends about 15 times last night.) 

Each of these events has taken me one step closer to wedding, and last night was the final hurrah before the BIG DAY. I've had so much fun leading up the wedding already, I just can't quite fathom how amazing the actual day will be. And then when it's all finally over, I will be married to my best friend.

It's just a win-win-WIN situation.

Comments

[Katie]

I can't believe you put the Whitesnake/Tawny Kitaen dancing pictures up. My mom reads this blog!

[Derek]

Sounds like a great time! Glad you had fun and thanks for the detailed recap.

[Audra]

Love the boas - they have so much more cool cache than the usual plastics-adorned veil and such!

[Charlie]

I had Cindy Lauper in my head when I read this post :)

"Girls just wanna have fun!"

[kelly]

Agreed on the boas - very nice touch, Christi. I threw a similar bachelorette party where everyone wore something pink in place of the usual garb the bride to be is forced to wear. Anyway, looks like a FUN night. Can't wait to see pictures from the big day!

[Christi]

BLAST OF A NIGHT LADIES!!!!! I'm glad everyone likes the boas. It was so cute to just see pink feathery girls wandering the bar and knowing they were with US! =)

Oh and PS: "I can't believe you said butt hole in the Pfister" ;)

[Jessica]

i see you've left me out of every picture of your bachelorette party...is that 'cause you're pissed that i showed up late, and left early? ha-ha. good pics. sounds like you decided to do some shots after all...

[Lourdes]

Nice... Been to a bachelorette party last week were the girls just went wild with the strippers. Im more a conservative one but they made me do some wild things... Thanks.