Chicago!!

I spent a fantastic long weekend in Chicago with my mom for the wedding of a very close family friend. The bride’s younger sister was my very first friend from Kindergarten, and we’ve truly grown up together from grade school to graduating from Penn State. She lives in Philadelphia now, so it was so great to spend some time with her, especially to celebrate the wedding of her sister!

First, let me tell you about the weekend. We got in Saturday morning and had beautiful weather almost all weekend. Momma and I checked into the hotel and immediately hit Michigan Avenue to take in the Magnificent Mile. One of our first stops was the American Girl store where we spent WAY too much time looking at the dolls and remembering which ones I got for Christmas between the ages of 8 and 12. There were so many excited little girls in that store (which is enormous), and it was so fun to see some of my old favorites and all the new dolls they’ve developed over the years. After a few more stores (and a little bit of rain) later, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. I’ll tell ya’ll about the wedding in a minute.

On Sunday, we had a full day to explore. I took Momma on a tour of the city, stopping on Navy Pier and then heading down to Millennium Park to look at the “bean” and do some people watching. We headed back on Michigan Avenue (of course) to do a little more shopping. After relaxing in the hotel for a little, we headed back out to Lincoln Park to walk around the streets and have dinner at one of my Chicago favorites, Sapori Trattoria. The food and wine were just as I remembered, and we had an amazing dinner.  Afterward, we were too full to do anything but take a cab back to the hotel, but I managed to muster up enough energy to catch up with friends at the lobby bar before heading to bed. This morning, we had an early lunch with one of my friends from college and headed back to the airport for our flight. It was so, so nice to spend some uninterrupted time with my mom, and I’m missing her desperately already. I definitely didn’t take advantage of the time we had living in the same city, but I’m appreciating our weekends together even more now. I’m hoping we get the change to do it again soon!

Now, on to the wedding. I guess I should start by saying that the bride comes from a Jewish family, and the groom was raised by a southern Christian family—both with very strong religious backgrounds. I think everyone was interested to see how the wedding ceremony would be structured, especially because a rabbi was going to be conducting the service at the hotel. I had no idea what to expect. I had never been to a Jewish wedding before, especially not a Jewish/Christian wedding. It was the most beautifully lovely, touching, meaningful and spiritual wedding that I had ever been to. I was holding back tears the whole time watching this beautiful union and knowing that love in God’s house (whoever you believe that God to be) really does trump all. The rabbi conducted the ceremony both in English and in Hebrew, and he carefully explained all of the traditions from both the Jewish and Christian side so the congregation would understand. He spoke honestly to the couple, telling them that their love for each other in God’s eyes is the most important piece of themselves that they will carry forward, and if they can cherish that, nothing else will matter. The bride spoke vows rooted in the Jewish faith to her husband, and the husband proclaimed traditional Christian vows to his wife. I loved this part because usually the bride and groom say the same vows to each other, but I thought it was so meaningful that they could each say vows in the language that meant the most to them.

Secondly, the bride was amazingly beautiful. She literally looked like a bridal magazine. She was so calm and happy that it really made everyone feel at ease and excited to celebrate with the happy couple. The reception was smaller because it was a destination wedding, but I thought it was just perfect. Everyone there was truly there because they wanted to celebrate their love, and everyone from grandma to the younger cousins were out on the dance floor doing the Hora (for the bride) and singing Rocky Top (for the groom). I am still so full of joy for them, and I wish them a super fun honeymoon this week in Curacao!

To wedding bells and beautiful vows,

Lia