My Bachelorette Entourage

Remember this.

My friends are beautiful.  Inside and out.

When I was younger, just a child really, I never for a moment thought my life would be so FULL of amazing, kind, intelligent people.  I often felt like the oddball as a kid.  I didn’t think there were people in the world who would want to be around me. As I got older, though, those people found me somehow.  I’m quite sure now that God had a plan for me. They love me just as I am and because of who I am.

My bachelorette party stands out in my mind as a perfect reminder of how lucky and blessed I am to have such lovely girlfriends. (My sister was there too, but she’s my friend as well my sister, so she definitely counts as one of my lovely girlfriends! Can you pick her out in the photo below??)

Not everyone could make it, of course.  My friends are spread around the country.

No one understands how difficult and expensive your mid to late 20s are when you factor in the modern day wedding more than myself.  I have been very, very honored to be asked to stand up in 7 weddings.  That’s a lot of bridesmaid dresses, hairdos, mani-pedis, Showers, engagement parties, bachelorette parties, air plane tickets, hotels…you get the picture. And that doesn’t take into account all the other weddings my husband has been in and the ones we’ve simply attended as guests.

My point is that it didn’t bother me an ounce that some girls couldn’t make it.  There were babies being born and other weddings taking place.  Also, it was a destination party for most of my friends and that can be difficult.

Of course I’d have loved to have them there, but not at the expense of the other important things going on in their lives.  I was amazed how many ladies did come, though!  Abbey was lovely enough to host the party at her home in Chicago.  She invited everyone to stay the night (even though she didn’t know them all!) We had margaritas and tacos for dinner at her place.  We went on the Architecture Canal Tour, which is one of my very favorite things to do in the city. We went to the top of Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) to check out the view and newly installed glass floor inserts – crazy & awesome! We played silly, lovely party games.  There was a karaoke bar!!  We handed out goofy stickers to gay men in Boy’s Town (they loved it.)  It was just fun!!

I had this great picture from our trip to the top of Willis Tower.  It’s just one those green screens behind us and they place different images on the screen.  For a hefty sum, you can purchase the images.  Well, it was absolutely worth it.  I especially love that because I was wearing a green shirt, the image was transposed onto my shirt as well…kind of like urban camouflage! This is the only picture I have of all of us together and it’s perfect.

I don’t remember who makes all these papers – they are all different brands.  I really wanted the “Remember This” to be the title, though, and I’m so glad I could make that work.  I outlined it with turquoise gel pen and put the quotation mark stickers around it.  I’m still struggling with embellishment clusters…I’m not completely happy with that aspect of this page, but that’s okay.  I love how all the papers came together and the colors as well.

Paper coming together, colors coming together, good friends coming together…fantastic.

xxoo, rosie