So, let's start with the dress. I decided to go out shopping probably 4 times last week, and each time I felt defeated and came up empty handed. Finally I stumbled upon a dress that I thought was perfect for the occasion, and as an added bonus could easily be worn to church or a less formal event. But of course, since I'm the girl who gets buyer's remorse before I even make a purchase, I walked away from the dress, on Thursday, and the gala was on Friday. I'm an idiot. So Friday was crazy, but I was certain I'd have enough time to go snag that dress and get all dolled up, and drop Nolan off at the sitters', and get to the gala on time. A good friend gave us her car for the night which helped a ton, but wouldn't you know, I was supposed to leave my house at 5:00 and at 4:45 I was STILL on Skype with my mom and Markee trying to decide what to wear. I just didn't feel totally right about the dress I bought. I felt it was a little too casual and the more we looked at gala pictures online, the more we realized I needed to be more dressy than the dress was. So I pulled out the most fancy thing in my closet, stared it in the face, and though I hadn't been able to fit in it in over 3 years, I slipped it on. Not only did it fit (HALLELUJAH!) it looked way dressier than the dress I bought. So we settled on that dress, and then noticed that with all of the trying on of dresses, my hair had been totally ruined. So at 5:00 I re-did my hair, packed a diaper bag, grabbed Collin's clothes (he had to change at our friends' house because he was coming straight from work), loaded the car, and we were out of here by about 5:20. I decided being 20 minutes fashionably late would work.
The rest of the night was great. Nolan was in good hands so we didn't even worry for a minute about him. And the gala (which is what you really want to hear about!) was so. much. fun. (Extra punctuation added for Brandon).
Soooo I give to you
THE GALA
The gala was held here, at Millennium Park. This is the view you usually get of the Jay Pritzker Pavillion.
But when we arrived we realized we would be on the actual stage for the evening. We were ushered behind secret doors, through dark and scary hallways, around cement barricades, and finally we arrived back stage. We signed in, checked our coats, and were greeted with pear and brie appetizers, and good friends.
We spent the rest of the evening listening to live music, drinking Shirley Temples, eating yummy hour'derves and meeting beautiful people. The view of the city from where we were was magical and the evening was just lovely. One of our favorite hour'derves was a mini hamburger. It was DIVINE, but not nearly enough, so as the night started to wind down, we stepped out early, I changed into some comfy, and we headed to Five Guys-a little more how we roll.
The evening really was quite perfect and we arrived at our friends' house to find a perfectly sleeping Nolan. We had so much fun. Thanks Ringers for watching Nolan, and thanks Collin for taking me with you to your gala!
Happy Tuesday!
