Planning The Bachelor Party: A Husband To Be's Story

Hey, I'm Neill.  I'm not much of a party planner unless I'm the host of the party, and in truth, it's been several years since I've thrown a bonafide shindig.  For my bachelor party, I assumed it was expected that it was planned by the best men or others involved.  I'm not entirely sure why I assumed that, but my only experiences with bachelor parties in the past were more or less planned out before I knew about them (even though I was the best man for one of them ... hrm ...).  But needless to say, I wasn't involved in any kind of planning in that capacity ... likely for the better ;-)

My awesome best men (Tom and James) waited until near the last minute for getting all of the details together.  Not to knock them for delaying their planning though -- it was more like they shot ideas around and I was single-handedly so incredibly indecisive that they didn't put their feet down until the week of the event to tie together all of the loose ends.  Thank jeebus for them really.  If I had it my way, I would have just stayed home and drank beer all day.  Not because that's what I imagine a good bachelor party being, but because I'm so easy to please sometimes.  I think at any given time I've got enough worries on my mind that when it comes time to plan something that should be a lot of fun, I tend to just go with the flow and not sweat the details.  In my experience, if you want to have a good time, a good time will be had -- particularly in good company.

Anyway, I shot down a ton of fun ideas including the following: skydiving, whitewater rafting, renting motor cross bikes/4 wheelers/dune buggies, a booze cruise, go carts, whirly ball, lazer tag, a segway tour, dave and busters, etc.  My best men shot down checking out the Windy City Rollers (Chicago Roller Derby) solely on the basis that Alisha and her crew were going to be there.  C'est le vie.  Oh, and I've never really been comfortable at strip clubs, so that was a no-brainer.  Not that I hadn't read about what goes on in them (*wink wink*), but it's just not my cup of tea.  And they smell like strippers ... kind of like new car scent or something, but with a latex dashboard.  So I heard.

In the end, James and Tom decided that we were going to a White Sox game during the day and dinner in the evening, followed by drinks.  I enjoy sporting events, but in my ~15 years living in Chicago, I had been to exactly 1 Cubs game, 1 White Sox game, and 1 Bulls game.  I wasn't really sure what to expect since I hadn't seen the Sox in probably 9(?) years or so.  Not following any sports doesn't help either.  But I knew it would be a good time with a lot of my besties there.  And that's the most important part.

Maybe next time I'll spill some details of the day, but I'm ok with that being private.  I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to have a guest post by me anyway?! :-P

I'll add one important thing that you probably don't know about me.  I started an online journal many years ago for the SOLE purpose of sharing the mundane things during the day.  Highlights include eating a sandwich, doing laundry, going to band practice, etc.  Then I discovered twitter.  With twitter, I can describe all the boring things in MUCH less time.  So now I can tweet about sandwiches and band practice.

So all of this could have wasted far less time if I was allowed to tweet it cause it would have been something like this: "can't decide what to do 4 bparty, but tom & james decided to go to a sox game, followed by dinner and drinks -- yay!  everyone's happy!! :-D"

Follow me on twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/neillm

Planning A Bachelor Party In Chicago - The Groom's Side

I am very excited to announce that Neill has agreed to write a guest post for us about his experience with having a bachelor party! As you know, I think Neill is just the bee's knees and I hope all of you do too! Check back tomorrow for the full monty.

Beauty Brigade

A while ago, I mentioned that I got my hair and makeup done by the wonderfully talented and super sweet Heather Massa for my bridal shower. Today, we did the the wedding trial run. Well, let me tell you - Heather brought her A game! I cannot say enough good things about her. First, let me show you my hairspiration.

I must be having a thing for blondes right now :) I sent her these pictures and told her I wanted my hair to: (1) have volume up top, (2) be pinned off my neck, (3) have some texture/curl in it, (4) be off to the side in some sort of bun thing, and (5) be secure as hell. The last thing I need is a big gust of windy city wind blowing out the whole thing!

Here are  blackberry pictures of what I ended up with! I apologize for the crummy pictures. It is very hard to take a good self-portrait with our big heavy camera!

I luuurve it! Looking back at the inspiration pictures above, I think it resembles the picture of Amanda Seyfried, but to the left. While I love the look of the messy side bun a la mischa barton , I also know myself well enough to know that (a) I'd worry and obsess about whether or not my hair was falling out and (b) if it is hot I don't want a single strand of hair to touch my neck. So, I think I sacrificed some loosey goosey hippie chic style for a more coiffed look. But, the piece of mind is worth it. Plus, I really can't overstate just how freaking windy it gets by the lake here in Chicago. Like blow your skirt up, umbrella inside out, leaves whipping around in circles windy. I think this style can stand up to the winds though. Heather used about a million bobby pins and TON of hairspray. About 10 hours later, and it has barely moved.

Mission accomplished!

When Neill got home from work I had him take some better pictures of me, but I'm still waiting for him to send them my way. I'll post them as soon as I get them :)

Free Photography!

Our lovely and talented photographer, Alix Klingenberg, is hosting a photography giveaway contest. The winner will receive 5 free hours of coverage for their wedding or commitment ceremony in 2011! You can find all the details here. Good luck!

Still Alive

I survived my bachelorette party! I had such a great time - it was seriously more than i could have ever asked for. I plan to write a proper recap of the whole event and I'm also going to ask Neill to write a guest post or two on his bachelor party.

Interestingly, today I feel more confident and ready to commit to marriage than I did before. It is like making is through this right of passage or participating in this debaucherous tradition has somehow made me more confident that I can truly and genuinely commit myself to Neill.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I look forward to sharing more details of the party with you!

Bachelorette Party!

it is finally here! my bachelorette party is tomorrow! while i tend to get a little anxious having all of the attention on me, i am really excited for tomorrow. there will be roller derby, hamburgers, drinks in fishbowls, and dancing (lots and lots of dancing). i'm not a big drinker so i am a little nervous about going overboard and peeking too early, but i've warned my maid of honor to keep an eye on me! i want to be in this for the long haul. that probably means no shots for me - or at least only one or two girly shots - and lots of yummy food to soak up the booze. i'm also probably be drinking my fair share of red bull so i can keep my booty shaking and my eyes open.

neill will also be having his bachelor party tomorrow. i'm so glad that we managed to do them on the same night. this way, neither one of us has to sit at home and wonder what the other one is doing. i think having my bachelorette party to think about has made it easy to not worry about what neill might be doing. also, even though i do tend to be jealous, i trust him 100%. luckily, neill also happens to have some of the most awesome friends ever (only slightly less awesome than mine) and they are all good guys. i'm sure they will take good care of him.

for those who are curious - they are not going to a strip club. neill has been to them before and i've never been bothered by it so  i was totally fine* with them going, but neill wasn't interested.  however, this might be because the only full nudity strip club in chicago doesn't serve alcohol, not because he doesn't want to get a lap dance from a complete stranger :) apparently, booze > boobs.

by this time tomorrow night we will both be partying up with our crew! i can't wait to rehash the night on sunday over brunch. 

Clean Machine

Remember when I was complaining about all of the stuff that has built up in our apartment? i was fighting some serious demons. All I wanted to do was sort, organize, and donate anything and everything that we didn't absolutely need. The problem? Not all of the stuff was mine to decide on.

Well Neill has really pulled through! I came home yesterday to find our office cleaner and more organized than it has been in quite some time. Not only did he spiff up his desk, but he tackled THE CLOSET. I know. Right? It's pretty effin amazing. Clothes are hung up and organized. Guitars are stacked. the floor is vacummed.  the surfaces dusted. and there actually appears to be some extra space now.

I'm so proud of him for choosing to part with a few things he's been holding on to and moving the rest down to storage*. does he know how to make me happy or what?



*oh storage space. what a blessing and a curse you are. im thankful that i don't have to deal with all of the stuff in our apartment, but i'm already afraid of having to go through everything we've stashed down there come move time.