Oh, what a night!

Turns out Murphy's gives the person who pays for a wedding the grand total with an itemized list of what was eaten (all food we ordered from the catering menu), assorted fees and each drink ordered.

B is promising a few charts (perhaps a bar chart of my favorite pies and a pie chart of my favorite bars?!?) about these drinks, but I'm here to tell you some awesome news: Chicago beer was heavily favored at our wedding!

Goose Island Green Line and Half Acre Gossamer were two of the top-ordered beers - and deservedly so. Both are perfect summer beers and pair delightfully with things like BBQ chicken sliders and a potato skins bar. Green Line is only available by keg - it's that green! No waste for that beer. Gossamer comes from a brewery right next to our grocery store.

We'll continue to post a few wedding lessons and highlights from our big day, but let me just boast like a bride and share a few excellent things:

• Murphy's Irish Bistro was amazing. The space was perfect for our wedding and reception - we had a few vases of flowers and the whole bistro just shined. We were excited to share one of our favorite places with so many friends and to share so much delicious food too. The Irish Bistro's potato skins bar was a complete hit -- my sister-in-law is already discussing what next event we can hold there so that we can again enjoy a potato skins bar.
• Getting my hair and makeup done at Lather was lovely - I'm glad I was calm about it, and glad I shelled out for the 'do and makeup. I felt beautiful and ready to go, though I do think that there's something to be said for doing this yourself. My wedding party and I, however, were much better off away from the madness of my apartment and in the air-conditioning of Lather.
• I'm glad we didn't invite more people - it was so hard to talk to everyone. I'm sad I didn't get to sit in on every conversation all night. If some sort of time machine could facilitate that, I'd be down with that. We did have a completely spectacular crowd - nary a rowdy wreck in the bunch!

Ok, better post this. I promise much more - with photos - as we debrief from the biggest party we'll ever have.