Telling the Family & Amanda's Wedding

The weekend of March 12th Dane and I headed up to Chicago for my sister Amanda's wedding.  My mom and I planned a quick and small wedding ceremony/reception at the Lincoln Park Conservatory that was absolutely beautiful.  With the stress of keeping Amanda's pregnancy a secret as well as planning the wedding, Dane and I didn't want to add to everything by telling everyone early that we were pregnant as well so we kept it for a secret for almost a month!

Dane and I arrived on Friday the 11th and we met my sister at her apartment.  Her husband's brother and sister in law were at the house so we called both Amanda and Ryan into their bedroom to have them open their first wedding gift of the weekend.  I created a cute little onsie that said "I HEART my aunt Da".  After looking at it for awhile, the two of them weren't really getting it and then when she looked at my face she finally realized what was going on and tackled me (just like I did to her when I found out she was pregnant).  Needless to say there were tears on both our parts and everyone was very excited.

We took Amanda to get her nails done, relaxed at the hotel, and before we went to the restaurant Dane and I went into my parents room to give them a gift.  I put together a box with a pair of booties and a note that said "There won't just be ONE set of booties at Christmas this year"...My Mom immediately knew what was going on and it took a second for my Dad to get it.  Once my dad understood his response was "you've got to be shitting me!" HA. (picture below without the note)

At dinner we told my other sisters and two of my cousins and everyone was just as excited.  After all the excitement I was absolutely exhausted and we had an even MORE eventful day on Saturday!

Saturday was not as overwhelming as I thought it would be, we started with a nice breakfast, ran errands, got ready, and hung out in Amanda's suite.  My sister Sarah created Amanda's bouquet and my mom did her hair, and after pictures at the hotel we all piled into cabs to headed over to the Conservatory.  No decorations or flowers were needed because we were in a jungle of exotic plants and the most vibrant flowers you could imagine!  There was a short ceremony, and then came an announcement form the bride and groom:

THEY ARE HAVING A GIRL!! :)

After good food, great company, and a few tears we headed to a bar afterward (despite being exhausted) and continued our good time until about midnight :)  We woke up the next morning to a little scare (will save that for another post) that ended up with us in the ER for about 4 hours and missed getting to say good bye to my sisters and brother.  Despite our little hospital visit it was a great weekend and I'm soooo glad I got to see my ENTIRE family (doesn't happen very often) and help Amanda and Ryan celebrate their nuptuals.