After a hectic day at work and dinner/gifts with my newly-arrived fam, I woke up the next morning and hit the ground running. I grabbed my sister from the hotel at 8:00 AM, and we assembled bouquets (more to come on that debacle), packed our PARTAY stuff, and picked up the rental van. I got my parents situated at my apartment: my mom was working on assembling favors, my dad was there to take care of Mae, and Benjamin was on his way to his own bachelor party in a few hours. In the madness, I hadn?t had a chance to make the rosemary simple syrup for the signature cocktails, so Ben graciously offered to take care of it. The cocktail signs at our wedding really should have said ?hand-crafted by the GROOM? because he gets sole credit. Pro-tip: Don?t underestimate the amount of work these tasks require. Poor Ben. My sister and I had to leave for the city midday, as we had a 45-minute drive into Chicago to get one of my girlfriends who had arrived the previous night before heading to Milwaukee. We were running about an hour behind at this point, which meant we were going to miss our first brewery tour. I allowed myself a little time to mourn/melt down (as I had tried SO HARD to not run late), and then I got over it. The Mars Cheese Castle helped.

If this appears to be a random-ass, castle-shaped cheese store in the middle of nowhere, that?s because it is. Also known as: one of my favorite places ever.
Wisconsin-y snacks procured, we amended the plans to check into the Kimpton ...