Corey's wedding in Chicago

On Wednesday of last week, I went to Chicago from Atlanta for Corey & Pat's wedding, which was a blast! Carrie and I hung out on Wednesday, Thursday was the bachelorette (we went to Nacional 27 for dinner, Pops for Champagne for dessert and Y Bar for dancing). On Friday, we headed out to Arlington Hights for the rehearsal dinner. Saturday afternoon the wedding was held at St. James church and once pictures go up, I'll post the link here. The weather was great & Corey looked amazing. I was the maid of honor and stood up at the front and kneeled alongside Corey and Pat during the ceremony. Afterwards, the bridal party went to the racetrack and Corey & Pat won big on their wedding numbers (6-2-7). They bet $1 and won $75! At 5pm it was on to the reception at the pretty Metropolis ballroom downtown. The whole day was a blast.

On Sunday, Carrie, Angela & I all got together for brunch. Angela came in town from Atlanta for the weekend and it was great to see her. Then it was off to the airport and back to London. I just got in this morning after a nice (upgraded to first!) flight home to London.

Home with the fam in Atlanta

I went home last week to visit my family in Atlanta and enjoy some sunny Atlanta weather for a few days before heading to Chicago for a friend's wedding. My grandma flew up from Miami for the occassion and I got to be there with my step dad Tom when he went in for a knee surgery. It was great to be home.

Hanging out with the Queen at the Royal Ascot

On Saturday, Joe and I put on our finest and headed to the Royal Ascot, a once a year, week long horse racing event with the Queen just south of London. The thing that everyone remembers this one for is the fantastic hats & fascinators that the women wear and the formal "morning wear" that all the guys wear (complete with top hat and tails!). It was awesome just to sit and people watch, but Joe also got into the betting and won some serious cash! He bet on the horses with the best names and won on the "Drill Sargent" at 17/1 odds and got a pay out of over GBP 170 on a bet of GBP 10! Needless to say, we went out for a nice dinner that night at Archipelago where they cook random meats into yumminess - Joe had crocodile and kangaroo.

Lost in ...Cannes?

Frances & I have finally met a few great girl friends outside the office through one of our friends from work, Ashvin (Agnes, Pin, Harvonne, Colleen). All of these girls know each other through business school at INSEAD, which from the outside in seems like the coolest set of B-school people I've met thus far. They're all global travellers and "citizens of the world" with tons of ambition. We've all hung out a few times now & have had a blast each time. The other weekend, we all met up at a Brazilian music & dance show at the Barbican Theater that was just fantastic.

Then, Pin, Agnes, & Harvonne hosted a fun Cannes Film Festival party at their awesome Gloucester Road flat the other weekend and Joe, Frances & I went in style. Can you guess who we were? Only challenge was that Joe & I had been doing volunteer work all day on a flat of a woman who needed some help through our "office challenge" annual project, so we were too tired to make a late night & we left around midnight.