Black Tie Optional, Fun Required

The thing about getting to downtown Chicago is that it's an orange-barreled, traffic-jammed, headache of a mess to get to. The thing about family, though... is they're worth it.

On Saturday, Jim's cousin Jeff and his wife Mel (above) were the proud parents of the groom as their son Jacob (also Jim's godson) was married. The wedding was held at the Kimpton Gray Hotel right smack dab in the middle of downtown Chi-Town. The wedding, reception, and dance all took place at the upscale hotel, which made it quite convenient.

And pretty amazing.

Madeline, the beautiful bride, is escorted by her father before the 6-minute ceremony. For real.

It was like no time and their friend the officiant was giving them the go ahead to kiss...

And then here we are – meeting the new Mr. and Mrs. Jake Austin!

Of course, their dog was in the wedding. What a silly question. And he was well-behaved.

As for cousins Jeff and Jim, I guess they were well-behaved, too. By Austin standards. Ha.

The handsome groom with his handsome godfather.

Sam, the beautiful sister of the groom who lives in Texas now, was there with her husband their little boy Joey.

He was the hit of the party. Such a cutie. And since it was black tie optional he work a pink one! And kept it on.

We did our part dressing formally, too. I felt like I was going to prom or something – with an actual date for once. Ready to twirl around in my long dress! And I did later at the dance, that's for sure. Jim bought the dress for me online and it worked out, I'd say. Purple always does though, doesn't it?

The dinner was great and the cake was fabulous. I'm a stern reviewer of cake so it has to pass the good frosting test. This was 5-star. No worries there.

The room where they had the dance was on the hotel's top floor. It didn't feel like a rooftop until...

They opened it up for the dance and we were groovin' and raisin' the roof in downtown Chicago. It was the coolest thing. And the weather was perfect for that! Plus, the fresh air even prompted my date to dance with me a few times. Now that's a whole new level of fun.

So glad we could make it and represent all the family unable to travel down there. I hope the pictures help you feel like you were there because we know you were – in spirit.