One of the problems with holding a wedding halfway across the country is that a lot of our local friends aren’t able to make the trip. With that in mind, one of our lovely bridespeople decided to throw us a bachelorette party to give the locals who can’t make it a chance to hang out with us and celebrate our nuptials. It was a hoot!
Now, I’ve always thought that bachelor(ette) parties were a little weird. I mean, if you’re getting married you’re obviously pretty far from being single, so it seems sort of strange to go out and hit on people all night. If I’m going to get drunk and hit on someone all night I know who I want that person to be! So I was glad she was coming with me.
So instead of getting plastered and playing bride-to-be-bingo, we started off the evening with a show at The Baton, Chicago’s drag cabaret. About 20 of us went to see the ladies—who came in all ages, shapes, and sizes, all of them lovely—and get in the celebratory spirit. It was especially nice to go to the early show since some of our friends have kids and couldn’t stay out all night. I’d recommend spreading the night out that way if you can arrange it.
Then we went to a gay bar and watched the Shower Night festivities. That was a first for me. I don’t think I’m a huge fan of watching people gyrate onstage and splash water at me, but sure did stir up the crowd.
We got kind of a cool reception at first, I think because Lynn wasn’t wearing her tiara (she was wearing a fedora instead, but it doesn’t read ‘bride’ in quite the same way as the awful piece of tinsel they stuck to my head). And I had been worried because some of the gay bars in that area have banned bachelorette parties (the kind with straight girls who come out for their one last fling and grope all of the guys in the club because ‘they don’t count’) But they let us in with no problems, and eventually the hostess of the contest asked why we were celebrating and we got to come out and say we were getting married. She stared at us for a second and said, ‘wait, YOU’RE getting married? Oh my god, y’all, we really ARE taking over!” and everyone applauded. Fun, fun!
The best part of the evening, though, was watching our friends interact. Some people showed up to the Baton early and started up a conversation and by the next day my co-workers and my volunteer buddies and my old roommates were all friends on facebook. It gave me a little glimpse of what I hope our wedding will feel like. Weddings are a way to join families, but also a way to link communities. I’m still sad that all of the people I love can’t be together in one spot at one time, but seeing these seeds planted makes me feel like our wedding really will be the beginning of an intertwined support network of family and friends.
“we really are taking over” That’s an awesome! Glad you had a good time!
It sounds like you had an awesome time. I also have most of my friends spread out and I don’t think I will have any kind of preparty. If I did I was thinking camping would be fun, but going to a drag show seems awesome ( especially cause I am newly addicted to RuPaul’s drag race and they are way too pretty).