What is a Wedding?
A huge, elegant party set in one of Chicago’s fanciest-shmanciest (oh yeah….we’re creating words over here) venues, complete with a champagne fountain, nine-piece band and a $6,000 gown?
A fun-filled, down-to-earth garden party embellished with freshly picked wild flowers, burlap runners, mason jars and fireworks at the end of the night?
An excuse to run away to Italy with your fiance, your closest family and very best friends?
As a wedding professional, I’ve truly seen it all (or thought I had until 2020 came along and shook things up!). The one thing that can often get overlooked when planning a wedding is THE WHOLE POINT!
Confession time: despite being a lifelong lover of weddings, actually planning one decidedly did not come natural to me! Mark and I had a big, GORGEOUS affair at the Armour House in Lake Forest, complete with a New Orleans Brass Band at cocktail hour and a grand entrance down an incredible staircase. While I don’t shy away from attention, I did shy away from the pomp and circumstance…and the stress, and financial strain and the utter chaos that inevitably comes with the exciting and somewhat overwhelming process of Wedding Planning.
Now please don’t misunderstand, I regret absolutely nothing about our beautiful wedding day. It happened the way it was supposed to, it was gorgeous, Mark and I are happily married and the rest is history.
BUT I do have the utmost respect for couples who decide to buck the whole hullabaloo in favor of getting to the whole point; officially recognizing that you’ve chosen each other, that you’ve decided to jump into the deep end of the world of Marriage together. It’s exciting. It’s scary. It is one of the single most important things you will ever do.
Which brings me to Chris and Courtney’s GORGEOUS wedding morning. I met this amazing couple outside of the Chicago City Hall on a perfect summer morning (and this was 2019 so before Covid-19 made mini weddings all the rage!) just minutes after they exchanged their vows in front of a judge. To say they were beaming is the understatement of the century! These kids were electric, their love SO gosh darn obvious it made this photographer’s heart swell.
It was an honor (and soooo much fun!) running around Chicago’s beautiful Riverwalk area before heading to the ever stunning Chicago Art Institutes South Gardens to comemorate this incredible moment in their lives.
Brides and grooms effected by the Coronavirus and are consider rejigging things and either doing a Chicago elopement or a Chicago mini wedding, here’s some inspirational imagery for you! You’ll get through this, you’ll get MARRIED and you’ll have the whole rest of your lives to celebrate your love! Congrats to this amazing couple!
