Lori and Michael celebrated their May spring wedding at Creativo Loft in Chicago with about 70 of their family and friends. It was a vintage style affair with teal and coral colors, and the bride's fantastic lace overlay dress from Weddings 826. Their ceremony was held downstairs from Creativo Loft at our neighbor's theater space, Chicago Dramatists.
Terah and Ross celebrated their emerald green and gold wedding at Unity Lutheran Church and the Fortnightly Club in Chicago. The bride is a historian and created an authentic Victorian era theme wedding....down to making her own dress! It was modeled off of a 19th century Civil War era design. The groomsmen's suits were also period inspired with old fashioned ascotts instead of modern ties. The bride's mother Linda also helped a great deal by elaborately designing the reception table centerpieces. Each table had a different traditional scholastic subject theme and was decorated using a varieity of antiques and vintage pieces such as inkwells, maps, globes, books, and old photographs. Overall, the style of the wedding reflected both Terah and Ross's professional careers in academia. Terah and Linda also made the invitations and programs, and many other details. All in all it was truly an exceptional D.I.Y. wedding, We will always look back on this as all-time favorite for us, not only for the amazing details, but primarily because Terah and Ross were such wonderful and kind couple, an absolute pleasure to get to know, and we were so honored to be included on their memorable day.
Deep orange and purple colors, vintage style, and candle-lit mason jars created a lovely setting at the Metropolis Ballroom in Arlington Heights, Illinois for Bailey and Dan's October wedding. The couple were inspired by autumn farmers markets for the overall feel for their wedding.
There were several unique and personal touches by the bride and groom, as well as their family members, for their Jewish wedding details. Some highlights included adorable personalized seed packets that doubled as escort cards and guest favors, which were strung up with mini clothespins. The laundry line theme was also carried over in the cocktail room were a wall was strung with their childhood photos. Lots of mason jars that the couple collected were used as candle holders for the ceremony aisle and reception tables. The beautiful ceremony chuppah was constructed by the groom's father, and draped with the bride's family heirloom embroidered top. Small pumpkins and fall foliage were also nice touches used throughout the reception decor.
The bride's spectacular vintage style dress and veil were custom creations by local designer Dame Couture. She also wore lovely accessories including a hairpin was from Blue Bow Millinery, great-grandmother's earrings, maternal grandmother's accent ring, and Mariana shoes by GOLC. The groom wore a gray Kenneth Cole suit, and bridesmaids dresses were majestic purple Alfred Sung gowns from Dessy Group. For their wedding rings Bailey and Dan chose conflict free diamonds and recycled platinum from Brilliant Earth. The bride's handkerchief and groom's fedora hat were also fantastic accents to express their style.
Lots of family was on hand to help out this loving and fun couple pull off a great wedding celebration. The autumn day started off with a bit of a bump in the road with inclement weather causing the outdoor ceremony to be moved to the reception hall. The Irish American Heritage Center came through with flying colors with the last minute change, and all of the guests made it there okay with all of the family pulling out phones to call all 200 guests!
The bride Beth was a great sport, and maintained her good spirits, and we were glad to see everyone not let the weather sour their fun plans. Beth was calm and relaxed while getting her makeup done while her father and other relatives made their way through the phone list.
We were impressed with this as we knew coming in that this wedding would likely be an extraordinarily emotional day. Sadly, Beth's mother had passed away, which of course made for a few bittersweet moments, but her loving relatives were wonderfully supportive and jovial throughout the day. Beth also thought of a great way to keep her mother close to her heart by wearing her mother's ring on a necklace.
Beth and Justin had natural and simple style overall, with a touch of vintage flair for their wedding fashions. The bride's jewelry, accessories, and goddess wedding dress from Kasia's Bridal, as well as the groom's dapper fedora hat and charcoal jacket-less suit perfectly represented their fun and creative personalities.
Beth and her father shared a sweet moment on the porch before heading off to the ceremony. Everyone made it there on time, the venue had a separate room made ready for their last minute change of plans, and the bride and groom were married by officiant Pierre Poinsette without a hitch.
During the receiving line and cocktails guests enjoyed bowls of popcorn, and then Nostalgic Catering served fun pub style grub including mini burgers and liquor shots for toasting the couple during the reception. Family friend Courtney baked classic homemade bundt cakes, nutrolls and ginger snap cookies for dessert.
After dinner the bride and groom serenaded their guests with a Glen Hansard song, then everyone danced the night away with the always awesome Okyne Medialab. They also showed a great slideshow with pictures from the couple's childhood and dating years, which ran the gamut of emotions as family and guests all watched on together. Slideshows always work best like this when incorporated in the reception as a shared experience for all, instead of having it off to the side in another room for guests to watch individually.
We recently enjoyed photographing Vicky and David's vintage style summer wedding, which included lovely cream and yellow colors, and fashions with an overall organic and natural feeling.
Lately we've been seeing more cotton and natural fibers in wedding fashions. Here we share a few of these lovely finds of vintage prairie, pioneer, farm, and old-time country inspired styles for wedding dresses that we think Laura Ingalls Wilder (author of Little House on the Prairie) would pray for.
This bridal portrait always reminds me (Sarah) of one of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). His paintings and artwork used in early advertising during the Art Nouveau period are iconic.
Bride Nichole also loves Art Nouveau, and it was apparent with her home decor and wedding style. This portrait on her staircase is a classic favorite.
Today marks the one year anniversary of Lisa and Ben! Congratulations you two! This stylish couple incorporated a great sense of vintage 1940s fashions in their wedding.
Interestingly, the designs worn in the 1940s were primarily influenced by conservation rationing of materials and resources by the government during WWII. Fashions designers in America, as well as the major European style capitals in Paris and Italy, were affected by the limited materials they were allotted during the war. Also, the fragile economy during the 1940s affected the purchasing power of pocketbooks. In many ways, brides today might feel similar challenges in light of our current economic climate.
Women of the 1940s had to embrace the mindset of "make do and mend." Where the 1920s and 1930s fashions featured silk stockings and a wide variety of more luxurious fabrics, the sacrifices of WWII ushered in a time of more simple designs with often clever solutions for fashion dilemmas. Stockings came to be in short supply so women drew lines on the back of their legs to give the illusion of wearing stockings. Less material was available to make dresses and skirts, so consequently hemlines became shorter.
Hollywood 1940s fashion icons and Veronica Lake and Lauren Bacall.
Designers in the 1940s might have edited their fashions a bit more than they would have liked. It wasn't until 1947 that Christian Dior "outraged" critics by using "excessive" fabric for his dresses when materials were still being rationed. Dior put Paris back on the map with his "shocking" styles, but even before this designers certainly did not let the difficult limitations of the 1940s keep them from creating many wonderful classic looks that still greatly influence current trends.
If the recent 2012 spring wedding fashions shows are any indication, the short wedding dress trend is only gaining in popularity right now. One of our favorite vintage-inspired collections this spring is by designer Matthew Christopher. His dresses are currently found in the Chicago area at Wolsfelt's Bridal in Aurora and Volle's Bridal in Lake Zurich.
Oscar de la Renta Metallic-Embroidered Cocktail Dress
Milly Cap Sleeve Haley Dress
And let's not forget about the guys who also have the war rations of the 1940s to thank for making it okay to wear a suit without a vest. Generally, men's suits were more loose fitting in the 40s (with the extreme being the zoot suit), which makes this look a bit more hard to find among today's more tightly tailored suits. However, we thought these styles would work great for vintage-minded grooms who want to look like Humphrey Bogart walking down the aisle.
Ralph Lauren Drake Checked Wool Suit
Gucci Grey Pinstriped 3-Button Suit
Prada Black Wool 2-Button Suit
Finally, for the guests, a couple of ensembles with 1940s flair.
