October Wedding at Metropolis Ballroom

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.

Event professionals: Rabbi Max Weiss, Beauty on Call, Sprout florist

Wedding Creativo Photography

Creative Wedding Portrait : Chasing up a Tree

Jessica and Daniel had a fun and spontaneous idea for this portrait.  This couple met while the bride was living and working in Italy for several years, and she "chased" him to join her back in her hometown Chicago.  They arrived in America only one week before tying the knot! Bravissimo!

Wedding Creativo Photography

Magic Wedding Moment : A Moment Alone

Alison and Tyler have a moment alone before their private garden wedding in St. Charles, Illinois. A special moment captured on black and white 35mm film.

Wedding Creativo Photography

Happy Mothers Day 2013

Happy Mothers Day! Be sure to take time off from wedding planning to give mom a fist-bump today. We are too!

Wedding Photo of the Week: Alone Time

While the mini party following the ceremony on the trolley with the bridal party is always a fun, we also like when the limo ride to the reception is just for the newlyweds.  It is really romantic, and nice to have some alone time before celebrating the night away with family and friends.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Wedding Photo of the Week: This ain't on the shot list

Finding unique and creative perspectives is what Wedding Creativo Photography is all about. Moments like this aren't going to be on any "shot list" that magazines suggest brides send to their photographers.

The thing about "shot lists" is that they originated during a time when digital photography didn't exist.  Back in the day, when photographers only shot with traditional film, there was a very limited number of exposures available to cover the entire day. Generally about 250-350 pictures used to be the norm.  Shot lists were requested by the photographer so s/he would know the couple's preferences and priorities, but not because photographers didn't know the specific moments to anticipate throughout the wedding day. 

Today some wedding magazines and blogs still have articles that seem to imply that if brides don't provide photographers with a shot list that they will be clueless and miss all of your important moments.  Thinking this through, especially when couples hire more experienced photographers, it seems a bit silly.  We don't go to the dentist with a list of which teeth we would like to have routine cleaning, and for the most part, the shot lists that the magazines and blogs write about are usually the most routine parts of a wedding day that any photographer, with even a few years of experience, will have captured dozens or even hundreds of times.

What is helpful is to just communicate with your photographer about general and specific ideas and preferences that you have. While the logistics of most wedding days are pretty similar from one to the next, what is different is how each couple prefers to have the day covered.  You might not even know yet if you want a more stylized approach or less-intrusive approach, how much time to dedicate to portraits, or when and where you would like to have them take place.  In one way, couples may find it helpful to review a traditional shot list while planning to have a better idea of what photographrers generally look for thorouhout the day, but experienced photographers will also help guide couples along the way with any specifics. 

Each photographer has their own way to work with couples. Here at Wedding Creativo, we even have a special detailed questionnaire that we use to help with the communication process.  But even just discussing creative ideas and preferences during the planning phase will be a lot more beneficial to do with your photographer rather than giving him/her a check list of typical wedding day moments like "the kiss" or "the cake cutting."  For the more creative moments, you can rely on the skills and creative talents of your photographer, who is ideally someone you should feel comfortable exchanging ideas with.  Overall, as with all aspects of wedding planning, communication is key.

Wedding Photo of the Week: Reception Live Band Karaoke

Today is the 5th wedding anniversary of Kristian and Claudia! Congratulations you two! Their wedding reception is still memorable to us as one of the most fun parties we've ever experienced. The bride and groom were a "rockin'" couple and incorporated the awesomeness that is Live Band Karaoke to be the highlight of their reception.  After all of the usual traditions of toasts, cake cutting and first dance, all of the sudden their reception transformed into a local live music dive bar vibe.  After the Live Band Karaoke musicians warmly encouraged the first few brave souls to the stage (Kristian of course opened the show!), soon enough EVERYONE was taking multiple turns singing, with all of the "fans" dancing and screaming with excitement at the stage.  No one was embarrassed because all of the guests treated each other as if they were the Beatles or Rolling Stones.  It was so much fun that we didn't want to leave when our time was up late that night!  This was one of our all-time favorite receptions and we wish more couples would consider this idea for their reception. Thanks Kristian and Claudia for single-handedly changing our opinion about karaoke from that day forward!

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Wedding Photo of the Week: A Rainy Day is OK

Giorgio and I find challenging weather interesting for photography.  Being based in Chicago, we really have no choice but to embrace the crazy weather changes we can have in just a matter of hours, especially this time of year.  Like they say, if you don't like the weather in Chicago, just wait five minutes.

It is a good idea to have a contingency plan for outdoor portraits in case of a relenteless downpour or severe storms, and we're always happy to help our couples with different suggestions for indoor alternatives.  However, in the case of this week's featured wedding photo, we like to show that a little rain isn't always a bad thing. And, as Giorgio says, "sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata," which is an old Italian saying for "wet bride, lucky bride."

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Wedding Photo of the Week: Cantigny Willow

Last year we tried to feature a "photo of the day" and that was kind of overly ambitious to keep up.  So, this year we're going to try a new feature.  Introducing - - - Wedding Photo of the Week!  It could be from one of our recent weddings, or from anytime in the last two decades, but it wil always be one shot that makes our creative hearts smile.

This week's photo is from Cat and Matt's wedding from a couple weeks ago.  We love them under this majestic weeping willow tree at Cantigny Gardens.

© Wedding Creativo Photography / Giorgio Ventola

Jonah and Lauren's Wedding at Chicago Cultural Center

The landmark Chicago Cultural Center is where Lauren and Jonah held their summer evening wedding and reception.  It was a cocktail style affair with diverse international cuisine, ice-cream sandwich treats, and formal ballroom dancing, with the bride's brother even giving guests impromptu dance lessions!

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Chicago Engagement Session: Taking the Plunge

Sometimes we take for granted how lucky we are to have a public lakeshore in Chicago.  It is no wonder why it is such a popular location for portraits, but we were extra lucky to run into these guys "taking the plunge" into Lake Michigan, which was a nice visual metaphor for Wendy and Neil's engagement portrait session. 

© Wedding Creativo Photography

A Traditional Spanish Wedding at St. Mary of the Angels

Theresa and Guillermo live in Spain where the groom is a wine maker at a beautiful vineyard.  They celebrated their passion for the finer things in life, as well a their cultural heritage, at their summer wedding with family in Chicago. 

The ceremony was held at St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in Chicago, and incorporated many Spanish wedding traditions, including the groom's presentation of 13 gold coins or "arras", and the "padrinos" or godparents joining the couple together with a large rosary in a figure 8 loop to symbolize their union.

A Mariachi band entertained the guests at the Hilton Chicago reception.  The wedding cake had strings tied to charms baked into the layers, which the girls and women pulled out to see who got the lucky charm before the bride and groom cut the cake.  Lastly, for the guests' gifts, the groom selected a special vintage of wine for everyone to take home a bottle that commemorated their lovely wedding day.

Inspired Finds:

   

Wedding Creativo @ Indie Wed 2011

Wedding Creativo Photography had so much fun with all of the folks that came out to the wonderful Indie Wed show. Our "buona fortuna" booth theme was inspired by Venice Carnivale and a deck of fifteenth century Italian tarot cards that we have. We passed out our own "buona fortuna" (good luck) fortune cards that were hanging on our fortune tree, and were very inspired to hear about all of the cool plans couples are coming up with for their weddings.  Our masked bride wore a beautiful gown by Alice Padrul Bridal Couture.

Magic Moments 2009

Thanks to all of our couples for a wonderful 2009 that was filled with magic moments.

All images @ Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

More, More and More Album Options

With our album binderies continually offering new cover options every year, it is literally impossible to adequately describe the hundreds of combinations and materials available to make our couples' custom-designed albums and parent albums.  There are so many new cover options including metallic, printed and textured leathers, shimmery textiles, brocade silks, color or black and white image printed metal, image-covered acrylic, formica and even glass!  And more new materials are scheduled to be added in 2010. 

Also, we are now able to offer "premium" parent clone albums with both our Flush Mount and Italian Book Bound albums.  The parent clone sizes are 8x12 (or 8x8 square) EXACT copies of the main wedding album - meaning the same premium covers, layout, and binding style - are available for all of our premium albums.   Parent books are a new option all together for our Flush Mount line, and an updated offering for our Italian Book Bound line.

Overall, this means more choices for our couples to have a beautiful one-of-a-kind heirloom album, with better quality matching parents' albums.

© Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

This is a Flush Mount album with split cover wth a metallic-textured leather back and spine, with the front featuring black and white printed metal - yes the image is printed right on the metal, and it is hard to see online, but the image highlights show a matted shimmer of metal for a stunning effect.  You can even see reflection in the metallic leather! I don't know how our bindery makes leather look like a cracked mirror, but they are geniuses and we love them.

This is the acrylic image cover in our Italian Book Bound line.  The back and spine are black leather, with a printed image incased in glossy acryllic on the front.  Here you see the 9.5x13 main album and 8x12 parent clone - both with the same premium cover.

Here is a colored solid leather option in the Italian Book Bound line, again matching parent clones with same premium covers as main album.  The bride matched the cover to her "something blue" shoes.

To see more album covers, please visit the "Galleries" section and click "albums" on our website www.weddingcreativo.com.

Congratulations Laura and Mike

On a bright sunny winter day (how lucky! Chicago has so few this time of year), Mike and Laura had an early afternoon ceremony at the Palmer House Hilton.  Afterwards we took the "El" train to their reception at Quartino Ristorante where everyone enjoyed the wedding cupcakes.

All images © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

 

Congratulations Christina and Clay

Christina and Clay's late autumn wedding was a candle-lit soiree held at the Hyatt Regency Woodfield in Schaumburg.  The couple incorporated creative lighting, lots of music and lush vibrant colors, which represented their lives working in the music and entertainment industry.  It appears talent runs deep in the family, as one of the bride's young relatives is probably the best Michael Jackson impersonator ever!

All images © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

Congratulations Jeff and Rachel

As a couple of the LDS faith, Jeff and Rachel began their photography coverage after the ceremony.   They live in Utah, but had their wedding here in Chicago, the home of the bride's family.   Having lots of pictures around downtown Chicago was a must for the out-of-town bridal party, and even on this chilly day, there was plenty to see around Millennium Park. We even got a few shots on the ice-skating rink before being chased off by the security guards.  The bride's mother is a commerical stylist, and is starting to branch off into event floral design.  She made all of the wonderful floral arrangements and table centerpieces on display througout the reception at the Wyndham in Glenview.

All images © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

Congratulations Caryn and Jason

Red and gray were the colors of the day for Caryn and Jason's outdoor fall wedding at the Loyola Park lakeshore.  Caryn enhanced the fall colors by having her mother "import" autumn leaves from the trees of her parent's Michigan home, which were used to make the isle for the ceremony processional.  The bride's burgundy pashmina and the groom's matching burgundy ascot and grey suit were fabulous tones for a crisp autumn wedding day.

All images © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

Congratulations Holly and Mark

Holly and Mark exchanged vows and also a bit of their American and Danish cultures at their fall wedding along the Chicago River at Flatwater, which has one of THE best views of the skyline and classic iron bridges.  The lucky couple left for Denmark shortly after their wedding.

All images © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo