WEDDING SERVICES - VENUE - PHOTOGRAPHY - ELOPEMENTS - ALBUMS
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.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
We take a ride on the CTA "el" elevated trains for this Chicago engagement session.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
Today's featured photo is from a wedding after-party at the bride and groom's neighborhood bar. It makes us think of the great wisdom of Homer Simpson: "here's to alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems."
© Wedding Creativo Photography
So how do you stock a great wedding bar? Here are five questions to ask yourself to help you get started:
1. What style of wedding you are planning? The libations should be appropriate for the event. A black tie affair deserves campaign toasts. A casual summer beach party will thrive with your favorite beer brews. You get the idea.
2. Who is attending your wedding? You know your family and friends best, and while you won't be able to please the tates of everyone, a general focus on having options that will appeal to the majority of age groups and general tone that you want to set at your reception can be carried with your alcohol selections.
3. Who is driving home? Keep in mind that there will be guests that will be designated drivers, or simply don't consume alcohol, so be sure to have plenty non-alcoholic options too. Soft drinks, flavored sparkling waters, cranberry and other fruit juices are standard beverages to have on hand.
4. Do you want to keep to essentials or have a wide range of options for guests? Sticking to beer, wine and soft drinks can reduce costs, but for some couples that may be too limited for their preferences. You could add one signature drink to add personality and a little more variety, or go with a basic full bar to have more selections, but still keep choices within reason for a wedding reception.
5. Is the bar an area where you want to splurge or keep costs down? Either way we think hiring a professional bar tender is a good idea if you don't already have one provided by your catering company, and is really the best way to plan and stick to the wedding bar budget no matter how you decide to stock it.
Why?
A.) pros will make consistently great drinks, and quickly, because it is second-nature to them.
B.) if you really want to save money, a professional will be able to advise on the right amounts to stock up on for the number of guests you are having, so you can avoid buying too much or too little of any supplies. You don't want to run out of anything significant in the middle of your reception.
C.) during the reception a pro will know how to handle portion control to correctly pace your supplies throughout the evening, and can also be careful with over-serving any guests.
We think hiring a professional bartender is one of those areas that really pays for itself, and goes a long way in making beverage service all that more enjoyable for you and your guests.
We love this bright idea for wedding receptions: have your guests write messages on cards for you to open on each anniversary. What a great way to look back on your wedding day and look forward to your anniversary each year!
Basically, you just need a bunch of lovely blank note cards and envelopes. Numbering the envelopes for each anniversary year would be a reasonably manageable DIY project. It could even be delegated to someone with nice penmanship or who has patience to sit down for a couple of hours to neatly place pretty stickers like these pink glitter numbers found on the online craft supply store A Cherry on Top:
We are always in awe of the elaborate and unique details of wedding cakes. Today we would like to highlight some great cakes and the creative folks behind these edible works of art. These selections also show some general trends we've noticed in wedding cakes, other sweets, and cake toppers (or lack thereof) in the last year.
By far, the biggest trend we've seen with wedding cakes in the past year has been elegant "clean" designs, usually with fresh cut floral embellishments, such as this cake above by Oak Mill Bakery. The Polish are internationally known for their amazing sweet treats, and owner Bogna Iwanowska-Solak definitely brought that wonderful baking heritage with her to Chicago when she opened her family's first bakery here in 1986. Today they operate six stores in Chicago, Niles, Harwood Heights and Arlington Heights.
Amy Beck is known for her elegant custom cake designs, often using floral elements, whether they are created with sugar or real flowers. She used cascading violet and yellow orchids for this fantastic wedding cake. Earlier this year we were excited to see that Amy opened up a new store on Racine street, just a few blocks from our studio. Welcome to the neighborhood Amy!
Bride Krys added a single pink peony to top her wedding cake to go along with her peony-theme wedding. Central Continental Bakery, a north-west suburban bakery that has been making wonderful wedding cakes since 1922, detailed the design with words such as "family," "friendship," and "love" to express the things in life that the bride and groom most cherish.
Mary Winslow's small bakeshop, Take the Cake, specializes in intricately detailed custom designs and cake flavors, always with a look of timeless elegance. This white petal wedding cake perfectly complimented the petal details on the bride's wedding dress, as well as her all-white reception decor. We can only imagine the patience and focus it took to make those delicate frosting rose petals.
Couples that hold their weddings at venues renowned for their cuisine may also find the cake included in their package. As part of Chicago's fantastic foodie group of Levy Restaurants, Fulton's on the River offers their compelling Reid Murdoch Wedding Package, which includes a custom designed wedding cake. This one above incorporated the couple's pink and green wedding colors and their last name inital for the silver and diamond cake topper.
Maggie Roeder Cakes is a boutique that places equal importance on the taste of the cake as the design. For this reception, the bride and groom built an experience for their guests around gourmet cuisine and a cake made with top quality ingredients. Overall, their reception decor was minimalist, which was well complimented with the clean monogram design topping this cake.
For their vintage-style barn wedding, this bride and groom went with several small "old-fashioned" cakes. This was for a destination wedding in northern Michigan, with cakes made by Robin Smith from that area.
Wedding cupcakes have become very popular in recent years, but for this "ice-cream" theme reception the couple added a unique twist. Along with their ice-cream sundae bar, they also had cupcakes made by Luscious Layers Bakery, which were designed with typical sundae toppings, such as sprinkles and cherries.
Cake wasn't going to satisfy the sweet tooth for this bride and groom, so instead they got a double-decker banana cream pie, as well as several assorted "home-style pies" from Hoosier Mama Pie Company. The bride Elaine (who earned her Master of Fine Arts degree while planning her wedding!!!) made the bride and groom toppers using clothes-pins and her awesome crafting talents.
We haven't been seeing as many traditional cake toppers lately. While we totally appreciate couples wanting to do something different, we're kind of starting to miss seeing cake toppers. Perhaps folks could consider bringing them back, but in new and unique ways. We went on Etsy.com to create this collection of various items, with most of them not intended for use on cakes, but perhaps they will inspire couples to think outside of the box for little works of art or personality pieces to top their cakes and sweets.
The violent hail storm that passed through the Chicago area on July 1 caused major damage to the city's historic Garfield Park Conservatory, as reported in this video from FOX News Chicago.
A Chicago Sun-Times report provides more details about the damage as well as information from a Chicago Park District spokesperson who said that weddings will go on as scheduled and will take place in areas of the conservatory that were not damaged by the storm.
Not only is the conservatory a Chicago landmark beloved among nature lovers in general, but it is also one of the most popular Chicago Park District venues for weddings. While couples may be relieved to hear that they will not need to find a new wedding venue, many will surely be saddened and disappointed about the extensive damage to the historic fern room and other glass-covered areas that are popular for weddings.
Garfield Park and its Conservatory are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2008 its 100 year anniversary was celebrated, and with 184 acres it is one of the largest conservatories in the United States.
The community rallied 17 years ago to help the Conservatory recover from a devastating cold snap. With local government funding likely to be scarce in this down economic time, it is certain that citizens giving a helping hand will again be essential in this recovery effort.
Wedding Creativo just made a donation, and we hope our blog readers will also respond with a donation to the conservatory today. A special page has been set up on their website where people can help.
Click here to go to the conservatory's website donation page:
Happy July! As we get ready to head into one of the hottest weekends of the year and lots of Independence Day fun, we would like to salute the leading fabric of coolness . . . seersucker.
Earlier this week we gave some tips on keeping cool at summer weddings, and with seersucker fabrics you can accomplish that both literally and figuratively. Seersucker suits and dresses don't seem to ever go out of style, but we've seen them increasingly more at weddings over the last few seasons.
While many of us might associate this fabric with good old fashioned American summers, as much as baseball and southern gentlemen with great fashion sense, we actually have our friends to the east to thank for these cool threads.
The word seersucker derives from the Persian word "shir o shekar," which means "milk and sugar." It was a common material used in the British colonial period among their warmer weather colonies. With the British having a keen eye for fashionable fabrics, it is no wonder it eventually caught on among the British in the west. Eventually during the world wars, seersucker was introduced in America, initially as an inexpensive fabric primarily used by working class families. However, in the 1920s college students began wearing seersucker outfits, and ever since then it seems to have always been a summertime favorite among fashionable folks.
It is always wonderful for us to see seersucker suits and dresses at our couples' summer weddings:
For men, seersucker suits are always cool and stylish.
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For women, we love the relaxed and retro feeling. And really, who says suits are only for men? We love these summer seersucker women's suits for wedding guests, and maybe even bridesmaids!
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And, seersucker outfits for kids are possibly the cutest things on earth!
Kate's enthusiastic laugh and Brian's southern gentleman charm is what we will always remember most about this fun-loving couple. Kate runs the big city marathons...she's done Boston and Chicago multiple times. Brian is an equally enthusiastic athlete and his work involves extensive traveling, so he has also enjoyed running in cities around the world. We recently enjoyed photographing their destination wedding in Cooperstown, and we posted a sneak peak from their wedding day last week.
However, we never got around to posting their wonderful engagement session, so we want to feature that today, along with the Save The Date card we made featuring several favorites from their lifestyle engagement session. Kate and Brian's humorous personalities and shared interest in running is captured in this collection.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
Wedding Creativo makes custom designed albums and photo displays as part of our full line of studio services for wedding couples and family lifestyle portraits. This work includes guiding couples through our wide selection of album covers and specialty frames, canvases and print types to help them carefully choose the best ways to display and preserve their photographs.
Today we begin a new series of features about decor and color inspirations for coordinating albums and display goods, without loosing sight of complimenting the wedding or portrait imagery being displayed.
This month, we feature an album we recently made for a destination wedding that took place in Africa. The wedding colors were primarily bright yellows and greens with red and orange highlights. While the vibrant colors were wonderful for their wedding day, the couple wanted something a little more subdued for their home environment, which is primarily rustic and wood decor with natural tones of browns, beige, and cream with hints of lime and yellow.
For a view of went into their album design, we are excited present our first inspiration feature of this kind for album and decor coordinates.
© Wedding Creativo
While everyone's eye is on the bride on her wedding day, we know moms should not be overlooked when it comes to wedding fashions. After all, stylish brides and grooms often learn from the best -- their moms!
We like these modern wedding styles for fashionista moms this summer:
 Tadashi Shoji flutter sleeve iridescent gown |
 Redux Charles Chang-Lima Rosette-Sleeve Organza |
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 Nicole Miller, Techno Metal |
 Badgley Mischka Platinum Label |
 J Crew, Evie |
 J Crew, Duchesse |
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It's summertime in the city, which means fun in the sun for the most part, but on a wedding day soaring temperatures can be miserable for folks in formals. For our featured photo this week we look back to Candice and Robert's wedding when the bridal party was lucky to run into an ice-cream vendor along the lakeshore. He offered some sweet relief to the near 100 degree heat and high humidity. Everyone in the bridal party got a cool treat.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
As we head into summer wedding months, here are our top 5 tips for staying cool at hot summer weddings:
1. Stay hydrated: the top way for everyone to stay cool is to drink water. Especially for outdoor weddings it is important to have plenty of cold water for guests throughout the entire time. You could get creative by using old-fashioned picnic coolers placed around various areas with water bottles on ice. Be sure to have a recycling bin for those empty bottles!
2. Wear cool fabrics: consider light fabrics made of natural fibers for your formal wear. Looser fitting clothing will help. We love seersucker suits and dresses...we'll be saying more about that later this week!
3. Humans sweat: there is no way around this, unless you are my partner Giorgio. He is the only human I know that never sweats. For everyone else, guys can carry a handkerchief in their back pocket and gals can keep blotting tissue papers in their purses. Lower maintenance lighter makeup is best for the hottest days. It is also a good idea to bring a few travel size deodorant sticks for women and men in an all-purpose "wedding day survival" bag. Trying to fight what naturally happens during summer will always be a losing battle, so it is best to just plan for the inevitable.
4. Block the sun: wearing sunscreen is a must, especially if you'll be outdoors for long periods of time. A bad sunburn is not something anyone should experience on a wedding day. Parasol umbrellas can be a stylish way for the bridal party to keep cool and also fun for pictures. And, if we learned anything from William and Kate's royal wedding, hats can also be a fashionable way to keep the sun at bay.
5. Think of winter and go slow: if it is going to be extremely hot, over 90 degrees, we will generally recommend couples take it easy and avoid being out in the sun too long during portrait time. Extreme heat is just as bad as a thunderstorm when it comes to portraits. As much as the bridal party will try to be good sports, no one likes having their portrait taken when they are hot, sweaty and exhausted in the heat. For our couples with summer weddings we'll suggest cool - literally - indoor alternatives if the heat is going to be dangerously high during portrait time. When we are outside in higher temperatures, we try to keep it as painless as possible, and remind folks to keep thinking about frosty the snowman and how much we all love Chicago winters, and that in just a few months the ice and snow will return.
Happy summer!
Kate and Brian had a wonderful destination wedding in Cooperstown, New York over the weekend, and here is a sneak peek. Congratulations to the happy couple and thank you for including us in your fun celebration!
© Wedding Creativo Photography
We had a great time last month at Corrinne and Jeremy's wedding. For our featured photo this week we share one of our favorite moments from their day as they practiced their first dance. More pictures from thier wedding will be featured soon, and we'll be back to regular blog posts next week...we've been busy bees and have lots of fun weddings and inspiring ideas to share soon.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
This week we look back to Chris and Melinda's 2007 wedding for our Wedding Photo of the Week. Their wedding was at Willow Harbor Vinyards in Three Oaks, Michigan. It was a beautiful location with acres of open green space, horse barn, vineyards and private lakeside spot for the ceremony. Southwest Michigan has many barns and vineyards available for weddings, but this was one of our favorites. They had lovely and curious flower girls for their bridal party, and also lots of young nieces and nephews in attendance. We love when kids are ate weddings because for us they are fun and always cute as can be! However, we understand some couples and parents, might be apprehensive about including kids. We think the barn, farm or vineyard wedding is the perfect solution. At Willow Harbor the kids all had a lot of fun running around and playing all day. We think regional locations like this are always great for weddings that have lots of children. Outdoor games and fun activities can be set up just for them, so they can go have fun (optimally with older teens or college adults supervising), and then adults can have fun too not hearing their kids complain about being "bored" at the wedding all day.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
You couldn't get more cozy than Trisha and Scott's small wedding held at their home and in their back yard. And oh yeah, their back yard is Chicago's Millennium Park and Grant Park.
We had a great time with this fun-loving couple, and from their first playful moments and all throughout the day, the theme for their wedding was fun fun fun! We admired the bride's "Pippa-esque" gown, vibrant orange and yellow flora, and the groom's navy blue suit with orange striped tie.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
The happy couple escorted each other, arm-in-arm, to their ceremony at the Cancer Survivors Garden in Chicago's Grant Park. This beautiful outdoor area is a gem among Chicago Park District's special event spaces.
There, they met their closest family and friends for what was possibly the smallest wedding gathering we've ever photographed. It was very cute with everyone, including the bride and groom's dogs, circled around the couple while they exchanged vows.
After the kiss, it was hi-fives for all around, and a first dance that literally swept the bride off her feet!
Needless to say, the portrait time for this wedding was very relaxed and accomplished rather quickly, even with different variations with everyone. One of the portraits included everyone attending the wedding ceremony in one group shot!
Then it was off to their private reception at their home, which had absolutely stunning views of the city from their high-rise balcony, where more guests joined the couple for their evening celebration.
The bride changed into a lovely cocktail dress, and nearly committed cake-a-cide! Then after the reception dinner the gang headed out to the after-party at one of their favorite bars.
Congratulations Trisha and Scott, and thanks for showing everyone that even a small wedding can be a big celebration!
We're seeing a lot of chevron patterns lately. This design pattern could make for a bold looking wedding theme.
We made these chevron graphic patterns inspired by spring and summer colors.
This cute chevron invitation was made by Wiley Valentine
We want to congratulate one of our couples, Wendy and Neil, on the birth of their baby girl last week! We were so surprised to find out that they named her Sophia because Giorgio always thought Wendy had a striking resemblance to the famous Italian actress Sophia Loren. Giorgio was fortunate to make a portrait of her years ago (I'll ask him to scan the print and post it here some day). Anyway, he would often refer to Wendy as our "Sophia bride." Maybe you'll agree. This week's featured photo is one of Giorgio's all time favorites, which is of Wendy in the car on the way to the ceremony.
© Wedding Creativo Photography
Today is an important day for many same-sex couples seeking equality under Illinois law. The "Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act," which grants official civil unions for same-sex and opposite-sex couples in this state, goes into effect today June 1, 2011.
Starting today in Illinois, spouses joined in a civil union will now be afforded many of the same benefits and protections as traditionally married couples. Some of the main protections include:
While this is a big step forward, there are several important areas where the new law will fall short for civil union spouses. For better insight into difficulties couples may still face, Wedding Creativo interviewed Catherine D. Battista, an attorney with the Argento Law Group, P.C., a firm providing legal services for marriage contracts and estate financial planning.
Catherine D. Battista, Argento Law Group
Battista said couples entering into civil unions should be informed about legal limitations of the new Illinois law. She pointed out several key areas where civil union spouses will not have the same benefits and protections as traditional married spouses, largely due to differences between Illinois state and federal laws, as well as other individual state laws. Currently, Illinois civil unions will not be recognized by the federal government, which only recognizes traditional marriage as defined by the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Some of the main areas of concern pointed out by Battista include:
· Federal income taxes cannot be filed jointly by IL civil union spouses. Federal filings will need to still be done separately with individuals designated as "single."
· Social security benefits are federal, so they are unavailable for those in civil unions.
· Federal employee benefits and pensions will not be available to partners, even if the spouse is employed at a federal agency in Illinois.
· With regard to property, if someone owns property in another state that does not recognize civil unions, difficulties may arise for same-sex spouses unless they have made special legal arrangements.
· With regard to parental rights and child guardianship there are some areas where couples may be covered under Illinois law, but Battista stated that there are far greater areas for potential problematic concerns. She advises all couples to seek legal advice when entering into a marriage or civil union, but stresses this is especially important when children are involved.
When it comes to actually planning a civil union in Illinois, there is now a legal process for couples. For Chicago area residents, basic information is available on the Cook County civil unions website page. The website for Equality Illinois also has comprehensive information on their Civil Unions page. For the event celebration, there are many vendors in Chicago and across Illinois who welcome business from same-sex couples, including Wedding Creativo. Good online wedding planning resources for civil union celebrations include EngaygedWeddings.com, GayWeddings.com and RainbowWeddingNetwork.com.
It is worthwhile to mention that there may be certain businesses that may not be interested in providing services for civil unions. When we asked Battista about potential concerns regarding access to professional event services, she pointed out that while religious organizations are not bound to anti-discrimination laws (the law specific to sexual orientation anti-discrimination went into effect January 1, 2006 in Illinois), for the most part consumers should be protected by existing state laws. However, since the majority of wedding vendors are small business owners, the laws may be regarded as unduly burdensome in specific cases. So, it is advised to seek out companies that welcome same-sex civil unions.
Because same-sex marriage is still a controversial issue for some citizens in Illinois, it is possible that future legislation in opposition of the new law may arise, so it is important for same-sex couples to stay informed about their rights.
Also, while attention around the new law is being focused on same-sex couples, it is also available to opposite sex couples. Battista said that a civil union may actually be more beneficial for certain opposite-sex couples than a traditional marriage, especially in the case of widowers who are now entering into a new committed relationship.
For more legal information about traditional marriage and civil union planning, couples may contact Catherine Battista directly at (847) 628-8305 or email cat@argentolaw.com. The Argento Law Group office is located in Elgin, IL.
Tomorrow, June 2, many couples are expected to take part in the City of Chicago's civil union ceremony celebration in Millennium Park at 10:00 a.m.
Article written by and © Sarah Toulouse, Wedding Creativo
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.
Here are more fashions inspired by 1940s styles:
 Nina Ricci Pleated Tiered Dress |
 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.
And, for the first dance, consider these wonderful classics from the 1940s:
1. "Only Forever" (1940) - Bing Crosby
2. "Skylark" (1941) - Helen Forrest and Harry James Orchestra
3. "Night and Day" (1942) - Frank Sinatra
4. "I Love You For Sentimental Reasons" (1946) - Nat King Cole
5. "La Vie en Rose" (1946) - Edith Piaf
