I can see why the bride used her bouquet by Wallflower Designs as inspiration for her entire wedding day. It’s exquisite, which is exactly what this entire wedding by Stacy Able Photography is. Everything, from the The Baking Institute cake to the stunning DIY stationary, is dressed head to toe in fabulousness. Heading over to the full gallery is a must!
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From the Bride… Erik and I wed on July 20th, 2012 at Cantigny in Wheaton, Illinois, which is a suburb located just outside of Chicago. Even though we currently reside in Los Angeles, it was extremely important for us to have our wedding in Chicago as we both grew up in the Midwest and because of our mutual love of the Chicago Bears, which is the reason we met. That’s right — Bear Down.
Erik and I spent two years planning our wedding with the most important goal being that it felt like “us.” We decided on a vintage theme with my bouquet providing the inspiration for the various details of the day. The bridesmaids were each able to pick their gowns based on the colors of the dahlias, garden roses, and Billy balls designed by Marla Johnstone of Wallflower Designs. The guest tables were personalized with ball jars painted turquoise to add a pop of color along with floating candles to add ambiance and wildflowers to add simplicity. Rather than traditional table numbers, Erik and I opted to use vintage-looking notebooks so that each of our guests could write a special message to us, to be read only on the anniversary corresponding to the number on the notebook. The vintage theme was carried over to the place card holders, which were made out of wine corks happily collected by Erik, me and our fabulous friends.
The credit for the location has to go to Erik’s mom, who insisted that we make Cantigny our first stop as she and Erik’s father had been going there for years. Our ceremony was held in front of the Rock Garden, which provided the perfect backdrop of blossoming summer flowers and lush greenery. The Red Oak Room offered the perfect venue for our reception as it was spacious, yet intimate, with glass windows providing sunset views of the water and gorgeous Cantigny grounds. Perhaps the biggest hit of the night was the photo booth provided by Sounds Abound, which also served as guests’ party favors. Not only did guests enjoy putting on silly hats and posing for the camera, but Erik and I now have priceless photographs of our day that we can cherish along with our professional shots.
Erik and I already knew we had selected the best people to help us plan and execute our day, but each and every one of them exceeded our expectations. This was by far the most important day in our lives, and I truly felt like it was just as important to each of them, so THANK YOU! We would also like to say a huge thank you to our amazing wedding photographer, Stacy Able, who captured the day perfectly, was an absolute pleasure to work with and created beautiful unique portraits of our day.
Wedding Photography: Stacy Able Photography / Wedding Venue: Cantigny in Wheaton, Illinois / Floral Design: Marla Johnstone of Wallflower Designs / Wedding Cake: The Baking Institute / Wedding Invitations: Designed by the Bride & Groom + Graphics by Roman Simmons (A Friend) / DJ + Photo Booth: Kyle Overbey of Sounds Abound / Wedding Dress + Veil: Pronovias via Amore Today’s Bridal-N-Fashion / Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka / Bride’s Garter: Emily Riggs Bridal / Makeup: Laura Black / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: BHLDN, Ann Taylor + Anthropologie / Men’s Attire: Men’s Wearhouse / Rings: Robbins Brothers