"You pick a color, I'll pick a color." Planning a wedding can be as sweet and simple as sticking to your favorites. That's exactly what this lovable couple did for their wedding by Jennifer Shaffer Photography. I mean, it doesn't get cuter than using a homemade drawing as your wedding logo! Head to the full gallery where every photo is a must see.
DIY Chicago Wedding from Jennifer Shaffer Photography
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From the Bride... When Dave and I dreamed of our wedding day, we wanted it full of joy, playfulness and celebration as we brought together all the family and friends we love to celebrate our love and commitment. So we started with the things we both love and enjoyed in our two years of dating: God, breakfast, books, games, tea, crafts and the colors blue (for Dave) and purple (for me). Our ceremony and reception were at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago where Dave and I met. We loved putting together the rituals, words and images of our wedding ceremony to root our love and commitment in God’s love for us.
Our first date was breakfast before Dave walked me to class, so we couldn’t resist getting one of our favorite Chicago breakfast places, Ann Sather’s, to cater our brunch reception. For entertainment we had dancing (lots of two-stepping), a tea bar with our favorite teas, games, a craft table and pictures from our childhood. To my crafting delight, we filled our day with personal DIY touches. It started with Dave’s idea to incorporate the pictures we like to draw of each other into our invitation. The homemade drawing became our wedding logo and was incorporated into the invitations, party favors (hand-tied tea bags of our favorite teas in homemade recipe card packets), our service bulletin and our cake topper on top of the delicious and beautiful cake Bulldog Bakery made for us. Pinterest was great for getting my creativity flowing. For centerpieces, we used recycled jars covered with lace and ribbon. We filled them with flowers from the Chicago Flower Exchange, a local wholesale florist who came to the rescue when the bulk flowers I ordered online were caught in customs (something about an insect that needed to be inspected!). We left our ceremony flowers to the professionals at Cornell Florist, a local flower shop in Hyde Park that did an amazing job putting together lavender roses, hydrangea and stephanotis. For an added personal touch, I wound my bouquet with ribbons, lace and a picture of my mom who passed away so she was never far from me on that special day.
As the reception was in the library, we went with a book theme with hand-stamped book bindings designating the table numbers, and we used the card catalog for escort cards. Dave loves quilts and I love fabric of any kind, so we tied the napkins with different calico prints, had our guests sign pieces of fabric for a quilt instead of a traditional guest book and hung fabric throughout the room. Amazingly generous friends of mine worked for hours to make the hundreds of tissue paper balls, à la Martha Stewart, that hung from the ceiling. It all came to together for one memorable day that went way too fast. Thankfully Jennifer Shaffer, our wonderful and personable photographer, captured the day beautifully so we can relive it over and over again!
Wedding Photography: Jennifer Shaffer Photography / Wedding Venue: The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in Chicago, Illinois / Ceremony Flowers: Cornell Florist / Reception Flowers: Chicago Flower Exchange + DIY Arranging / Catering: Ann Sather's / Wedding Cake: Bulldog Bakery / Wedding Invitations, Place Cards + Reception Signs: DIY with Paper from Paper Source / Save-the-Dates: DIY / Linens: Party Linens / Wedding Dress: Allure Bridals via Eva’s Bridals of Oak Lawn / Bride's Jewelry: Premier Designs + Flea Markets / Hair + Makeup: Appease / Bridesmaids' Dresses: J.Crew + Dillard’s / Flower Girls' Dresses: David’s Bridal / Men's Attire: Black Tie Formalwear