There’s only one way to describe this next wedding and that is FUN. It’s got so much whimsy and charm, you can’t help but smile from ear to ear. From the amazing stationery adorned with their mottos, Best Day Ever and Let’s Do This to the all white tables and fabulous dessert spread, this wedding gets an A in craftiness. Stoffer Photography snapped up all the pretty and you can see even more right here.
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From the Bride… Rob and I dated for 10 years prior to getting engaged, and we were so thrilled to finally plan our wedding. Right away, we knew we wanted a wedding in Chicago in the fall, and we determined that the venue, food, music and entertainment were the most important aspects of our wedding. It was also really important to us that all of those aspects reflected who we were as a couple. We chose Architectural Artifacts, an amazing antiques warehouse with a large event space, for our ceremony and reception. We fell in love with the quirky and vintage feel, built-in decor, the fact that they had ping pong — very important to us as avid ping pongers — and the space itself was just perfectly laid-out for us and our needs. Soon after booking our venue, we began looking at caterers. We were lucky that the venue allowed us to select from a large list of caterers and we ended up selecting Hearty Boys, whose specialty is upscale southern cuisine. We loved their southern comfort vibe and were able to create our dream menu including chicken and waffle skewers and late night sweet potato tots.
Next up was dress shopping, which actually ended up changing a lot of our plans. I had thought I would be in lace and that our wedding would have a rustic vibe, but I found a silk Winnie Couture gown that I fell in love with that took us in a more vintage glam direction. We decided on silver, gold, blush and ivory for our colors. Next, we figured out our save the dates and invites. Our close friend, who owns Dolce Designs, created the perfect design for each of our paper pieces. We decided on a vintage typewriter for our guestbook and connected the typewriter theme into all of our paper pieces. We decided that our theme for the day would be “Best Day Ever” because we truly felt that it was going to be our best day ever! We incorporated that theme into our save the dates, invites, bunting, flags and chalkboard sign. We collected mercury glass for our centerpieces and vintage frames for our signs and photo area. Rob created our R&J glittered marquee letters, and we made bunting for our sweets table, over the ceremony spot and on our sweetheart table. We chose not to have a bridal party, so we made two bulletin boards for our best friends to show our love. We put together several photo albums of us and our loved ones from over the past 10 years. We also put together framed photos of us — one from each year we dated and added some of our favorite love quotes in our typewriter font. We made glitter frames for our seating info. We picked out our favorite craft beers and sodas for our favors and stamped tags that said “Love&Hugs” and “Thank You” and tied them with ivory and gold yarn. We had a photo booth with costumes that got a lot of use. Later in the night, I had a surprise for Rob — a Klezmer band to teach us some traditional Jewish wedding dances. It was such a great moment and so much fun! It was the best day we could ask for.
Our favorite part of the planning process was putting together our playlist — we chose not to have a DJ and so we wanted to make sure that our iPod playlist could keep the dancing going all night. We got so many compliments, and we were so happy with how it turned out. My favorite part of the day was exchanging our personal vows in front of all of our loved ones. Advice for other couples: take the time to figure out what would make it your best day ever!
Wedding Photography: Stoffer Photography / Wedding Venue: Architectural Artifacts in Chicago, Illinois / Floral Design: Dilly Lily / Catering: Hearty Boys / Wedding Invitations: Dolce Designs / Photo Booth: The Traveling Photo Booth / Wedding Dress: Winnie Couture / Invitations: Dolce Designs