A crazy romantic meets industrial wedding overflowing with some of the most thoughtful details you will ever see: loves, meet my happy place. From the fab invitations designed by the beautiful bride to the breathtaking images captured by Sean Cook to the non-stop dance party with Toast and Jam. Head to The Vault for every awesome moment, then click play on the sweet film from Foster Light Studios.
[iframe http://www.youtube.com/embed/l4nXKIkrfh4 600 338]
From The Bride… David and I met in the summer of 2008, both working as designers at an advertising agency in Chicago. By that October (10/10 to be exact), our friendship was something more… and five amazing years later, David proposed at an orchard on a crisp October day— in honor of my love all things Fall and in celebration of when our relationship first began. So a Fall wedding the following October was only fitting… and we were married on our exact sixth year anniversary in a bright and airy industrial loft space in Chicago.
Our biggest desire for our wedding day was to create intimate memories and an extremely joyful celebration for ourselves and our guests that felt uniquely “us.” We asked two of our best friends, old coworkers where David and I first met that have known us since day one of our relationship, to marry us with a ceremony that we all wrote together that truly captured the beauty of our relationship. An intimate warming of the rings was followed by poetry from our favorite author, Pablo Neruda, read in English and Spanish to honor David’s Mexican heritage. Standing beside amazing friends, family, and our adorable dog and co-flower girl, Bananas, we recited vows we each wrote for each other as a violinist played Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” softly in the background. After the emotional ceremony, we walked down the aisle as husband and wife as the string duet played Tears for Fears’ “Head Over Heels.” Guests were immediately greeted by a live Mariachi band for an outdoor cocktail hour before a reception of delicious traditional Mexican fare, ombre wedding cake, Portraitbooth fun and nonstop dancing until the lights came on.
The entire day was made up of irreplaceable moments and intimate details. Being art directors at our day jobs in advertising, as well as running my own design company, Sugar & Gold, that specializes in events, design, and decor, David and I are constantly surrounded by design. And we know that true design is only as beautiful as the meaning behind it. So it was important for us to bring meaning in all of the little details that made up the visual richness and backdrop of our wedding. All while staying within budget… not an easy task, but we were up for the challenge.
One of the most important design elements was the official invitation… and after designing for other brides in the past, I was thrilled to finally get to design my own! It featured a custom monogram that I created with our initials E and D that took on the shape of a heart, and this element was used throughout all of our wedding stationery… including on post-ceremony pieces where our last initial “V” was added to frame the bottom of the heart. A custom accordion fold enclosure, which featured photography that I took of dozens of gorgeous peonies and Juliet roses, held blush and gold foil invitations that we designed.
On the day itself, including influences and wedding traditions from my Italian heritage and David’s Mexican culture in small ways was very important to us. Since Vaca (my husband’s last name) means cow in spanish, we had subtle hints to this around the wedding including a golden mini cow. We chose signature cocktails to also reflect our cultures — “The Emillini” (a traditional peach bellini) and “The Vacarita” (David’s custom margarita)— which complimented the mini Limoncello favors that we bottled. The sweets bar offered Italian wedding cookies made by the mother of one of my bridesmaids from a custom family recipe, as well as traditional Mexican wedding cookies that David’s mother made. The centerpieces consisted of oversized paper flowers, a nod to tissue paper flowers of Mexican culture, that sat on custom stands we built. We handcrafted over 70 paper peonies and garden roses (with the help of so many amazing friends) from florist crepe paper and gold painted paper leaves. Seating assignments and table numbers resembled papel picado (Mexican white paper flags traditional at weddings) with a custom cut pattern that we designed, which also played into a custom gold bar overlay we built that featured a V shape for our name. Other elements we handcrafted included a custom brass facet that held our rings, plaster flowers used as the cake topper, painted cake and entry tables, and glitter dipped bridal shoes and cathedral lace veil. For our guest book, we cut a slit in one of seven the giant faceted pinatas that we built for our save the date photo shoot, so that guests could slip in a note for us to read on our first anniversary when we break it open to celebrate.
The only way we were able to achieve any of this for our wedding meant doing everything ourselves that we could and, more importantly, enlisting in the amazing help of our wonderful family, wedding party, and friends. In fact, one of my coworkers and good friends, was the day-of coordinator, and she took care of every detail seamlessly so that we could simply enjoy every second of the day without stressing. It truly took a village to make our wedding as wonderful as it was, and we could not have done it without the countless hours that everyone gave us to make it happen. And we are so grateful that we found such an amazingly talented photographer and videographer that were able to craft such stunning images reflecting all of those candid moment and loving details… each frame they captured means to world to us and will just as much when we look through them and relive every moment 30 years from now.
Photography: Sean Cook Wedding Photography | Cinematography: Foster Light Studios | Coordination: Amanda Masson | Event Design: Sugar & Gold | Floral Design: Life In Bloom | Wedding Dress: Tulle New York | Cakes: Luscious Layers Bakery | Invitations: Sugar & Gold | Catering: Cocina Fusion | Hair & Makeup: Tamara Makeup + Hair Artistry | Band: Mariachi Monumental | Ceremony Music: Stephanie Young & Fretless Music | Hotel: Public Hotel | Venue: Prairie Productions | Photo Booth: The Portraitbooth Co. | Reception Music: Toast and Jam | Taco Truck: La Adelita | Trolley: Windy City Trolley