I could go on and on about the design of this day. The rich, jewel-tone color palette. The beautiful Chicago setting. The Rosa Clara dress with an Old Hollywood vibe. But what really, really gets me? The love story behind it all. I’m talking childhood friends who were reacquainted as adults and married in the city near and dear to their hearts. Art of Imagination provided the ceremony backdrop at The Langham, Chicago, the bride planned every detail, and Clary Pfeiffer shot the unforgettable gallery. Pssst: the film below from Amor in Motion is everything.
[iframe https://player.vimeo.com/video/155767440?color=dedede 600 338]
From The Bride… Sometimes I still cannot believe how absolutely perfect our wedding day was. From the vibrant jewel tone flowers to being surrounded by so many friends and family, our day felt like a fairytale. Our day came together even better than I could have imagined thanks to the talented vendors that we worked with. As we reminisce (often) about the many wonderful moments it is so hard to pick favorites.
One of my favorite moments was seeing my dad for the first time. There were some challenges with my dress prior to our wedding day so finally getting to put it on and feel like a bride was such a special moment. My dad was one of the first people that I saw and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. He walked in, looked at me and with a huge grin on his face said “magnificent.” I’ll never forget that moment.
My mother-in-law always makes a point to recognize when moments happen that aren’t planned. One of my other favorites on our day was one of those unplanned moments. When we walked out to the Chicago Riverwalk to start taking pictures there were a 4 men playing some street music. All of a sudden they started playing songs like “At Last” for us which prompted Kevin and I to brush up on our dancing skills before our official first dance later that night. Kevin and I are both born and raised Chicago and live only a quarter mile from where we got married so it was such a sweet moment to dance on the streets of where our love story began, just the two of us, before the chaos of the day really began.
When we started having conversations about our wedding ceremony Kevin felt strongly about writing our own vows. I’m a crier at almost anything so I didn’t trust myself to be able to speak or receive Kevin’s promises without being a huge puddle but I agreed to write our own because I thought maybe the adrenaline of that day would allow me to keep it together. I cannot believe that at one point I didn’t want to write our own vows. We agreed on the word count and then never talked about them until we shared them with each other. I’m still shocked at how perfect our promises fit together. Getting to stand before Kevin and our community, I got to promise my heart, my support and my life to him. And I got to receive similar but different promises from Kevin. Hands down, the best.
Kevin and I have actually known each other our entire lives. When our moms were twenty somethings they lived in Chicago and ended up working together which started a life long friendship between our two families. When we were kids our families would go on vacations to Disney World and the Rocky Mountains together. Kevin just felt like another older brother.
But the story gets weirder. Three years ago, right around this time, my brother was three months from getting married to my mom’s other best friend’s daughter. Yes, it sounds made up but it’s real. I’ve known my husband and my sister in law my entire life thanks to my mom. I had just gotten out of a serious relationship and didn’t have a date to the wedding. One afternoon I was sitting in the Fort Meyers airport with Kevin’s mom waiting to fly back to Chicago together and she mentioned I should take Kevin to the wedding. She noted that he’d already be there, he’s good friends with my brother, he’d be a great date, he’d dance with me and tell me I looked pretty but there would be no expectation at all. That sounded perfect. I picked up the phone two weeks later and invited him as my date.
As we danced the night away together at my brother’s wedding, it was the first time that we ever spent time together as adults and we realized there might be something else there besides just being close family friends. I like to joke with Kevin that it was the beginning of the end. But it really was the beginning of the best “beginning” – us together. The rest of that summer we spent lots of time together trying to figure out what we were and eventually realized that we didn’t want to do life with out each other. A year and a half later, Kevin proposed on a Tuesday night over a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne and frozen pizza in my little one bedroom apartment and made our close family friends officially family.
Photography: Clary Pfeiffer Photography | Cinematography: Amor In Motion | Videography : Amor In Motion | Coordination: Estera Events | Floral Design: Fleur Inc | Wedding Dress: Rosa Clara | Bride's Shoes: Ted Baker | Hair + Makeup: Nika Vaughan Bridal Artists | Band: Skyline | Venue: Langham | Ceremony Backdrop: Art of Imagination | Cocktail Hour Music: Chicago Children's Choir Alumni | Wedding Dresser: The Wedding Dresser
