Archive for 2010

So you already know that Elizabeth & Mike got married.  And that it was glorious.  But you need details!  And pictures!  And fluffy clouds and rainbows!  So here you go....

Jim and Lise tied the knot in September of 2010 at Garfield Park Conservatory. 

Well hello there. Meet Mike and Elizabeth:

It's true: it was an enormous party, filled with massive amounts of dancing and lots and lots of revelry. Maureen and Bill were married in September at Holy Name Cathedral and the giant party ensued at the Chicago History Museum. It was pretty hilarious to hear the catering team talk about the massive amounts of booze this party drank. You know when you can shock a catering staff that does an event every single night with the magnitude with which you ccan party, you are doing pretty well.

Maureen has an extremely intense job and yet, managed to put together this wedding at the same time. She told that she and Bill were some of the firsts in their group of friends to marry, so she really had to do a ton of research on her own. 

 

Also, I failed to mention that Annie and Jared's wedding was made famous by the gorgeous blog, Green Wedding Shoes. Check it out!

Amy and Eugene were married in July at The James Hotel in Chicago.

Ilena and Jack were married in Jack's parents backyard in June of 2010.

Melissa and Alan were married at Hotel Orrington in Evanston, Illinois in April 2010. Firstly, they planned this shindig all the way from New York. Secondly, it was fabulous. They are both so calm and down-to-earth, you would have thought they got married every weekend.

Kevin Weinstein and his team took some gorgeous shots of Melissa, Alan and their bridal party getting ready along with some beautiful and unexpected detail shots (which as a planner, I wholeheartedly love).

Pam and Aaren tied the knot in April at the Lilydale First Baptist Church and then celebrated with friends and family at the International House on the University of Chicago campus. Fitting, for a relationship that began while they were both attending school there!

I have to potentially embarrass Aaren here and mention was a stinking sweetheart he is. 99.9% of the time, I get calls and emails from the bride and then continue to have a lot of contact with the bride throughout the planning process. It seems the groom usually takes on the music, the food or the ever-important bar selection. Most of the grooms I’ve worked with have certainly been involved in the planning and invested in seeing the day come together, but for some odd reason, creating time lines and vendor lists and floor plans with a day-of coordinator usually falls to the bride. But not Aaren.

Felisa and Matt got hitched in April at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and then partied the night away at Architectural Artifacts. Felisa and Matt met at Lollapalooza (which is awesome) and working with them was such a pleasure.

I've been busy! But I'm back with lots to share. Three AE weddings in April to blog about, two weddings of dear friends in May to attend, a save-the-date design and creation to share and some upgrades to the websitehave been taking up most of my time recently. Soon the website will be transferred to a smarter, faster and better platform (they tell me) so get excited for many more bells and whistles to come. In the mean time, fun reading ahead. Stay tuned.

Check out Chicago Style Unveiled to see the awesome "real Chicago wedding" featuring Dan & Laura, their kick-ass wedding and me!

 

Happy Monday! I hope this cake-spiration will ease your Monday-blues. A few of my very favorites from my archives.

This one is so intricate and beautiful without being over the top. Black and white is always classy:

This sweet, sweet baby shower took place in Omaha, Nebraska at a private residence in November of 2009. The parents-to-be were waiting until their little one arrived to find out if it was a girl or a boy so the color palette was orange, yellow and green so it would be fantastically gender neutral. They decided to use animals for the nursery so I jumped on board with that for the invitations!

I got craft paper cards and envelopes and a big pack of animal-themed scrapbook paper along with a giraffe stamp and some ribbon to create these. I just used some green, orange and yellow paper that was part of the paper pack to stamp and emboss the giraffe on, rounded the corners and used colorful brads to attach them to the front of the invite so it would have some motion. When it was all done, I tied a variety of yellow, green and orange striped and polka-dotted ribbons to close it at the side.

le front

I got invited to attend an event at Willow Creek Church in Barrington this past weekend. Three times a year they host "Once Upon a Wedding" and invite couples who have reserved a date to get married at the church or who are thinking about getting married there to attend. They pull out all of the decorations they have available and have their volunteer wedding coordinators there to answer questions and show them around. I made a few things to give to the couples to go along with my business cards. I think they are great. I hope you do to.

(a little "brochure" that has information on all of the packages AE offers)


(i made stickers for the bottom of a bunch of hershey's kisses and then tied them up in bags)


(the whole pile of happy little goodies waiting to be taken to their new homes)

Laura and Dan got married in October at Salvage One in Chicago. If you have never been there before, you should check it out. They describe themselves best, so I'm not going to mess it up: "We save architectural elements from the wrecking ball. We work to preserve and pass on our history. We have been helping our customers breathe new life into salvaged materials for nearly 30 years. We aim to take salvage further by working with you to add creativity and style to your space. Our store is over 60,000 square feet full of materials and design ideas on four floors. We have a full work shop to do custom work, and a yard full of garden and landscaping ideas." But it's also a wicked-cool place to have your wedding, but you better have a little bad-ass in you.

Julia and Dave got married at the Byron Colby Barn in Greyslake in September. It rained so hard the night of the rehearsal that it took me three hours to drive from the city to the rehearsal at Dave's parents house in Crystal Lake. It was not looking good for their outdoor ceremony at the barn.

Let me pause this recap for a moment to just say that Julia is likely one of the craftiest brides I have ever met.

This is Julia.

I am loving the idea of using raw cotton poofs for anything and everything in your wedding. This bride and groom used it in their decor, flowers and so much more.

Saw this today and I love it. Anything travel/map inspired is right up my alley. This would likely be something you could recreate on your own with a family cookie recipe, a stencil of the globe and gobs of patience.

source

ashley and bryan got married in august in peoria. i had never been to peoria until i drove down for their big day but i was charmed with how quaint the city centre was. it was also really easy to walk park and forth between their ceremony site, sacred heart church and the holiday inn city centre where they held their reception. also, parking was just a dream. but i digress. the good stuff, that's what you came for right? let's begin then, shall we?

now that the proverbial ball is rolling with getting ae off the ground and running i wanted to start a little blog to be a big, ol' show-off and brag about the awesomely awesome weddings/parties/showers/tuesday nights that ae was honored to be a part of. what? coordinating my tuesday nights don't count? come on...

so, welcome to the blog to end all blogs. i plan on catching up on the 2009 ae events in the next few weeks. stay tuned for:

ashley + bryan throw down in peoria

julia + dave put every single DIY wedding in the universe to shame

laura + dan tango among eclectic antiques

amy prepares for a little one

laura + dan* and their rowdy crowd bring us sweet home, chicago

it's been six months since we've been in business and with dates booking up in 2010 we are thrilled to know that we've only just begun!

* two laura + dan's in a row. out of four weddings, half are laura + dan's. interesting, no? an omen my friends, a good sign indeed.