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.

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