Friday, July 30, 2010

Weddings That Will Never Be: Chicagoland

I do not now nor have I ever had any desire to get married in Chicago.  Believe me, there would be a lot of people out there who would LOVE it if I did.  Of course, my side of the family would have the opposite reaction, and many if not most of my friends would not be able to afford to come.  Even if that wasn't an issue, California is my home and that is where I most want to get married.

But as I live here at the moment and have done most of my planning in Chicago, including fun extras like bridal expos, dress shopping, and cake tastings, I have a decent idea of what Chicago offers in terms of weddings.  And if I was going to get married here, this is what it would look like.

Location:  I would pretty much plan to get married in my own backyard.  You see, I live right across the street from Lake Michigan, and I would want to have my wedding there anyway!

(Sorry about the crappy quality of the pictures btw, I did not pick a very good day to take them.  I swear it is actually sunny here during the summer most of the time!)


Cool building, huh?  It's very deceptive though because you can't actually go inside (unless you're just looking for a restroom).  However, it would make a nice entryway out to the real ceremony area.


Walking through this archway, guests would be met with this view:


And they would walk down to this ceremony location:




All right, I probably wouldn't do the ceremony at that exact spot because the steps are a little weird there, but you get the idea.  It's in the park, and these steps run for miles along the lake.  It would give us the "ocean view" that I really want minus the actual ocean part, and I'm sure we could cheaply obtain a permit to have the ceremony here from the city.  Have to have guards to keep bystanders away, but eh, that's cool.  We'd also have to put down big-ass pieces of fabric or something for people to sit on, but I'm sure we could work it out.

Here's an idea of what the steps we could actual use look like:


After the ceremony, we would lead a short procession back to our apartment building for the reception!  Seriously, it's a 15-minute walk at most (I usually do it in 10).

Our apartment building has an awesome roof deck that would be just about the right size for the reception:



I already know our landlord will rent this space to largeish parties for $5/person, and I'm sure they would let us rent it out for our wedding as long as we kept the noise down and cleaned up afterward.  There would some issues like the fact that you have to climb the last flight of stairs to get up here, but I'm sure we could make it work.  And when it comes down to it, it's all about the view:


You know, now that I think about it, this wedding definitely would not suck.  In fact, it's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for view-wise in CA, minus the actual ocean part.......hmm.......oh well.  Anyway, we could easily do the ceremony and the reception on our roof which might actually be preferable anyway.  It'd be casual for sure, but the view would be SO AWESOME.

Food:  Mmm, food.  Well, we would definitely want to get our cake from Bittersweet.  And while we'd probably look into other options as well, I think both of us would lean toward El Mariachi for our catering company.  As a Southern California native, I have high expectations for my Mexican food, and it's been pretty hit or miss here in Chicago.  But OMG, El Mariachi is some of the best Mexican food I've ever had, especially the homemade chips.  Mmmm, maybe I should go there for dinner....And it's super close to us, so catering would be easy.  And for alcohol?  Trader Joe's baby!  I'd be getting me cases of 2 Buck Chuck!  Woo!  Haha, without restrictions on the alcohol from a venue, I'd rather go cheap because I just don't care that much.  I don't want a bunch of drunk people at my wedding, and while I love cocktails, I probably won't drink much, so I don't really care.  Daniel will want beer of some sort.  And for champagne, I'm all about the Andre (I know, I know, I'm super lame, but I seriously like it better than even real champagne).

Photography:  OK, not thinking about money here, so Timothy Whaley has been my Chicago fave.  Alternatively, my friend Lauren takes really nice pictures, and I've thought about asking her to do our wedding anyway, but this way I wouldn't have to pay for her to get to California.

Either way, Lauren and I already scoped out a location that would be awesome for "just us" shots and is also right next to our apartment!


I love this woodsy area and would love to get shots of Daniel and me here even without the wedding part.

Music:  100% homespun.  Read:  my laptop.  That's what I want to do anyway.  All we'd have to do is rent speakers.

Wow, you know, this really would be an awesome wedding.  Eh, oh well, we're leaving in a month anyway.

*All photos taken by me except for the ones I already said were taken by Lauren.

Is there a place you know well and could plan an awesome impromptu wedding in?  Heck, is that what most of you are doing (minus the impromptu part)?

1 comment:

  1. Oooo! Awesome! I love your roof deck, imagine all the things you could do with it! It sounds like it would all be really great!

    ReplyDelete

Classy Wedding by the Sea