Dawn and Peter [2] The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel, Illinois Wedding planning/reception venue-
After getting married at the beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple (Oak Park, IL) we did some photos around the Temple. Love the one below!
Another favorite 🙂
Reception Site – The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel (Oak Park, IL)
Gorgeous staircase inside the Hotel.
Dawn’s hair looked beautiful.
Hair – James Anthony Salon (River Forest, IL)
Flowers – Paradise Flowers (Chicago, IL)
I love the way Pete’s looking at Dawn during their first dance…sigh…
DJ – Toast & Jam (Chicago, IL)
This was the best idea, and a huge hit; a late night snack of S’mores.
From the Bride…
“Dress – Mori Lee purchased at Kasia’s Bridal (Chicago, IL) http://www.kasiasbridal.com/ || Tuxes – Black Tie Formalwear (Chicago, IL) http://www.blacktietuxes.com/ || Cake – Oak Mill Bakery http://oakmillbakery.com/ || Dawn’s Shoes – Heels – Brynn by Nina in New Navy; Flip Flops – Serenity Metallic Sandals by Coach in Silver || Ceremony Site – Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple (Oak Park, IL) http://www.unitytemple-utrf.org/ || Reception Site – The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel (Oak Park, IL) http://www.carletonhotel.com/ || Photobooth – MJ Photo Booth http://www.mjphotobooth.com/ || Hair – James Anthony Salon (River Forest, IL) http://www.jamesanthonysalon.com Laura is amazing!
Make-up – Dori Mae Makeup http://www.dorimaemakeup.com/ I am very thankful that I found Dori through Hilda. Makeup is not my thing and it honestly makes me a little nervous. I can sum up how I feel about Dori’s work with one word. LOVE!!!
Rings – Flaherty Jewelers (Arlington Heights, IL) http://flahertyjewelers.com/ We loved our jewelers. They were incredibly accommodating and went out of their way to make sure we were able to get the perfect rings. They even made a custom mold for my wedding band after they found out they couldn’t get the one I wanted in the correct precious metal. We highly recommend working with them.
Flowers – Paradise Flowers (Chicago, IL) – Perfect!! Seriously, there is no better word to describe the beautiful flowers that Beata created for our wedding. I loved them so much. The colors and combination of flowers couldn’t have been done better. Beata was a joy to work with and she interpreted my scattered thoughts and comments so perfectly.
Ceremony Music – Moeller Music http://www.moellermusic.com/ Pete really wanted guitar music during our wedding ceremony. We found Kerena and Paul Moeller’s website while searching on the Knot. The samples of their guitar and cello duo were so hauntingly beautiful we immediately decided that we needed to book them. They are incredible musicians and we could have listened to them play for hours.
DJ – Toast & Jam (Chicago, IL) http://www.toastandjamdjs.com/ There were two decisions in our wedding planning that were incredibly easy. The second easiest was our DJ. After going to a friends wedding in 2011, we knew that Toast & Jam was exactly what we wanted. Rachel & Kate did an awesome job of following the mood of our reception and they certainly kept us dancing all night long!
Late night snack – That’s A S’More http://www.thatsasmore.com/ – We had them come in and do a late night snack of S’mores for our guests. They were a HUGE hit. Everything was very tasty and the service was AWESOME both before and during. HIGHLY recommended.
Officiant – Bruce Otto – Spirited Weddings http://spiritedweddings.com/ – We stumbled across Bruce on The Knot. In short, we loved working with him. Bruce made it so easy for us to create a ceremony that was exactly us and his Homily was perfect. He listened to what we wanted and made the day go so smoothly.
Photographer – Angel Eyes Photography – Hilda and Carol are INCREDIBLE. The absolute easiest decision we made for our wedding was choosing to work with Hilda. She had done one of my cousin’s weddings in the Spring of 2011 and from the minute I saw her photos I was sold. From her help with planning & schedules, to her recommendations on vendors, to the little things she just took care of for us during the day of the wedding, she made the whole experience so much easier for me (and by extension Pete). And that doesn’t even touch on her incredible eye for detail, the way she uses light in her photography. It’s pure art. And without Carol I have no idea how we would have gotten kids corralled and bows tied and group pictures taken. They are a perfect team. We’ve loved everything we’ve seen so far and can’t wait to see the rest. Thank you so much to both of you for everything! Words can’t express our gratitude properly.
From Pete – Two memories stand out for me. The first was watching Dawn walk up the stairs the first time. That was the moment I felt like the whole process was worth every moment and disagreement and penny spent. The other was standing next to Dawn before we walked into the reception for our intro. Dawn was soooo excited and beaming. I knew then that I was perfectly happy.
From Dawn – The day went by so fast. Sometimes I feel like I blinked and it was all over. We did try our best to just enjoy it and because of that I have so many wonderful memories to keep with me. I think the one that stands out the most to me was right after the ceremony. At a friend’s suggestion, Pete and I decided to go back into the Bridal Room at the church and spend a few moments all by ourselves before the craziness of the rest of the day took over. I very clearly remember dragging him into that room and closing out the world and just looking at my new husband and feeling so lucky and blessed and loved and happy. It was a perfect moment and I am so thankful that we were able to share it with each other.”
