Sunday, September 27, 2009

Wedding at Wicker Park Lutheran Church

David and Janeen were married on Saturday, September 26 at Wicker Park Lutheran Church, located at 1502 N. Hoyne Avenue in Chicago. In my experience it is unusual for a church to let an outside minister conduct a wedding in their church but this church just did just that. In fact I never did meet or talk to anyone from the church. The building was open and prepared when I arrived for the rehearsal and the wedding itself. It's a lovely old church and for couples looking to be married in a church with no apparent strings attached I would highly recommend Wicker Park Lutheran, their telephone number is 773.276.0263.

Music was provided by Thomas Yang, executive director of Chicago Musical Connection, a string quartet that was just wonderful to work with and did a truly outstanding job. There is no email or web page information on his business card but you can reach Thomas at 847.256.6610. I Googled him and there was a long listing of articles about this well known and respected musician.

A great venue, wonderful music and a memorable wedding for Janeen and David

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Prairie Production

This was my second wedding at Prairie Production which seems to have become a very popular venue.There is a good photo of the space on the website and as I walked in I was struck with the fact that it looked entirely different than it did at the last wedding I conducted there.

After the ceremony I met Michael Roberts who owns the space and was also the photographer for the wedding. He hosts private events in there and also uses it as a daylight studio for photos.

EventCreative was the caterer and I suspect, based on their website they were also the florist and did the room decor. It was very impressive.

It's always a pleasure to work with Fig Media, this week Megan Taylor was the Deejay. The room presented some challenges for her but she was right on top of it and did a great job. She was also a huge help to me when the musicians performing the processional and recessional started the recessional before the ceremony was over. Megan responded quickly and saved the day and part of the ceremony.

If you are looking for a venue that's like a blank canvas because you want to do some creative decorating be sure to check out Prairie Production.

Trisha and Stephen chose not to hire a wedding planner or coordinator and not to have a rehearsal so I was happy I could step in and coordinate the ceremony for them. We had worked through ahead of time some tricky seating arrangements for family members as well as all the other pre-ceremony details like the seating order of grandparents and parents, order of the processional and how the groom, groomsmen and brides maids would process it. I think the entire ceremony came together well and Stephen and Trisha were please.


Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Park Hyatt Weddings

Lori Stephenson of Lola Event Productions served as the coordinator for Pari and Edward wedding last month at the Park Hyatt, 800 North Michigan Avenue. I always enjoy working with Lori and her clients are always well served.

A week before Eugenia and Myat were also married at the Park Hyatt. Darcey Lohman from Big City Bride was the coordinator. This was my second wedding with Darcey and she was a life saver for me.

Both weddings were in the same room but the set up was entirely different for each one. It is a great credit to the hotel, the planners and florists that they can make the same room look so different.

The contact at the the Park Hyatt was Virginie Bishop, vbishop@hyatt.com and Maria Farrell, maria.farrell@hyatt.com. Virginie was there for the rehearsal and she and the other staff were most helpful on the day of the wedding.

The hotel offers the couple two complimentary nights at any Park Hyatt or Hyatt Resort worldwide when their wedding is at Park Hyatt Chicago. That seems like a very nice perk.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Swissotel Chicago

I have conducted several weddings at Swissotel Chicago but they have been two levels down from the street entrance in the Alpine Room. Shawna and Robert's wedding was on the 43 floor and had magnificent views of the city and the room worked perfectly for their 100 guests. After the wedding the guests adjourned to an adjacent room for the cocktail hour and the hotel staff set up the room where the wedding had been for the dinner.

Erik Friedly aka, dj erik, from Fig Media was the DJ and Billy Rood, also from Fig Media was the photographer. These guys were great to work with.

Budi Tanzil, director of catering at the hotel was very helpful with the multitude of last minute details. Budi can be contacted at

budi.tanzil@swissotel.com

Monday, September 7, 2009

Trees Studios

Monica and Frank were married on Friday of Labor Day weekend in the Courtyard of Trees Studios. It had been almost a year since my last wedding at Trees Studio and it was good to be back. Be sure to check out the web site, it has some great photos of the courtyard set up for several different weddings.

Donna Albertson, is the director of marketing and special events for Tress Studios and she was as helpful and wonderful to work with as I remembered. Donna was joined by Lauren Knuepfer, from LK Events who was Monica and Frank's coordinator. Donna and Lauren were a great team and made my job very easy and enjoyable.

You can contact Donna at The Ivy Room at Tree Studios, 12 E. Ohio, Chicago, IL 60611, 312.645.7760, info@ivyroomchicago.com

Lauren from LK Events can be contacted at lkeventschicago@gmail.com