Winter Wedding

My husband and I celebrated our 7th year wedding anniversary this week.

I love to look back and think about the days leading up to our wedding (and of course our wedding day).  I never considered the possibility of several crazy snow storms the week of and the day of our wedding.  That is, until we had several crazy snow storms the week of and the day of our wedding. 

In the end it worked out well because it made for some fun pictures.  Here is a picture the photog took right when snow started coming down the day of the wedding:

We were also attacked by crazy Santa's while taking these pictures along Michigan Avenue:

Some more of my favorite pictures from the day involved Chicago's great skyline.  Although we lived in Chicago at the time, my condo was not large enough to have everyone get ready comfortably.  So we reserved a room at Hotel Monaco, a cute boutique hotel right along the Chicago River.  You can see the river in some of the following pictures: 

Oh yeah, they also had these awesome window seats that made for some great pictures.  The photog was ecstatic when she walked into the room and saw those and the views.

Here are just a few detail shots from getting ready that day.  I love the circle in circle effect of the next picture:

And my lovely flowers (peonies, roses, and calla lillies).  I absolutely LOVED this bouquet:

Fall is our favorite time of year. So my husband and I were really hoping to book a room for our dream fall wedding. But then, we saw this room:

These pictures don't even give it justice. You can see more pictures of this amazing room here. This venue, The Great Hall of Cafe Brauer, is an official landmark located in Lincoln Park in Chicago, at the edge of the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was designed by Dwight H. Perkins and completed in 1908 and has been called "an outstanding example of the Prairie School of architecture." (Wikipedia, baby). 

You can see a few of the details of the venue in the following pictures.

When I was told in September of 2004 that the first available date was December of 2005, I asked "where do I sign?" Only one month into our wedding planning, and I believe we blew over half of our budget on the room rental, furniture rental, and food.   I had to get creative for the rest of our wedding budget.  That included making our own invitations and room decor.  We made these white pillars and floral centerpieces:

It was actually pretty easy because I just had my dad do it!  ;-)  My mom and mother in law helped, of course.  I later sold these pillars to a florist for the cost of making them.

We also made this card box:

All it took was a lazy susan and four picture frames from Hobby Lobby.  We used leftover pillar fabric for the top of the box.  Yet another DIY special via the parents.  :)  I was mostly the creative director for these projects.

Our DIY Thank You Cards:

Thanks for stopping by and letting me reminisce!

 Linking up to: Timwashed / Stone Gable / Craftberry Bush