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Wedding Pictures

Caldwell Lily Pond Wedding and Hawaiian Theme

Wedding Pictures, WeddingsWedding Creativo Photography

Amie and Dan celebrated their spring wedding at the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool in Chicago's Lincoln Park.  This small city park wedding ceremony had a bold black and white color scheme.  The bride and groom and an intimate gathering of guests were surrounded by the lush nature reserve surroundings, as Rev. Marian Hale officiated the ceremony. 

The afternoon reception took a more casual tone with a Hawaiian luau theme. The outdoor tented celebration included a whole roasted kalua pig, vibrant orange, yellow and green colors, and exotic hula dancing.  Guests wore casual Hawaiian theme outfits, and the bride and groom also changed into Polynesian styles for their afternoon fun.

Wedding photography by Wedding Creativo Photography ©

Wedding at Woman's Club of Evanston

Wedding Pictures, WeddingsWedding Creativo Photography

Megan and Luke held a lovely classic wedding in Evanston, Illinois with ceremony at Northwestern's Alice Millar Chapel and reception at Woman's Club of Evanston.  The area is surrounded by wonderful ivy-covered bulidings around the campus of Northwestern University, which made it a fantastic area to walk around for portraits, as well as an enjoyable stroll for guests walking from the church to reception.

Photos by Wedding Creativo Photography ©

Beauty services were by Holly Kasprisin of Chicago Bridal Hair and Makeup, using the airbrush technique for applying makeup.

Peony pink flowers with peweter gray were the colors used throughout the wedding fashions and decor. The bride found her perfect Augusta Jones gown at A'Lamour in Barrington, along with her Vera Wang flats and accessories.

The bride and groom did not want to see each other before the ceremony, so the fellas played a few hands of poker, while the gals stopped for portraits at a classic Northwestern University ivy-draped building.

After the ceremony, bridesmaids passed out bells for everyone to ring in celebration as Megan and Luke made their grand exit from the church.

Jim Bailey of J&L Catering coordinated the reception, with stunning floral work by Zuzu's Petals, and wedding cake by Oak Mill Bakery.  The bride designed several items, including escort cards, menues, photo booth cards and the table numbers.

To begin the reception, instead of traditional introductions, the bridal party borrowed photo booth props and danced a conga line into the ballroom.  That was fun!  Andre from J Maximillan Entertainment performed splendidly as emcee and deejay.

For their first dance, Megan and Luke swayed to "Lucky" by Jason Mraz.  We certainly felt lucky to have been part of this wonderful couple's wedding!

Great wedding moment : groom receives gift guitar

Inspiration, Wedding Ideas, Wedding PicturesWedding Creativo Photography

We are preparing to feature Megan and Luke's wedding soon, but wanted to share this sweet moment from the morning of their wedding day.  The bride Megan obviously came to know her sweetheart Luke very well during their courtship, and surprised him with a beautiful acoustic guitar as her wedding day gift.  It was wonderful to witness this great gesture of love to start their married life, and also fun to see the bride receive text messages from Luke's impressed buddies too. 

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Spring Wedding at Chicago Cut Steakhouse

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Joy and Frank celebrated their spring wedding along the Chicago River at Chicago Cut Steakhouse.  Everyone was not only excited and emotional for thier marriage, but also that the happy couple were expecting the birth of their child. Joy was about 7 months pregnant and was an absolutely beautiful maternity bride.  Congratulations to this new family!

Wedding photography by Wedding Creativo Photography ©

Chicago Wedding at St Michael and Gioco

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Congratulations to Viktoria and Tom! These newlyweds come to us originally from Germany, with groom Tom now based here and his bride Viktoria commuting between Chicago and Berlin for her work.  Their family members flew in for the weekend to celebrate this beautiful May wedding in Chicago.  The couple got ready at theWit Hotel, with wedding ceremony at St. Michaels in Old Town, followed by dinner reception at Gioco restaurant. 

We had fun taking this couple around for portraits in one of our favorite classic cars, Joe Spinazzola's 1955 Cadillac "Dazy."  You can hook up with this sweet ride through Classic Wedding Car.

Photos © Wedding Creativo Photography

Wedding Idea: white gloves for flower girls

Inspiration, Wedding Details, Wedding Fashion, Wedding Ideas, Wedding PicturesWedding Creativo Photography

If there is a special young girl (or girls) you are planning to have perform flower girl duties, we think a great way to notch up the cuteness factor is having them wear white gloves.  For girls who are at that age when they like to play dress-up, this might be something they get excited about too.  Make getting dressed for the wedding into a game of make-believe for young kids, and perhaps they will be more likely to be cooperative. 

While adding white gloves will for sure add cuteness, we cannot guarantee it will inspire spontaneous moments in the great way that only kids can do, but they will certainly be dressed the part.  This this little bundle of adorableness sure was, as she dropped all of her flowers at the end of the aisle.  A magic moment indeed.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Creative Spotlight : Spiaggia Chef Tony Mantuano

Creative Spotlight, Wedding Details, Wedding PicturesWedding Creativo Photography

Tony Mantuano is an internationally acclaimed executive chef/partner of several restaurants, including Terzo Piano at The Modern Wing of the Art Institute, and Spiaggia, which has the distinction of being Chicago's only four-star Italian restaurant.  

The Kenosha, Wisconsin native was awarded the 2005 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Midwest, and was one of the champions on the Bravo television series, "Top Chef Masters."  Mantuano specializes in Italian cuisine, and was even presented with the keys to the city of San Martino, Italy in recognition for serving authentic Italian cuisine in America. Spiaggia is also a favorite restaurant of President Barak Obama, who celebrated his election win there in 2008.

Spiaggia also has private events, and one of our recent newlyweds Rebecca and Christopher celebrated their wedding reception with a wonderful dinner by Chef Mantuano and Spaggia's impeccable staff. 

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Courthouse Wedding at The Chicago Cultural Center

Wedding Pictures, WeddingsWedding Creativo Photography

Did you know that many "courthouse" weddings in Chicago actually take place in one of the city's most treasured architectural landmark buildings?  On select Saturday mornings judges from the Marriage Court of Cook County perform weddings at The Chicago Cultural Center.  Couples need to register in advance for their date and time.

This is exactly what newlyweds Carly and Mat did when they got married on a lovely sunny Saturday morning with a few guests in attendance. We also enjoyed strolling around Millennium Park for their wedding portraits.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

For those planning a stylish courthouse wedding we made this inspiration board.

Courthouse Wedding: Bonnie and Clyde style

Mother and Bride framed prints for Mothers Day

Creativo News, Inspiration, Wedding Ideas, Wedding PicturesWedding Creativo Photography

Mother's Day is almost here! We suggest framing a special moment between mom and daughter as a lovely gift idea.  Candid and emotional moments are a nice complement to any home or office, and can add some variety to wall displays that may have more traditional posed portraits.  Mix it up with some spontaneous moments and formal portraits!

Wedding Creativo offers a wide selection of frames with our Creativo Couture services, including custom framing like the samples shown below.

By the way, congratulations to several of the brides shown here who are now new moms!

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Second Marriage at Gibsons Steakhouse Oak Brook

Wedding Pictures, WeddingsWedding Creativo Photography

Gwen and Chris were both lucky in love for a second time and held an early spring wedding surrounded by their closest friends and family.  Each have children, pre-teen and teen-age, who all stood up in the wedding party.  The bridesmaids wore adorable pink dresses with fabric floral accents, and for the flower girl, a white ballerina style dress.  White dresses for young girls have become quite popular in the last year since the British Royal wedding. The bride wore a lovely modern sheath gown accented with black sinch belt.  Pink and purple hues were found throughout the details, with white lily bouquets and purple ruffle orchids in the decor. The ceremony was held at St. Michael Catholic Church in Wheaton, followed by an intimate reception dinner at Gibsons Steakhouse in Oak Brook.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Wedding Idea : post ceremony serenade

Wedding Ideas, Wedding PicturesWedding Creativo Photography

While guests are waiting for you to make your big exit after the ceremony you can have musicians performing to the gathering crowd.  They can get your family and friends "warmed up" for a serenaded send-off.  If your family has specific cultural music, such as mariachi, bagpipes, polka, or other traditional folk music, this might also be a great way to incorporate your family heritage in a unique way.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Wedding Photography FAQ: What is professional image processing?

Wedding PicturesWedding Creativo Photography

I think professional image editors (including us) must have a bit of OCD.  It takes a lot of patience and focus to get the results we find satisfactory, especially on more challenging images.  Competent and consistent image editing/processing is one way really good photographers set themselves apart from the pack.  Finding a photographer that is equally talented at processing as they are at shooting is well worth the investment that hiring an experienced professional typically costs. 

If high quality wedding (and portrait) photography is a priority for you, and something you're able to make as one of your top wedding expenses (around 10-15% of total budget), this is one wedding cost that most couples do not regret later when they receive outstanding wedding pictures that they cherish for generations.

Overall, Wedding Creativo aims for images to have a polished look, without being over-processed or gimmicky, especially for portraits.  Our goal is for images to NOT appear re-touched, but rather look more natural.  We think the pictures below show a good example of processing work we did for a wedding day portrait.  We took this on a gray rainy day in front of the legendary Wrigley Field, which unfortunately had tons of paper, garbage and cigarette litter all around.  (If Chicago had some kind of sidewalk cleaning crew, our jobs would be so much easier, ha ha.)

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Millennium Knickerbocker Chicago Autumn Wedding : Courtney + Matt

Wedding Pictures, WeddingsWedding Creativo Photography

Courtney and Matt celebrated an elegant November wedding at St. Michael's Church and the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel.  The couple's classic city style was punctuated with formal black-tie fashions and warm fall colors.

The historic Knickerbocker Hotel set the scene with timeless golden decor, gourmet cuisine and their legendary lit dance floor.  Sarah's Pastries and Candies created a wonderfully detailed cake and Pollen's autumnal arrangements made for eye-catching table centerpieces, while the fantastic Orchestra 33 kept the dance floor swinging.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Classic Cars for Wedding Transportation

Creative Spotlight, Wedding Details, Wedding Ideas, Wedding Pictures, Wedding PlanningWedding Creativo Photography

We always encourage couples to express themselves with creative details for their wedding, and sometimes this can even include their mode of transportation.  We're a big fan of classic cars, and in Chicago we're fortunate to have a few cool companies that offer couples unique vintage vehicles to get around on their wedding day.   Several companies that have classic cars in their fleet are on our recommended page, under transportation.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

 

Irish American Heritage Center Wedding of Beth and Justin

Wedding Pictures, WeddingsWedding Creativo Photography

Lots of family was on hand to help out this loving and fun couple pull off a great wedding celebration. The autumn day started off with a bit of a bump in the road with inclement weather causing the outdoor ceremony to be moved to the reception hall.  The Irish American Heritage Center came through with flying colors with the last minute change, and all of the guests made it there okay with all of the family pulling out phones to call all 200 guests!

The bride Beth was a great sport, and maintained her good spirits, and we were glad to see everyone not let the weather sour their fun plans.  Beth was calm and relaxed while getting her makeup done while her father and other relatives made their way through the phone list.

We were impressed with this as we knew coming in that this wedding would likely be an extraordinarily emotional day.  Sadly, Beth's mother had passed away, which of course made for a few bittersweet moments, but her loving relatives were wonderfully supportive and jovial throughout the day.  Beth also thought of a great way to keep her mother close to her heart by wearing her mother's ring on a necklace.

Beth and Justin had natural and simple style overall, with a touch of vintage flair for their wedding fashions.  The bride's jewelry, accessories, and goddess wedding dress from Kasia's Bridal, as well as the groom's dapper fedora hat and charcoal jacket-less suit perfectly represented their fun and creative personalities.

Beth and her father shared a sweet moment on the porch before heading off to the ceremony.  Everyone made it there on time, the venue had a separate room made ready for their last minute change of plans, and the bride and groom were married by officiant Pierre Poinsette without a hitch.

During the receiving line and cocktails guests enjoyed bowls of popcorn, and then Nostalgic Catering served fun pub style grub including mini burgers and liquor shots for toasting the couple during the reception.  Family friend Courtney baked classic homemade bundt cakes, nutrolls and ginger snap cookies for dessert.

After dinner the bride and groom serenaded their guests with a Glen Hansard song, then everyone danced the night away with the always awesome Okyne Medialab.  They also showed a great slideshow with pictures from the couple's childhood and dating years, which ran the gamut of emotions as family and guests all watched on together.  Slideshows always work best like this when incorporated in the reception as a shared experience for all, instead of having it off to the side in another room for guests to watch individually.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Bridal Beauty Roundup: Hair and Makeup Trends 2011

Creative Spotlight, Inspiration, Wedding Fashion, Wedding Ideas, Wedding Pictures, Wedding PlanningWedding Creativo Photography

As photographers, we always have a close eye on the work of hair and makeup professionals, and we would like to spotlight the lovely looks of some of our recent brides, made possible with the help of their talented stylists.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Bride Nadia: hair and makeup by Heather Rae from Art + Science Salon

 

Bride Marissa: makeup by Elisa Vekkos, hair by Montage Salon

 

Bride Vicky: hair by Samara Toby, makeup by Krystyn from Bridal Beauty Chicago

 

Bride Megan: hair and makeup by Holly Kasprisin / Chicago Bridal Hair and Makeup

 

Bride Kallie: hair by Lauren Brashears from ONE Salon & Spa, makeup by Valerie Ward from Mario Tricoci Salon

 

Bride Kate: hair and makeup by Beauty on Call