Tim and Lina

Tim and Lina had their wedding a couple of weeks ago at the beautiful Willowhaven Nature Center in Bourbonnais, IL. It was raining like crazy all morning and right before the ceremony started it stopped. It was still pretty wet out so they had their ceremony in the patio. I was cracking up that the ring bearer was driven in a battery powered car and the flower girl tossed her entire basket of petals on the ground. After the ceremony Tim, Lina and I went around the park to do portraits and the sun peeked out of the clouds for a few minutes. They were so easy to work with and I had a blast photographing their wedding day! -Jake

Lindsey and Eric

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing Lindsey and Eric’s wedding ceremony in Aurora at one of the most stylish venues I know of called Company 251. It’s basically a giant photo studio that you can get married in with tons of places to do portraits. Even their elevator is amazing! We started the day with their bridal party and family walking around downtown Aurora. It had rained all morning but the weather cleared up and became a perfectly sunny day minutes before their first look. Photographing Lindsey, Eric, and their party was like hanging out with friends. They are such a great group of people and I cannot wait to photograph their reception in 2021! -Jake

List of vendors:

Flowers- Naperville Florist

Hair and Makeup- Bliss Hair Studio

Dress- Martellen’s

Transportation- My First Limousine Service

Ceremony Venue- Company 251

Kara and Chris

Kara and Chris were the last couple I did a consult with in person before the world shut down back in March. Fortunately, with a few changes, they were able to keep their original date and still get married this year! They got married in a beautiful old chapel called St. John the Evangelist in St. John, Indiana with their close family and friends. We did portraits at the flower garden that is part of the St. John the Evangelist parish. The garden was created by one of the priests at the church and it was breathtaking. The location was picked out by Chris and it was refreshing to see the groom as into doing portraits as the bride! Actually, the whole bridal party was into it and we all had a ton of fun before heading to the reception. Backyard receptions are my jam and Kara and Chris had a tent set up at her mom’s house. Kara had a vision for her wedding and to see it come to life was amazing. The flowers were done by Monarch Flowers and the rustic table and chairs were from AAYS Rental. It was perfection! There were so many great moments during their wedding. A couple of my favorites were when the priest told them to kiss and they didn’t hear him (they shouldn’t feel bad about that cause I didn’t hear him either!) and when Chris’ niece and nephews gave an emotional toast at the reception. It was such a great day!! -Jake

Huge thanks to Rachel Langlois for helping me photograph. She's such a talented photographer and I am grateful for her help on this day!! You can check out her work here.

Vendors:

Catering: Ace Catering Company out of Dyer, Indiana

Rentals: AAYS Rental- farm tables, chairs and tent , whiskey barrels, dance floor- Mishawaka, Indiana. 

Flowers: Monarch Flowers St. John , IN 

Hair: Ora & Sara from the Scissori Salon

Make up: Crystal and Kylie from Merle Norman Studio

Dj: Dan Gin

Dress: Here Comes the Dress- Justin Alexander -Venice ...Chesterton, Indiana

Photo location: St. John the Evangelist flower garden!

Reception: Debra and Newton Sewells backyard!

Jamie and Michael

Jamie and Michael got married on a beautiful late summer day at St. Emily’s in Mount Prospect surrounded by their families. After their church ceremony we stopped at Ryerson Woods Forest Preserve which was conveniently along the way to the reception. Ryerson is a great option for portraits in the Lincolnshire/Wheeling area as it has lots of trails, prairie views, and natural beauty. Their reception was held at the lakeside pavilion at the Lincolnshire Marriott resort. I love this venue because the reception room is all floor to ceiling windows which lets in tons of natural light. Instead of doing their dancing indoors they had music and their first dances outside on the patio which was a great alternative to the traditional dance floor. I had an amazing time capturing Jamie and Michael’s wedding and wish them a heartfelt congratulations! -Jake

Hair and makeup by Hairs2thebride.

Flowers were from Whole Foods.

Catherine and Faiz

Catherine and Faiz got married a couple of weekends ago in Catherine’s parents backyard. When I got there I was immediately greeted by their sweet pup named Bear and I knew that it was going to be a great evening. Although it started to rain a bit, the storm blew through quickly and their ceremony started only 30 minutes behind schedule! A huge shout out to Catherine’s dad who made the benches for the ceremony site and cooked the food for the dinner. It was such a perfect evening!

The following day I met up with Catherine and Faiz again downtown Chicago and spent a couple more hours with them doing portraits around the city! Some of the spots we made it to were the Art Institute, Lurie Gardens, Wrigley Building, and the Riverwalk. Thank you to Catherine and Faiz for having me be a part of their wedding weekend! -Jake