Places to Rock Your Wedding

There are hundreds of places you could choose to get married in Chicago. There are museums, rock clubs, shady alleyways, that rooftop you snuck onto last week after a few too many beers... How's a girl or guy to pick?

We got you. Here's a list of a few of our favorites:

The Bottom Lounge, West Loop. A kick-ass rock bar with an upstairs & balcony for private parties. They can make it as rock or clean as you want. They also have bonuses like an amazing staff, a photo booth and pinball machines you can use. Score!

Garfield Park Conservatory, Garfield Park. One of the most gorgeous botanical gardens Chicago can boast in the city proper. The Horticulture Hall is the perfect location for an intimate ceremony & reception with the showers of greenery all around you and the arching greenhouse windows - even in the winter! And if you don't mind planning ahead with the city applications, it's pretty affordable.

Architectural Artifacts, Ravenswood. A kitschy 3-floor collection of antiques that include a piano you can use, antique stained glass windows and a floor full of vintage couches and chairs for wandering guests who want to cuddle makes this place rule for a large gathering. And with access to the back patio, you can even have an outdoor ceremony (potentially on a merry-go-round!) without having to figure out transportation for guests from one location to another.

Prairie Production, West Loop. This photo studio by day/event space by night is the perfect location for the couple with a vision. Their open loft space is white & concrete with a ridiculously high ceiling and equally tall all-glass wall, leaving you to fill this blank canvas with your wildest dreams. Extra bonuses: outdoor patio for smoking guests, you can bring in your own liquor and the owners are some of the most reasonable people in the events industry.

You're Not Alone

This chick is a girl after my own heart. I'm pretty sure we've all had this conversation with at least one member of our family while planning our awesome rock bar/ planetarium/ roller derby wedding. www.blaghag.com/2010/08/sometimes-i-forget-that-not-everyone-is.html

Jill & Matthew's Rustic Rock Fall Wedding!

How They Met: These adorable darlings met when Jill posted an extra ticket to Ryan Adams on Craigslist. Matthew was the first one to respond that he wanted it, and they ended up sitting next to each and chatting through the concert. They exchanged numbers after the show and couldn't stop chatting that night. The rest, as they say, is history.

Their Theme: They chose fall colors for their September wedding and labeled each table after a concert they had been to together. It fit perfectly with the rock-club venue of the Bottom Lounge, in the West Loop of Chicago.

Thanks: These guys were super mellow and very crafty (they made all the candle holders out of wine bottles! All of them!!). We are so happy to have worked with them on their incredibly special day. Love you guys!

Welcome. Have a bag.

A sweet, but totally financially draining, tradition is the welcome bag for out of town guests. Why, oh why, must you spend even more money on people who will be enjoying the fruits of your labor at your wedding? Simply put? It's your wedding. You are getting enjoyment out of it. They are spending a boatload of cash to fly out, stay at a hotel, rent a car, find a babysitter for the kids/dog/fish, and buy you a gift so the least you can do for these friends & family making the extra effort is say a special thank you for their commitment to your friendship.

That being said, you don't have to go broke with the welcome bags. Here are some fun things to include that will not break the bank:

- Transportation Maps. If you're getting married in a city, these are a lifesaver for out-of-towners and usually free. Just pick some up at your local subway or bus stop.

- Time Out [insert city here]. These magazines are great and have a zillion things to do that will keep your family & friends from trying to spend time with you when you're trying to prep for the wedding.

- A Transportation Fare Card. Again, super useful, relatively cheap (depending on how many people you're buying for), and keeps people out of your hair and lets them explore the city.

- Brochures for the area. These are especially helpful if you're getting married somewhere in a smaller town or in the country. They usually contain maps and directions to the points of interest and give your visitors a chance to explore someplace they may not have been.

- A local treat. This can range from a local brew (you only need to include 1 bottle of beer per guest) to the town's famous fudge to a genuine Washington apple (if you're getting married in, say, Washington).

- Travel directions from their location to the ceremony/reception. Incredibly easy and cheap to execute and incredibly helpful to your guests and you. (This avoids those 10 phone calls you'd get while getting your hair done of "how do I get there? I left my directions at home.")

And you don't have to make an individual bag for each guest. If there's a couple, 2 friends traveling together, a family, etc. make 1 bag per room. Then put as many items as needed for each member in the bag. You'll save money on the amount of bags, tissue paper, ribbon, etc that you need to purchase.

Most importantly, your guests will be touched that you thought of them and the good karma is priceless.

p.s. Love the bags pictured here? You can get them at Keikigifts' Etsy page!

Raising the Bar

One of the most expensive parts of any party, especially a wedding, is the liquor. Though removing all adult beverages from the affair is a quick way to reduce costs, it can also severely reduce the goodwill and celebratory nature of your guests. So how to keep costs down?

1. The Champagne Toast. Do you need/want this? Some people love this tradition and want to keep it, no matter what the cost. Others are just fine allowing people to toast with their cocktail or meal drink. A happy medium is finding a cheaper substitute for champagne (as cheap champagne gives an instant hangover and is easily spotted a mile away). Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) is a bit on the sweeter side while Cava (Spanish sparkling wine) is usually more on the drier side.
You can also use something like Welch's sparkling grape juice to really keep the costs down and allow any children or non-drinking guests to join in the toast.

2. The Full Bar. Here's the secret no one tells you: you don't need the full bar. Sure, it's a nice gesture. And yes, who doesn't love to get bombed at a celebratory affair on someone else's tab? But long story short: people will drink whatever you put in front of them - whether the choice is only white or red or they have a full bar to pick from - and they'll be happy so long as you don't run out. It is far better to get 5 kegs of Bud Light and 15 cases of one red wine and allow people to drink their faces off on those choices than to have a time limit on when they can drink. It just reminds them of money and obligations and responsibilities and no one wants that at a party. They just want to be carefree with you and enjoy the moment.
A compromise that some people find useful is providing beer & wine for their guests and allowing the venue to sell any other beverages at their prices to guests who might prefer something else.

3. Bar Staff. Keep it simple and you can keep your bar staff to a minimum (and therefore the staffing & tipping costs down). If you can have bottled beer, twist-off cap wine bottles and a pre-made cocktail (that only needs to be poured over ice or garnished) you can get by with 2 bartenders for 100-150 people and 3 for 150-250. (Another option is to potentially have your servers walk around with pre-made or opened drinks on a tray to help with the initial flood of people at the beginning of the evening.) Keeping the drink list simple also makes the bartenders' set-up and clean-up a lot quicker, thereby limiting the hours you'll need them. And bottled beer (vs keg) cuts down on required glassware as most people will drink bottled beer from the bottle.
One note: bartenders usually like to have a tip jar, either on or below the bar. Some people don't like their guests feeling any pressure to tip, while others have no problem allowing a tip jar for the staff.


4. The Liquor License. One oftentimes forgotten necessity is the liquor license. If you're serving in a venue that doesn't serve alcohol as a form of income, they may not have a liquor license. Unfortunately, you can't cut corners around this. However, you can ask the venue or caterer to fold this into their costs so it's one less issue you have to deal with.

5. The Specialty Cocktail. Unnecessary, but another great compromise to the full bar vs only beer & wine issue. It can also be a playful way to incorporate some personality into the bar: you can play up an homage to the season and your family heritage (glog for a swedish winter wedding) or tip your hat to the locale and its history (mint julep for a summer southern wedding).


Regardless of how you go, hang in there. it can be super stressful but it makes that first married sip that much sweeter.

Theme? What theme?

After the euphoria of the engagement, when you're past the ideal number of guests, budget, and date selection decisions, every vendor, relative and nosy acquaintance starts asking you "what's your theme?" You may think to yourself, "Theme? What theme? It's a wedding. Isn't that theme enough?" Well, sort of.

Because each wedding is an event to show the union of two distinct people and personalities and because there are so many options on how to go about showcasing those people and their union, a "theme" - whether it's a color scheme, a design style or just a grouping of stuff you like can help personalize the event and make it feel like "yours." For instance, if you've been dreaming of the white wedding with full Mass, a carriage ride to the country club and a gold-encrusted reception, then you probably don't want your caterer suggesting finger foods on sticks and your venue asking if you want them to keep the pinball machines available for your guests' use. Likewise, if you and your partner are die-hard anime fans, you might want to use the new wing of the Contemporary Art Museum as your venue instead of the local hunting lodge. Point being, coming up with a "theme" doesn't need to be as epic and mind-numbing as it first can seem.

One place I particularly love to go for inspiration is the arts. What band gets you out of the house for a show? Who do you have hanging on your walls at home? How do you dress on a regular basis? A great site that combines both the visual and aural arts is
WebTVHub.com's listing of 15 Seriously Artistic Indie Album Covers. Aside from being incredibly beautiful in a variety of styles, the music may also inspire ideas of the kind of atmosphere in which you want to celebrate. For example, the Neutral Milk Hotel album cover featured here might inspire a 1920s beach-side carnival wedding.

Another idea-inspiring place is your locale. If you know you want to be in Vermont in the fall, think about what you love about the area: the foliage? The history? All that maple syrup? You might want to go for an outdoor venue if you want to soak up the crisp air and gorgeous fall colors. Or you may want to find a beautiful b&b if you love the charm of the New England architecture. Each locale, season and venue will naturally lend itself to a style or "theme," and you'll barely have any work to do.

Embrace the "theme." You don't even have to call it a theme. Call it your style, because that's what it is. It's the basis for creating a day that is all yours and your partners', that reflects the two of you in each piece of silverware, plasticware or toothpick, and that makes your day special to you two.

Fruit Centerpieces

A simple, cute and affordable way to create your own centerpieces is through using fruit and flowers.

To make one, you will need:

- a clear vase

- fruit of your choice (citrus fruit are a popular option, though grapes can work really well for holding flowers straight, and more exotic fruits like kiwi are fun and unexpected)

- flowers (silk or real - depends how much time you have on the day of to make these)

If you're using tall, long-stemmed flowers you will want to leave your fruit intact (i.e. use whole lemons instead of slicing them) in order to give the flowers a base to stand within. If you're using full heads of flowers (like peonies or sunflowers) you can remove the majority of the stem and slice your fruit to float within the vase.

NOTE: If you are using water (as you will need to if using fresh flowers and/or sliced fruit), beware of the floating to the top issue. With full-headed flowers, the floating will look nice as it will fill the top of the vase. However, make sure you are slicing your fruit different thicknesses so they don't all float to the same place in the vase.

If you want to avoid the floating issue, use silk flowers and whole fruits. Craft stores sell some great silk flowers that will look great both at a distance and up close, and the fruit will allow for a fun contrast if you're trying to work in several colors.