Can’t believe the day has come to share all the pictures of our Chicago wedding and all that went down to plan for this!! I vlogged the days we set up for this if you want to see the play by play haha. Here’s the videos!
Also already posted my welcome bags, and wedding week outfits here.
Ok so where do I start… well .. we decided on a Punta Cana wedding (video here) but then my mom really needed to see me get married in a Church here in Chicago (Polish Catholic mom) so she said, lets do a small thing here too. Well… that turned into 140 people but at least we did it in my cousins backyard so that saved on costs! I did so much research into vendors and definitely chose the most reasonably priced ones- trust me I reached out to A LOT of people. I even rented chairs and tables from two different vendors because of the prices. Why pay $5.50 for a chivari chair when you can get it for $4? Yes I’m that crazy but at least I was able to put that savings towards something else! I did a lot of research on the website Thumbtack and that helped a ton to find our dj, cateror, day of event coordinator, and bus company. I only booked my photographer, Rachael for about 4 hours but she’s amazing and stayed for dinner and then got some cake images. I figured since I got a full day photographer in Punta that I didn’t necessarily need all the detail shots (but now in hindsight I wish I just booked her for an additional hour to get those little details for all the work it took on the invites! Haha The pictures of that that I included in here were what I took.
Things that were amazing about the outdoor wedding were that I had full control (control freak hi), I could do it how I want (homemade polish Vodka at each table) and the party went on until whenever.
The cons were: transporting all the alcohol to the event, then coming back a day before to start putting them in the coolers. Our day of coordinator and bartender had to work closely to run out and get more ice throughout the night and replace any completed bottles. We bought about $2000 worth of alcohol and then returned $1000 of it. We definitely didn’t need all the chasers I got, spirits, wine, or beer but I wanted to be safe than sorry. I actually chose to do my own bar and liquor and get my cousins friend to bartend because if we did it with our catering company, it was more expensive, and it wasn’t the brands we drank. So I wanted to get titos, patron, whiteclaws, rose, etc and it was such a great choice. A lot of people drank tonic water, and vodka which we almost ran out of but we had so much leftover of other stuff. Binny’s lets you return unopened alcohol or mixers so that was amazing but we went with a local liquor store that did the same. Support small businesses! 😊 Keep in mind that if its been sitting in ice and the labels are messed up, you can’t return those. So that’s why we had a ton of alcohol in the house that the coordinator would bring out when they needed more. Also I found out how much alcohol I needed by googling it and there’s so many formulas out there to figure it out- it’ll never be 100% but it helped. One more thing haha- if you put together your own bar make sure theres water bottles and a garbage can by there for the appetizers and cups! I figured water would just be at the tables from the caterers but didn’t realize people would want water at cocktail hour.
Basically it was just A LOT of work to be there on Thursday bringing all the décor (table numbers, welcome table décor, lights, votive candles, bar signs, welcome sign, seating chart etc) and setting up and then coming back Friday to finish putting everything on the tables and setting up the bar and the coolers. I think if I had hired or had some more help to come Thursday and Friday it would have been way less work but I didn’t think of asking more people to come. Then Sunday was a ton of work to empty out the coolers, clean up the backyard, take down the lights on the trees (which we did ourselves on Friday) and then put all the liquor back in my car (actually 3 cars) to go return.
BUT I would still do this again. Just learned a lot!
It was truly an amazing day and I wouldn’t change it for the world!
This is all that I bought for the wedding:
CHURCH
DECOR
MISC
TABLES, ETC
Gold name card holders (we had to trim off some of the opening to fit the acrylic)
Acrylic for name card for head table
Wood piece for table numbers here but we made them
Acrylic for table numbers here- made with cricut
WELCOME TABLE
Easel for seating chart (I spraypainted it gold)
BAR
Platic Clear Shot glasses for bus
Gold Plastic Cups when glass runs out
Some photos are my own (invite details, dog photos), but most are Rachael's!
Photographer | Grey Garden Creative- Rachael Kazmier
Location | My cousins backyard
Save the Date | Etsy
Invites and Stationary + Menu | by me
DJ | Joe Miller
Hair and Makeup | Frances Tsalas (Freelance) and Mary Kate Schleyer (Tranquility Salon)
Florals | Avenue Flower Shop
Day of Wedding Coordination | Royal Events, Daisy Saucedo
Catering | Cutting Edge Catering
(included china for dinner, water glasses, coffee cups)
Alcohol | we provided
Bartender | my sweet friend Courtney O’brien
Cake and Sweets | Oak Mill Bakery
Polish Sausage Hut | E&J Deli
Bus | Swift Charters
Polish Musicians | Kapela Ziandary (630-258-6147)
Horses | ositko konie- 312-617-2234
Tables, Linens (napkins and tablecloths), Dance Floor, Bar Stand, Bar Glasses (wine and cocktail), Coolers, Garbage Bins, Champagne Glasses | Elegant Presentations
Chairs, Chargers, extra tables for sweets, cake, catering, welcome, bar | M&M Events
Tent & Ceiling Bistro Lights | Blue Peak Tents
(we did a 40x60 clear top tent with linens to cover the poles)
Bride: Getting ready set: from Macys, Dress: Valentini Spose Couture- V1126, Shoes: Asos, Earrings: Sara Gabriel, Veil: Sara Gabriel,
All wedding week outfits (white swimsuits, white dresses) linked here
Groom: Suit: Tommy Hilfiger, Bow Tie: Perfect Tux, Watch: Skagen, Shoes: Florsheim
ENTIRE PHOTO GALLERY AND DETAILS HERE ON BOTH WEDDINGS:
Below are some more wedding related posts/videos of mine :)
ALL MY WEDDING RELATED YOUTUBE VIDEOS
WHAT I LEARNED FROM PLANNING MY OWN OUTDOOR WEDDING
And don’t forget to watch my insta stories for the behind the scenes of my everyday and I also love sharing my amazon picks- here's my favorites from there.
Make sure you're subscribed to my Youtube Channel to see all my current and future wedding videos. :)
xoox ela