1) Kevin Weinstein Photography: Kevin served as the photographer for our friends Roni and Rick when they were married on August 13th 2006. I did not know Roni and Rick at the time, but I have seen the photos. The photos beautifully captured the "essence" of the day, so much so that I feel I was actually in attendance. Before I was ever engaged I knew I wanted Kevin to take my wedding photos, Jürgen felt the same way. This again hearkens back to the "going with your gut" feeling I propagate. We loved their photos, they loved working with Kevin, so we didn't feel a need to look anywhere else. And with photos like these why would we?
One of the photos from their engagement session. Roni says this photo "looks like the picture in the frame when you buy a frame from Target."
Another engagement session photo. Seriously how beautiful is that?
Lovely wedding day photo, so very sweet.
They look so happy.
This is my friend Aine who recently got married and also used Kevin! Yay!2) Although I will shamelessly admit that I am not a music person, one cannot deny the power of live music. We knew we wanted to have a band, and we hope it will provide for hours of uninterrupted dancing(get your dancing shoes broken in now folks…) However neither Jürgen nor I had any idea where to look for a great wedding band. I put Jürg in charge of this task as he is the designated "music snob" between the two of us. However, he was not working up to my standards in terms of swiftness, and I became a grade-A nag. After many, many days of goading Jürg to hop to it, he talked to his stage manger who had recently been married (and also had her reception at the History Museum). She told him about a band called the Chicago Catz, and according to her "people still ask about that band." A personal recommendation! I googled them right quick and was on the phone with Richie (aka Band Leader) in no time. He was friendly and even offered to stop by my house to personally drop off the band info and some demo CD's. I was able to listen to them that night and had no doubt they would be a fantastic addition to our wedding. They have the kind of energy and sound that you can't help but dance to, which is exactly what we want.
Here are some of the talented Catz. I wish I knew how to upload a sound clip, but I am just not that technically advanced. Check out their website www.chicagocatz.com3) Blue Plate Catering: You have hopefully seen a few pf the photos I snapped during our tasting a few months ago. Those photos give you a hint of the yumminess Blue Plate provides. Chicago is a culinary mecca, and we are wanna be "foodies". Naturally the food was very important to us. We are striving to create a menu of familiar classics and more adventurous dishes. There will be three different "action stations" which will encourage you to mix and match to create unique flavor combinations and delectable experiences. It would be very hard to choose one caterer in a city that has so many amazing chefs, but luckily our reception site only allows you to choose from four preferred caterers. We chose Blue Plate for several reasons. 1) We had heard from our photographer (who has been to many many weddings) that they were great. 2) I had the chance to taste their food at a wedding event 3) the menus they proposed to us were the most sophisticated and unique 4) Kelly was so much fun to talk to and really helped us navigate through the uncharted territory of planning a wedding. Our menu is not yet set in stone and we look forward to having another tasting later this fall. I will snap some photos of the food during that time.
