A Garden Themed Wedding

Maggie and John’s downtown Chicago wedding was a garden themed wedding and a testament to their love story, featuring a perfect blend of timeless elegance and vibrant personal touches. Through their color choices, floral selections, and thoughtful details, they created an atmosphere that was not only visually stunning but also deeply meaningful to them to be surrounded by all of their loved ones! We wanted our wedding design to be romantic, colorful, and timeless, with nods to our personalities throughout. For example, we loved classic blue colors – seen in the bridesmaids’ dresses, the blue and white ceramic centerpieces, the invitations, and Maggie’s jewelry – but also wanted to incorporate pink peonies (Maggie’s favorite – which just so happened to be in season for our wedding!). We also enjoyed mixing traditional design elements, such as the wedding crest and monogram used throughout the details, into our less-traditional downtown Chicago wedding. And, Galleria Marchetti provided the perfect venue for the “garden party” theme! Proposal story: John proposed outside of the Doane Observatory overlooking Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. He told me we were “going for a picnic” – a callback to our first summer together in New York City when we used to go on picnics in Central Park every weekend. It was a sweet and intimate proposal – I said yes right away and we celebrated with my friend (and later bridesmaid) who was hiding behind the trees with a camera! Wedding Details: I purchased my Martina Liana wedding dress from a boutique called Brickhouse Bridal in my hometown of The Woodlands, Texas. I went dress shopping with my mom when I was visiting home for Christmas a couple of months after we got engaged. The dress was everything I ever dreamed of – I immediately fell in love with the floral lace appliqués, pearl details, and the train!

My Maid of Honor and Sister-in-law wore blue dresses with floral embroidery from Jenny Yoo. The other three bridesmaids wore solid blue dresses from Revelry. Each girl chose her own dress style and I loved how the “mismatched” look came together in the end.

John purchased his suit from Suit Supply and the groomsmen rented theirs through Menguin. John’s one request was a pink tie – and I found the perfect floral print option at Bloomingdale’s a few weeks before the wedding!

Our guests enjoyed a three-course Italian meal at Galleria Marchetti. We are both big foodies and especially love cooking Italian food together so this was an easy choice. Our signature drinks were a Negroni (John’s long-time favorite) and a Passionfruit Martini (which Maggie & the bridal party enjoyed on the bachelorette trip).

We were absolutely amazed at the florals by Willrett Flower Company. I told them my vision and they took it and ran – and the results could not have been more perfect! The gorgeous pink peonies were Maggie’s personal favorite. There were also a few touches of blue and white ceramics throughout – in centerpieces and floral arrangements – and we incorporated our lovely wedding crest in as many details as possible (including the stationery, champagne flutes, and even the ring box).

Our wedding cake matched the colorful, floral-forward theme perfectly! The inside was a vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream – a nod to our favorite cupcakes at our favorite bakery in Washington, D.C. (where we met). It was as delicious as it was beautiful!

Music is very important to us and we selected all of the important songs very intentionally. The processional songs were a nod to our mutual love of musicals – our family walked out to All I Asked of You (Phantom of the Opera, and John’s parents’ wedding song), the wedding party walked out to Till There Was You (Music Man), and Maggie and her dad walked down the aisle to One Hand, One Heart (West Side Story). Another favorite musical moment was John’s performance of Pride & Joy with our amazing wedding band!

Our reader was Maggie’s cousin Grant, who wrote us a poem specifically for the occasion filled with references to our story and well-wishes for our future.

Maggie’s “old, borrowed, blue” items were two pieces of jewelry, borrowed from her grandmother and cousin. Describe a hurdle you had to overcome in your relationship or during your wedding planning. We met while we were both living in the Washington, DC area. About two weeks after our first date, John found out he was accepted to medical school – in Chicago! Even though we had just met, we felt so sure about each other that we agreed to continue our relationship long-distance (I had two years left of college at that point). While it wasn’t easy, we made it work! Many, many flights between Chicago & DC later, I moved to Chicago for graduate school and the rest is history. We’ve continued to support each other through (still-ongoing) training for both of our careers which is something we have always been grateful for. Any special ways you incorporated your family or family history into your wedding day? We loved incorporating touches of family and family history into the details of our wedding. Some examples: I wore a ring from my grandmother (which was a gift from her mother, my great-grandmother) on my right hand, the song for our family’s processional was John’s parents’ wedding song, and my cousin read a poem during the ceremony that he wrote just for the occasion. We had lots of family photos on display as well, of course. Even the date had some significance – John’s parents were married in June, and my parents were married on the 10th! What was your favorite part about planning your wedding? As a bride, my favorite part of planning was all of the little details. I enjoyed making everything as personal as possible, whether it was noticeable to others or not. For example, we both grew up loving musicals and spent a lot of our first summer together in New York City – all of our processional songs were instrumental versions of Broadway love songs! I spent so much time thinking of the little things – from decor to stationery to jewelry – and it was all worth it when we saw our vision come to life on our wedding day. I also enjoyed incorporating work from amazing small businesses into the design – particularly our wedding crest which I worked in as much as I could to the decor and details! What part of your wedding day was/is most important to you? Of course, we both say it was marrying our best friend! But, in addition, seeing all of our friends and family in one room was something we both absolutely loved. It was so special to look around and feel so celebrated and loved. Dancing all night to amazing live music with all of our loved ones is something we will never forget! Photographer: Alexandra Cantemir Photography
Venue: Galleria Marchetti
Floral Designer: Willrett Flower Company
Dress Boutique: Brickhouse Bridal
Dress Designer: Martina Liana
Cake Designer: ECBG Studio
Makeup Artist Blush & Braids Beauty Bar
Hair Stylist Blush & Braids Beauty Bar
Mens Formalwear Groom: Suit Supply
Groomsmen: Menguin
Rentals: BBJ La Tavola
Stationery: Second City Stationery
Film Lab: TheFind
Day of Coordinator: Michelle Rowland
Bridesmaid dresses: Revelry and Jenny Yoo
Ceremony musicians & band: Biossat Custom Productions
Transportation: 312 Limo