Your Wedding Advice - StrictlyWeddings.com Blog

Chicago Wedding Reception Venues – The Ritz-Carlton Chicago (A Four Seasons Hotel)

StrictlyWeddings.com welcomes The Ritz-Carlton Chicago (A Four Seasons Hotel) as a new Chicago partner under Wedding Reception venues. We love this location’s classic, yet chic style. Perfect for the bride looking for a luxury location for their wedding reception. Located just steps from the highly prized north Michigan Avenue, you can expect unparalleled expertise in event planning, and a team of experienced professionals who can fashion your wedding event to your personal style and taste.

Showcasing floor-to-ceiling windows with stunning city views and a 400,000-piece crystal chandelier, The Ballroom is a picturesque backdrop for your wedding celebration. Your guests will savor a customized menu featuring gourmet dishes developed just for you by Executive Chef Mark Payne. The hotel offers 434 beautifully designed guest rooms, including breathtaking views of the city and Lake Michigan.

Photos of a Ritz-Carlton Chicago wedding courtesy of Jai Girard Photography.

Wedding Photographers | Jai Girard | Artistic Treasures

If you follow our blog, you know that Chicago’s Jai Girard is one of our favorite wedding photographers to showcase. Actually all the photographers at StrictlyWeddings.com have incredible talent and create amazing memories for their bride and groom.

Yet, today we celebrate the magic of Jai’s work, photographed at the enchanting  Chicago Botanic Garden. Every wedding she shares with our readers include hidden treasures. We’d really love to spend a little time in her brain as she looks through that lens – how does she see that particular moment or detail that 10, 20, 30 years from now, is a forgotten memory brought back to life to treasure?

Wander through our Featured Weddings

We regularly give you such wonderful featured weddings that highlight the talents of our StrictlyWeddings.com partners, but sometimes we think they may get hidden and you could miss them – we don’t want that. They are amazing photographs that tell the story of the bride from getting ready, to walking down the aisle to the creative “thematic” details to the reception where the party begins.

Our latest Featured Wedding is from Chicago’s Jai Girard. We have another incredible wedding from New York’s Gruber Photographers that will follow. So take 15-20-30 minutes and wander through the fabulous world of luxury weddings from StrictlyWeddings.com.

Photo by Jai Girard

Photo by Gruber Photographers … looking forward to our next featured wedding!

Featured Wedding | Mike & Christen | Wedding Chicago Style

The oh so fab photographer Jai Girard, our Chicago StrictlyWeddings.com partner, sent us this wedding (and others to come soon) that is truly wonderful! We love Jai’s dramatic photos and how she captures her bride and groom is so many fun and creative ways.

Our bride and groom, Christen and Mike, met through a mutual friend and there first official date was the following night … love at first sight? Mike proposed to Christen atop a cliff overlooking the desolate Papkolea Green Sand Beach on the Big Island (Hawaii). A very rare type of beach, its unique olive green sand is made of a smi-precious stone eroded by the ocean and crushed into fine sand. Mike surprised Christen after a 3 mile hike through volcanic rock to get there.

Fun to know…Christen’s something old was a beautiful diamond that she won at the grand opening of a department store. Her parents had placed in on a ring setting that she was allowed to wear to church until she was old enough. By then, it was dated so it was put away in her mom’s jewelry box. Come her wedding day, her parents surprised her with her “old” diamond in a new beautiful necklace.

Ceremony: St. Hyacinth Basilica
Reception: The Blackstone Hotel
Wedding Gown: Lazaro
Shoes: Jimmy Choo
Flowers: A Stem Above
Cake: Take the Cake
Entertainment: Bradley Young Orchestra
Rings: Harry Winston

Featured Chicago Engagement Photographer: Exposing the true personality of the bride & groom

With some people you just have an immediate bond. That’s how we felt when we first talked to Jai Girard about becoming one of our Chicago Wedding photography partners.

Jai, the person, is as beautiful as the art that she creates. And, to us, and to her brides, what Jai creates with her photography IS a work of art. She has the gift of making her brides, and even us non-brides, feel like you are the center of her focus. It’s all about you! And it shows in the exquisite wedding and engagement photos that she shares so generously with StrictlyWeddings.com.

So enjoy this sampling of just a few of Jai’s Engagement Photos. They’re fun, dramatic, unique and all show off the artistic touch of Jai Girard.

Sexy valentines – boudoir photography

Want a great gift idea for the groom for Valentine’s Day that is guaranteed to hit all his buttons? It’s boudoir photos. They capture for your special man the essence of you – the sultry vamp, the playful kitten, or just the oh so sexy come hither look.

Don’t wait until Valentine’s Day. There’s the groom’s gift, anniversary, Christmas or just because. If you have a husband that travels, a little black book of these photos will keep you top of mind while he’s on the road. And even though StrictlyWeddings.com is all about our brides, ladies we’re just as beautiful in our 40′s as we were in our 20′s.

Many thanks to Chicago photographer Jai Girard for these boudoir shots.

Photographing the Bride, Groom and Wedding Gown before the Wedding Ceremony

(Above photographs courtesy of Phil Farber)

As you can see from the stunning photographs from Chicago photographers Jai Girard and Phil Farber shown in today’s post (and two of our Chicago StrictlyWeddings.com partners), it is no longer unusual for the Bride and Groom to see each other before the wedding. How else could these photographers capture such a moment?

There’s no right or wrong as to whether you choose to let the groom see you and your wedding gown before you walk down the aisle, yet we think it’s a fabulous idea. You’ll see that these couples stepped out of the “traditional” box and let their photographers’ creativity shine. The end result? Impressive and oh so memorable photos that will last a lifetime (think about the story you get to tell your kids – a special place, a loving kiss, a joyful laugh).

(Above photographs courtesy of Jai Girard)

Whether you take photographs before the wedding or not keep the following ideas in mind:

WHAT IS ROMANCE? Let your photographer understand what is romance for you two. Is it that one moment when the bride and groom see one other for the first time? Is it a special place? A time of day? Let your love for one another take center stage. No matter what the setting, this will definitely come across in the photographs.

PHOTOGRAPH THE MOMENT. Photographing the moment can entail very different approaches. Trust your photographer to know the moment.

AT THE CEREMONY BUT NOT DURING. For couples who would like their photographs before the ceremony but want the aura and mystique of the wedding setting, they can combine the two. Allow close family members to sit in the pews while you stand in the aisle. It can be a very intimate and special experience for you both, as well as for your loved ones.

DO IT YOUR WAY. Whichever route you take, make sure it is determined solely by your vision of your wedding. Scheduling photographs should never be determined by the photographer for the sake of convenience. Some may suggest to you that you should meet before the ceremony “while the makeup is still fresh” in order to get good pictures. Meeting for that reason alone would be a mistake. Be true to your heart. You can depend on your wedding photographer to get memorable shots no matter when you see each other or where the setting.

This Love was Heaven Sent – Featured Weddings – Dorsae & Lewis

The wedding was the natural outcome. The meeting was a message sent from above…

Her story:

Our lives crossed paths on August 21, 1999 at Sambuca’s Jazz Club and Restaurant in downtown Houston, Texas.  Little did I know that God had a divine appointment on His plate. Like many things in my life, I missed it! But God was determined!  Two days later I was running early for an appointment, I stopped at Luby’s Restaurant at Fondren and Westheimer, nothing fancy, a very plain cafeteria, not far from the manger where Jesus was born!  Lo and behold, there was this stranger that I had met two days earlier.  What a coincidence I thought to myself, still not recognizing that this was a divine appointment from God.

Well to make a long story short, it did not take me long to realize that God had His hands in this encounter.  I have had ups and downs in my life, but because of the love and support of my Lewis, the downs have been few.

His story:

I had set out for an evening of jazz performances at a new venue in downtown Houston, Texas called Sambucas. When the band began its second set, I turned to see three beautiful ladies who suddenly appeared from nowhere to sit immediately on my left. The young lady closest to me struck up a conversation that centered around medicine since she was a nurse. Her friend (Dorsae) barely noticed me because the gentleman next to her had her occupied with stories of grandeur since he was an executive with Continental Airlines, with some 20 million frequent flyer miles under his belt and a loft atop of Sambucas.

Eventually, the five of us decided to have dinner whereby the conversations at the bar evolved to the sitting area of the restaurant. My focus for most of the evening was with Dorsae’s friend and the superb jazz band that played music that a jazz enthusiast could truly appreciate. Dorsae continued to converse with “Mr. Continental Airlines” and totally missed God’s calling for her to “abandon the dude” and follow through on His assignment to meet her future husband.

Nevertheless, the evening ended with me finding out her girl friend was married to a doctor and she was also expecting a baby eight months later. Now it’s 2:00 a.m., Dorsae “dumps” the dude and I never got her personal information. I suspect she thought I was interested in her girlfriend.  Little did she know I was so through with wanting to converse with her friend once I found out she was married. So I left the club thinking that I probably wouldn’t see any of these ladies again in life, especially since I lived in Clear Lake, Texas and Dorsae lived in southwest Houston (… it was sixty miles between both of our homes). But God has a sense of humor! While visiting a client in Houston on the west side of the city, a colleague and I were having lunch at a Luby’s Restaurant on Fondren.  I was telling him about my night out two days earlier with the three ladies, but I also failed to get the number of the “gorgeous single lady” whom I should have been conversing with.

We finished lunch and were leaving for our appointment, when I turned the corner of the restaurant and there she was!  Dorsae was literally having lunch in the same restaurant!  It was though God had said,  … “If you two screw this up this time, I am through with you both!” We both were in awe of seeing each other again, and both felt that this was no coincidence, especially since we lived on opposite sides of the world.

Nevertheless, I followed through on my hunch that this was no ordinary “sister”, rather a unique, smart, statuesque, beautiful woman, that I eventually found out loved the Lord.  In fact our first date was to attend her church, and the rest is history. Yes, God does have a sense of humor!  And I am glad He brought us back together again as He did to prove to both of us, this is no accident.  “I want you two to follow through on My Divine Province for you both!  I want you married to each other!”

The Proposal:

Lewis: Wa ya ma me!!!???
Dorsae: Lewis get that bread out of your mouth, I don’t know what you’re saying
Lewis: Will you marry me?
Dorsae: What?
Lewis:  Will you marry me?
Dorsae:  I don’t see no ring!
Lewis: Rings are non-refundable! Will you marry me or not?
Dorsae:  It depends!
Lewis:  On what?
Dorsae:  Will you love and obey?
Lewis:  It depends!
Dorsae:  On what?
Lewis:  Will you submit and not ask questions?
Dorsae:  It depends!
Lewis:  On what?
Dorsae:  Are you rich?
Lewis:  Yes!
Dorsae:  No further questions!
Lewis:  Honey, I love you!  Will you marry me?
Dorsae:  I love you too honey!  Yes, yes I’ll marry you!
Lewis:  Excuse me!  Can I get a Vodka and tonic?
Dorsae:  Excuse me!  Can I have a box of kleenex?

(American Idol finalist LaKisha Jones sang at the wedding)

Dorsae Riddles and Lewis Bennett – November 29, 2009

Ceremony: Rockerfeller Chapel
Reception: The Palmer House
Flowers: Daniels Floriculture
Photography: Jai Girard Photography

Jai Girard Wins Two Accolades of Excellence in 2010 Awards of Excellence 16×20 Print Competition

We are proud of the award our Chicago partner, Jai Girard, has received.

She received special honors in the WEDDING & PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS INTERNATIONAL (WPPI) 2010 Awards of Excellence 16×20 Print Competition. “Lost in a Dream” received an Accolade of Excellence in the Bride and Groom Together category. ” In a Wedding Dress and Alone” received an Accolade of Excellence in the Non-Wedding Photojournalism category.

Girard competed against an international field of photographers to win such honors. The Awards of Excellence 16×20 Print Competition awards are presented each year at the largest trade show, educational platform and convention in the United States for professional photographers. The 2010 competition included 3388 prints in 18 different categories submitted by photographers from all over the world.

Lost in a Dream

In a dress and alone

A love so deep – Featured Weddings – Chicago’s Emily and Craig

Emily Miller and Craig Mandell have been together since they were 18. They met 8 years ago at college and both went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but were from nearby Chicago suburbs. They have been living in Chicago, mostly together, since school. Craig is an attorney and Emily is in Healthcare Consulting. StrictlyWeddings.com would like to thank the lovely couple for sharing their beautiful wedding with us.

Photography: Jai Girard Photography
Video: Larry Wayne Evolution Video
Flowers- Kehoe (Vince)
Planner- Barbara Moss Events
Band- Larry King Orchestra
Dress: Divina Sposa
Bridemsaid dresses- Jenny Yoo
Rings- Cy Fredricks
Makeup- Cynde Cosmetics
Hair- Jessica Gryz
Venue: Fairmont