Our Chicago Micro-Wedding: Ceremony & Reception

On May 15, 2021, Kyle Cook and I got married in the presence of 14 guests on the East Lawn at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois. We had a private wedding reception afterwards at the St. Charles Country Club. Here’s the full collection of pictures from our gloriously perfect micro-wedding in Chicago!

I’ve never been a conventional thinker, so it’s rather appropriate that I would get engaged during a pandemic and married in a somewhat unconventional manner. Our micro-wedding in Chicago was a mix of traditional, elopement, laid back and perfectly us! We dressed up and paid attention to details in the planning but in the wise words of Iliza Schlesinger, “If it didn’t involve taking off my shoes, drinking tequila or listening to Garth Brooks, we’re not doing it.”

Our Story

I met Kyle in my kitchen at a Friendsgiving party for my 27th birthday. I welcomed him to my home and didn’t really talk much with him that night. Fast-forward to the eve of the 2018 Houston Marathon & Half Marathon in January, I met Kyle again at a friends house for pasta night to carbo-load before the race. We actually got to talking, he got my number and we started to see each other more regularly. (Kyle started asking my friends where I would be and showing up accordingly).

Our first date on February 11th was rock-climbing, followed by many exciting dates with kayaks, the rodeo, and traveling across the US. We joke that Kyle solidified the relationship by spraining his ankle at a soccer game 2 weeks into dating, which guilted me to stick with him. In April of 2018, I knew that he was “the one” even though we had been barely dating a few months. Over the course of our relationship, we adventured to many restaurants (lots of Pasta Tuesday’s), continued to run races, and even moved to Paris for a summer. Kyle proposed in Hot Springs, Arkansas. We celebrated our 3rd anniversary as an engaged couple and set the date for an intimate wedding with 14 guests. We’re now into our third month of marriage and I’m so excited to be able to share some of the stunning pictures with you!

Read the full story of our proposal here. Check out our engagement pictures here.

The Ceremony

We landed on a destination wedding and kept it small to accommodate our family members who couldn’t travel at the time. We chose to host our micro-wedding outside Chicago with our parents, siblings, and grandmothers present. Even though our broader community of friends and family weren’t physically present with us, we knew that they were sending their love.

The morning of Saturday May 15, 2021, it was overcast and rainy. While getting my hair and makeup done, I had to decide whether to proceed or move the ceremony indoors. They say it’s lucky to have rain on your wedding day. So we were definitely graced with lots of blessings! Luckily, it cleared up before the ceremony time, so we were able to have the micro-wedding as planned on the East Lawn of Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois, even if it was a bit cooler than expected.

The wedding day was filled with meaningful touches that connected us to our greater family. I wore my mother’s wedding dress and walked down the aisle with both my parents. Kyle and I wrote our own vows based on values and principles that we value in our relationship and officiant Jessica was awesome–weaving in personal stories about our dating history into the ceremony. During the ceremony we lit the same unity candle that my parents used in their wedding in 1987. We exchanged rings that Kyle and I designed together with a local-Houston jeweler. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, REO Speedwagon and the Beatles provided a soundtrack for the day.

At the conclusion of the wedding ceremony, guests tossed a “potpourri of blessings” towards us with botanicals that represented virtues like well-being, commitment, and friendship.

Botanicals List

Here’s the list of all the botanicals my mom assembled into potpourri. Many of the items she brought from her garden in Houston for the occasion, making it extra special for our micro-wedding in Chicago!

The Dress

In the months leading up to the wedding, I worked with a Houston designer to retrofit my mother’s 1987 wedding dress into a more modern style that fit my height. I paired the final dress with a simple beaded hair band and the most fabulous (and comfortable!!!) ivory Camellia shoes from Loeffler Randall. The wedding dress was my “something old.” The shoes were my “something new.” I wore my mom’s diamond earrings as my “something borrowed” and had handmade blue lace from my aunt around my bouquet as my “something blue.”

Click here to see the before & after pictures from designing my dress. Click here to see the pictures from my photographer’s sneak peek.

The Reception

After taking couples portraits in the Cantigny Park gardens, Kyle and I rode to the reception at St. Charles Country Club in a 1951 Pontiac. My parents decorated the car with one of my mom’s ivory wedding shoes and some cans in the ancient tradition to make noise and scare off all the bad energy. My grandmother had given my mom her wedding shoes in 1987 for the same purpose.

We arrived at the most beautifully decorated reception venue on the balcony of the St. Charles Country Club. We had planned everything to be outdoors (to be extra cautious) and even though the temperatures had dropped into the 50s, the space was warmly lit with space heaters. I was so excited to see my micro-wedding design plans come to life!

The pink, white and ivory flowers decorated every surface. The flowers included in my bouquet and decorations were David Austin roses, lissianthus, creamy twisters, larkspur, hydrangea, Eskimo roses, ranunculus, veronica, and spray roses. The greenery included bridal wreath spirea, ruscus, and huck. My florist had fallen in love with my original table design and gifted me the overhanging table greenery, despite it not being in my original budget. The table was set with vintage gold, white and pink plates, glasses and votive candles. I had worked with a designer to craft custom menus with a “A&K” wax seal that matched our invitations and all the other paper details.

I had assembled a collection of family wedding photos from our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and even a great-great grandparents dating back to 1919. The photos reminded us that we were so loved and surrounded by family even if they weren’t physically present. We also had a little jar where guests jotted down date ideas for our first year of marriage.

Guests were greeted with champagne in gold rimmed chalices and appetizers for a mini-cocktail hour. We took family pictures, made toasts, said grace, and cut the cake (carrot with buttercream frosting). My brother kicked off dinner with a round of Aquavit shots, in the tradition of my Norwegian Hansen heritage.

We kept the evening relatively chill. The photographer and videographer left once we sat down for dinner. We didn’t have a DJ or band or “grand exit.” What mattered most to me was that we had excellent food and a long time to hang out and have a relaxing family dinner. We sat talking and eating for several hours until well after the sunset. The first and only time I cried was when my maid-of-honor gave her speech and rolled through all our childhood history together.

As favors we gave our guests packages of “bomboniere” which are Italian almonds. My mother and all her sisters and their kids had it at their weddings. The bomboniere of five sugared almonds is an ancient Italian tradition symbolizing health, wealth, happiness, fertility, and longevity. The candy coating and the almond hardness represent the sweetness and endurance of married life. The odd number of candies cannot be divided by two, just as the couple are now one.