Weddingbee Blog

As we finished up our three-hour photo-taking marathon, we could hear our guests arriving. I changed into my flats, and then Mr. T and I headed into the lobby of our beautiful venue to mingle with our guests.

Because the weather turned out to be beautiful, the front doors to our venue were opened and guests spilled outside.

My mom wanted to get a shot of her mom and all her siblings, so we did that during cocktail hour. We took one shot and were promptly kicked out so they could get some of just the siblings. Thanks a lot!

We noticed a lot of people drinking a red concoction out of martini glasses, like my high school friends pictured here.

When we asked them what it was, they told us that it was our signature cocktail. Our signature cocktail? We had a signature cocktail? I don’t think we ever picked one of those out, but OK!

While I have pictures of the drinks, I don’t have any shots of the food. I didn’t eat much of it because I was busy talking, but it was delicious. My favorite was the truffled mac and cheese in a parmesan cup. We also had mini crab cakes with tomato-ginger jam, thin-crust mini pizzettas with caramelized onions and goat cheese, and petite lamb purses with roasted pear. Yum yum yum!

A lot of brides and grooms opt not to go to their cocktail hours, but I’m so glad we did. It was great to have an extra hour to chat with our guests, many of whom had traveled across the country to be there with us.

All photos by Andrew Collings Photography

Miss a Treasure recap? Catch up!

• Practice Makes Perfect – Our rehearsal
• Hitting Rock Bottom – Our rehearsal dinner and too many butterflies
• Hair, Makeup, and Broken Mirrors – I get ready with my girl friends
• All Dressed Up – I become a bride
• The Somethings – Old, new, borrowed, blue
• The Guys Get Ready – Mr. T and the rest of the guys get dressed and head to the church
• Goin’ to the Chapel – We head to the chapel and fix a wardrobe malfunction on the way
• Moments Before – My nerves resurface just before the ceremony
• The Processional – The bridal party makes their way down the aisle
• Here Comes the Bride – My parents walk me down the aisle as I see Mr. T for the first time
• I Do – Our Catholic wedding ceremony
• We Are Family – We take formal photos with our family
• Trolley Time – We cruise around Chicago on our trolley
• Life’s a Beach – We take photos at North Avenue Beach
• The Nitty Gritty – We take gritty, urban photos near the Kinzie Street Bridge
• Stopping Traffic – We take photos in the middle of LaSalle Street
• Magnificent – We take photos on the Magnificent Mile
• The Da Vinci Code – We finish up our group photos in Renaissance style