Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
A lot of commenters have asked me about what it was like to plan a wedding while also studying for the bar exam. It’s that time of year again, so I figured I’d address that now.
Studying for the bar exam was, without a doubt, one of the hardest things I have ever done. Maybe THE hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was time-consuming, intellectually challenging, and physically and emotionally exhausting. You know what else is all of those things? Wedding planning. So here are my tips on how to combine the two without going insane.
Choose your date wisely.
The busiest time of studying for the bar exam is the last month before the wedding. The busiest time of wedding planning is the last six to eight weeks before the wedding. Unless you have a lot of help, I would recommend picking a wedding date that’s at least two months after the bar exam. We got married exactly two months and four days after I finished the bar exam, and I’m happy that we had that much time in between the two.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
Mr. T and I left the reception venue separately. He had to bring the cooler from the trolley back to his parents’ room, and I had to get my clothes from my parents’ hotel. My best friend and bridesmaid walked with me back to the hotel. I was in my wedding dress, carrying my heels in my hand, walking through the middle of downtown Chicago on my wedding night without my brand-new husband. I could not stop laughing because it felt like something out of a movie.
Eventually, I made my way to our hotel room for the night. I took off my wedding gown and replaced it with the dress from our rehearsal dinner, and Mr. T and I headed over to the same bar where we’d had our rehearsal dinner the night before. We drank beer and ate nachos with our friends and family members from out of town. It was so nice to have that extra time with them. One thing I’m really happy about is that we got to spend a lot of quality time with all of our guests on our wedding day. I’m so glad that we weren’t liberal with the guest list.
A little after midnight, we headed back to the hotel and quickly fell asleep. The next morning, I awoke to the sun coming up over Lake Michigan, which illuminated the aftermath of our wedding day.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
After several hours of dancing, photos were starting to look like this:
…which meant the end of our reception was near. We planned the final two songs with our DJ to end the night right. The first was the Notre Dame Fight Song.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
Just after we served our late-night snack, our wonderful photographers left for the night. But we still had two hours of partying left. Fortunately, my dad had his camera there to capture the rest of the evening.
I know I wrote that we weren’t going to do the bouquet or garter tosses. Mr. T hates the garter toss with a passion, but near the end of the evening, I looked over at my wilting bouquet and figured that if it was just going to go in the trash anyway, I might as well have some fun with it. So I walked over to our DJ, asked her to put on “Single Ladies,” and made my way onto the stage with my bouquet overhead.
I turned around as my friends gathered together in the middle of the dance floor.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
One thing I really wanted was to get photos of our families together. While the dancing was going on, but before things got too crazy, we called our family members up to the stage to do a big photo. This is my giant Irish family. (And this isn’t even everyone! We’re missing at least 15 people.)
Next up was Mr. T’s family. They’re a slightly more manageable size.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
After Mr. T and I finished our first dance, my dad joined me on the dance floor for the father/daughter dance. My dad is a HUGE Beatles fan, so we danced to “In My Life.” It was really nice to have this moment with him.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
Once dinner was over and the cake had been cut, it was time to dance! We kicked off the traditional dances with our first dance as husband and wife. Technically, our first dance as husband and wife probably took place on the trolley to “Call Me Maybe” or “Party in the USA,” but for the publicized one, we chose Ingrid Michaelson’s version of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”
video via YouTube
I love the line in the song that says, “Take my hand, and take my whole life, too,” and that’s what caused us to choose it for our first dance.
As we danced, the world melted away. It was just the two of us swaying together like we often do in the kitchen while we’re cooking dinner.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
I recently revealed that we decided to have cakes for centerpieces. Because we didn’t have a traditional wedding cake, we didn’t have a traditional cake cutting. Instead, what we did was walk around to every single table and cut everyone’s cake. It was 1) a great way to visit every one of our guests, and 2) eat lots of cake (at least in theory).
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
As soon as the wedding party sat down and before the salads came out, both of our dads got up to speak. My dad reminisced about my childhood, the first time he met Mr. T when we started dating, how he couldn’t believe this day was here, and how he was so happy to add another son to the family.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
As our guests settled into their seats, we lined up outside with our wedding party. We’re big alternative music fans, so we chose to enter to “Little Secrets” by Passion Pit, one of our favorite bands.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
While the wedding day was all about emotions, wedding planning is all about the details. This post is dedicated to the little things.
I love this shot of our rings on a copy of the Chicago Tribune. Our photographers were happy that the headline wasn’t something really depressing because they’ve had that happen before.
I absolutely loved my blue wedding shoes, mostly because of these bows.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
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.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
Our final stop before heading to our reception venue was Michigan Avenue. Also known as the Magnificent Mile, the northern portion of Michigan Avenue is Chicago’s main shopping strip and home to some gorgeous architecture. (You may recognize it from some of Mrs. Bacon’s wedding pictures.) We set up camp in the middle of the street again. This time, there was a concrete median for our safety and convenience.
Mrs. Treasure, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 24, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity AnalystEngagement Date: July 30, 2011Wedding Date: September 2012Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy AuditoriumAbout Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
