Erin & Andrew, Classic Wedding at Theater on the Lake, Chicago, IL
Kind words from the couple:
“We just spent some time looking through the photos and we are blown away by your amazing work! So many photos brought us right back to the moment and even had us shedding happy tears! We can't thank you enough. Your team is truly amazing and we are so grateful to have had you both there to capture our day!”
The Wedding Team:
Photo/Video, Nicodem Creative
Planner, Shannon Gail Weddings
Venue, Theater on the Lake
Caterer, Food for Thought
Florist, Kloeckner Preferred Flowers
Hair, Michelle Karakas
Make Up, Joanna B Artistry
Bridal Gown, Jenny Yoo
Dessert, Ferraro Bakery
Band, Blue Water Kings
Transportation, Absolute Dream Limousine
Amanda & Daniel, "Secret Garden" Inspired Wedding at the Harold Washington Library, Chicago, IL
The Wedding Team:
Photo / Video, Nicodem Creative
Venue, Harold Washington Library
Planner, Lauren Prado from LOLA Event Productions
Event Designer, Frost Chicago + Life in Bloom
Florist, Life in Bloom
Hair & Makeup, Rare Bird Beauties
Bridal Gown, Martina Liana Bridal
Groom’s Attire, Nicholas Joseph Custom Suits
Bridesmaids Dresses, Jenny Yoo Bridal
Invitation Suite, Steracle Press
Rentals, Limelight Catering
Wedding Cake, Sweet Mandy B’s
Transportation, Signature Transportation Group
Photo Booth, Snapbooth Chicago
Chris + Gina: Engagement at Olive Park
We love engagement sessions. No lie. Especially when they're in Chicago, and especially when they are at parks or places that hold significance to the couple we are photographing. So taking pictures of these two at Olive Park (where they go on morning runs) and in the downtown area? Dreamy. Here are a few images from Chris and Gina's lovely engagement session, we're so excited for these two (and cannot wait to photograph their wedding next year!).
Anthony + Carly: Wedding at Promontory Point, Chicago
To introduce you to Anthony and Carly, I think we just need to start at the end. The ceremony was over, the dancing was just wrapping up, people were roasting s'mores over a bonfire down by Lake Michigan...and the groom was changing his pants so that he and his newlywed bride could wade out into the freezing cold water. Just for fun. Because that's the adventurous joy in life and love you will find in Anthony and Carly.
It was a beautiful, fun-filled wedding at Chicago's Promontory Point on a spring Sunday afternoon, with the sky over Lake Michigan putting on a show in the background. And it was an honor to take part in capturing the marriage of Anthony and Carly, a couple we've known for quite some time, and whose family feels like ours. We hope you enjoy these images from their day as much as we enjoyed taking them!
Heath + Jenn (Photo)
It's always such an honor when we have the chance to do both the videography and photography for a bride and groom's special day. We love being able to see a creative aesthetic that is consistent throughout the whole day, and to know that we were able to produce that for a couple as a lasting memory.
Last Friday we posted a video from the lovely couple, Heath and Jenn, and their gorgeous Chicago wedding. Below are some of the images we captured throughout the day as well, we hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed taking them!
Andrew + Kaitie
A few months ago, we secretly captured Andrew's surprise proposal to Kaitie. We had planned to photograph engagement photos the next afternoon, but Chicago decided to throw us one more blizzard... (totally unexpected, but it is Chicago, so it should be expected, right?) Luckily, the lovely couple recently rolled back through town and this happened!
We All Saw It Coming
I was two years old when I met Blake. Which, I guess if we're going to start doing math, makes him my oldest friend to date. Over 26 years of friendship. I mean, we saw Michael Jordan retire...twice. You don't go through that kind of heartbreak without coming out the other side knowing you'll be friends for life.
About two years ago, in the midst of planning my own wedding, I was thinking through who I wanted to stand by me at the end of the aisle, waiting for my bride to walk down and become Mrs. Nicodem. And the way I looked at it is this: life changes so much. You move, you switch jobs, you move again, you have kids, you have a midlife crisis and get intensely into fly fishing, and then you probably move again. And in each stage there will be people you meet, friends who come into and then fade out of your life. Because that's just the nature of this transitory beast. But what a rarity to have a friend that can look you in the eye (or stand with you on your wedding day), through all of that change, and say "I know you. The place you come from, the things that have made you who you are, the ups and downs of your life story...that's been partly my story too." And sure, there are whole months on end where you may not see each other, where those changes in life may widen the gaps of your communication. But it doesn't even touch the foundations of that kind of friendship because quite simply you've put in too much shared time and life for those gaps to matter. So I asked the guy who has been my friend since diapers to stand with me.
I often thank God that I married a woman I grew up with, for those same reasons. Marianne and I say to each other all the time "you are my Home," and on a very real level what we are saying is quite simply "I know you." That we are each other's safe spot; amidst the craziness and the transitions and the drifting through life, we belong to and can rest in each other. But it's also more than that. In a rudimentary way, "home" also encapsulates where we're from, and where we're from is the same place. It's small town, northern Illinois. It's having the same family doctor as each other since the day we were born. It's middle school band and high school dances. It's being able to say "hey remember so-and-so" and the reply of "yeah...do they still work at Jimmy Johns?!" Home is what makes us who we are, but it is also the place that we're always building for each other. And so we call each other Home because it's this crazy, beautiful fact that even before we became each other's place of safety, even before the love and the romance and the creating of life together, we were being shaped by the same place, the same experiences, the same story. In a way, it feels like we've always been sharing life.
And now I'll get to the point of all this.
A couple weeks ago, we got to hide outside of the middle school band room and watch as Blake proposed to his girlfriend Alaina in the place where they first met. We got to see over 15 years of incredible friendship become the promise of a life together forever. We got to see page one of the next chapter in their love story that started way before they even knew it. And the whole time my mind kept playing ping-pong between "it's about friggin time, we've all been waiting since we were thirteen" and then in the next breath "who would've thought in a million years...Blake and Alaina." Because that's the beauty of their story. It's a story so long in the making that we all saw it coming, but so good in its telling that we can hardly believe it came true.
And as we wandered around the town that has been all of our home since we were kids, Blake and Alaina, and Marianne and I, we got to take pictures of two people who in every way can look at each other and say:
"You are my Home."
Also, just to appease my curious mind: between the four of us (Blake, Alaina, Marianne, and myself), how many years of combined friendship are there? Some of the numbers are rough, but it's fairly accurate (we all knew each other in middle school, but some became friends in high school).
Blake + Andrew = 26yrs
Blake + Marianne = 13yrs
Blake + Alaina = 15yrs
Andrew + Marianne = 15yrs
Andrew + Alaina = 13yrs
Alaina + Marianne = 10yrs
With our powers of friendship combined, we have 92 years of joint affection. Boom.
Tom + Laura
Admit it: from the moment you are old enough to have a cognitive understanding of the passing world around you until you graduate college as a 20-something year old, there is one word that quickens the blood of every boy and girl in America:
SUMMER.
And for lots of us growing up, along with three months of no school and the persistent smell of sunscreen came the pinnacle of the season: Summer Camp. Endless mornings of horseback riding, mildly supervised afternoons of archery or swimming, and evenings on the stoop of the snack shop filled with making eyes and giggling over young, summer camp love. Who hasn't had their heart broken at the end of a week you hoped would last a lifetime?
And then there's Tom and Laura. For them, the summer fling just never ended.
We had a fantastic time photographing these two at the place where they fell in love, YMCA Camp Pinewood in Twin Lake, Michigan, and look forward to their Chicago wedding later this year!
