It was such a joy to take part in the gorgeous wedding of Scott and Emma, and all that it entailed. From the gardens at the Art Institute, to the steps of the Adler Planetarium, to their ceremony and reception at Bridgeport Art Center, the love these two have for each other was so evident throughout the entire day, and the celebration of that love was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event.
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!).
Happy Friday! What better way to celebrate than with a fun-loving, sunset engagement shoot of Chris and Emily in the beautiful Lincoln Park. We absolutely love it when couples make their shoot their own, and that was exactly what these two running-enthusiasts did. After a fantastic time of taking classic pictures around Cafe Brauer and the Lincoln Park Zoo, they laced up their sneakers and we headed to the lakefront path for some fun, lifestyle photos. Here are a few images from the shoot, we're thrilled for these two lovebirds (and look forward to sharing their upcoming wedding on the blog in a few months!).
Last week we posted a handful of images from the beautiful wedding of Chris and Kasia, and today we're thrilled to share the video we made of their day. From New Jersey, where the ceremony was held at the stunning West Side Presbyterian Church, to New York, where the reception took place at Brotherhood Winery (the oldest winery in America), it was a day of elegance and sheer celebration. So sit back and enjoy!
Okay, first things first: this blog post has a soundtrack to it. So before you read further or look at the pictures of Chris and Kasia's New Jersey/New York wedding, hit play (above) and let "Vivir Mi Vida" by Marc Anthony be your guide (and maybe whip up a quick mojito or two to really set the mood). Because when you shoot a wedding where both the bride and groom grew up in Miami and half the attendees are Cuban...Well, let's just say my wife had to keep reminding me that I'm not Cuban, and to stop trying to move my hips like I was. But please, get in the mood first.
Chris and Kasia's wedding was one of the most joyful and truly heartfelt days we've ever had the privilege of photographing and filming. I cannot do their full story of how they met and fell in love justice, but suffice it to say it is one of those stories you hear and simultaneously say "how in the world did this ever work out" and at the same time "there is no way this could've ended any differently or more perfectly." And it is a story full of the kind of love for each other that radiates outward, and is a delight to be around. These two feel like family, and it was an honor to document the opening chapter of their new life together.
Enjoy these images from their wedding below, and check back next week as we post the highlight video we captured during the day!
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!
It's been a bit since we've posted some of our recent video work, but without further ado, here it is! Heath and Jenn got married earlier this spring, and were some of the loveliest people we've ever worked with. It was a laid back, intimate and elegant affair, and to our delight, it was 100% a Chicago wedding: they got ready at the Blackstone Hotel on Michigan Ave., had their first look just south of Grant Park, took photos with the cityscape background at Montrose Harbor, were wed in St. Paul's Lutheran Church, and had their after party at the award-winning Sepia.
It is one of our greatest joys in life to work with people who, you can just tell, truly adore each other, and this day was no exception. We look forward to sharing the photos we took of Heath and Jenn's wedding next week, and hope you enjoy and can see the love we captured between these two in the video below. Cheers to the newlyweds!
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!
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.
Can I start with a story? Or rather, a back-story.
Two years ago, a boy (Me, Andrew) and a girl (Marianne) sat at a dusty, wooden table in the heat of rural Uganda. Madly in love, and doing the work we loved, together. We had gotten engaged a few months earlier, but I was still on assignment as a photojournalist for another six months abroad, so we made do with occasional visits, choppy Skype dates, and a whole lot of dreaming of the future. Our future.
So we decided, right there and then, to start our own photography and videography business. Because hey, why wouldn't we want to spend every waking minute together, doing what we loved? And where better to make really important life decisions than the bush in Africa, exhausted and all sweaty? We drew up a logo, whipped together a site, and for the past two years have been living this crazy ride called Nicodem Creative.
And it has been amazing. Challenging, mind-blowing, joyful and tear-filled (mostly on my part).
But we realized, in the crush of it all, that with this gaining momentum what we really needed was some added direction. Like that first, tentative step out onto the ice, we've realized that it's going to hold and we need to decide what to do now that we're out on it. So we hunkered down for a few days this last summer, we dreamed, we schemed, we talked about where we've been and where we want to go, and we've come out swinging, ready for what's next!
So welcome to the new and improved Nicodem Creative. Take a look around, we hope you like what you see. But know this: while the surface has gotten a make-over, the heart behind it remains the same. To give the world around us its beautiful due, and tell stories that are truly life-changing.
We are Nicodem Creative. And we've started dreaming anew.
