“Eric + Tiffany are Married!! It was our pleasure in being chosen as Eric + Tiffany’s Chicago wedding photographers and you may remember Eric and the stunning Tiffany from the couple’s previous appearance on our blog last year when we posted the couple’s Chicago engagement photography session.

 

Although we have only known these two for a little over a year, it didn’t take long for us to feel like we have known them for much longer. Eric and Tiffany are a couple who are both beautiful inside and out. Through reception toasts, conversations and stories exchanged during their engagement session, and in meeting their closest friends and family on the wedding day, we found these two are truly genuinely great people. We loved working with you guys Eric and Tiff!! Eric + Tiffany currently reside in Valencia California near Santa Clarita. However both Eric and Tiffany are originally from the North Chicago suburbs. So planning a wedding in Illinois versus California was a big decision, but they felt definitely a “must have” having it back home in Chicago. Primarily why did they have their wedding here in Chicago… family and friends. : )

 

Tiffany and Eric’s day was streamlined and kept very simple, as Tiff decided she’d like to stay at the one location all day. All of the events of during the day such as bridal hair, make-up and getting ready were upstairs in the hotel’s huge and light filled suites. And following the couple’s morning preparations, our bridal dramatic, romantic and editorial style wedding photography, Tiffany and Eric’s indoor and romantic candle lit ceremony, and the events of their modern reception all took place at the same one location and their venue. The Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel is a Chicago modern wedding venue and we enjoyed it as much as Tiffany and Eric told us they did upon first booking it. Tiffany was telling us during our first conversation, how they were inspired by the venue and were planning on putting together a modern themed wedding. As the planning all came together, Tiffany added to the modernism a few more emphasizes for an overall themed “Modern Organic Clean Romantic” styled wedding. Tiff and Eric decided to hire on the help of an expert and a vendor we always enjoy working with Anthony Navarro from Liven It Up Events. Anthony and his team always do an amazing job helping to craft and produce fully a bride’s vision. Highly focused on putting together all the planned items and taking care of any unexpected parts of the day that may arise, we can’t recommend a planner enough. And Anthony is a delight and talent worth looking into working with.

 

The Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center in Schaumburg is a hotel with an abundant amount of beautiful and natural lighting. The convention center is a large building with nice grand spaces and it incorporates a clean, urban and chic esthetic, with an ultra modern style. The venue has an airy appeal with many white walls and towering columns and contrasted colorful details with within the decor, vertical lines in metals, cement and glass. The glass stair case and huge floor to ceiling windows in both the guest’s hotel rooms and throughout the second story hotel’s grand foyer are great. ( We can’t express how much we LOVED the abundance of natural lighting and windows everywhere, creating perfect and ideal lighting conditions for photographs. The window lighting allowed us to use the space as our photo studio, to artistically create and capture editorial style wedding photography images for Tiffany and Eric. This venue was a photographer’s dream location! ) The hotel offers an ideal situation for bride’s whom prefer if a humid Chicago weather or rainy day comes along, the venue offers great indoor space to shoot inside. For Eric + Tiffany’s wedding day, lucky it may be, it did thunderstorm and rain. So already having the indoor space, made for less stressing about staying dry and more time for shooting artistic pictures. Tiffany looked stunning in her Winnie Couture gown which she purchased directly from the boutique’s flagship store on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Eric complemented her beauty in his classic fit tuxedo. We felt spoiled in having such a glamourous couple to photograph! Tiffany you looked stunning and compliments to her make-up and hair stylists who did an amazing job enhancing her natural beauty.

 

Eric + Tiffany again, thank you in your hospitality and we had a great time alongside you at your wedding. Best wishes to the two of you! When we are near Los Angeles or Valencia for a future wedding or vacationing out your way in California, we will surely be calling to visit you guys. Hope you love our selection of favorites from your wedding day we chose to feature above as much as we do. Enjoy + Congrats!”

 

 

 

 

Eric + Tiffany’s day consisted of these details and amazing vendors:
Theme: Modern Organic Clean Romantic
Reception + Ceremony Venue: Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel, 1551 N. Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, Illinois
Wedding Planner: Liven It Up Events, Anthony Navarro 773.727.4929
Bouquets, Floral and Wheat Grass Florist: Vale of Enna, Grace Ha-Kim, 847.942.3629
Décor: Art of Imagination, Deborah Weisenhaus, 773.632.8553

 

Beauty + Fashion:
Hair Stylist: Michael Thomas Salon, Isela, 847.716.0584 + Renee Feldman Salon of Studio 110 Salon, Chicago
Make-Up Artist: Suzanna Avakian, Neiman Marcus, 224.730.1900
Officiant: Church of Atonement, Pastor Don Wink, Barrington, IL 847.381.0243 ext. 172
Bridal Dress & Veil Designer: Winnie Couture Haute Bridal Fashion, 9393 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA
Brides Bridal Shoes: Glitter Fabric Platform Sandal by Jimmy Choo
Reception Shoes: Sparkly Tom’s
Bride’s Jewelry: Tiffany & Co. + Bloomingdales ( switched earrings )
Bride’s Hair Accessories: Ceremony Flower Accessory + Reception Feather and Brooch: Tigerlilly Jewelry
Bridesmaids Shoes: Caparros
Bridesmaids Dress: Priscilla of Boston
Jewelry Bridesmaids: Tigerlilly Jewelry
Flowergirl Dress + Shoes: Amazing Gracie’s Children’s Shoppe, South Barrington, IL
Flowergirl Accessories: Tigerlilly Jewelry
Tuxedos: Formally Modern Tuxedo
Engagement + Wedding Bands: Tiffany & Co.

 

Reception Details:
Ceremony Recessional Exit Elements: Ribbon Wands ( Black & Ivory ) from Etsy
Cocktail Napkins: Betsy White Stationary Boutique
DJ: Okyne Medialab, Al Okyne 847.275.3619
Audio + Visuals: Swank Audio Visuals
First Dance Song: The Way You Look Tonight by Michael Buble
Videographer: Orange Wedding Films, JJ Kim, 847-520-0123
Catering + Cake: Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel
Cake: Yellow Chiffon, Fresh Strawberries, Vanilla Buttercream by Pastry Chef Ms. Kathy Plucinski from The Renaissance Hotel
Menu: Pretzel roll, roasted tomato bisque, Summer blend salad, Riesling poached pear sorbet and choice of Mediterranean chicken, center cut beef tenderloin or porcini seared halibut
Guest Favor as a Donation: Children’s Cancer Foundation, California
Invitations + Papers by: Social Savvy Invitation Studio, Pasadena, CA
Honeymoon: Bora Bora, in 2012

 

 

Don’t leave our ♥ blog without viewing photos from Eric + Tiffany’s Chicago engagement photography session last Summer.

 

See Eric + Tiffany’s Chicago wedding photos featured on the Style Me Petty bridal inspiration blog. The Style Me Pretty blog post is entitled Renaissance Hotel Wedding by Miller + Miller Photography.

“When Chi-Wei + Kam invited us to capture their big day, we knew we were in for artsy and modern style wedding. It was exciting seeing how their day’s plans fully developed. The day was filled with anticipation, Chinese wedding cultural traditions, the last of the Fall season’s tree colors, sun shine, and close family and friends joining in on the vows and celebrating in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

 

You may remember us talking about how Kam’s a natural in displaying her creative talents in reading our last blog post from our engagement session with C+K. With Kam being a graphic designer, she definitely did not hold back a bit on being creative and dressing up her own wedding with designer graphics and colorful artsy design elements. Her ornate and butterfly inspired graphic designed monogram incorporated her purple + brown wedding colors… Chi-Wei + Kam’s wedding venue Belvedere Banquets in Elk Grove Village hosted both the couple’s ceremony and reception. Kam decorated the room with her designs and created a digitally printed backdrop which matched in style cohesively to her stationery items, programs, menu cards, place cards and invites. Not only did Kam do a gorgeous branding their fabulous Fall wedding day, but we noticed C+K’s kept their day very personable. It had all the makings for rock-star wedding status… especially with Kam having three sets of bridal shoes, and changing three times into three different wedding day dresses!

 

We enjoyed while photographing learning more about the Chinese wedding traditions Kam had briefed us about while out on their engagement session. We learned culturally the color red symbolizes good fortune and joy and is traditionally used symbolically as the color of happiness. Kam had mentioned that each of their families spoke opposite languages of China with only a little English, so Kam was often busy translating Cantonese and Mandarin to each of their parents. Especially during each the bride and groom’s family’s Chinese Wedding Tea Ceremony festivities. The tea ceremonies were the first events of the day taking place individually at each of their Chicago area family’s homes. During the Chinese tea ceremony, the parents each expressed words of blessing and provided gifts to the couple.

 

Another Chinese tradition we captured was the Chinese Wedding Door Game. While Kam was waiting upstairs for her groom, Chi-Wei was trying to enter the house but first had to complete tasks set forth by the bridesmaids at the doorway. This game is a Chinese wedding tradition in which the groom and his groomsmen are forbidden to enter and see the bride until they satisfy certain requirements set forth by the bridesmaids and friends. This tradition is the girls block the door to demonstrate their unwillingness to marry off the bride because of their love for her and is all done in good fun. Before the ladies allowed the groom to head upstairs to fetch his bride, he was asked to answer questions relating to their courtship, reenact the marriage proposal, sing love songs acappella style, complete silly tasks such as dancing, and other embarrassing performances. The groomsmen stood by Chi-Wei helping to complete the fun tasks. In addition, the groom and groomsmen also had to bargain and buy their way through the door by offering money in lucky red envelopes to the bridesmaids. It is tradition to keep the money which is given to you in the envelopes. To our surprise, before leaving the home Chi-Wei + Kam present us their photographers with two red envelopes. We greatly appreciate the bonus and thank you C+K! It was a very unexpected surprise.

 

Chi-Wei + Kam we loved getting to know you both over the past few months, and are so glad you shared your big day with us. Hope you enjoy the pictures… and they bring back memories of your fabulous wedding day. Many cheers and congratulations!”

 

 

 

Chi-Wei + Kam’s wedding incorporated many DIY elements. Below are a few highlights:
Ceremony + Reception: Belvedere Banquets, Elk Grove Village, IL
Veil + Brides Wedding Dresses: House of Brides
Bridal Shoe(s): Nina Shoes
Jewelry: Swarovski
Hair: Rachel Pierce
Makeup: Mario Triocci
Bridesmaids Dresses: A mix of House of Brides, David’s Bridal, 1 hand made, and 1 out of town
Suits: Men’s Warehouse
Cake: Rolf’s Patisserie, Lincolnwood
Flowers: Arranged by Chin-Wei Lin, Freshroses.com
DJ: Brian Test from Sound Test Entertainment
Honeymoon: Hong Kong and Bali in May 2011

 

Revisit Chi-Wei + Kam’s Summer Chicago engagement photography session blog post.