Architectural Artifacts, Chicago, IL // Cahill December Wedding!

For quite some time now, I have been saying to anyone with ears that winter weddings are wholly underrated.  For one, there is cheer from here to as far as the eye can see, there are Christmas lights everywhere, and, if you're really lucky, the weather may surprise you with a light dusting of the gorgeous white stuff.

The Cahill wedding was no exception.  We started the day at the Sheraton Chicago, where the girls and guys were getting ready.

Kirsten really wanted to do a reverse first look.  Hey, I'm all for breaking traditions and doing things your way, so I was all for this.  It was actually pretty fun to watch Kirsten sweat while she waited for Matt, usually I've got a groom anxiously awaiting the bride.  This was a super fun take on that.

From there, we headed out to make pit stops at some of my favorite Chicago locations.  

You can't have a holiday season wedding and ride in anything BUT a holiday themed trolley, right?!

Or maybe this is more your style.

Once everyone was sufficiently freezing, we jumped back in that jolly trolly and headed on up north to Architectural Artifacts in the Ravenswood neighborhood for both the ceremony and reception.  If you have never been, you should go.  When it's not busy being one of the coolest wedding venues in all of Chicago, Architectural Artifacts serves as a real resale store with some of the coolest odds and ends your eyes could hope to find.  HGTV fans--this place is your paradise, the shop is your playground.

And then they do cool stuff like rent out their event space for couples to eat, drink and get married.

Kirsten and Matt had two first dances.  They did the more traditional route first...

And then they got the party started.

Ohio State people, you get this, right?  Hang on Sloopy is apparently a big deal to you guys.

They spent their honeymoon/holidays in the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland (feel that travel envy? Me too.)  Congrats Kirsten and Matt!  And to all of my future Winter Wedding Queens, I hope you find some inspiration from this post!

As always, thank you to Robb Davidson for being my extra set of hands (and cameras) on this one!