Sara and Matt’s Garfield Park Conservatory Wedding
Sara and Matt’s Garfield Park Conservatory wedding was a tropical paradise in Chicago! We loved the couples great concepts and the use of hanging grapevine balls among the stunning conservatory trees.
A Tropical Feel
The Garfield Park Conservatory is one of Chicago’s best kept secrets. It is known as “naturalistic landscape art under glass. ” This botanical treasure created a tropical paradise for Bride Sara, her Groom Matt and all of their wedding guests.
“We started visiting the conservatory a few years ago, and we usually visit several times each winter to breathe some “summer air” and enjoy the plants and flowers. When we were looking for a venue, it was an easy choice because it’s already a part of our lives and relationship, and it was affordable!” said Sara.
A Garfield Park Conservatory wedding was just the ticket to escape the cold Chicago wind without leaving the city! The ceremony and reception took place in the Horticulture Hall, while cocktail hour was enjoyed in the Palm House. Both rooms were full of towering tropical trees and plants that filled the room with fresh air. The greenery was amazing!
“We wanted our main focus to be the palm trees, flowers, and tropical feel of the conservatory, so we chose to have the bridal party wear black so that the flowers would stand out. We chose colors for the linens that we thought would compliment some of the flowers at the conservatory and add an extra splash of color,” said Sara.
Hot pinks and oranges bounced around the room. It felt like spring inside while the outside was a cold Chicago day. Seeing all the blooming flowers and trees really connected you with nature.
Going with their nature theme, Sara and Matt had the guests fill out their own tree, a family tree.
“We got the idea for the tree guestbook from Etsy. We were looking around for an alternative guest book that we could display, because we felt like we wouldn’t actually end up reading a traditional guest book very often. We loved the idea of the tree guestbook because we can hang it in our home and because we liked the symbolism of the tree,” said Sara.
The tree guestbook matched their venue perfectly.
Bringing a Modern Flair to Nature
Even though this venue screams natural and earthy, Sara and Matt asked MDM to use their lighting skills to put a modern twist on this tropical paradise!
“Our favorite wedding purchase/ hire for the venue was definitely the lighted grapevine balls from MDM. We LOVED them!!! By far one of the best things we bought! They made the ceremony and reception very magical and provided enough lighting so that we could have the dim “mood lighting” effect. We debated about whether to get them for a while, and we’re so happy we did,” said Sara.
MDM Entertainment’s hanging grapevine balls fit in perfectly with the trees. The vines matched the tree’s bark and made the plants glow! Everything flowed perfectly as if the lights grew right out of the trees. It was, as Sara said, magical!
The hanging grapevine balls set the tone for not only the loving ceremony but also the dance floor!
“Our first dance was to Van Morrison’s “Days Like This”, which was a very easy choice for us. When we were first dating, we realized that we both love that song, and we’ve listened to it together a lot since then- on special occasions, long road trips, with our daughter, etc,” said Sara.
The couple shared their first dance with their adorable daughter. It was so sweet it brought a tear to your eye.
Sara’s father and Matt’s mother soon took the floor to dance with the newlyweds, before welcoming the whole bridal party onto the dance floor. Wedding DJ Robert kept the party going all night with the couples favorites. He even let the Bride and Groom step behind the table to try their hand at DJ’ing.
Keeping up with the added modern flair under the trees, the Bride and Groom chose to cater in delicious hors d’oeuvres instead of a traditional sit down meal so guests could keep the party going by dancing and posing for pictures!
“We saw something online somewhere about telling guests to tag instagram photos using a specific hashtag so it’d be easy to see all the pictures later. Matt took it a step further and found Capsule online, which is an app that guests can download and use to automatically upload pictures. That way they don’t have to email us or put everything on Facebook,” said Sara.
It was so much fun seeing everyone posing for pictures. Using wedding hashtags is becoming very popular and has revolutionized and made sites like Pinterest possible. For tips on how to use social media at your wedding check out MDM’s past blog.
The guests were not the only ones capturing memories, so was Larry Burrows from Burrows Photography. Larry Burrows is a very talented photographer with an eye for the creative. He was willing to stand on chairs, lay on the floor and pretty much anything to get that fun, new shot! He was wonderful to work with.
All of Sara and Matt’s vendors were great. MDM Entertainment congratulates the newly weds and thanks them for including MDM in their star wedding vendor team!
Wedding Vendor Team
Ceremony Venue: Garfield Park Conservatory
Officiate: Rev. Marian Hale
Reception Venue: Garfield Park Conservatory
Catering: The Berghoff Catering
Bakery: Sweet Enough to Eat, in Highland Park, IL
Photographer: Larry Burrows, Burrows Photography
Florist: Bloom 3 in Evanston, IL
Entertainment: MDM Entertainment
Lighting: MDM Entertainment
For more information about how MDM Entertainment can help you with your Garfield Park Conservatory wedding contact us today at (773) 253-4986.