I can't stand it! I have to share! * Chicago *

We know we want to keep it more simple this time so we agreed on 3 other couples
we wanted to go with us, for a total of eight of us- and they all said yes!

Since then, things are falling into place so easily!

It was a challenge to find a place for the ceremony for only 8 people that didn't
cost a fortune. Amy is a little shy in public, so a spectacle on the corner
of Navy Pier wouldn't work. The point of being in downtown Chicago, is ..
being downtown in Chicago-so I didn't want to be holed up in a walled building
with no windows.

So, a little thinking outside of the box, brought me to the grand idea of
reserving a two bedroom presidential suite at the top of a hotel on Michigan Ave.

Here is the rooms:

There is a nice walk out balcony, so if it isn't too cold we could do the ceremony
outside. Or if it's a blizzard, we will have it inside by the windows. This is our
view:

I already have an officiant who will come to the suite to perform the ceremony.

At first we thought we would take everyone out for dinner..but then we thought-
we have this great full kitchen, stocked with dishes and a dishwasher-lets bring
dinner to us!

Chicago has a great Weber Grill Restaurant that caters and delivers so we will be ordering
food from them.

and..instead of the big white wedding cake - this time, we are going with a Chicago
tradition- cupcakes from the famous Molly's !

The best part is about 3 weeks before the wedding, we will have our friends "build" their own cupcakes
and we will custom order them so they get the flavor/fillings they want- and Molly's delivers and the hotel
front desk will take it up to our room if we are out.

Even though we will be in Chicago during the height of the Christmas season, we
wanted to stay away from the traditional green and red colors..so we chose
Ice Blue and Silver for our colors with a "theme" of Snowflakes.

The hotel has already said they will bring in an extra table and four chairs
so we can seat 8 all together for eating. We are planning on a white table
cloth with a silver or ice blue runner down the center.

Then we will use two of these as table decor:

The great thing about this all coming together now is we have been able to get a bunch of the
decorations on after Christmas clearance like these great napkin ring holders from Pier 1!

Every setting will have it's own mini champagne bottle for the toast

and we are looking at this box for the favor boxes (most likely holding
the ice blue packaged white truffles from Lindt)

and I found these great brooches on clearance (again, Pier 1) so I bought them
all though I'm not quite sure if we will wear them or re-purpose them somehow:

We are going to arrive on Friday via the train. It's a short block and a half to the hotel
to drop off luggage then - shopping on Michigan Ave! Dinner and maybe a broadway
show depending on what's playing.

Saturday morning is leisurely breakfast and decorating/setting up the suite.
Ceremony at 1pm- Food arrives at 2pm.

and at 4pm we have a surprise for our friends- we are purchasing carriage
rides for everyone !

After a hour tour around town...we will walk around check out all the Christmas lights and
hopefully snack our way thru the Windy City.

Sunday morning is breakfast and Mimosa's in our suite and we check out
at noon to head back home.

Due to the fact we are taking the train..I am trying to keep the decorations to one
small suitcase and clothes in the second.

We are going to deliver our thank you gifts the weekend before so our
friends don't have to haul it on the train. We are going to either find antique
or make wooden crates with the logo of Chicago on the sides...inside we will fill
it with hot chocolate, homemade chocolate squares, hand mixed "sprinkles"
and whip cream for topping off the drinks then sugar snowflake cookies,
snowflake cookie cutters & recipe, and some other little goodies. It will
be similar to these although I am looking for a white hot cocoa recipe
and we will be keeping the white/ice blue color theme:

Once we arrive in Chicago we will give our friends what we are calling
"Chicago Survival Bags".

In it will be pocket sized maps of Michigan Ave., those hand warmer
packs, lip balm, hand moisturizer, anti-bacterial gel, personalized
M&M's in a tin, mints, and gift cards to

(YUM) Garrett's Popcorn

and Ghirardelli's (where we will probably end up after the carriage ride for a warm up of hot chocolate!)

Our guests will have the cost of their hotel and the train-so we are hoping by supplying the gift
cards and dinners we can alleviate any additional costs for the weekend for them. I also like that
the survival bag is unisex friendly and will work for the boys and the girls.

I think we are double typing Spook! We thought about doing an after dark ceremony
but we have one couple who may only be in Chicago for the day so we wanted time
after the ceremony for them to enjoy the city (they've never been downtown) before
they may have to head back home. I'm crossing my fingers they will be able to stay
at least the one night though, there is so much to see in Chicago at Christmas, I'd love
for them to be able to enjoy it with us!

No on the big white dresses...we will dress up for the ceremony... we are tossing around
ideas yet....I'm leaning towards maybe a wool pencil style skirt with knee high boots
and a white sweater or jacket like this:

The other thing we are still trying to decide is our rings. We have very nice rings from what is
now dubbed "the first ceremony". We thought about re-setting the stones but we like the
way they are now. We thought about using the same one but it might be nice to have something
different to signify the new ceremony. I think we decided to find a nicer cheaper ring. I don't
wear my ring at work because it's just too expensive to risk losing or damaging..so I would
like to have a less expensive one that I could wear to training or court that still looks nice
but I wouldn't worry about as much. The ones we have now have three oval diamonds in a row,
more of an anniversary style than a traditional wedding style. The Swarvoski site has some
beautiful rings under two hundred dollars..they have a three stone close to the ones we have
now but the Swarvoski graduates in black tones which is kind of edgy and contemporary.
I think we are going to look closer at that one.

Because we are keeping it small and only taking six friends...I've been reluctant to talk
to much about it with our other friends & family as we don't want anyone to have hurt
feelings for not being invited. They all know we have been talking about it so it won't
be a surprise when we run off to elope...but it's hard for the planner in me who loves
to share our ideas and thoughts! Thank goodness for all you wonderful people so I can
just share away with my Disney friends!

We currently have a trip to WDW in the making for late January or Feb. 2015 with one of
the couples who are going to Chicago with us so we will be celebrating this as our
Honeymoon.

Our first honeymoon was nice but simple such most of our money went to the wedding
itself. We drove down to Brown County in Nashville Indiana and spent a week shopping,
looking at covered bridges and horseback riding. It was quaint and romantic but I'm looking
forwarding to celebrating this time- Disney style!

There are three Disney Stores in the downtown area of Chicago-and
this one is right on Michigan Ave. so we will be close to Mickey on our wedding!

I'm thinking of ordering wedding ears and making Amy pose in front of the building for a photo

Chicago at Christmas is festive and there are decorations everywhere!
For those who haven't had the chance to visit.. here are some holiday pics:

And if you get to Michigan Ave. - Gino's East Pizza is located a few steps away!
I recommend the BBQ Chicken:

And there are always entertaining street performers:

and ... let's not forget The Cheesecake Factory for something sweet!

I've been joking with Amy that this will be the wedding that lasts a year!
We need to go to Chicago this spring so I can go up and see the suite in person,
take the table measurements, scope it out first hand...

Then I think we should Pre-Eat everywhere we may eat during our wedding
just to make sure its all good.. I mean..maybe Garrett's Popcorn is going downhill
or something...we won't know if we don't try it

Then of course we should probably go down again in late summer..you know..
just to try the popcorn again...quality control test....
and than in the fall ........

hmmmmmmmmmm I might be onto something here......