Entries Tagged as 'photo booth'

Out for Dallas’s Birthday

December 11th, 2011 · No Comments

This year for Dallas’s birthday we sort of hopped around a bit. A lot of people had a bunch of plans, holiday parties, etc. so we wanted them to be able to meet up with us whnever they could.

We started out at The Whistler, nearby our condo, in Logan Square. This was the 3rd year in a row that we started off Dallas’s birthday at The Whistler! (See 2010, 2009). Brian was especially happy about this, since The Whistler is a little out of his sphere, but he’s enjoyed his yearly trip there for Dallas’s birthday.

After the Whistler we headed up to Roscoe Village to our favorite, The Village Tap. I’d emailed with the owner, Mike, and our favorite waitress, Carolyn, ahead of time to make sure they could reserve some space for us in the back. We had a great turn out here. Quinn came early on and sang Dallas the birthday song and made him a gingerbread man decoration. (Somewhere around 2 am I reached into my purse and accidentally ripped this guy’s leg off, but that can be taped!) We probably had 20+ people, coming and going. Not too shabby. We had dinner, some drinks, and at least 2 rounds of Irish Car Bombs. A typical night at The Tap.

Finally, we went back to Logan Square to a newer late-night bar called The Owl. I’d been really wanting to visit this place since it opened. Aside from a dramatic incident of someone getting thrown out and then someone else having to pay a bribe to get us back in, I thought it was a cool place. I don’t know if I can brush these shenanigans aside to want to go back though. It was not dealt with in a very good way and the guy at the door was just being a total jerk. But we had fun here. A bunch of people that had plans earlier in the night met up with us here for some late-night drinks. I think Dallas and I left around 2:30 a.m. or so. I was just getting over a cold and lost my voice, so I had to go.

Overall, a successful birthday celebration! Thanks to everyone for coming out and making it a fun night.

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Architectural Anarchy Launch Party

May 10th, 2011 · 2 Comments

A couple weeks ago Jess asked Alden and I to attend an event that would benefit Association House, an organization that she is on the board of. We both said we were interested and so we went to the web site to buy tickets. It was then that I realized that this was a launch party for Architectural Anarchy, a 20,000+ square foot venue space filled with antiques and industrial furniture and salvaged goods in Pilsen. But not only that, the party was showcasing a ton of wedding vendors and was really targeted towards wedding industry professionals and brides-to-be. How ironic that I avoided all of this sort of thing while planning my wedding and then as soon as my wedding was over, I was at a wedding planning event! Oh well. It was for a good cause.

Jess was kind of all over the place for the event. She checked in with us a bunch and hung out, but at the same time she was running around selling raffle tickets and greeting people at the door. Alden and I started out with a look through an antique shop that is in the same building.. then free drinks, more free drinks, free food, and more free drinks. Haha.. kidding… but not really. Goose Island was one of the event sponsors and they had an area set up where you could taste 4 different things they made and each was paired with one of their high-end beers. All of these were really good. It made me want to go eat at the pub, but I’ve never eaten anything I really loved there.

We also ate at a “pop up” restaurant sponsored by Purekitchen. This was an area of the space where they set up a kitchen and seating, even a separate bar area. 20,000 square feet is big. You can do almost anything in that amount of space. We had samples sizes of chopped spinach salad, radish, hard-boiled egg, crispy spring onion; steamed walleye pike, asparagus panzanella, fermented carrot slaw; and allspice semifreddo, candied smoked hazelnuts, preserved cherry aigre-doux.

In another room they even had a bridal fashion show. Since this was a wedding event, there were different DJs and musicians in each room. Some rooms had crazy lighting. Every room had bars set up.

There was one whole room that was just desserts. Like truffles and cupcakes as far as the eye could see. This was my favorite room, of course.

The raffle was to win a party at Architectural Anarchy for you and 35 of your friends. With all the food and music and drinks provided by the featured vendors, the party was valued at $10,000! Alden and Jess and I must have bought at least 10 tickets but the luck wasn’t with us that night! Wah.

One of the vendors was a photo booth rental place called Shutterbooth. We could not pass this up. In fact, we visited the photo booth four times! My favorite frame from the night:

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What Just Happened?

April 8th, 2011 · No Comments

Here is how the night went from innocent to what the hell just happened?

  1. Association House Local Artists Auction at LVL3 Gallery. Free Admission. $1 beers.
  2. Fulton Street Collective: Luda Lovestyle. Free keg. Questionable jello shots.
  3. Bar Deville: PBR Tallboys. Photo booth.
  4. Lorraine’s 24-Hour Diner. Scary rabbits, incognito men.

Don’t ask me any questions about any of these photos. I don’t know what’s going on either!

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Trent & Loden’s Wedding

September 7th, 2010 · 3 Comments

Trent and Loden’s wedding was on Saturday. I was really excited because many of our friends would be there and we all knew it was going to be a good time. Also, it happened right in our neighborhood, so it couldn’t have been easier to get to and home from.

The wedding ceremony was at the Humboldt Park formal gardens.

This is Logan, Trent’s nephew. He was the ring bearer and he kind of stole the show at one point in the ceremony. That kid. People were chanting his name later on at dinner! Hilarious. Gonna have to keep an eye on that Logan!

The wedding seemed to have a kind of “summer to fall” theme. There were flowers, but also many fall leaves and colors. Perfect for September and Labor Day weekend. The aisle was sprinkled with white rose petals. The flower girls threw fall leaves from their baskets.

Sadly, Loden’s dad passed away recently. Her brother, Lane, walked her down the aisle, which I thought was a really nice touch.

The wedding ceremony was more traditional than those I’ve been to lately, with a minister and readings. It was a beautiful ceremony. Trent and Loden wrote and read their own heartfelt vows and I think there were sniffles all round.

Officially married!

Time to party!

Looks like the ushers, Limey and Sam, were already partying!

The reception was at Stan Mansion in Logan Square, which is actually just a few houses from where our friend Ed lives. He was kind enough to host us for a while between the ceremony and reception and also during the wee morning hours after the reception. After a drink or two, or an Advil in my case (it was a rough day for all after that pre-wedding party at The Tap the night before!), we headed to Stan Mansion for cocktails.

When we entered there was a grass colored table of rocks. On each rock were guest names and on the back of the rocks was the table they were seated at.

The bar area was off to the side and everyone was gathered for cocktail hour. After a while we were asked to go into the reception area. The room was so gorgeous, these photos don’t even do it justice.

Some of the tables had beautiful orchid centerpieces, like the one above, and some had tall, architectural fall leaves, like the one below. I like that things matched but not every table was the same… and flowers and leaves, kept with the theme.

Trent and Loden making their grand entrance -

The dinner was blessed and then we all got down to business. Smoque, arguably one of the best BBQ restaurants in Chicago, catered the wedding. Dallas and I have tried to go to Smoque but the line is always too long. I think Dallas had it one time without me, but I was excited because I’d never been there. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

Ribs, brisket, barbecue chicken, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, cornbread and salad. It was all so delicious. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. People at our table were going up for seconds it was soo good. The only bad thing about that is later on we were all kind of in a coma .. or trying to fake dance with extended bellies.

Trent and Loden had a traditional wedding cake, above, and a more unique side cake, below. Wiser’s is their favorite whiskey and it was flowing very freely all night long. In addition to cake, Ed (The Baked Escape) baked a few cheesecakes for the dessert table.

Trent and Loden made their way around the room, stopping at every table, during dinner.

After dinner we got to hang out with all of our friends.

People we see often like The Limey…

… and Danny and Caroline …

… others who had travelled from far like Justin (with Ed and Dallas) Justin and his wife moved from Chicago to Colorado a few years back ….

…. and Herm (with Ed) Herm is our friend Allison’s boyfriend.. Allison moved from Chicago to San Francisco a few years ago …

We had so much fun at Trent and Loden’s wedding. Great friends, great food, great drinks. Like I mentioned earlier, after the wedding most of our friends headed over to Ed’s house. A lot of the wedding party ended up there, and Trent and Loden made a quick appearance as well. Before we knew it, it was past 2 a.m. The good thing was that we could just walk home to our house.

Oh, and I don’t want to forget to mention this. At the entrance of the wedding reception there was a photo booth. Everyone got their photo taken and the guy operating the booth printed one strip out for everyone in the photo plus one extra for a guest book. The photo strips were pasted into the guest book and we wrote our messages next to our photos. The photo booth was open all night and the photos got more hilarious as the night wore on. We had been taking so many photos in the photo booth at Village Tap the night before at the rehearsal party so this continued that theme right on. Also, Trent and Loden’s save the date for the wedding was a photo booth strip. Fun!

Here’s a photo of the strips I was in.. the photo was taken at my house the next day.

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Trent & Loden’s Rehearsal Party

September 6th, 2010 · 2 Comments


Trent & Loden


The wedding party was drinking out of special mugs.


Irish Car Bombs a plenty!


Danny & Caroline in the photo booth


Cousin in the photo booth


Cousin, Caroline and me


Herm, Kristin, Dallas


Lots of car bombs

On Friday night Trent and Loden had their wedding rehearsal. After the rehearsal everyone headed over to have dinner in Roscoe Village. And then after dinner, they all headed to the Village Tap where they rented out the back room. They invited a lot of out of town guests and close friends to join them for the rehearsal party at The Tap. It would not be Trent’s party without a ton of Irish car bombs. That receipt for $119 worth of car bombs was only one of many checks. All those car bombs made everyone really adventurous in the photobooth! Everyone had such a great time, maybe too good of a time, in hindsight! And we love being at The Tap, where it always feels a bit like home.

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