Intimate and Sophisticated Weekend at The Langham Chicago

For a couple who travels around the world often, The Langham Hotel was the perfect backdrop and venue for Joe and Justin’s wedding. Together, they put a priority on creating a weekend that was a cohesive and completely immersive experience into how they see their new home of Chicago after moving from Seattle just a year prior.

The goals for their wedding weekend were threefold: warm welcome, intimate and modern dinner-party vibe, and an epic dance party. About thirty minutes into our first meeting and after many laughs and stories about their lives, they caught me red handed on my phone under the table. I couldn’t wait any longer and sent Becca Kaufman a text message to beg/plead/do whatever it took to ensure that BKO was available. Becca was the absolute perfect fit and luckily for us, the stars aligned, and it was her very last date open for the year. Epic dance party: check!

We curated the rest of the goals around an afternoon river cruise through downtown Chicago aboard the Odyssey River Boat. The most perfect way to welcome their out of town friends and family and have everyone together floating through their new home in anticipation of the following day.

Next up: creating the room and setting the stage (literally) for their ceremony. Instead of a traditional aisle and ceremony set up, we had Justin and Joe standing atop a stage surrounded on all four sides by their closest people, with everyone just feet away to witness their commitment and to hear their touching and heartwarming vows. To create their dinner party look for their 128 guests, we took inspiration from high fashion magazine ads – pulling the colors and textures that spoke to them most. Architectural Digest magazine helped finish the inspiration look by providing the perfect wood tones and foliage to incorporate. I tasked our friends at Revel Décor to think outside the box and they did not disappoint. Custom walnut stained boxes housing rows and rows of taper candles, moody moss with every kind of foliage I could imagine and the biggest dahlias running down each of the four long tables. The most chic and sophisticated dinner party we could have asked for.

We are thrilled to share these images that perfectly capture the essence of Justin and Joe. The warmth, sophistication, love, and style. Natalie Probst’s talents were the perfect match to show off what we all already saw by spending so much time with J+J.