I’m having a hard time getting this post together because there are so many things I want to include!  Firstly, I just love this couple. Jenny and I instantly bonded over our mutual Oberlin College experience (we even overlapped by a year!). Jenny and Matt met in high school …talk about meant to be. I literally just teared up thinking about it. Ok ok, I guess the only thing to do is start.

Emily Garcia (my talented and lovely 2nd shooter) and I met Jenny and her 3 sisters/bridesmaids at their hotel on a rather misty May afternoon in Grayslake, Il.  Jenny made her vale out of baby bell cheese wrappers.  How amazingly cool is that?  Then we hopped in the car and met Matt at a park across the street from the barn for their first look shoot.

Then we ran around the woods for a little while. 

After some pretty amazing frolicking we headed over to the Byron Colby Barn where the ceremony and reception took place.  Ok, so I can’t express to you just how incredible the place looked with painted mason jars and flowers everywhere.  This is a truly DIY wedding with amazing details, so I will stop talking and show you what I mean.


The bar was in the silo!

This was one of my favorite things of the day. Instead of doing a unity candle or the unity sand ceremony, Jenny and Matt made their very own cocktail. They, and a bartender friend invented the drink just for the wedding, and called it the Wry Pomplemousse. I think this is a trend that should and will catch on.


The first dance was Shakira’s “Waka waka”…pretty awesome