Welcome to this “spring” elopement! I use the word spring loosely as Mother Nature decided to drop about 15-20 degrees overnight.

This elopement is a prime example of how you go with the flow and why I love my elopement couples. Our plan was for them to get married at Olive Park. The morning of it was rain, and more rain. It looked like it was going to taper off so they decided to go for their outdoor elopement despite the misty weather. As we were getting in the car I got a text from Rev. Eva telling me the park was closed. WHAT?! To my knowledge (as I’ve confirmed this with security officers there) Olive Park is only closed for July 4th (sometimes the day before or after depending on when it falls), Air and Water show weekend and if we get a lot of snow. It turns out they were trimming the trees and since the weather was gross they just decided not to open the park.

After some momentary panic we opted for the beach next door. It was completely empty and it turns out was pretty ironic as Angie and Brad had jokingly told people they would probably just run off and get married on a beach somewhere! It wasn’t quite a Caribbean wedding, but they did have their feet in the sand and the skyline view they wanted.

Just after they said I do we heard someone over a speaker saying “Congratulations! Would you like to take some photos in the park?”

It was one of the police officers making his rounds! He came to the gate and unlocked it, drove us down to the platform let us take photos and drove us back! I can’t thank him enough. I would send him a shout out, but I don’t want to get him trouble as the park was supposed to be closed for the day, so I will just say thank you officer. You know who you are 🙂

From there we headed to the Wrigley Building and Michigan Ave. Once they were mostly frozen we decided to make a final stop for a celebratory drink. We headed to Kerryman, which is one of my favorites. They were kind enough to let us sneak up to the upstairs bar that wasn’t open and take some photos. A big thank you to them!

I left them to enjoy their beers as Mr. and Mrs.! This day could have gone very differently. They could have panicked when the park was closed. They could have decided not to brave the rain. We could have been there a different time and missed the officer doing his rounds. The bar could have told us no to crashing their upstairs bar. But the people of Chicago brought their A game and Angie and Brad rolled with the punches and now have some great stories from their wedding day!

Here are some of my favorites!

Photography: Becky Brown Photography

Officiant: A Perfect Fit Rev

Hair & Makeup: Kate Johnson Artistry

Flowers: Christine Janda Design & Events