It seemed fitting that this be my first real blog entry as this the couple that started this whole crazy Elope to Chicago idea for me! I first met Susan and Dan on a wonderful trip from Chicago up to the horse track at Arlington for Derby. We shared some champagne, some spinach breakfast bars and had a couple of terrible mint juleps at the track. But I quickly realized how amazingly awesome these two are. I could hang out with them all day, and lucky me I got to for their wedding!

In the fall Susan found out she was being relocated to Dallas for work and couldn’t imagine going without Dan. He popped the question shortly after. Although they were planning their big wedding in Scotland in December they had a small city hall ceremony and reception in Chicago where they fell in love and allowed me to tag along!

We were able to take our time and explore the city and just enjoy the day. They were troopers as it was freezing (literally the high was 32).  We hit some of their favorite places in the city and stopped to warm up at the Hotel Lincoln where they were staying. More people should get married on Mondays!!

Congrats to Susan and Dan!

From there we walked over to the La Salle Street Bridge from some of my favorite shots of the day

From there we jumped in the car and headed to North Ave. Beach.

At this point we were all practically frozen solid so we headed to Hotel Lincoln for some coffee to warm up. I would highly recommend this place to anyone. It’s such a cool new funky hotel and the staff were AMAZING. They were so friendly and even let us up on the rooftop for a few shots!

And off to our last stop – Wrigley Field!

We parted ways for a couple of hours as the newlyweds went to and amazing lunch/dinner. I met back up with them that evening as they had a small party with some of their friends and co-workers from Chicago complete with champagne and toasts!

Group pic!!!