wedding followup - forest preserves
Sorry to all my friends - this is basically just information about the wedding that I was posting on a couple of bride-chat boards, and I wanted to cross-post it here since those aren't internally searchable, and if there's some chicago-area bride-to-be who really wants to know more about outdoor weddings held for cheap in a forest preserve, I'd like her to be able to find me and ask questions. Otherwise, just ignore.
We reserved a picnic shelter at one of the Cook County forest preserves, cost $150 (www.fpdcc.com)
We bought bbq pork and vegetable lasagna, laid out in borrowed chafing dishes; my aunts and friends brought salads and sides. plastic plates, plastic tablecloths. The forest preserve allows alcohol so long as there's no glass bottles, so we had kegs. No champagne, no wine (glass bottles). Had a lot of water bottles, since it was a hot day, and big cooler full of limeade. Also mixed up jugs of "margarita mix" (tequila+triplesec) and "mojito mix" (rum and mint) to turn the limeade into mixed drinks on a cup-by-cup basis.
We put the food under the stone shelter, and rented a tent to put the eating-tables under. Tent rental is pretty cheap ($200?) but then there were fees for getting it delivered and set up instead of doing it ourselves, and fees because we needed it all on the same day, and fees because we needed it done after 5pm. Nearly $800 for a 20x30 tent + 10 tables + 60 chairs that appeared Saturday morning and disappeared 7pm, http://www.aaarental.com/
As it happened, we used the chairs for the ceremony, and the tables for serving, and the tent plus the forest preserve's picnic tables for eating, but the rental company's "picnic package" worked fine.
Decoration - the whole place was very green and very big, so no matter what we decorated with, we'd need a *lot* of it, or else things wouldn't look very decorated. I decided to go with flags - a combination of strings of 5" ones, and 3'x5' cloth ones on poles, white to make it weddingy, trimmed in chosen colors (red, purple, blue). I had moments of worrying it would look like a car dealership, but the end result was really nice.
wedding party, just to give you a general idea:
and a bunch of links to save your load-time
ceremony area:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996603617@N01/1342100515/in/set-72157601898876744/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317099919/in/set-72157601852338235/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1318047498/in/set-72157601852338235/
picnic shelter:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996603617@N01/1342988558/in/set-72157601898876744/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317232683/in/set-72157601852338235/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317168113/in/set-72157601852338235/
tent:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317217137/in/set-72157601852338235/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317227059/in/set-72157601852338235/
About 90% of forest preserve picnic shelters are kind of plain (modern ugly posts-with-roof on cement, very Sunday-school-picnic), but a few are old-fashioned stone, and quite nice. I confess I spent a long time choosing *which* forest preserve site we were going to use. Those photos are of National Grove #3. Other stone shelters are at Arie Crown, Brezina Woods #3, Harm's Woods #5, McCormick, and Fullerton. There are a few more that were closed for renovation when we were looking (Arie Crown is actually one of those). Also, in the SW suburbs, Black Partridge Woods was a perfectly adorable site that doesn't allow alcohol. It's got a little stone bridge over a creek connecting the parking lot to the (stone) shelter which is fairly secluded, and would be a sweet spot for romantic photos. We picked National Grove for a number of reasons - park is not far from the city, shelter is secluded (doesn't share a parking lot with other picnics) and far from the street, and of course, it was free the day we wanted it. We were reserving in early May for a wedding on a Saturday in September or late August; we ended up with our second-choice weekend once we narrowed it down to a few sites, as a lot of those dates were already filled.
In close, I can't say enough nice things about the forest preserve employees. Local residents may recall, there was a lot of rain in August 2007, and the Des Plaines river totally flooded. That meant that our site was underwater up until about 5 days before the wedding. I called the office as soon as I found out (we visited the site on Wednesday, and saw it covered in silt) and they were sympathetic - I told them it was for my wedding, and they went into over-drive. In just 2 days, they power-washed the picnic shelter to remove the 1/4" layer of silt and branches, laid down extra gravel in the drive, and mowed the whole front meadow area (only half the meadow had been underwater, but the grass was high). They were in at 5am on Saturday laying down wood chips in a few areas that were still muddy, and I know some of those guys put in a lot of effort and overtime work getting the site as presentable as they could. I am totally impressed. If you'd like to use a park-like space, I whole-heartedly recommend the forest preserves.
We reserved a picnic shelter at one of the Cook County forest preserves, cost $150 (www.fpdcc.com)
We bought bbq pork and vegetable lasagna, laid out in borrowed chafing dishes; my aunts and friends brought salads and sides. plastic plates, plastic tablecloths. The forest preserve allows alcohol so long as there's no glass bottles, so we had kegs. No champagne, no wine (glass bottles). Had a lot of water bottles, since it was a hot day, and big cooler full of limeade. Also mixed up jugs of "margarita mix" (tequila+triplesec) and "mojito mix" (rum and mint) to turn the limeade into mixed drinks on a cup-by-cup basis.
We put the food under the stone shelter, and rented a tent to put the eating-tables under. Tent rental is pretty cheap ($200?) but then there were fees for getting it delivered and set up instead of doing it ourselves, and fees because we needed it all on the same day, and fees because we needed it done after 5pm. Nearly $800 for a 20x30 tent + 10 tables + 60 chairs that appeared Saturday morning and disappeared 7pm, http://www.aaarental.com/
As it happened, we used the chairs for the ceremony, and the tables for serving, and the tent plus the forest preserve's picnic tables for eating, but the rental company's "picnic package" worked fine.
Decoration - the whole place was very green and very big, so no matter what we decorated with, we'd need a *lot* of it, or else things wouldn't look very decorated. I decided to go with flags - a combination of strings of 5" ones, and 3'x5' cloth ones on poles, white to make it weddingy, trimmed in chosen colors (red, purple, blue). I had moments of worrying it would look like a car dealership, but the end result was really nice.
wedding party, just to give you a general idea:
and a bunch of links to save your load-time
ceremony area:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996603617@N01/1342100515/in/set-72157601898876744/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317099919/in/set-72157601852338235/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1318047498/in/set-72157601852338235/
picnic shelter:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996603617@N01/1342988558/in/set-72157601898876744/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317232683/in/set-72157601852338235/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317168113/in/set-72157601852338235/
tent:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317217137/in/set-72157601852338235/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejsmuga/1317227059/in/set-72157601852338235/
About 90% of forest preserve picnic shelters are kind of plain (modern ugly posts-with-roof on cement, very Sunday-school-picnic), but a few are old-fashioned stone, and quite nice. I confess I spent a long time choosing *which* forest preserve site we were going to use. Those photos are of National Grove #3. Other stone shelters are at Arie Crown, Brezina Woods #3, Harm's Woods #5, McCormick, and Fullerton. There are a few more that were closed for renovation when we were looking (Arie Crown is actually one of those). Also, in the SW suburbs, Black Partridge Woods was a perfectly adorable site that doesn't allow alcohol. It's got a little stone bridge over a creek connecting the parking lot to the (stone) shelter which is fairly secluded, and would be a sweet spot for romantic photos. We picked National Grove for a number of reasons - park is not far from the city, shelter is secluded (doesn't share a parking lot with other picnics) and far from the street, and of course, it was free the day we wanted it. We were reserving in early May for a wedding on a Saturday in September or late August; we ended up with our second-choice weekend once we narrowed it down to a few sites, as a lot of those dates were already filled.
In close, I can't say enough nice things about the forest preserve employees. Local residents may recall, there was a lot of rain in August 2007, and the Des Plaines river totally flooded. That meant that our site was underwater up until about 5 days before the wedding. I called the office as soon as I found out (we visited the site on Wednesday, and saw it covered in silt) and they were sympathetic - I told them it was for my wedding, and they went into over-drive. In just 2 days, they power-washed the picnic shelter to remove the 1/4" layer of silt and branches, laid down extra gravel in the drive, and mowed the whole front meadow area (only half the meadow had been underwater, but the grass was high). They were in at 5am on Saturday laying down wood chips in a few areas that were still muddy, and I know some of those guys put in a lot of effort and overtime work getting the site as presentable as they could. I am totally impressed. If you'd like to use a park-like space, I whole-heartedly recommend the forest preserves.