Emily and Alex's Chic City Garden Wedding

Emily and Alex had a gorgeous wedding at Cafe Brauer in Lincoln Park. The vibes were a chill garden celebration, with an emphasis on celebrating love and family. When they inquired, they discussed their vision to be “Backyard wedding vibes, casual and easy going; a boozy and bougie backyard celebration.”

“Quality over quantity is my ideal wedding aesthetic…a day buzzing with love and happiness is simply what we're going for. After a few years of loss in my family…it's important to me that we feel surrounded by those those closest to us on our big day and are able to begin a new happy chapter in our relationship to building our own family (we're college sweethearts so this has been a very long time coming!)”

Emily and Alex reached out to us from LA. For a venue, they were strongly considering an outdoor wedding at a lake house/country club Alex’s family has visited many times in the LA area. They did, however, want to confirm with wedding professionals on a few costs, and tradeoffs before booking. Luckily, they were also rather flexible on location, as though based in LA, they both have family in Chicago, and they attended university in the Midwest. Through our planning process, we were able to guide them through multiple options with venue tours and meetings. We eventually decided on the city of Chicago! The couple ended up falling in love with Cafe Brauer because it had a wonderful balance of city brick, and garden exterior from Lincoln Park.

For the overall look of the wedding, we brainstormed some ideas on how we could keep things casual, but feel bougie. We played around with “dainty”, and “alice in wonderland”. It lead us to lean heavily on floral decorated teapots as inspiration. Specifically the white china type, with the deep blue floral designs. From there, things began to click together. It would be an elevated “tea party”.

We found gorgeous blue linens that looked just like patterned china, the florals were mostly built with leaves and branches to emulate an interior garden party, while also being the perfect “backdrop” for a few white and blue flowers. We found some amazing rental pieces that gave the tablescapes some subtle coloring, and texture. It truly was a bougie tea party, where all the family members got to celebrate the couple, and dance the night away!

Fierce About Event:

  • The wedding truly felt like a spring time tea party, but in the middle of August!

  • The table decor was gorgeous. The linens, chargers, and even napkin folds made everything feel like a bougie, garden tea party.

  • The mismatched floral dresses of the wedding party.

  • The couple really wanted to have a live music, so we hired a live band to get guests grooving.

Fierce Wedding Team

Planner/Designer/Stationary: Fierce Productions | Coordinator: Kerrie Gallagher | Venue: Cafe Brauer | Photography: Golden Hours Wedding | Catering: Entertaining Company | Cake: ECBG Cake Studio | Beauty: Joanna B Artistry | Attire: Loho Bride | Band: TVK Orchestra | Flowers: Flowers By Stem | Get Ready: Hotel Lincoln |

DO YOU HAVE A BOLD VISION FOR YOUR WEDDING?

Fierce Productions is a Chicago based event planning company specializing in curating unique, bold, non-traditional weddings and events. Our talented team of professionals can handle all of your event needs including planning and coordination, design and styling, vendor and talent management, fundraising, marketing support and beyond - get in touch to learn more!