“Woodland party circus!” replied newlywed Kat when I asked her to describe her wedding. “At least that was the three things we kept saying to people when they asked what our wedding was going to be like.”
Kat & Mat were married at The Hideout, a bar and music venue in Chicago. “We really didn’t want to have a traditional banquet wedding, and we both wanted something that was very relaxed”, the bride continued. “The ceremony was an important part of the day for us but we also knew the party was equally important! We saw the reception part of the evening an opportunity to really celebrate with all the friends and family who had come from both close (a few blocks away) and far (as far as Australia). We racked our brains and both of us have some great memories of The Hideout. We spend a lot of time going to shows there and we even first met at one, so it seemed like a natural fit. I think the venue was what really made our wedding special and started to really define how we were going to work in the rest of the details.”
The theme was really a naturally evolving process, which started with the animal masks that Kat found on Etsy. “I actually found the fox mask first, which Mat liked, and the owl was just perfect for me”, she explained. “Later we discovered there’s a poem called The Owl and Fox that talks about the unlikely meeting of an owl and a fox and how they form a ever-lasting partnership. It was all just too perfect.”
“We were very fortunate to have a lot of very very talented friends help us with our wedding, we couldn’t have pulled it off without them. Our invites were done by an illustrator friend I’ve known for years from Australia and our flowers were by a friend here in Chicago. Our band was also made up of friends Mat has known for years through playing music around the city. The Hideout opened up early for us on the day so we could get in and decorate, and again a lovely group of friends helped out. Even our celebrant is a friend. The only items we didn’t ‘friend-source’ was our photography, food and cake. I attempted a few DIY projects but I found out very quickly I’m not the type. We ordered our decorations from Amazon!”
“I loved how it all just seemed to fit together perfectly”, the bride concluded. “We really had no idea what we were doing. Even down to the wedding party attire, we were a little loosey-goosey. In the end, we left it up to the bridesmaids and groomsmen to choose their own outfits, and it was perfect. I think we were all a little surprised about how well it all fitted together. We were very fortunate to have our friends help, I’ll never be able to thank them enough. The venue was probably my favorite thing. It just has a lot of history for not just us, but Chicago. Our friends and family know it, and it was just so easy to feel comfortable and have a great time there. Being from Australia, it was also important to me to have something that was really a part of our life in Chicago. Now when we go back, I always think about getting up on that stage and marrying my best friend. I think that’s pretty awesome.”
Awesome indeed. I love everything about this wedding – the venue, the masks, the unadulterated love that oozes out of all the photographs! Thank you to Kat & Mat and their wedding photographer Nicole of Studio Starling for sharing with us today.
