Tag Archives: Chicago

Party Backstage with Jason Kaczorowski Photography in Chicago

in Sponsored Post | Written by

BackstagePass

With a background in music photography and a passion for wedding imagery, Chicago based photographer Jason Kaczorowski is combining the two and having one hell of a party to celebrate… and he wants to see you there! Today I’m thrilled to be showcasing the first showing of his new film as well as being able to offer Rock n Roll brides an exclusive opportunity to attend the party he’s throwing tomorrow night to celebrate!

Jason has been capturing weddings for almost eight years, having photographed over 400 clients, and has been photographing concerts and music festivals professionally since 1994. His photography has led him from the coast of California to the island of Jamaica and everywhere in between. Jason’s photographs have appeared in magazines like Rolling Stone, Spin & Relix and in newspapers such as The New York Post, The Miami Herald, The San Francisco Examiner, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.

So to celebrate his fifth year in his Chicago studio Jason is having a party – dubbed Backstage Pass – and is inviting clients, both past and present, as well as Rock n Roll Bride readers.The event will mirror the experience of attending a live concert – music, food, drinks a-plenty and music & wedding photography to gawk at!

Continue reading

Chicago Boat Wedding: Sonia & Balthazar

in Wedding | Written by

Sonia & Balthazar‘s wedding was anything but typical. This casual couple turned up late, got ready in minutes, sailed off on a boat for the ceremony and had a meal at a Russian restaurant for their reception.

“My husband and I are in love with the sea – the smell, the mystery and the expansiveness”, began the bride. “We feel most comfortable near large bodies of water, so the idea of getting married on a boat seemed like the most appropriate. We had sailed on the Red Witch in 2009 with Balthazar’s aunt and uncle in Port Washington during a tall ship festival. We overheard the Captain saying that they host parties and weddings and looked at each other simultaneously, with the same thought in mind: this is our vessel of love.”

“Pretty much the last word you could use to describe me or my immediate family is  ’traditional’”, she continued. “My parents and I were all born with pretty stubborn independent and individualist streak, so getting married after a long and thoughtful courtship probably constitutes its own act of rebellion. That said, Balthazar and I weren’t interested in most of the corporatist, patriarchal overtures of many modern weddings. Also, money was definitely an object, both in principle ($25,000 for an average wedding? WHAT!?) and in practice. We wanted an event that celebrated our love, had a meaningful spiritual component, honored our community of friendship and family, and gave everyone a memorable, joyful experience.”

Continue reading

A Doggy Ringbearer, A Slimed Wedding Cake & An Epic Dance Party: Jen & Nick

in Wedding | Written by

Having never been to a traditional wedding as adults, Jen & Nick really had no preconceptions about what should happen at a wedding. Instead they took to it as they might when planning any party…and they did what they wanted!

“The only wedding either of us had been to in our adult lives was in an abandoned parking lot and lasted 20 minutes”, explained Nick, “so we had no preconceptions of what should happen. Our wedding was about having fun. We had a Mountain Dew fountain, glow stick cutlery, vintage cartoon paper plates, funnel cakes made to order and a late-night hot dog bar!”

Continue reading

A Woodland Party Wedding: Kat & Mat

in Wedding | Written by

“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.”

Continue reading

Batman, Fish & Beards – A Party-Hard Nightclub Wedding: Dustin & Morgan

in Wedding | Written by

You’d be shocked at the number of emails I recieve from brides-to-be who tell me they love my site and the weddings I feature but that they’re worried that their wedding will somehow not ‘measure up’ or be ‘as cool’ as the weddings they see online. My response to these girls is always the same: your wedding is not a ‘coolness’ competition or a chance to show off. Your wedding is for you and your partner and it will be awesome because you are awesome. The love is the most important thing, not the amazing centrepieces, the quirky stationery or the beautiful dress. These things are meant to enhance your day for you, to be fun and exciting, they do not and will not define anything other than that.

So why did I want to mention that again today? Well Dustin & Morgan’s wedding is pretty much the epitome of Rock n Roll awesome. It wasn’t detail-heavy or wedding blog pretty – it was just a seriously awesome party! It celebrated their love in their way and they were 100% unapologetic about that fact… And you know what? It’s one of my favourite weddings that’s I’ve featured in a long time! So, forget about the bunting, the mason jars or the designer frock and focus on what’s important – the LOVE (and in this case, the dancing)…

The wedding was held at The Hideout, Chicago and the aim of the game was for the couple to throw a party that reflected them and their love. It wasn’t about the froof or the perfectly matching napkins, it was about celebrating! “I don’t really know what our inspiration was, ” Morgan told me. “We just did what we always do. We came up with the stupidest thing we could think of and make it exist…just like our marriage haha!”

“If we had to have a theme it would have been BATMAN FISH-BEARD! All the wall decorations were cassette tapes. Dustin had a big box of voice demo tapes from the 90s that he had somehow acquired. We decorated and hung them on the walls of The Hideout. When you pull out a tape’s guts it looks like streamers. Also we put felt beards on all the taxidermy fish at that were on the walls… As you do.”

“Our cake toppers were Batman and Clayface Mini-Mates. I glued some flowers to Clayface and gave him a bouquet, and Zoe (who also did my hair and make up) painted a tux on Batman. My friend Jamie Knight painted a portrait of the two that hung behind the desserts. Why Batman? Why Clayface? Batman was a given, as Dustin Drase is the worlds greatest detective, But I had trouble choosing the character that was most ‘me’. Unable to make a decision I just went with the big, fat, mud-monster as ‘big, fat, mud-monster’ is my spirit animal.”

“For our invites we had my sister combine my narwhale tattoo with Dustin’s beard and glasses to create a design we used on both the invites and the shot glasses. The shot glasses were used in our Malort Toast. Malort is magic. Malort can not be described. You should find some and drink some and take a picture of your face and send it to me. We also had smile-face cookies!”

Yep, it’s offical. I love these guys. Morgan’s closing statement made me want to hug her and squeeze her and tell he she made me whole, “I can teach you how to make hair flowers, the tape decorations, or how to fit a taxidermy fish with a felt beard,” she concluded. “However I cannot teach you how to love… I’m sorry.”

Continue reading

Back to School – A Madmen & Book Themed Wedding: April & Zdenko

in Wedding | Written by

As a high school teacher, getting married at the school she taught at seemed like the perfect idea to April. The venue also gave them a really great starting block for a totally unique and awesome wedding – Back to School! “I’d say our wedding was a mix of Madmen style with a book theme,” April explained. “I am a high school English teacher and my husband is a graduate student at University of Chicago with plans to be a professor. A book theme just seemed natural. I immediately knew I wanted books as our centerpieces and since our names are April and Zdenko, A to Z bookends were perfect. Then I thought of personalized pencils and it all started to come together.”

“I am super crafty and we were on a tight budget, so our choice to do most things DIY was more out of necessity than anything else, but it created the look I wanted anyway. I didn’t necessarily try to go out of my way to be different, I just was trying to capture our personalities.”

“Our ceremony and reception venue was the high school that I teach at on the Westside of Chicago in the recently redeveloped Homan Square area of North Lawndale,” the bride continued. “The school is a charter school run by Henry Ford Learning Instituted aptly named Power House High due to the fact that it was the former power house for the original Sears Tower and factory plant. The building was renovated into a school 3 years ago and many of the original machinery was left to create a museum-like atmosphere. We were the first couple to rent out the space for a wedding, but they certainly hope to continue renting it out for this purpose. If interested, contact Kevin Sutton at ksutton@homansquare.org.”

As mentioned before, the majority of this wedding was DIYed by the couple and their friends. “We depended on may people for their creativity. We have two friends that brew beer and they made three different homebrews for our wedding. My best friend’s husband made these awesome invitations for us with an A to Z bookend graphic he designed. My cousin and her husband used that graphic to make personalized screen printed T-shirts for our wedding party.”

“My Mom made my favorite cookies and Zdenko’s mom made a variety of Bosnian cookies. Our friend Alexis and his brother Teddy run a food truck here in Chicago and they ended up catering our rehearsal dinner in their soon-to-open restaurant. My sister-in-law and Mother-in-law made the bell favors. My best friend made the flowers, the moustaches for pictures, and many other things. My neighbors made the beautiful arch with an awesome floral arrangement for the ceremony. My friend Kay made the A to Z bookends for the centerpieces. Everyone was just so awesome and constantly asked to help out in more ways than I even could imagine!”

Almost makes me want to go back to school…well maybe only if it was as cool as this one!

Continue reading