Real Weddings | Ana And Clark | By Chicago Wedding Photographer Mark Romine

Real Wedding Description

This was a wonderful fun filled wedding on Chicago’s North shore but I will let Ana tell you her story. “Most women dream of their wedding day since they were little. I on the other hand never bothered to think about it; I always thought my mom would plan it all! My mom lives in another country and when my husband proposed I was pretty much mortified: “Now what?”

I was certain I didn’t want a wedding planner, so I started reading countless bride magazines and watching bride TV shows. At this point I only knew my wedding colors; pink and fuchsia. We wanted a platinum wedding and while it was difficult to get started, step by step we made it happen.

The most important decision was where to get married. I am Catholic and I knew I wanted to have a traditional religious ceremony. Clark and I went to various churches in Chicago for months, until we finally found the church. This church is not only gorgeous, but it spoke to us. Clark’s mom loved angels; she would collect them, read about them, and so on. She lost her battle with cancer a few weeks after we had picked our church; Saint Mary of the Angels church.

The second most important decision was of course my dress! My mom came to visit me and we went to various bridal shops. I envisioned myself wearing a mermaid type dress and so I tried on around 20 dresses. In the end, I chose #3; a beautiful Kenneth Pool ball gown dress in ivory to make me feel like a true princess. The veil was very important to me. My dad is from Spain so I wanted to wear a mantilla cathedral-length veil; the problem was where to find it. I was lucky enough that a boutique here in Chicago has Pronovias in their inventory.

In the meantime we were still looking for a reception place. When we went into the Ritz ballroom and we saw that big chandelier on the ceiling, everything came into our minds. How the décor was going to be like and how we wanted to use pink lights to infuse the chandelier. Our favorite part was looking over the extensive food and bar menu and deciding what to serve. We had the option of serving a signature martini in an ice luge. Wow, the guests really enjoyed that martini! Our favorite martini is a pickled pear and jalapeno martini which we always have at our favorite sushi restaurant in Ft. Worth. Our Ritz wedding coordinator was kind enough to contact the restaurant for the recipe. In regards to the shape of the ice luge, we chose the Eiffel tower because France is a third home to us. Both of my sisters live in Paris and we travel there quite often.

There are a lot of other little details about our wedding that I will always cherish. The picture mosaic my sister made for us, the wedding cake; which I knew was going to be hot pink since Clark proposed. Also the little ring bearer looking at me in awe; he really thought I was a princess and he partied with the grown-ups until 1 am!

A year of carefully planning our wedding and it went by so fast in one night. Thus, we are so thankful we had Mark as our wedding photographer; he captured every little detail and every moment. I can just open my beautiful album and remember everything like it was yesterday. It was so much fun taking pictures as well, especially in Michigan Avenue when we were stuck in the middle of traffic with the whole wedding party. Those are incredible pictures!”

Thanks Mark!

- Ana & Clark