Grace and Matt’s wedding was what Chicago lakeside wedding reception dreams are made of. Their whole day was just so lovely and relaxed and beautiful. Grace and her twin sister/matron of honor Nina (who also just got married in the past year!) started the day by getting ready at their childhood home in Lake Forest, Illinois—and so did Matt and his brother/best man! They did their first look right in the backyard and we took family photos there too. As someone who has always dreamed of getting married in the backyard of my childhood home, I thought this was so special! 

After photos at the house, we all headed to Church of St. Mary’s right there in Lake Forest to get the happy couple all officially married 🙂 This was my first time shooting (or attending for that matter!) a military wedding, so it was really exciting for me to see the tradition of the Saber Arch exit that followed the ceremony. After the walked through the Saber Arch, Grace and Matt hopped in a beautiful blue convertible (complete with the Just Married window) and sped off!! 

My other favorite parts of the day to capture or be a part of were: 

1)  Watching everyone enjoy the beautiful cocktail hour by the beach at Naval Station Great Lakes. Everyone was outside mingling because the weather was PERFECT for late August in Chicago (not too hot thanks to a breeze coming in off the lake) and we went down and took some photos of Grace and Matt and all their friends on the beach, making for some beautifully colorful group photos! We took a few more of just Grace and Matt down in front of a rather choppy Lake Michigan, and then it was reception time!

2) The Greek food for dinner!! It might have been the best dinner I had at a wedding all year!

3) Grace and her dad dancing to Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond for their father-daughter dance; the crowd was singing along to all the BUM BUM BUMs and it was awesome.

4) The Greek dances to kick off the rest of the dancing for the night, complete with a live Greek band called Grecian Formula who were AMAZING. They also shared my post of photo highlights on Facebook the next day with the sweetest words ever: “One of the coolest and most professional photographers we’ve worked with in a while! Marissa manages to snag the most awesome photos without being at all intrusive; she just seems to lurk on the fringes like a Ninja photographer waiting for just the right moments to capture! Here’s some of her work at the wedding we just played! Our favorite, of course, is one of the Bride and Groom dancing Greek to music provided by a pretty cool band! Check out her stuff and hit us both up for your Big Day needs!” I mean come on, how sweet is that!? 

Scroll down to see all these amazing moments and many more!