The Wedding

As I said at the beginning of the Chicago posts, the reason we had gone to Chicago was for the wedding of my niece, Helen and her partner of 11 years, Chrissie.  Helen and Chrissie had always said that when it was legal for them to marry, they would.  That time finally arrived and we were thrilled to be able to make the journey to share the day with them.

 

 

We got to Rockford in time to have lunch and then book into the hotel where we were going to get ready. 

 

The wedding service was being held at the Japanese Gardens in Rockford which was a short drive from the hotel.  The photos were being taken first to get the most of the light as the ceremony was starting at 6pm.

 



Simon & Helen  

One of my favourite photos from the day.

 

 Chrissie's family photos were taken first.

Here with her parents and sister

 With her grandparents

 

 Liz & Simon

 

 Family group

 

 I wasn't expecting to be called up for photos. Thanks to Liz for taking these :)

 

 Emily and me with Helen

 

 Cousins

 

 Siblings

Laura & Chrissie and Helen, Henry & Richard

 

 

Helen's side of the family

Me, Emily, Henry Liz, Chrissie, Helen, Simon, Richard, Mark (cousin) and Clinton (family friend)

 

While more photos were being taken, I took a few of the gardens.  The scenery was beautiful and hopefully these capture a little bit of it.

 

 Getting ready for the ceremony

 The ceremony was lovely and the vows made were very emotional.  We were so happy we were able to be there to share the day with Helen and Chrissie.

Just a few more photos from the day - by now you'll have a good idea of who's who so I'll leave off captions.

As we arrived at the hotel where the reception was being held this sunset greeted us

Zoomed in :)

 

 

Sadly, this brings us to the end of our Chicago photos as the next day we headed back to Long Grove with just time to pack and head to the airport for our flight home. 

 

 Waiting

 

 Goodbye Chicago :(

 

Till next time - let's hope it's not too long!

 

Thank you for staying with me through all these posts, I've enjoyed reliving the memories and hopefully you'll have enjoyed seeing some of the photos.

 

xx