Maribeth & Andrew
ART INSTITUTE | CHICAGO, IL
Choosing the Art Institute of Chicago as a wedding venue comes with a specific set of conditions. The building is a working museum. The spaces are monumental. And the ceremony — in Maribeth and Andrew's case — took place on a staircase the museum uses to announce its own significance every single day. You cannot overpower the Woman's Board Grand Staircase. You can only be clear about what you're adding and what you're leaving alone.
Maribeth and Andrew came to Wedicity with an unusually precise vision for a couple still early in their planning: sage green, white, ivory, gold. No additional color story, no competing textures, nothing that would look out of place in a museum hall. Their stationery — designed by Amore Creative — set the tone before the wedding day arrived. A sage green pocket folder with a Chicago skyline silhouette on the envelope liner. A hand-watercolored map insert placing guests at the Palmer House, the Art Institute lion, the river, the landmarks they'd pass through. By the time guests held the invitation, they understood the reference.
The day moved through the city with intention. Getting ready and the first look happened at the Palmer House Hotel, in the Empire Room — gilded entryway, ornate carpet, a room that treats every arrival as an event. From there, portraits outside on the Beaux-Arts terraces and bridges, with the Chicago River and the Wrigley Building behind the wedding party. The Art Institute's bronze lions at the entrance for the formal exterior shots. And then the building itself, which was always where the day was going.
The ceremony on the Grand Staircase was designed around one principle: enhance, don't compete. A white floral arch of roses, hydrangeas, and cascading greenery framed Maribeth and Andrew at the landing without obscuring the Tiffany stained glass window behind them. Fretless Music played as guests found their seats in the gallery below. When Maribeth descended the marble steps on her father's arm — the wedding party watching from above, guests lining the balcony rail on both sides — the room did exactly what the building promises it will do.
The florals, designed by Ashland Addison, were built for each space and nothing else. On the staircase, a white arch of hydrangeas, roses, and lush greenery framed the ceremony without competing with the architecture above it. Guests then moved through the museum's permanent collection for cocktail hour — a decision that required no decoration at all, only intention. In Griffin Court, the modern wing where the reception was held, velvet green linens from BBJ La Tavola and Tablescapes Event Rentals carried the palette into the evening. Sculptural candlelight did the rest. When you design a wedding inside a building this significant, the question is how to hold the room while respecting it. The answer here was: keep everything in the same range of color and material, and let the architecture carry the mood.
The details held the same discipline. Sage green vow books with a gold script monogram and the date. A sage green matchbox at every table — the Art Institute lion rendered in gold foil beside the couple's monogram, the same motif that lived in the invitation suite. Guests noticed these things. The details were legible because every element spoke the same visual language and none of it competed for attention. That kind of consistency requires decisions made early and held through execution, from the first stationery proof to the last item placed on a table.
Maribeth's gown was simple by design — off-shoulder white crepe with a cathedral-length train that read beautifully on every staircase. Nothing it brought to the frame distracted from the room around it, which was exactly right. Sarah Sunstrom Photography shot the day; LVI Films captured it on video. Spark Entertainment and MDM Entertainment carried the reception through the night. By the time Griffin Court was fully into the evening, the room had become what a reception at the Art Institute of Chicago should be: an evening that felt worthy of where it happened.
Designing a wedding at the Art Institute requires knowing when to get out of the way. Which spaces ask for quiet. Which ones can hold more. And how to respond accordingly, in every detail, across an entire day. This is what that looks like when it is done right.
VENDOR CREDITS
Planner & Design: Wedicity | Ceremony & Reception: Art Institute of Chicago (Woman's Board Grand Staircase; Griffin Court) | First Look: Palmer House Hotel — Empire Room | Photography: Sarah Sunstrom Photography | Florals: Ashland Addison | Stationery: Amore Creative | Entertainment: Fretless Music (ceremony), Spark Entertainment, and MDM Entertainment | Videography: LVI Films | Catering: Blue Plate Catering | Cake & Desserts: Sweet Mandy B's | Hair & Makeup: Anomalie Beauty Agency | Linens: BBJ La Tavola and Tablescapes Event Rentals
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