Melissa & Mike
RENAISSANCE HOTEL | CHICAGO, IL
The Renaissance Chicago Hotel sits on Wacker Drive at the edge of the Loop, where the Chicago River runs directly in front of it and the downtown skyline fills in behind. It is a hotel with an architectural identity — Art Deco ceilings, dark-paneled bars, lobby spaces that feel built for a specific kind of occasion. Melissa and Mike knew the building before they chose it for their wedding, and that familiarity showed in how the day was structured. Before the ceremony, the couple moved through the hotel's lounges and bars. There were portraits at the bar, a moment in a booth with the cocktail napkins they had made printed with "So We Met At A Bar" and the M&M monogram beside the date. The city came through the windows behind them.
The ceremony took place in the grand ballroom. At the end of the aisle stood an arch built from cascading ivy and wisteria, dense enough to read as a permanent installation. A mirror ball was nestled at the top of the arch among the florals. The full wedding party filled both sides of the aisle, and when the recessional came, Melissa and Mike marked the end of it with a dip and a kiss at the bottom of the aisle — an ending that matched the room.
Cocktail hour ran in the hotel atrium with two stations guests were not expecting: a champagne girl moving through the room with a tower of coupes, and a live fashion sketch artist set up at a drawing table with reference photos of the couple in front of her. By the end of the hour, the table held a spread of completed watercolor illustrations. Guests could watch the work accumulate in real time, and the final pieces documented the couple in a way photographs don't.
The reception ballroom carried the Art Deco ceiling. Round tables in dark linens held tall white floral centerpieces that set the scale, and overhead, a lush greenery chandelier hung directly above the checkerboard black and white dance floor. Mirror balls suspended from the installation worked with the light as the evening moved toward dancing. A full orchestra took the stage and played the room through dinner and into the reception.
For the first dance, Melissa and Mike stepped onto the checkerboard floor beneath the greenery chandelier that had been over them all night. Later, Melissa came back in a shorter white dress — red Christian Louboutin heels revealed for the first time beneath the hem. The dance floor stayed full until the end of the evening.
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