Step by Step: Urban Love in Oak Park

Hold your horses, because I have a whole lot of fabulosity coming your way! While we had a lot of fun posing in the park after the ceremony, we had allotted most of our time for pictures throughout downtown Oak Park. We knew we didn't have time to head into the city for urban shots there, but Oak Park turned out to be a fabulous alternative.

For those of you who are familiar with Oak Park, we had our limo driver drop us off at the corner of North Boulevard and Harlem Avenue. From there we started walking east, stopping at whatever caught our eyes, and met the driver about an hour later at North Boulevard and Oak Park Avenue.

Straight out of the limo, one of my favorite shots. That needs to be framed and on my wall, pronto!




Oak Park has a great El/Metra train station, where we took some great shots. I couldn't envision how this would turn out, and I fell in love once I saw it.


Hmm...Mr. S can whisk me away on a train any day.



There happened to be a festival going on that day - "Oak-tober Fest"! We got a lot of stares and many well wishes as we walked through.





We were always very anti-jumping. It turns out, the jumping was a whole lot of fun! We didn't ask our bridal party to jump, but Mr. S and I gave it a shot. Sadly, this is the best out of the bunch, notice my feet planted firmly on the ground. Ladies, you must remember to SMILE when you jump. I did not, hence many angry looking jumping shots of me. And Mr. S and I could never get in sync with our jumps.


Love.



Yes, our wedding party was totally fierce. Don't they look like a force to be reckoned with?


Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. I'm not a naturally laughy, bubbly person. So I adore that Laurie caught a completely natural, carefree laugh on my part.


And also a very serious, sweet moment.


Us trying to look fierce. Who knew Oak Park had so many great murals? I had never really noticed them until we were scouted for good photo locations.


Once we hit Oak Park Avenue, our wedding party was more than ready to put their feet up! My one mistake was not considering the fact that they may not have been as excited to walk around in their fancy shoes as I was. While I was totally fine with powering through blisters and cramped toes, they were not! Fortunately we were way ahead of schedule, so we bought them a bunch of water and let them chill out.


After a bit of rest (and letting our photographers rest, too - they were working hard!), Mr. S and I headed over to a nearby park for a few more one-on-one shots. This was definitely a stand out of the bunch. These kids were playing football and made their best "Eww, you're kissing faces" for the shot. I'm normally not into things that are so posed, but this is so stinkin' cute.


One more sweet embrace...


...and dress shot...


...and finally, a bit of lovely flare...


...and it was time for Mr. S to flag down our limo to take us on over to the reception!


Did I mention that I love flare?


The sun was setting so beautifully at that moment, our photographers just kept on shooting after our friends had piled into the limo.


Fortunately, by the end of the day, I was a master at getting in and out of the limo in my heels and dress! It was definitely a well-crafted combination of grace and gymnastics.



Time to head on in and see the ballroom!


*Please note: All photos from Laurie Peacock Photography

Next up - All of the fun little reception details, including the cake of my dreams!

Previously in our wedding recaps:
Step by Step: Girls Get Ready
Step by Step: Guys Get Ready
Step by Step: First Look
Step by Step: Gettin’ Ready to Walk
Step by Step: We Get Hitched
Step by Step: Strike a Pose in the Park