One of the questions I’m commonly asked is what my personal “favorites” are – my favorite wedding and engagement session types being most popularly questioned of all. I usually tell people it’s hard for me to determine because I think certain types are fitting for some people while others are not, and this has a lot to do with personality and style and each person’s nature. While I’ve shot what feels like a bajillion engagement session locations and types at this point, none of them had felt truly personal to me — that is, until I shot Kari and Greg’s.
These two have both spent over a decade living in Chicago, and having met in the midst of that at a bar in Wicker Park and falling in love + creating a life together between there and Logan Square, they wanted their session to reflect that. So we decided to roam around these two neighborhoods that represent so much of their lives – we had coffee at Bang Bang, one of their favorite spots, then walked up the street to Boiler Room for PB & Js. We swung by their apartment for some photos with their fur babies, and they hopped on their scooters on the nearby streets they travel so often. We went to the rooftop at The Robey, the hotel where their wedding guests will be staying later this year. And lastly we wrapped up our session with a drink at Bangers & Lace, the bar where Kari and Greg decided to go when they broke off from the group of mutual friends they’d been hanging out with on the night they first met, which would eventually become the site of their impromptu first date. It all felt so undeniably them, and somehow also felt indicative of my own life in the short time I’ve been living in this city, too. Downtown sessions are beautiful in their own right, and there’s no denying that the skyline and ‘scrapers are part of what this city is known for – but sometimes, popping into your favorite local bar and cruising down the tree-lined street you’ve walked countless times feels a bit truer.
Kari and Greg both have this energy and zest for life that makes you always want to stick around for one more drink, so I naturally couldn’t resist having a beer and some cheese curds with them after snapping the last photo. If their engagement session is any indication of what their wedding will be like, I think it’s safe to assume I’ll eventually have yet another favorite on my hands.
