A Modern, Garden-Inspired Wedding at Morgan Manufacturing in Chicago, Illinois

When it came to planning their wedding, New York City-based couple Marissa Lubin (28 and a dietetic intern and a registered dietitian and clinical nutritionist) and Jeffrey Buchan (29 and works in global industry relations at Google) were all about creating a day that perfectly captured their fun-loving personalities in Marissa’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Balancing full-time jobs and grad school were enough to keep the couple busy, so they enlisted the help of planner Kelly Cavanaugh of Clementine Custom Events to plan their affair. Working with the talented team of florists at Revel Decor, Cavanaugh brought Marissa and Jeff’s modern, garden-inspired vision to life, totally transforming Morgan Manufacturing, a modern-industrial event space in downtown Chicago, Illinois, with lush statement-making centerpieces and installations, vintage vases, rustic farm tables and plenty of warm candlelight. The pair worked with their officiant, the Rev. Bruce Otto, to create a custom ceremony to truly personalize the day. The bride’s a cappella group sang Sara Bareilles’s “I Choose You” in lieu of a traditional reading, and Marissa and Jeff exchanged vows they’d written themselves. “They consisted of pairs of complementary promises that we recited to each other in alternating lines,” Marissa says. Since the bride is a nutritionist and a food blogger, putting together a top-notch menu was a must. Limelight Catering didn’t disappoint, delivering course after course of mouthwatering eats. Marissa’s a cappella group surprised the newlyweds with an encore performance during the reception, and the Party Faithful kept guests glued to the dance floor all night with a mix of upbeat contemporary and old-school hits. “The best song of the night had to be ‘I Want to Dance With Somebody’ by Whitney Houston,” Marissa says. “The entire crowd was singing along and jumping, plus the band leader was on the dance floor in a metallic blazer he had changed into at some point.” A tip from Marissa and Jeff: “Make it personal. Our favorite aspects of our wedding and what our guests liked the most were the small personal touches throughout—the baby photos on the restroom doors, the ‘his, hers, ours’ specialty cocktails, the bride’s a cappella group performance, the ‘duet’ vows we wrote together, the ‘get off your tush and dance’ sign for the dancing flip-flops—a play on the bride’s cooking blog, Get Off Your Tush and Cook, and the Chicago vs. New York pizza station.”