Moody, Vaudeville-Inspired Wedding at City View Loft

It seems like winter weddings in Chicago are far and few between. But, we love when clients lean into the dark and gloomy winter and make their weddings true to their style. That’s exactly what Cristien and Matt did for their big day at City View Loft last February. The couple really embraced the moodiness of Chicago winters, and their personal style lent to it so well. Check out these incredible photos taken by Soda Fountain Photography, and learn more about their dark and dreamy wedding florals below.

Wedding bouquet with tarot card wedding invitation

The bride and groom were inspired by Vaudeville, which is known as “a type of entertainment popular in the US in the early 20th century, featuring a mixture of specialty acts, such as burlesque, comedy and song and dance.” They wanted elements of skulls and feathers, with gothic undertones and general bad-assery throughout their decor, which they definitely achieved. We’re obsessed with their tarot card-inspired invitations by Birdhouse197 - aren’t you?!

Their color palette was dark and rich, contrasted by soft and dreamy tones. Their florals were deliciously moody and textured. The bride’s bouquet was loose, natural and asymmetrical. It included seasonal elements like amnesia and quicksand roses, anemone, ranunculus, eucalyptus, scabiosa, protea, and also contained a few brown feathers. Her stems were wrapped in long trailing neutral ribbon.

The bridesmaids looked so freaking cool in their deep red velvet dresses of different styles. Their tattoos totally completed the look. I mean come on, so badass!

Ceremony aisle decor and triangle floral backdrop

Up close view of floral ceremony backdrop

We created an asymmetrical, triangular ceremony backdrop that contained more moody florals and various textures. Pampas grass and eucalyptus went so well with the light and dark florals. We added clusters of candles to the ceremony aisles for a candlelit, romantic look.

We created a medium sized floral arrangement for the escort card and gift table. Their escort cards were unique and on theme, in the form of antique-looking brass keys on handwritten tags. We love how they were placed in matching, brass colored frames.

Unique escort cards with floral arrangement

In terms of dinner table decor, we crafted low centerpieces held in brass vases. We loved their table numbers, which were on theme with the tarot card-esque invitations. We also added small, cut glass votives.

Once the ceremony was over, they re-purposed the aisle candles and put them along the window ledge, as well as clustered in front of the sweetheart table. The bride’s gorgeous bouquet was the sweetheart table’s centerpiece, and we also added a bit of greenery to it.