An Elegant, Garden-Inspired Celebration in Chicago: The Real Wedding of Stacey and Nate Morales

After a mutual friend's parents recommended the same driving school to Stacey and Nate, they met for the first time and slowly fell in love. On January 20th of 2021—a day before Stacey's birthday—Nate surprised her with a dinner at their favorite sushi place to propose. Stacey gushes, "I thought it was dinner only between Nate and myself but he surprised me with a room of our closest friends and family. I was surprised and when I turned around, Nate got down on one knee and asked me to marry him."
 

Like many modern brides, Stacey chose to wear two dresses, one for her ceremony and another for her reception. When she first went dress shopping, Stacey thought she knew what she wanted. "I knew I wanted a fit and flare style dress. I was originally looking for a modern, satin, minimalist dress, but I actually went with something I would describe  as feminine and romantic. My dress was lined with lace and  covered in floral beaded/sequin patterns that sparkled with every step," Stacey explains. Her reception dress fit her original vision for her wedding dress. We think she looks absolutely stunning in both!
 

When picking the theme and color scheme for their wedding, Stacey was inspired by the venue itself. "One of my favorite things about The Farmhouse is their garden," Stacey shares. "I wanted to continue that theme so I chose sage green." She also chose to pair it with dusty blue, since blue is her favorite color. They ended up creating an elegant, garden celebration. We love how Danielle Schury Photography captured all the beautiful details in their day!
 

Planning was a bit of an unknown journey for Stacey and Nate to embark on. "Being your own planner is kind of crazy. I kept myself organized by creating a Google Doc and sharing it with Nate so we both were on the same page," Stacey says. On the Google Doc, she put all the information they needed including guest lists, seating charts and possible vendors. Once she had people booked, she started drawing inspiration from social media platforms for the look and feel of their wedding. When she saw something she liked, she would screenshot it and add it to a wedding folder so everything was in one place!
 

 

What We Love

One of the most special details of their wedding day was that Stacey's dad created a lot of the larger decorations for their reception. By hand, he built the arch for their seating chart, the floral welcome sign, the white altar pillars and the round cupcake tier stand. She also created a lot of the details of their wedding, too. Stacey gushes, "I thought this was special because I actually watched my dad slowly create the vision I had. I also put a lot of work into creating the decorations myself so it was very surreal to actually see all my hard work get displayed for such a special day to me."
 

 

Advice from the Couple

Stacey and Nate advise, "Weddings can become very expensive so invest into two to three things that really matter to you. For example, The Farmhouse was the venue of my dreams and something Nate and I enjoy is food. So we knew we wanted to really invest into a good catering company. The two most compliments we’ve received was that the venue was beautiful and the food was the best food that some have ever had at a wedding. We also recommend to live in the moment. Don’t be stressed over things that may or may not go wrong. Honestly, everything that 'went wrong' in our wedding, I didn’t even notice!"
 

 

 

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