bride and groom looking at each other smiling with green plants as background

Ali and Jay’s wedding was truly so stunning in so many ways and they really had some of the most fun we have seen! The ceremony and the reception were both in The Pergola at Galleria Marchetti, which is a perfect, Italian-style or European-style wedding venue in Chicago, IL and we absolutely loved being their day-of coordinators to make sure everything ran smoothly!

The late-August Friday was perfect all-around. The weather was a little warm but it was mid-seventies and absolutely amazing for being able to have the roof open for their beautiful sky view. We worked with both Ali and her mom to make sure everything was planned and ready to go for the big day and we think it was one to remember for sure!

The day started at The Emily Hotel for both Ali and Jay. They were able to spend their time with their family and friends, get details shots that were so fun, and really just soak in the first part of their day.

Black and white photo of bride in dress putting on perfume — We couldn’t get enough of Ali’s elegant, classic, sleek style. Her hair in the tight bun made it easy to party since it would hold the whole night and her dress and makeup was definitely perfect for the occasion!

Jay also took some really nice getting ready photos - we were genuinely blown away with how nice the photos were without being the typical getting ready poses or composition. Truly, this was one of our favorite wedding galleries we have seen and Emma Schlie Photography gets all the praise in making this album so dreamy and beautiful. You really won’t believe how amazing this album is!

We had Ali hide out in the wedding suite upstairs before the ceremony because Ali and Jay wanted their first look to be down the aisle at the ceremony. This gave us lots of time for a new space for more photos too!

The ceremony was all set and ready with the flowers and the fans on each seat. It created such an elegant garden-theme for the day and the guests surely appreciated the fans to stay cooler too. We love the Italian style venue because of the beautiful tiles, the open glass ceiling, and all of the greenery! The ceremony itself was officiated by Ali’s uncle and we absolutely loved it! It was such a personal, sweet, ceremony that all of the guests seemed to love too. We also thought that Ali and Jay did a PERFECT aisle dip too - we are only guessing that they practiced that with how beautiful it was!

While the room flip was happening to get ready for the reception, Ali and Jay also took their couple’s portraits during the majority of cocktail hour after their family portraits. We loved all of the variety in locations they were able to find without actually going off-site! This was incredibly helpful since they only had cocktail hour to get in their photos really to make sure they could get on the dance floor as soon as possible.

bride looking off and holding bouquet showing off the ruching Greek style of her dress for European style wedding — We just felt like we needed to take another moment for the dress and the veil - Ali looked so incredible and everything about her style was so elegant and classy!

There are two things we REALLY love about Galleria Marchetti - the first is how absolutely stunning the spaces they have are and how you really can get that European or Italian-style space that is still actually in the city of Chicago. The Pergola is one of their two venues and each of them tell such a lovely story. You really don’t have to decorate it much for it to be amazing, but we did really love the black and white checkered dance floor and the light blues in the florals and decor. It is truly the perfect elegant wedding color in our opinion - everything about this was making us giddy! And again, Emma really did an incredible job capturing the beauty of the couple and the space alike.

If you want to have a high-energy grand entrance, we definitely recommend your DJ telling folks to pick up their napkins and cheer for the couple - it really makes the crowd excited and we loved that the DJ got everyone to do it too! We had some quick speeches through dinner and then went into the cake cutting later.

They had a quick little cutting cake which is really popular right now - honestly, it makes it easier for the kitchen staff too so they can get the bulk of the dessert ready in the back!

A cake cutting nowadays is just a sweet, quick moment for you and your spouse to get together, and we recommend you take it! At the very least, it’s good to have a moment similar to this just for some more opportunities for photos if you didn’t get to have as many earlier in the day.

The second thing that we love about Galleria Marchetti is how INSANELY fast they are with their dinner service - even with our estimations, they still somehow get dinner finished early! The couple wanted to take more time before dances to visit tables and greet guests, so this worked out perfectly so they didn’t lose any time on the dance floor. We also had a moment right before the dancing that someone accidentally stepped on Ali’s train and the bustle broke. Thankfully we were able to fix it up in a few moments and it didn’t create any issues for the flow either! When the formal dances were finished, everyone got right up and packed the dance floor for the rest of the night!!

We don’t have it pictured but we did take some videos - the bride changed into a reception dress later in the evening, and while we were packing up some decor we heard “Defying Gravity” in the distance. We went to check it out and the DJ had the lights turned green and the bride was being twirled in the air while singing the song. It was truly iconic so we felt it was necessary to mention it, haha!

Bride and groom dancing on black and white dance floor looking at each other and smiling for their first dance

wedding guests dancing with LED foam glow sticks waving in the air flash photo

Emma also took some amazing film photos throughout the wedding day, and since we didn’t build them into the photos earlier we thought you might want to see a gallery of some of our favorites!

Overall, Ali and Jay had truly an unforgettable wedding day. We are so glad to have been a part in making sure the day was running smoothly and they could enjoy their time with their friends without worrying about the details. It was apparent that their guests had a blast celebrating with them and we are so thankful to have played a part in that!

Our sweet review from Ali and Jay:

“Rachel and the team at FRE made our wedding day absolutely perfect! They executed my vision perfectly and I couldn’t have been happier with how everything turned out! They were so wonderful to work with, and such great people!”