Behind the Scenes

Site Owner - Heyu

Heyu is a friend from the local Burning Man community who owns the gravel lot on which we held our ceremony. He gifts his space (The Reserve) to a number of community groups and private events throughout the year on a commerce-free basis. We will be forever grateful for Heyu's generous gift - we don't know of any space quite like The Reserve anywhere else in Chicago! Heyu's gift of his space allowed us to make our wedding dreams come true!

Day of Coordination by Don Blaheta

There were a lot of people without whose help we never could have pulled off this incredibly ambitious event. Among those people Don Blaheta may have provided the most critial help of all! Mere weeks before the wedding, although we had a very detailed plan about everything that should happen and plenty of volunteers, we had no one to orchestrate all the many moving parts. We put out a call for a volunteer event coordinator, and Don was the first one to step up! With his background in theater, computer science, and board games, and his long history of helping out at Zach's NYE parties, we couldn't think of a better friend to take on this improvisational and detail oriented task! Don took our plans and with just a few hours worth of briefing ran the whole show flawlessly! Don, we will forever be thankful for the incredible skills you shared with us!

Vendors

Thanks to all our wonderful vendors! Every company we worked with was an absolutely pleasure and we'd recommend them to anyone planning a similar event!

• Gopho Collective Photography - Our friend Ben, assisted by his cousin Alanna, did all the photography for the wedding, including much of what you see throughout this site! We got back thousands of wonderful photos from Ben and Alanna! We were amazed to learn that Ben, who shot all night long, well past the time we contracted him for, was working with a recently thrown out back! Ben, you are amazing! Thank you for recording all these sweet memories! You can follow Gopho on Facebook.
• House of Rental in Skokie provided our tents, flooring, chairs, tables, dishes, and more! We loved that their prices were available online and that Chris who was assigned to our contract was so helpful with every stage of the planning. Their setup and teardown crews were incredibly hard working, efficient, and friendly.
• AJAX Waste Services in Joliet provided our air conditioned ADA-compliant restroom trailer. What a luxurious treat that was! Their driver John did a most impressive job of backing the trailer through narrow alleys into the difficult spot where you enjoyed it. Since the wedding we've learned that this company was acquired by Service Sanitation.
• Midwest Pro-Sound and Lighting in Chicago provided our PA system, sound operator, and lighting system. They also sub-contracted out our electrical generator service and setup. Erik was incredibly helpful and flexible in coordinating the two delivery and teardown crews and setting us up with just the right PA and lights for our performances.
• Black Tie Bartenders provided us with our three excellent, friendly, and professional bartenders!
• A-1 Country Firewood made multiple deliveries to our site and their drivers went above and beyond, transporting the wood down stairs and around tent lines to stack the wood where we needed it. One driver even helped us move the camper trailer that was on site out of the way! Great no nonsense firewood delivery at a great price. We use them at home now too!

Volunteers

We worked hard on site from Wednesday through Saturday to get everything set up, and then volunteers further worked on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to tear everything down and leave no trace. Transforming that gravel lot into our wedding vision took a lot of hard physical labor and so many friends lent their many hands to make the work light.

Friends also took shifts during the wedding as general helpers. They helped transform the space from ceremony through to dinner and dancing setups, helped direct the crowd, tended the fires, helped the caterers, and helped in so many ways that we may never even know about!

We were blown away at how cheerful everyone remained while toiling in the blistering heat! Thank you so much to all our setup, day-of, and cleanup volunteers! We'll be thanking you for a long time - the gift of your time and labor is so precious to us!

Thanks to Maggie's mom Jane Sather for sewing the green and purple armbands worn by our volunteers!

We're sure we're missing some people who lent a hand! Thanks to you unnamed helpers as well!