David + Cayleigh | Married | The Ashbury Wedding | Elgin, IL

Weddings

July 28, 2022

Wow, there are so many special details to this day it’s hard to know where to start! First, let’s hop in the time machine to the summer of 2020, (okay, probably not where most of us would go in a time machine if given the choice, but bear with me) when Cayleigh reached out about capturing her and David’s 2022 wedding. Cayleigh and I went to high school together, were in art classes together, and have since stayed in touch on social media, so it was super exciting to know that she wanted me to capture her wedding day. Normally, I’m booking weddings a year to a year and a half out. So looking at a 2022 felt a little crazy. Frankly, in 2020, it was hard to visualize 2022 even existing! But in similar ways, it also made the most sense in the world to be looking that far ahead. David and Cayleigh prioritized the health and safety of all of their guests, which I really appreciated, but this meant quite a few changes throughout the planning process. (The Ashbury wasn’t even a venue when David and Cayleigh first started wedding planning!) They ended up changing their venue near the start of the year, they told me that they were looking at a venue in Elgin, that was a sister venue to The Haight. She sent me a few photos and immediately I recognized the space/building. It looked a lot like a client of mine’s office: the Ox Creative headquarters. Before moving to Wisconsin I had done some work with Ox, doing some behind the scenes work, and more recently, I did a session with Jesse and Jen. I wasn’t sure if it was the exact space, or if it was just a similar unit in the same building. I immediately reached out to my friend Katie who works at Ox and asked if a wedding venue was moving into their building and she told me that they were moving and the venue was their office! Such a small world moment. It wasn’t until the day of the wedding that I found out that this was actually the first wedding at The Ashbury!

So without further adieu, the first wedding at The Ashbury:

Just some forewarning…. I’m obsessed with the florals… You know what makes them even cooler? They were made by the bride and bridal party! Some of the flowers were even from Cayleigh’s garden! So. Cool.

Okay, now this might be one of the cooler features of the venue….A game room! Which ended up being perfect for David and Cayleigh, they love games, and heavily featured them in their day, so this space couldn’t have been more perfect!