Browsing through recent runway shows, we noticed a few trends emerging in dress designs for 2012 brides:

1. Corset bodice wedding gowns

Designer Monique Lhuiller has at least a dozen corset style dresses in her spring and fall 2012 collections.  Other designers including Romona Keveza, Lazaro and Claire Pettibone also have corset gowns in their collections.

Monique Lhuiller gown from moniquelhuillier.com

2. Cap-shoulder wedding gowns

One of our absolute favorite gowns we've seen lately (check it out here) has beautiful cap sleeves and is by Chicago designer Alice Padrul.  She has a few similar styles in her beautiful collection.  We've also seen the cap-sleeves and other similar covered shoulder designs in collections by Nicole Miller and Marchesa.

Marchesa cap-shoulder marchesa.com

3. Early Hollywood glamour wedding dresses

Several of the latest vintage style gowns seem to be inspired by classic 1920s and 1930s Hollywood glamour, with shimmering silver and gold fabrics and details.  Designers that primarily incorporate these looks into their collections include Johanna Johnson, Jenny Packham, Ines DiSanto and Atelier Aimée.

Atelier Aimée gown, Juliet and Romeo Collection, www.aimee.it

4. Antique shabby vintage wedding dresses

We noticed several country music stars wearing shabby chic vintage style dresses this year at the Grammy awards, and likewise have also spotted similar trends in wedding dresses.  We regularly see these types of vintage styles on BHLDN.com and Freepeople.com, but designer Clair Pettibone has had fantastic vintage gowns go down the runway for 2012 and prior seasons that absolutely take our breath away.

 Clair Pettibone vintage gown, clairepettibone.com

5. Plunging V necklines and backs wedding gowns

Designers Badgely Mishchka seemed to showcase all of these trends in their most recent runway shows, but most prominently their designs featured dropped V necklines and backs, which we also noticed in a some other collections including Anne Bowen, Caroline Castigliano, and Jim Hjelm.

Badgley Mischka Torn Chiffon Gown

If high quality wedding (and portrait) photography is a priority for you, and something you're able to make as one of your top wedding expenses (around 10-15% of total budget), this is one wedding cost that most couples do not regret later when they receive outstanding wedding pictures that they cherish for generations.

Overall, Wedding Creativo aims for images to have a polished look, without being over-processed or gimmicky, especially for portraits.  Our goal is for images to NOT appear re-touched, but rather look more natural.  We think the pictures below show a good example of processing work we did for a wedding day portrait.  We took this on a gray rainy day in front of the legendary Wrigley Field, which unfortunately had tons of paper, garbage and cigarette litter all around.  (If Chicago had some kind of sidewalk cleaning crew, our jobs would be so much easier, ha ha.)

© Wedding Creativo Photography

The historic Knickerbocker Hotel set the scene with timeless golden decor, gourmet cuisine and their legendary lit dance floor.  Sarah's Pastries and Candies created a wonderfully detailed cake and Pollen's autumnal arrangements made for eye-catching table centerpieces, while the fantastic Orchestra 33 kept the dance floor swinging.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Trump Hotel

From a photography perspective, we're experts on what makes locations more appealing than others, and we think the best hotel rooms have all or most of the following features:

1. BIG windows.  Rooms with grand floor to ceiling windows are optimal, but rooms with many big windows are good too.

2. Good natural light.  This inherently comes with big window room, but a room with any windows is better than no windows.  Natural light is best for checking your makeup for color and tone accuracy, and most desirable for those fresh face close-up portraits. For the best natural light request a room with north or south facing windows, or optimally a corner suite with windows along two walls.

Dana Hotel

3. White, cream or very lightly warm colored walls.  In general light or pastel tones of beige and ambers are best for skin tones.  Dark walls in brown, blue or purple are okay, but make rooms very dark.  Above all, avoid green painted walls.  We love the color light green as much as the next person, especially for wedding colors.  However, green walls, especially darker hues, make everyone look sick. 

4. Suites or a larger room.  If you can swing it, or can get a great deal, try to get the largest room or suite you can afford, especially if you plan on having your bridal party get ready in the same room.  No one enjoys getting ready in cramped quarters.  Having a comfortable space definitely helps reduce stress.

Sax Hotel

5. Creature comforts.  Often hotels are very good at making brides feel like queens for a day by including pampering perks.  But even if they do, it is a good idea to bring extra treats if you are planning to have a roomful of ladies getting ready.  Champaign, white grape juice, water, fruit, as well as some sweet and salty snacks, or whatever you fancy, is good to have around in order to keep your blood sugar stable and stress levels down.

Sofitel Water Tower

With these criteria in mind, here are some hotels in or near downtown Chicago that offer brides and grooms ultimate spaces for getting ready, and of course also for your wedding night stay.  They all have rooms that meet our optimal conditions for lighting and decor for great "getting ready" spaces, and are listed in random order:

Dana Hotel

InterContinental Chicago

Trump Hotel

Wit Hotel

Drake Hotel

Waldorf Astoria Chicago (formally Elysian Chicago)

Park Hyatt Chicago

Wyndham Blake Chicago

Raffaello Hotel

Hotel Palomar

The Peninsula Chicago

Hotel Sax

The Ritz-Carlton

Sofitel Chicago Water Tower

Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza

Four Seasons Hotel Chicago

Public Chicago

JW Marriott Chicago

Blackstone Hotel

The James Hotel

© Wedding Creativo Photography

The bride Beth was a great sport, and maintained her good spirits, and we were glad to see everyone not let the weather sour their fun plans.  Beth was calm and relaxed while getting her makeup done while her father and other relatives made their way through the phone list.

We were impressed with this as we knew coming in that this wedding would likely be an extraordinarily emotional day.  Sadly, Beth's mother had passed away, which of course made for a few bittersweet moments, but her loving relatives were wonderfully supportive and jovial throughout the day.  Beth also thought of a great way to keep her mother close to her heart by wearing her mother's ring on a necklace.

Beth and Justin had natural and simple style overall, with a touch of vintage flair for their wedding fashions.  The bride's jewelry, accessories, and goddess wedding dress from Kasia's Bridal, as well as the groom's dapper fedora hat and charcoal jacket-less suit perfectly represented their fun and creative personalities.

Beth and her father shared a sweet moment on the porch before heading off to the ceremony.  Everyone made it there on time, the venue had a separate room made ready for their last minute change of plans, and the bride and groom were married by officiant Pierre Poinsette without a hitch.

During the receiving line and cocktails guests enjoyed bowls of popcorn, and then Nostalgic Catering served fun pub style grub including mini burgers and liquor shots for toasting the couple during the reception.  Family friend Courtney baked classic homemade bundt cakes, nutrolls and ginger snap cookies for dessert.

After dinner the bride and groom serenaded their guests with a Glen Hansard song, then everyone danced the night away with the always awesome Okyne Medialab.  They also showed a great slideshow with pictures from the couple's childhood and dating years, which ran the gamut of emotions as family and guests all watched on together.  Slideshows always work best like this when incorporated in the reception as a shared experience for all, instead of having it off to the side in another room for guests to watch individually.

© Wedding Creativo Photography

© Wedding Creativo Photography

Bride Nadia: hair and makeup by Heather Rae from Art + Science Salon

Bride Marissa: makeup by Elisa Vekkos, hair by Montage Salon

Bride Vicky: hair by Samara Toby, makeup by Krystyn from Bridal Beauty Chicago

Bride Megan: hair and makeup by Holly Kasprisin / Chicago Bridal Hair and Makeup

Bride Kallie: hair by Lauren Brashears from ONE Salon & Spa, makeup by Valerie Ward from Mario Tricoci Salon

Bride Kate: hair and makeup by Beauty on Call

Here are some recent ruffled wedding fashions we've recently come across.

Bridal Gowns by J.Crew

Bridal Gowns by Marchesa

Notte by Marchesa ruffle neck halter gown

Allen Schwartz vintage cascading ruffle gown

Notte by Marchesa strapless ruffle dress

J. Crew Starling short ruffle dress

Adam pastel peach ruffle tank dress

Lipsy frilled hem chiffon smock dress

Armand Basi short blue ruffled dress

Cocktail Dresses by Chris Benz

Cocktail Dresses by Ali Ro

Cocktail Dresses by BCBG MAX AZRIA

Cocktail Dresses by Notte by Marchesa

From the skyline, to the zoo, to Steve's beloved Wrigley field, and even the porch steps of their Wrigleyville home, we had a whirlwind tour around Chicago.  For any couples interested in this kind of "city safari" for their wedding day, keep in mind that for sure you need to see each other before the ceremony to have enough time necessary for the extensive traveling.  For this many locations you'll need to dedicate a significant amount of time, at least a few hours of your wedding day schedule, for going around to multiple locations and then time to take portraits and walk around at those locations, especially if the bridal party is also coming along on a trolley or party bus.  Another option is to have a lengthy multi-location session on another date following your wedding. We're always thrilled to do creative portraits with our couples at amazing locations, and we always help plan and schedule that part of the day for an organized and optimally relaxing and fun experience.

Michelle and Steve had a modern style autumn wedding, with black and hot pink colors.  The cake had an elaborate fondant ruffle design to match the cute flower girls dresses.  The ceremony was held at the beautiful St. Andrew Catholic Church with a chic evening reception at W Chicago Lakeshore hotel where the guests were surrounded with views of the city skyline and Lake Michigan.

© Wedding Creativo Photography