Chicago Wedding Planning (September 06 Trip):

I have never taken a bad photo of anyone! Ever!!! With that said I stand behind my picture of Pat & Liz. Its raw emotion captured forever in the moment. Besides the great birthday party for Grandma Callaghan and Pat & Liz's audition to be our live entertainment for the reception Jess & I also made time for a few other things while we were in town (none of which involved going to a baseball game unfortunately). We arrived at 6:30 A.M. on Friday, had a great breakfast with Eileen and proceeded to our first stop, The Renaissance Hotel which was recommended by Eileen and Ed as a potential place for our out of town guests to stay. We recognized a theme right away.

We met with the event coordinator and were quite happy with the accommodations. The rooms, lobby and service were all well worth the price and the hotel is within five miles of our wedding location.

WEDDING PLANNING ALERT AHEAD
We have secured a group rate of $109 for a standard room. Just call 1-800 468-3571 and reserve your room with the Rascon/Masters group. You will need to provide a credit card number or deposit equal to 1 night's stay to reserve a room from our block.

You can also check out rates on the internet (which are lower, but must be prepaid and are non-refundable). If you want to take advantage of the lower rates, call the number above; let them know you're with us and that you want to pre-pay for the lower rate.
It's that simple. If you have any questions, let us know.

Later that day we met with a florist. At this point we had been awake for over 24 hours and just nodded our head in agreement with what they said. It's good to note that no contracts were signed in our state of sleep deprivation. We finished the evening having dinner at Bobby Q's. (For my side of the family this is the Restaurant that Jessica's mom, aunt & uncle own). Bbq roast beef and fresh onion rings were a welcomed treat for dinner. A quick stop at a grocery store on the way home allowed Ed to be a good samaritan and return the handicap cart to its rightful space.

The next day we had engagement photos taken with our wedding photographer Thomas Slack. He was friendly, talented and professional. We were extremely happy with the photos we got. Here's a preview.

We'll save the rest of the trip for next time.