Naperville Wedding at Elements at Water Street

Sam and Shannon celebrated their wedding on a freezing December day in Naperville at Elements at Water Street. Their adorable pup Alby joined them for the glowy photos from Photography by Lauryn. These two are high school sweethearts; read on for their love story!

Our Love Story

We met when we were fifteen years old, after a few friends and I went over to Sam’s house. Our relationship has seen all of the awkward stages of life, like me having braces and dying her hair black, and Sam getting a sideways mohawk at football camp one summer!

The day before Thanksgiving in 2017, my family was invited to Sam’s family’s house. This was not unusual because our families had become great friends over the years. Sam’s family asked if someone from my family would take their family Christmas card picture in the backyard. They all went outside and Sam asked if I wanted to take a picture of just the two of us. As we were getting ready to take the picture, Tori (Sam’s family dog who means the world to us) had to be a part of the fun. I began to pet her and insisted she be in the picture. When I looked at Sam, I saw him on one knee. Sam popped the big question and I said (screeched) “UH YEAH!” Everything came full circle because Sam’s backyard held a lot of special memories, such as taking pictures before all of the high school dances, bonfires with friends, and graduation parties.

Our Wedding Vision

We wanted a winter, northern woods theme. My mom has an amazing eye and helped us come up with our dream style. We loved the cranberry and navy look. The most important thing to us while planning was making sure we picked a venue that would fit all of our loved ones. We chose Elements at Water Street in Naperville.

The Wedding Reception

We got to see the reception before the guests arrived and just take it all in. It was perfect.

Our flowers were absolutely gorgeous. Celidan did an amazing job capturing our vision for the flowers. We wanted a northern woods feel and they did just that.

My mom put together almost all of the decorations, from the cake table to the gift table and centerpieces. She did an amazing job and knew about what I wanted more than I did. She also created a shelf with pictures and memories of all of our loved ones who couldn’t be with us.