Licensed to Wed

This past weekend was filled with a lot of wedding accomplishments!

Not only did my older brother propose, but Nolan and I went to our Cook County building to received our marriage license! Another check on the never ending checklist!

Yes that is right, September 26th will be our wedding celebration but we'll actually be married at the end of August in Chicago. We decided this was best for a few reasons, Nolan's job takes him away for weeks at a time and we didn't know if we'd have sufficient time to get our license and official in California before the wedding, it was cheaper here ($40 vs. $70), his parents, sister and my mom all had civil ceremonies and it just felt appropriate for us too, and we're trying to avoid more hassle while we're in Nevada, as we're only there together for less than a week prior to the wedding!

We will always consider 9/26 our wedding date, as it was chosen first and the Cook County marriage is just a formality. We'll celebrate our anniversary on that September day as well.


But, we are pretty excited for our civil ceremony too. We found out last month that we could hold our civil ceremony in the Chicago Cultural Center on certain Saturdays. When we paid for our license, we made an appointment to be wed there. It is a gorgeous, historic building with elaborate tile and glass work! The old Cook County Library is adorned with author's names and quotes on the walls, much like the Library of Congress if you've ever been there in DC. The building is also home to a Louis Comfort Tiffany art glass dome. The Tiffany dome spans 38 feet in diameter, that is more than 1,000 square feet of Tiffany designed glass. It contains approximately 30,000 pieces of glass in 243 sections within an ornate cast iron frame. The body of the dome has a “fish scale” pattern. The center, called the oculus, shows the signs of the zodiac. The interior stained glass dome originally was protected by an exterior translucent glass dome, which allowed much-needed natural light into what was then the library’s general delivery room. The lower portion of the room is covered with white marble and glistening mosaics, also designed by Tiffany.























We invited Nolan's sister and cousin to come celebrate with us along with my little brother. It should be a fun family affair! I can't wait!