I was lucky enough to meet Courtney and Mike through Katie and Paul Daday. Katie is Courtney's sister and earlier this summer, I captured Katie and Paul's wedding! It was a lot of fun to see everyone twice in one season!

Courtney and Mike met at Winona State freshman year [brrrrr]. They became friends, but didn't start really dating until after college. At that point, Courtney and Mike's relationship took the test of distance from IL to AZ. Seven years later, that is all but a memory. After prep at the Hyatt in Deerfield, we traveled to St Simons Episcopal Church for the ceremony, where amazing stained glass and warm wooden beams create a beautiful backdrop for the ceremony. The church keeps the ceremony of weddings sacred and thus requests no photos during the ceremony. After a few family photos post-ceremony, the wedding party headed to downtown Long Grove for photos.

Then the monsoon ensued.

Not just any rain. It was flash flood type of rain. During the exact hour, no more, no less, of the time we wanted to do photos.

The rain couldn't hold us down.

No worries they said. We headed to the Royal Melbourne. What a wonderfully laid back couple. Nothing could be helped and they took that with a grain of salt. Once we got to the Royal Melbourne, the rain did start to subside. We managed some photos and then the clouds broke and created such perfect light for bride and groom portraits.

And those awesomely orange fall flowers from Green Thumb [Wood Dale] . . . See some of the photos from the day . . .