Posts by David McFadden

Richard and Susan had a beautiful ceremony at the Four Points Sheraton near O’Hare airport. Susan’s sons walked her down the aisle and the crowd got a big kick out of the two of them “giving away” their mom to be married to Richard. Richard and Susan used sand pouring for their unity celebration and involved the 3 adult children. Susan put her sand in first, then the 3 children and then Richard poured his on top – it was a really cool thing to watch and very meaningful as they symbolized their care for – and having the front and backs of their kids.

Jim and Diana were married at the Seville in Streamwood. This couple had a fun wedding surrounded by family and friends. The ring bearer stole the show by wandering up and down the aisle and looking over the crowd several times – it was pretty cute. A lot of emotion was expressed while the vows were exchanged and it was very moving for everyone involved. These two have great families and it was fun for me to have the opportunity to spend time speaking with many of them.

Daisy and Bill were married on the evening of 9/26/16 at the Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows. I had never been there before and it is a impressive gigantic hall used for corporate conventions, weddings and shows. Daisy’s family is from India and Bill is from the USA. The couple had a traditional Indian wedding in the morning and a Christian wedding in the evening. They had a really full day and it was really interesting to hear about the proceedings in the earlier ceremony. The guy handling the music for the ceremony was about ½ hour late – but everyone handled it well. I told the guest that we had a technical difficulty that was taking a little while to fix and they could get up and visit until we were ready to start. This couple has an absolutely great story about their relationship that I shared in the ceremony. Their ceremony went extremely well and I received a lot of positive response from the guests. An uncle talked to me after the ceremony. 48 years ago he met his wife on one day, they got engaged the next day and married at the end of that week. The Pastor tried to talk them out of it, but they went ahead. He was then shipped off to Viet Nam right after the wedding and they were not together again for about a year. Their marriage has not only survived, but done very well . . . what a cool story!

Johnny and Mindy were married in the early afternoon on 9/26/15 at Noah’s Venue in Lincolnshire. The wedding hall was very beautifully decorated with some beautiful flowers in tall clear glass vases full of water. I may have been the only Caucasian at the wedding and I took that as a great honor to be invited to be involved. The entire wedding ceremony was translated in Cantonese. I provided the script for the ceremony to the translator. I would speak a sentence in English and he would repeat it in Cantonese. The couple wrote their own vows and it was very touching to hear them speak their promises to each other.

Kim and Will were married in the morning on 9/26/15 in the gazebo at the Kracklauer Park in Mundelein. These two are a very loving couple and very easy and fun to work with. Will is a self described geek and keeps everyone around him laughing. His grandpa had a really great black hat and his father had an equally great looking white hat which he wore to the wedding. The gazebo in the park is large enough to hold a decent crowd and everyone brought bag chairs to sit in during the ceremony. Kim told me she would give me a call in 20 years to oversee a vow renewal for the two of them.

Kim and Mike were married at the Seven Points Golf Course in an outdoor ceremony just before sunset on 9/25/15. The weather was perfect for the wedding and the setting was beautiful. These two are a fun loving couple and they had a wedding ceremony that was both serious and entertaining and fit their personalities perfectly.

Ioana and Zahid were married on 9/25/15 at Promotory Point in Chicago across Lake Shore Drive from the Museum of Science and Industry. The structure is stone walls with an exposed wooden ceiling and glass doorways all along the side that look out on the park on one side and Lake Michigan on the other side. I was given a permit allowing me to pull off of Lake Shore Drive right on to the bike path and drive right up to the building. Most guests had a long hike from the parking area by the Museum. The bridal party arrived in a trolley bus. Zahid is completing training to become a physician. Ioana’s parents are from Romania and her father is a knucklehead like me and we hit it off very well.

Sean and Katherine are now officially husband and wife as of 2:25 p.m. today. They wanted a simple ceremony at the place they met. They are great couple and really have tons of nice friends. The father of the bride did his job flawlessly and the father of the groom was so happy for his son that he kept wiping tears from his eyes. PJ’S has a large covered outside eating area that worked perfectly for the wedding.

Chris and Shelby were just married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony at the Villa Olivia Golf Course. I can almost see my house from where they were married. The weather was absolutely perfect for an outdoor ceremony. We had to chase a few bees away part way through the ceremony and everyone got a few chuckles out of that! For the unity celebration the bride and groom had a wooden box in which they placed love letters to each other as well as a bottle of wine. The box was sealed and will be opened on their first anniversary.