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The Perfect Setting for a Wedding

By Danielle Cybulski

An angelic bride in her white gown and a dashing groom sporting a sleek tuxedo wow everyone as they walk into the room. These newlyweds make their way between onlookers sitting at white, linen-covered circular tables sprinkled with place cards, favors, sparkling white china and shimmering crystal stemware. The couple moves toward a candlelit, flower-covered, elegantly dressed head table. Not only are these love birds a sight to see, enticing looks from their family and friends, the room they inhabit offers décor to enthrall the eyes. Awe-inspiring views pour in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, this setting brimming with the glimmer of excitement and happiness.

Stonegate Banquet Centre has hosted many a wedding as this one. “The aesthetic and physical qualities of a banquet facility and its surroundings are important to site selection for social functions,” says General Manager Les Nasciszewski. “Prospective sites should be visited in-person by all parties involved in the decision-making process to assess a facility’s physical and aesthetic attributes, and to get a thorough explanation of pricing and inclusions.

“You should also ascertain a facility’s business reputation by asking for and pursuing testimonials from co-workers, friends, competitive banquet facilities (if your preferred date isn’t available) and from the facility itself.”

The new addition of Entourage on American Lane to Schaumburg’s upscale banquet scene offers multiple spaces for private dining. This unique location exudes sophistication and city style located in suburbia. For parties as small as six and up to 175, Entourage offers a high-class wedding venue that measures up to the caliber that is usually only available for larger weddings. Regional Sales Manager Mary Beisemann described Entourage as “a little more intimate” and “very modern.” A couple is sure to find beauty here and be confident that their vision of this milestone will be beyond what they dreamed. “We focus on all the little details – the experience is in the details,” said Beisemann.

The Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center along with Sam & Harry’s Restaurant bring to the area stunning banquet spaces for both smaller gatherings and impressive ballrooms for large weddings. The hotel and restaurant can accommodate up to 1,700 patrons, but are also equipped to cater to less extensive guest lists. Professionals such as a “floral specialist, décor specialist and a culinary team...can develop your individual menu,” said Roxanne Reid-Severance, Director of Sales & Marketing. A gorgeous background at the Renaissance makes for a picturesque setting while the staff takes care of all the little extras that make a wedding day such a special, personal time to share.

This amazing day comes to an end. The bride and groom are whisked away into the next phase of their lives together. From the moment they step into the vehicle that will take them on to their next destination, nothing will ever be the same. It is because their lives are intertwined for the rest of eternity and they have just closed the door on the day that they will forever remember as one of the happiest. Whether their celebration of this momentous occasion was a cozy and intimate event or large and extravagant, what they will remember is how they felt in the resplendent atmosphere in which they began their future.

Artistic Moments Created
Through Photography

By Danielle Cybulski

The first cameras were referred to as camera obscuras and could be as large as a room. In the 1600s a more portable version was created, but it was not until the late 1800s that film was invented and, combined with the inventiveness and business savvy of Kodak founder George Eastman, made photography accessible to the masses. The first film produced only black and white images; it was not until the mid-1800s that the first color photograph was created. Digital photography came on the scene in the late 1990s and further propelled this art form into the next century.

“Photographs provide a visual history, and by capturing these moments, we are able to evoke emotions and awareness, and bring back special memories,” says Ann Jenkins, President and Master Photographer for Jenkins Custom Photography, Ltd. in Schaumburg.

Throughout the centuries photography has transformed with advances in technology and the way pictures are produced becoming a popular form of art. Great artists like Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe have the vision for capturing the beauty in things that many may not otherwise “see.”

During the twentieth century, both fine art photography and documentary photography became accepted by the English-speaking art world and the gallery system. In the United States, a handful of photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, John Szarkowski, and Edward Weston spent their lives advocating photography as a fine art.

At first, fine art photographers tried to imitate painting styles. This movement is called Pictorialism, often using soft focus for a dreamy, ‘romantic’ look. In reaction to that, Weston, Ansel Adams, and others formed the f/64 Group to advocate ‘straight photography’, the photograph as a (sharply focused) thing in itself and not an imitation of something else.