Playful Field Museum Wedding with Beautiful Details
Taylor and Rishan really leaned into non-traditional, personality-driven fun for their Field Museum wedding. They live in Seattle but met here in Chicago. Their wedding weekend was a combination homecoming and celebration of their relationship. I documented the weekend with timeless, joyful photos that feel true to Taylor and Rishan.
Here’s what you’ll find in this blog post:
A Field Museum Wedding
A Field Museum wedding is a great way to give your guests an unforgettable Chicago experience. This natural history museum has an amazing collection of dinosaur skeletons and fossils. Who doesn’t want to have their first dance beneath a dino skeleton suspended from the ceiling? Between the stunning building and impressive collections, you get the best of the elegant and playful on your wedding day.
The building itself is incredible. It opened to the public in 1921, and it has all the columns, bass relief, and open space you could hope for out of a Neoclassical building from the era. Stanley Field Hall, where most wedding receptions take place, accounts for half an acre of floor space. Needless to say, there’s plenty of room for dinner, dancing, and pretty much anything you could imagine at your reception.
Quick facts about a Field Museum wedding:
Venue type: Indoor/outdoor
Location: Museum Campus, Near South Side
Capacity: 1,000 guests (Yep! You read that right.)
Starting cost: $22,000
The spaces you can use for your Field Museum wedding include
Terrace: You can have an indoor or outdoor ceremony at the Field Museum. The outdoor spaces are gorgeous. Brick terraces surround lawns and little gardens. You get incredible views of the Chicago skyline, too.
Rice Native Gardens: In the summertime, consider holding cocktail hour amid the native plants and contemporary sculptures in the gardens. The museum is home to over 100 species of native plants, including some selected to attract butterflies and other pollinators.
Stanley Field Hall: Many of the weddings you’ll see, including this one, have receptions in Stanley Field Hall. It’s spacious and elegant.
A Playful Wedding Weekend
A Field Museum wedding was perfect for Taylor and Rishan. Before their wedding, they shared this with me:
“We are child free but live our lives as if childhood lasts a lifetime. We are very close with our family and each other's family. The whole weekend is Field trip-themed, but we are personally really leaning into the dinosaurs."
As you can tell, Taylor and Rishan are super fun humans. Taylor’s sarcasm is the perfect match for Rishan’s silliness.
To kick off the long wedding weekend, Taylor and Rishan held a family-only ceremony on Thursday. The backyard ceremony was sweet, heartfelt, and intimate. It was a really nice balance to the big party at the Field Museum later in the weekend.
The rest of the weekend included Field trip-inspired activities. They even started their wedding day with an optional morning run along the lakefront! Everyone enjoyed Firecakes Donuts at the end.
Beautiful Details for a Distinctly Chicago Celebration
For this Field Museum wedding reception, Taylor and Rishan’s guests showed up looking their best. They wore fashionable clothes in bright colors that complimented the elegant neutrals of the architecture.
The Field trip theme continued with guests arriving at the reception in a school bus. It set such a fun tone for the night! Guests also enjoyed having free range of the Field Museum’s exhibits during the reception.
Cocktail hour was a very Chicago experience. Everyone sipped cocktails on the museum steps. Then Taylor and Rishan had the Chicago Bucket Boys play. Rishan even joined them. Guests absolutely loved it.
Choosing Your Chicago Wedding Photographer
Are you looking for a Chicago wedding photographer to document the playful, sweet moments at your celebration? That’s where I come in! I’m AJ, a photographer who translates connections and moments into timeless photos. Inquire with me here!
Thank you to the amazing team that helped make this wedding so special.
Planning: BURST Events Co.
Photography: AJ Abelman Photography
Venue: Field Museum
Floral: Southside Blooms
Linen: BBJ LaTavola
Catering: Blue Plate Chicago
Band: Funktastic Productions
Hair and Makeup Artist: Fearless & Bella
