A Chic Ballroom Wedding at The Langham Chicago in Chicago, Illinois

For Lauren and Loren, their first trip together down the aisle didn’t happen on their wedding day. The strangers were members of the same wedding party when they were tasked with walking down the aisle as a pair. “Our friends put us together because they thought it was funny that we shared the same name,” Lauren says. Four years later, Lauren and Loren tied the knot in a ceremony that blended Jewish tradition with the Japanese san-san-kudo ritual.

A muted palette of blush and ivory made for a city-chic ballroom wedding illuminated with hundreds of candles. Lucite chiavari chairs were arranged in a semicircle for the in-the-round vows. In lieu of escort cards, guests’ names were printed on translucent boards adorned with strands of orchids.

In the months before the wedding, Loren’s mother folded thousands of origami cranes to honor the Japanese senbazuru tradition. Those folded tokens of good fortune were then suspended from the ballroom’s ceiling, resulting in a showstopping chuppah.