Multicultural Wedding with Green-and-Cream Palette at Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois

Physicians Mona Azeem and Eliot Ku met during his residency, but they didn’t fall in love in an operating room. They bonded over “climbing adventures,” which led to “a fateful trip that left us stranded under a rock during a heavy mountain rainstorm,” cuddling for warmth, Eliot says. When they decided to get married, they skipped a formal proposal—and formal planning. This left them making several major decisions mere days before their wedding all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the end, it was worth the whirlwind: “Mona and I took a moment together to take in the scene of all these people we love together in one place,” Eliot says. “We had actually pulled off quite a fun event.” For their venue, the couple traded the concrete jungle of the city for the literal jungle of the Garfield Park Conservatory—the groom’s “favorite place” in his native Chicago. Natural wood and eucalyptus details threaded throughout played up the lush backdrop of the reception space.