B & E

Remi 23 Calendar Avenue Floor 2 La Grange, Illinois Cocktail Hour Begins at 5:30pm Dinner & Dancing to follow Please use the designated "Remi" door to enter the second level event space! Ben and Erin can't wait for you to come celebrate their wedding at the reception! The couple is hosting a very private ceremony with only immediate family beforehand, so just come ready to party! Attire: Cocktail

A Workplace Romance It all started when Ben and Erin were both working at the same high school. At the time, Ben was a math coach and Erin was a math teacher. No one is surprised that two math nerds chose Pi Day for their wedding date! Since Ben was the school’s math coach, Erin looked to him for lesson ideas and often asked him for classroom support. This developed a strong workplace friendship between the two as they collaborated on math activities and strategies to support students. On Leap Day of 2020, their relationship changed from platonic to romantic when Ben offered to pick Erin up from an after-work happy hour, and Erin took him up on the offer. When COVID hit in March of 2020, they spent a lot of time quarantining at Ben’s house while the two of them navigated remote teaching for the first time. This meant that their first real date was cooking Ben’s famous tortellini soup together for an at-home date night! She quickly fell in love with Ben and his dog, Jawz, as well. And the rest is history!

A few weeks prior, Ben and Erin made plans to go downtown with two of their friends to check out the Christmas decorations and to have dinner at an oyster bar in Downtown Chicago. Ben was planning to propose at the Christmas tree in Millennium Park before dinner, but Mother Nature had other plans. Ben noticed that there was rain in the forecast so he called his best friend David to figure out a new plan. They came up with going up to the observatory in the John Hancock building after dinner to propose during the Navy Pier firework show! Erin was left completely in the dark on this added adventure for the night. On the night of, the four of them walked (with umbrellas) to quickly see the Christmas tree before their dinner reservations. They basically ran the short journey to the restaurant as the rain and wind picked up momentum. They arrived at Venteaux and the four of them enjoyed their happy hour drinks, oysters, and steak. Erin thought they were going home at that point but Ben kept saying their “tickets” weren’t until 9pm, so they had some time to waste. Erin was extremely confused because this was the first time she was hearing about tickets to anywhere which caused her to became suspicious since Ben does not usually plan things without her. After enjoying a few more drinks, the group arrived at the Hancock building where Ben had bought fast passes to get up to the observatory. They were the only ones in line so they laughed about the fast passes not being necessary. Once they were at the top they noticed that the whole space was decorated in snowflakes for Christmas. Ben said they chose 9pm because you were supposed to be able to see the Navy Pier fireworks from up there. Ben found them a good spot in the corner of the deck to see the fireworks and told Erin “you know…shiny things come in threes. Christmas trees, fireworks, and this…” Erin turned around and he was down on one knee holding up her dream engagement ring!! She immediately started crying from excitement and Ben slid the ring on her finger. Their friends caught the whole thing on camera so they could see later that he did in fact ask her to marry him and she said yes! Ben and Erin were so caught up in the moment that neither of them can remember what exactly was said when he was down on one knee. For the rest of the night the four of them celebrated with drinks, dancing, and enjoying each other’s company! It’s such a special day and they will cherish it forever!