I had the honor of capturing Emma and Nolan’s summer wedding at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago. When Emma first reached out to me, I was unfamiliar with St. John Cantius, but quickly looked up this church and was in awe of its beauty. Between the architecture, statues, and artwork, it is a very beautiful building! I was so excited when Nolan mentioned to me, “We want to change the wedding industry, we want to make the Mass the focus of the day.” This resonated SO deeply with me, and brought me so much joy that they truly wanted to show their guests what really matters to them: the sacrament.
St. John Cantius Church has quite the history. Work began to build the church all the way back in 1893, with its first Mass in the church basement on Christmas Eve in 1893. With the depression, though, construction stopped due to lack of funds. The parishioners prayed a novena to St. Joseph, and we able to raise the remaining funds for the church to be completed in 1898. The parish grew significantly and reached its peak numbers in 1918 at 23,000 parishioners!
If you hope to have your wedding at St. John Cantius, there are some things to consider. As with most churches, it is highly recommended that you do not chose a church solely based on its beauty, but that you chose the church based on where one (or both) of you attend. This is the same with Cantius, and they recommend that you are involved in the parish life at the church. It is also required that you complete all the canonical paperwork before a date is established for your wedding day.
Some other considerations are that there is a fee to use St. John Cantius Church for your wedding day. This fee is $1500, and then there are additional fees for your music as well.
We went to Montrose Beach to take couple’s photographs afterward! It is a great location that is only about 20 minutes from St. John Cantius, and has a beautiful view of the Chicago city skyline as well! Even on this foggy day, it was absolutely gorgeous to have the skyline and water in the background of their photographs!
If you’d love to work with a Catholic wedding photographer, and especially one that already has experiencing at. St. John Cantius Church, I would LOVE to chat more with you!! Take a look at more images from Emma and Nolan’s wedding day, as well as other Catholic weddings, here!
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