Click here to see a Virtual Tour of Chapel in the Pines
This intimate chapel is picturesque with stained glass windows, antique fixtures and gorgeous wooden pews along the main aisle. Other amenities in the chapel include candelabras, Chapel in the Pines unity candles, a music system ( inside and out), wedding videos, a kneeler, and aisle runners. Oh, and don't forget to ring the bell in the steeple after your wedding.
We had put the word out to antique stores that we were looking for some pews, so one day a man pulled in the yard with 2 pews in the back. They were nice but we said we needed more, and he said he knew where there are 6 more. We drove up to Pecatonia, Illinois, and picked them up. They came from a Methodist church by the Wisconsin border.
One day we were driving down Rt. 47 through Yorkville and we saw this stained glass window sitting against the outside wall of an antique store. The moment we saw it, we both knew that this was the window for our altar. Good luck was on our side because it took 2 people to carry that window outside every morning and 2 to carry it back in, so the storeowners were real anxious to negotiate the price and get rid of it.
We had bought an old church in Oregon, Illinois and fixed it up into apartments, so we had all the stained glass windows, light fixtures, and artifacts from the remodeling job.
St. Peter and Paul Church of Virgil put in a new music system and had some ornate organ chimes sitting in a corner of a storage room. They fit in nicely in our fake balcony with a soft spotlight on the brass finished chimes.
Because aisle runners seemed to be giving problems to the bridal parties, we put in a secret trap door in the raised altar floor with special weights to keep it from getting kicked up or blown away when the door opens. It looks like the runner is coming right out of the wall - very impressive.
Every wedding here at the Chapel in the Pines is always special. The couples are all unique as well as their wedding vows and services, the attire, music, etc. Weddings can be held inside the chapel as well as outside on the beautiful stone patio under the arbor.
The Chapel in the Pines has hosted weddings for people here locally, across the US and from other countries. We have had the pleasure of a Russian ballerina, a lady physiologist from Bogotá, Columbia, a Scottish lass, Germany, Ireland, Taiwan, England, Italy, Spain, Japan, Philippines, China, and grooms from Canada and Mexico.
All of our weddings seem to have a distinct flavor and style. Many couples write their own vows and have done their whole wedding service under the guidance of the minister (or officiant). The weddings vary from traditional attire, to western, period costumes, to leather attire, suits, dress slacks, and blue jeans. The brides have worn colors from white to black and also purple.
The brides and grooms have arrived and departed the Chapel in the Pines by a number of modes of transportation, i.e. classic cars, horse and carriages, limos, antique fire trucks, motorcycles or their own vehicles. Howard and I are always excited about every wedding here but even more so when the couples come up with really neat themes.