Finn and I live in St. Louis and we don’t get to come home to Chicago too often. When we do come back for a weekend, we find that it can be a struggle to balance the time we spend with our friends, our family, and the time we spend downtown Chicago exploring the city we love.
So (not to toot our own horn) but we planned an amazing & unforgettable event that combined everything we love into one day!
Here’s how we planned our Christmas Photo Hunt.
Step 1: Create Teams
We rounded up 15-20 of our closest family members and friends and had them reserve a day to spend with us. We then split everyone up into teams of 2-3. Finn and I explained to the groups that we would all be competing in a Christmas Photo Hunt.
At first, everyone was a bit confused. What the heck is a photo hunt? Why are we “hunting” for photos. That’s when we brought out thisbig ol’ list of photos.
Step 2: Create a List of Photo Ops
This list is one we created ourselves and it contains hundreds of photo ops that you could take in Downtown Chicago. Some had a Christmas theme (10 points to sit on Santa’s lap) others were just plain fun (5 points to take a picture chugging a beer)!
You can download our list right here. Or create your own to fit your event!
Step 3: Meet up & Start the Hunt!
We had everyone meet us at Millenium Park in Downtown Chicago. We passed out pens, the lists, and gave strict orders for everyone to meet us back at that same spot in 3 hours.
Now, I’m not gonna lie. We didn’t really know if people were going to dig this photo hunt activity or not. In order to give the teams some incentive, we decided to create prizes to instill a bit of friendly competition.
Funniest Picture, Spirit Award, and Highest Total Points were all titles up for grabs!
Luckily, everyone really got into the photo hunt, as you can see by the photos below…
We had some pretty easy photo opportunities that were 5 points each.
But they gradually got harder and more embarrassing!
10 points were given for some hard to find photo ops.
We were so happy that everyone really gave it their all! All of the teams put in plenty of effort and came up with a strategy and plan to attain the most points possible.
We threw in a few 25 point photos…and some teams took advantage of that big point opportunity! Even though it was a cold, windy day in December, my dad got down to his skivvies to put his feet in Lake Michigan! And good thing my mom is cute, because these Chicago Police Officers were happy to snap a pic with her! We now have hundreds of pictures to remember this crazy day! After the 3 hours were up, we all headed to a local restaurant to celebrate and laugh at all of our funny pictures! That’s when something unexpected happened for me.
Finn decided to put a ring on it! He got down on one knee, I sobbed, and all of our family and friends cheered on. It truly was a special and unforgettable day.
Now our engagement has begun, and you know what that means…lots of DIY wedding projects! Get ready readers…
I’m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.
