We hired Be My Guest to cater our wedding this past May at Garfield Park Conservatory and I was…read moreleft with mixed feelings. First of all, let me just say that the the food was great, which is what really matters for a caterer. Susann is the main gal who you do all of your pre-planning with, but I felt like she should have been more of a presence during the wedding because she was in the back the entire time. She had someone assigned to the front of the house who approached me a few times asking for final details, such as the order the tables would eat (information I had given to Susann well before the wedding day). When I sent my husband to find out what was going on, the list I had given to Susann materialized (whew, because I definitely didn't have that memorized). The part that really made me mad was when this same worker asked me why people were assigned to table18 because there were only supposed to be 17 tables. I guess they didn't bring the most up to date floor plan to the event either. They did whip up another table pretty fast, but I'm still embarrassed that those guests were just standing there for awhile and it definitely could have been avoided. Also, it seemed like we had to tell Susann our preferences over and over before the event. Maybe that's good that she is quadruple checking, but it decreased my confidence that she knew what was going on. Initially, Susann discouraged us from hiring a coordinator or a planner to help on the day of the event. She reassured us that she would be able to handle extra things like the guest book, favors and place settings and she stated that an extra person would just get in the way. As the event neared, I was becoming less and less confident that she could handle extra things, so I regretted not hiring a coordinator for the day. I ended up assigning friends to extra tasks which I am glad that I did. In the end the price was right and people were happy with the food, so that is definitely important! I would highly recommend having a friend or coordinator handle the non-food related items and to make sure everything runs smoothly with the caterer as well, so that you aren't bombarded with ridiculous last minute questions.

We hired Be My Guest for our Aug 2008 wedding at the Garfield Park Conservatory and had a very…read moresimilar experience to Sara B.'s The food was very good and the staff was courteous. However, there were significant headaches that I was left to deal with on my own that day, so I would recommend BMG only if you also have an experienced wedding coordinator. Susann repeatedly discouraged me from hiring a coordinator, saying she'd be handling all those little details. Not so. The seating plan I had labored over for a month got mixed up by a staff member which put my mother's elderly friends right next to the DJs speakers and across the room from all the people they know. And relatives we wanted to keep a distance between were seated practically next to each other. Huge bummer. I found out too late that my photographers had had nothing to eat even though I'd paid for them and the DJ to have meals. I also took Susann's advice about not offering coffee service at the tables and regretted that because they set up the coffee at the opposite end of the hall near the bar so people had to get up and walk across the whole space just to get a cup of coffee when cake/dessert was served. I trusted Susann's abilities, and appreciated the double and triple checking of the details, but lost all confidence when I arrived at the Conservatory on the afternoon of the wedding and walked up to her to check in....she didn't recognize me! She just took the decorations I'd brought from me and walked away. I'd met with her in person at least 4 times and I WAS THE BRIDE!!! She didn't recognize my husband either because he was helping our musicians set up in the conservatory and she scolded him about where they should set up. Pretty unprofessional and unfortunately left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess it all boils down to this bit of advice to all brides to be: hire a coordinator who can manage your vendors, including your caterer. And think twice about a caterer who isn't keen on being managed.

Lisa handled the day-of coordination of our daughter's bat mitzvah party. She was an absolute pro…read morein every respect, which made it possible for us to enjoy the day without worry. She is organized, thoughtful, detail-oriented, and a great advisor on those judgment calls that often come up in party planning. She also dealt with a noise complaint related to our event that allowed the party to continue without interruption. The party was a phenomenal success, due in large part to Lisa's calm, steady coordination.

Lisa is amazing! As our day-of-coordinator, she made my life so much easier in the weeks leading up…read moreto, and on, our wedding day. She was extremely organized and made many helpful suggestions that I would not have thought of to make everything run smoothly, and did a wonderful job coordinating all of our vendors and setting up and striking all the decorations etc. at the venue. It also helps that she is extremely kind and patient :) I would 100% recommend using Lisa for your wedding needs!

I couldn't recommend Bride & Joy more highly. Kim is the consummate wedding person. She was so much…read morefun to talk with! She was always so quick to get back to me on any of my little questions and never made me feel anything but special. She's got great taste and really understands every aspect of the whole "Wedding Biz." We managed to stay on time, which is unheard of for a wedding! She was a pleasure to work with in the days leading up and totally crushed it the day of. We were free to just have the Time Of Our Lives and I can't imagine our special day without her!

I highly recommend Kim for month-of planning! We used Bride and Joy for our September 2018 wedding…read moreat Salvage One. Working with Kim was a dream-- she is so calm and professional-- Kim helped me organize the chaos and enjoy the process. Kim previously worked at Salvage One, so coordination was a breeze. I had many vendors and had a lot of DIY aspects to my wedding-- Kim was able and willing to help me coordinate all the vendors and went above and beyond, helping us organize and set up the whole room. I would work with Kim again in a heartbeat!

We were referred by another Officiant that was booked for our wedding date, and couldn't have been…read morehappier how this worked out. Jill was very responsive, and she just got my husband's humor and our personalities. She was able to pick up on things from just a phone call and a few emails exchanged. She could have provided a very standard ceremony and vows for us, but she went above and beyond making something customized and personalized incorporating both of our cultures. It was a very thoughtful and much appreciated thing when you are planning a wedding that she can think of something that we didn't even think of, especially when you are in the thick of planning and thinking of so many other things for the wedding and other events going on in your life. She was on time and laid out expectations, easy to communicate with, and made everything simple. I must have also gotten quotes from more than 10 others and they were such ridiculously exorbitant prices for what in actuality might have been a half an hours worth of time that was spent in person. I feel like some people just capitalize on someone else's happiness and take advantage by charging a high fee or cost because you are getting married. This was not the case with Jill, as she was very reasonable in price and her personality really set her apart. We would highly recommend her.

I was lucky enough to get some referrals that led me to Jill, and I'm so thrilled that she was the…read moreofficiant for our wedding. Finding the right officiant isn't exactly easy -- we put a lot of effort towards creating a celebration that felt true to us as a couple, and we didn't want to necessarily follow the normal flow or traditions of a wedding ceremony. Jill was a perfect partner in helping us create something uniquely meaningful to our relationship. She was warm, personable and inquisitive during each of our meetings. I was impressed on her skill at picking up all the small details of our relationship and crafting them into a compelling story for our wedding guests. She was so excited to help us craft the right type of unity ritual -- she was a great creative partner and balanced our ideas with her sense of what would be most impactful for our event. I am so thrilled that the universe brought us together with Jill. Our wedding was a perfectly memorable event, and she played a huge role in making it so magical.

We had a fantastic wedding planner, Katie, who has done more than day-of planning for us. She is…read moreexactly the type person you want to be your wedding planner: detailed-oriented, RESOURCEFUL, responsive, nice and polite but makes sure things are done the way they should be done (esp. when the bride can be a little particular at times), all around wonderful to work with. The record high flooding in Chicago happened on our wedding day. Yes, our venue flooded. With the generosity of our caterer who had their own venue and Katie's help, we were able to move venue, get everything setup, and had the best wedding ever! Katie took care of the entire move! I didn't even break a sweat through all this all because I know I can trust Katie to get the job done. Katie was so helpful throughout the wedding planning process and very good with what she does: making sure your day is as perfect as it can be for you!

Our Wedding Coordinator was Kara Superfine, of Bliss Weddings & Events…read more. I cannot say enough how amazing she was to us! Our wedding felt flawless thanks to Kara.. if anything went wrong, she fixed it, and we knew nothing about it.. she did everything in her power to make our day go smoothly and look beautiful... In the weeks prior to the wedding she talked/met with all of our vendors, and caught possible gliches before it was too late.. Above all this, she is a lovely person, and great to work with.. all of our family kept telling us how amazed they were with how organized she was, ( Even with my big crazy family lol) HIGHLY RECOMMEND KARA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We used revelry creative for decor at our wedding. Natasha made AMAZING paper flowers for our…read morearchway at Blue Dress Barn - they turned out so beautiful! I showed her an idea of what I had and she made it come to life. She even went above and beyond and helped make sure that all of my DIY decor was in place and that everything ran on time Her creative eye is wonderful- all of the details from our wedding turned out more beautiful that I could have dreamed of. Thank you!

Tasha helped create table decorations, table numbers, decorated our trellis and turned boring…read morevotives into a cute-rustic creation for our wedding. My absolute favorite creation was the amazing wedding cake topper she made for us--it still sits in our house on the shelf! So many people at our wedding still comment on the cute and creative decorations we had at our wedding. She was very professional to work with, is SUPER affordable (especially for how much time she puts into her work), and is really amazing at turning any everyday object into a craft. Tasha was definitely one of our favorite, fun wedding vendors because she is so easy and laid back to work with--very welcomed in the wedding industry. She is extremely resourceful, and can find items to recycle, reuse and turn into something that we will have forever as a memory of our wedding day. I highly recommend Tasha!

Frank Andonoplas, of Frank Event Design, is a wedding planner extraordinaire. Two weeks from our…read moredaughter's wedding day, we had to replace our wedding planner who was holy unprofessional and provided us with little assurance that the wedding would be all we had hoped and planned it to be. Frank came highly recommended and the stars were aligned that he was available. He immediately took the reins and began reviewing all of the vendor contracts, reworked the poorly designed day of timeline, coordinating with the venue, meeting with our daughter and future son in law, and making himself available to us via email, text, or phone everyday. He is a dedicated professional who takes pride in giving each couple the day they dreamed of. The wedding day was seamless. Frank was on site handling the reception space, the flower delivery, band/ staging, all while checking on the bridal party throughout the day. The outdoor ceremony started on time and flowed right into the cocktail hour. The room reveal for the reception was a wow. As we partied and were fully immersed in the celebration, Frank was behind the scenes collecting gifts, gathering personal items to place securely in the bridal suite, and handled gratuities so we could stay in the moment. We would enthusiastically recommend Frank for your special day... he will exceed your expectations. Susan and David V. Pomeranz

I just had Frank do my Star Wars themed wedding. It was perfect…read more Anyone who wants to work with the best of the best, should seek Frank out, because I could not imagine my wedding having been anywhere near as fantastic as it was without his help. My then fiancee, now wife, and I were both attending graduate school while planning our wedding. She was finishing up her JD in Baltimore while I was completing a MA in Seattle while planning our wedding at the Morton Arboretum in Northern Illinois. We did all the initial planning with Frank over the phone. He started by setting up a time for us all to talk so that he could get to know us, understand our vision, and provide some initial suggestions to set us on the right path. He made the entire process extremely easy so that we were able to just review our e-mails at the end of the week, choose from the pre-vetted options that he gave us, and then let him take care of the details. I was perhaps more of a "Groom-zilla" than my wife was in terms of being very detail-oriented. The day of the wedding there seemed to be a million small things that could have gone wrong, and Frank was somehow on top of all of them. The people at the venue had originally set up the tables in a mirrored version of how they were supposed to be, and Frank was able to get it all fixed during cocktail hour without our guests being any the wiser. Our cake vendor had also made a mistake, changing the iconic "I love you." "I know." from Star Wars to "I love you and I know you." Which is not the same at all, and sounds... odd. Frank hand-scraped the offending words from the cake and then covered it up artistically with flowers that he had on hand. No one even knew there was a mistake. He also found some one to make me an Ewok groom's cake. The one review on this page who accuses Frank of being a snob certainly does not know what she is talking about. Frank was genuinely one of the most caring, earnest and hardworking people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. He cares a great deal about delivering only the best to his clients, and he is upfront with you about whether or not your style and his will combine. If you are a match, you are in for a real treat working with this man. He and his team are simply the best.

I got married in 2016 which was the first year that Maria opened her business. I am super delayed…read morein writing my reviews, but I kept putting it off since I didn't want to shortchange her. She was an indispensable part of wedding planning for us. I interviewed with a few wedding planners, but Maria was the most personable and helpful among those that I met. She was enthusiastic and even offered free advice at the consultation before I even hired her! For the most part, I planned my wedding remotely. We got married in Chicago but by the time most of the planning was happening we had moved out of state. Maria found the best vendors for us and was able to maximize our visits to Chicago. She wrote thorough and timely emails in response to my (admittedly neurotic) queries. She also knows a TON of people in the business. She found out that our caterer WENT OUT OF BUSINESS almost a full month before the caterer sent a notification to clients. She called us, explained the situation and already had plans of how to fix everything to make our day perfect. We turned a disaster into a minor inconvenience. A few days before the wedding, we moved the location of the ceremony due to rain. Maria handled ALL of the communication with vendors, reconfigured the schedule of events and handled the new last minute decorations. It was seamless and NOT stressful at all. That's not something many brides can say during the wedding week. On the day of my event, I felt like Maria was everywhere at once. It was amazing! She had previously mentioned (in passing) that she had another wedding that day - and you would have never known. Everything went smoothly (and if it didn't, I never heard about it!) If I ever plan another event in the Chicago area, I will reach out to Maria. She was a pleasure to work with and I am glad that her business seems to be doing so well.

I first have to say thank you to Maria and her team for making our wedding day more than perfect…read more We wouldn't have changed a thing. We were totally clueless going into wedding planning and Maria guided us perfectly. She has all the answers! She is so creative and came up with solutions to fit our budgets for different aspects of the wedding which was exactly what we needed. Without her we know that our wedding day would not have run as smoothly and perfectly as it did. She is extremely patient and organized. Let me say it again, organized. Somehow she managed everyone's expectations and requests. When it comes to making everyone happy she truly excelled especially with my parents. She was very attentive, professional and knowledgeable. Thank you for the best and most beautiful day of our lives. - Bryan and Allison