Deborah and the decorating team at AoI were amazing to work with! Communication was clear and…read moreprompt both in-person and via e-mail. She provided recommendations, explained pricing, and was very familiar with the venue space. We were blown away by how beautiful our ceiling decor and chuppah were, and the guests were raving about it as well! Overall pricing was very reasonable, and Deborah is also extremely sweet and supportive. I can't recommend AoI enough!

Art of imagination had exceptional communication, service, and execution. We had the most magical…read morewedding imaginable and it all started with the scene they set. They made our vision come to life and it blew our expectations out of the water. They were kind, thoughtful, and forever present for all of the meetings we had with them. We couldn't thank them enough for their contributions and wish we could give 10/5 stars. Highly recommend for your wedding or next event!

Working with Liz as our wedding planner was one of the best decisions we made throughout our…read morewedding planning process. Liz is highly skilled, talented, organized and responsive. She answered our (many) questions and emails quickly, and with so much patience and expertise. She has incredible relationships in the Chicago wedding industry and connected us with the best vendors who we loved so much, but we also never felt pressured into any decisions, a wonderful balance. There are so many logistics and details to handle during a wedding weekend, and Liz thought of everything - getting our large bridal party and family where they needed to be, transporting my dresses back & forth, executing a perfect timeline for the evening, and so much more. She took so much off my plate and made it so I wasn't worried about a thing besides enjoying ourselves. She also was so caring, kind, and fun to work with. Trust me, you want Liz as the leader of your wedding team. I truly cannot imagine having done it without her!

I am struggling to put into words how to thank Lindsay Gaeta and her team and acknowledge every…read moresingle detail she knocked out of the park and executed on our wedding day! Throughout the planning process there were so many little behind the scenes details she saved me time on which I am so appreciative! I will miss seeing her monthly on our planning calls! I don't plan to get married again anytime soon but I do hope our paths cross again! I am speechless about her help from the rehearsal to the very last minute of shutting down the after party!! The top 3 highlights that people mentioned to me on the wedding day were 1. Dad's speech, 2. Florals, 3. How hard she HUSTLED!!! My bridesmaids and close family constantly approached me on the wedding day with sentiments of "wow, she's good!!" She exceeded our expectations and anticipated our every move! I have close family in the hospitality business (who are the harshest critics about everything in the event planning world) and were over the top satisfied with her commitment and follow through to make the day as seamless as possible! I am sure there were many hiccups that day that were not brought to my attention and for that, I give Lindsay full credit! I was able to relax, be present and have a B+ personality that evening instead of my typical A- for all things attention to detail! I felt completely comfortable 'handing Lindsay the reigns' and entrusting she would handle everything as necessary, which she did!!!

I was asked to perform a ceremony yesterday - Carolyn and the team did an amazing job herding all…read morethe cats. The rehearsal went flawlessly as well and although I didn't see all the work put in, everyone was where they needed to be and calm and focused on enjoying Their Day. Kudos to AELO for making a special day for so many go off without a hitch. Thank you!

We cannot recommend working with AELO more! Lauren was incredibly responsive and attentive to every…read moredetail. She took the stress off of us the second we met her. She created a timeline and communicated with our vendors to make sure everyone knew exactly what to do, and that helped us to be present and enjoy the most incredible day of our lives! If you're on the fence about a day of coordinator, let this review push you to the other side. Best investment for our wedding day.

Where to even begin?! From the FIRST meeting with Arin, I knew this was going to be a special…read moreexperience- she had pre-reserved our dream venue (The Field Museum!) just in case we wanted to get married in November... which we did! Arin is so full of ideas, kindness, and energy- she took my vision of color and RAN WITH IT... leading all of our vendors to create the absolute night of my dreams. Arin is incredibly responsive (nights, weekends, ALWAYS), organized, and creative. She wished me luck and sent me coffee before my dress shopping, asked for updates during my bachelorette, and even texted mere DAYS after giving birth to wish me well on wedding day. Arin shines so bright - and is a safe space in what can be a crazy/confusing industry. I am so thankful to Arin for the happiest night of my life- looking back, there isn't ONE THING I would change. It was perfect.

If I could give BCB 10 stars, I would. They are amazing!…read more We recently worked with BCB to plan and execute my son's Bar Mitzvah (they do more than just weddings!). We had the privilege of working with Susan and Johnna. Susan is a visionary who can help you dream big and tap into your imagination, and Johnna makes all your dreams realities. Our event was held at 1970 N Lincoln (formerly Stanleys), which has been closed for almost a decade. Susan and Johnna were magicians and made the venue come to life, ensuring we had the epic dance party we envisioned. No detail was left unattended, from the creative catering to the security to the coat check to the lighting, the DJ, the party's flow, and then some. After the event, there was an issue with our bus company in which one bus never arrived. BCB was able to get a last-minute bus to come, all without letting me know, so that I could enjoy the party and not stress. I cannot recommend them enough. I only wish I had another party to throw so I could work with them again. If you're looking for an incredibly creative, thoughtful, detail-oriented, fun-loving, caring team to throw your next big event, look no further than Big City Bride. They are THE BEST!

Date of Wedding: October: October 20 2019 Abington Banquets…read more Alina was so easy to work with and super patient. She listened carefully to what we wanted and was very flexible. She helped us change things around to match our budget. We worked with Alina for a few months before we put down a down payment so I thank her for her patience on that. Alina takes alot of pride in her work and refuses to use cheap materials. Alina coordinated our entrance and stage. It looked wonderful in the photos.

Olga from Prestige wedding decor helped make our dream wedding happen, after COVID caused us to…read moreswitch to plan B. Olga worked with us to help plan our fairy tale wedding when we were supposed to get married this May. Her suggestions were right in line with our style and her prices were very fair. When we had to pull the trigger on our big fat 500 person Indian wedding, Olga worked with us to design a whole new mini outdoor wedding this August. She helped transform a little outdoor gazebo into a beautiful wedding mandap, and truly worked with us on every detail until the last moment. She was very helpful when we had to postpone and let us move our deposit to a different day with no issues. When I asked for extra decorations last minute, she went out of her way to make it happen for us. I will definitely be using Olga and Prestige decor for all of our future events!

Swetal and team helped make our fairytale wedding a success! They were incredibly easy to work with…read morethroughout the entire process, inclusive of providing budget friendly recommendations of how to dress up our space for the sangeet, ceremony, and reception. Swetal was also accessible in convenient ways -- I knew if I texted or e-mailed her, I wouldn't have to worry about constantly having to follow up to get an answer. We received numerous compliments on our wedding decor, and I would definitely recommend working with this team!

Swetal and her team did an amazing job for a last minute engagement party! She was helpful and…read moreworked within our budget to create this beautiful stage within 1 week.

We worked with Kerrie from Citygirl to plan our fall wedding. I was super worried about planning a…read morewedding while living in a different state and time zone. You can easily get overwhelmed when planning a wedding in a big city as there are so many great vendors and venues to choose from. Citygirl has an incredible network of vendors that they work with all the time. I loved that I was able to send Kerrie a few photos of say floral or stationary, and she was able to give me a list of 3-4 spot on vendors in different price ranges. It was such a relief to know that the vendors were reliable, professional and had experience working with Kerrie. I am super indecisive so I can't tell you how much time this saved me. The end product was beautiful, classy, and more stunning than I could have imagined. Everything flowed perfectly so that our families could just enjoy the day without worrying about any of the behind the scenes details. My parents said they were bombarded with calls, texts, and letters for days and days after the wedding from guests saying how it was the most beautiful event they had ever been to. Thanks ladies!

I cannot recommend Shar and citygirl enough!! Seriously, I would give her 100 stars if I could…read more From start to finish, Shar left no stone unturned when it came to planning the wedding of my dreams. She truly gets to know who you are as a bride, like what stresses you out or what is especially important to you, and she tailors her approach to each wedding she plans. Shar made sure everything went PERFECTLY on our wedding day so I was truly able to enjoy the day and not worry about the small details or something going wrong. Not only is she a fantastic wedding planner, she is also a genuinely kind and thoughtful person overall. I consider myself extremely lucky to have met her almost five years ago as my wedding planner and to now also consider her a friend.

I can't imagine our wedding without the help of Five Grain Events. Joan and Emily are a dream team…read moreand helped so much every step of the way. From planning to coordination, they held our hands and completely delivered on each stage of the process. I would recommend Five Grain for any event, words can not express how thankful we were to have found them. While my bride was the MVP of our wedding, Emily was a close runner-up. Five Grain Events is the best in the game. 5 stars. I might not be married without the work they put into our wedding. Could not recommend more.

Joan planned a wedding for my friend Kate. Everything about the wedding was perfect. She was very…read moredetailed oriented and thanks to her hard work the wedding couldn't have gone any better.

WARNING: DO NOT TRUST SONYA I hired Sonya in May 2020 as a…read morefull-time planner to help me plan a wedding for Aug 2022. I worked with Sonya for 4 months before I terminated the contract. In the 4 months, Sonya did not do anything except e-mail some venue options. I found Sonya to be highly unprofessional and dishonest. Sonya does not communicate and kept making excuses for not being able to accomplish any tasks. I got frustrated with her lack of progress and started planning my own wedding. It took me only 3 weeks to tour multiple venues and book one. Sonya would send me venue options via e-mail but never followed up or scheduled tours. She blamed the venues and claimed they were not responding to her. Weeks would go by and I would hear nothing from her. I checked up on her every 2-3 weeks to even get any information. After 3 months, she calls me saying she found a venue. She tells me it is within my budget and allows outside catering. She askes me to send me my availability to schedule a in-person tour. I send her my schedule and don't hear anything back. Two weeks later I call her and ask what happened. She again makes excuses that the venue isn't responding, etc. A few days later she e-mails me a contract for the venue with no information except the attached contract. The contract did NOT match anything Sonya told me over the phone. It was double the cost and did not allow for outside catering. I asked Sonya and she said it was just an "example" of a contract for me to see (what?) and that she will work it out with the vendor. Guess what? Never heard from Sonya again about this venue. We communicated to Sonya about our concerns with her work she never addressed them. I got frustrated and decided to contact venues on my own. In two weeks, I set MULTIPLE in-person venue tours and within 3 weeks I secured a venue that was within my budget and had flexible catering options. I fired Sonya after that. I did not have any issues contacting venues or hearing back from them. Sonya was being dishonest. I asked her to refund my deposit and she has not. I have filed a formal complaint to the BBB. Because of Sonya wasting 4 months, I was not able to secure the date I wanted. TLDR - Sonya took our deposit and accomplished nothing for 4 months. She barely communicated and she did, it was constant empty excuses and lies. She has refused to refund us. Because of her negligence I was not able to get the date I wanted at my venue.

I only wish I had hired Sonya earlier; my husband and I would have enjoyed our wedding prep and…read moremaybe even our wedding day a lot more. Who knew that was even possible? Sonya was kind, understanding, helped me find vendors, created my wedding timeline, ran errands, and so much more. Everything was so easy from the beginning. It starts with an initial consultation and she lays out all the details of her services. She was direct and genuinely does all that she can so the bride and groom can enjoy their day. She is also incredibly creative, energetic, and will go out of her way for you. I don't know what we would have done without her!

The team at NYE events was fantastic to work with from start to finish. I had a great first…read moreconsultation on what I was looking for and was paired with Tempris, who I cannot say enough good things about. She is kind and thorough and truly made me feel supported and confident that all of our plans would be executed. She is both professional and warm and it was a true joy to spend the day with her! I wholeheartedly recommend NYE and am so grateful to Tempris and the rest of the team.

Best money spent! I highly recommend Naturally Yours Events…read more Kristen was our event coordinator and she executed our day with perfection. 10 out of 10!!