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 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!

THE BEST WEDDING PLANNERS IN THE CHICAGO! I am serious, they are truly amazing, and you won't…read moreregret calling them for a wedding consultation. They made our wedding flawless, and so magical. All the details were in place, everything ran so smoothly and not only did we have the time of our lives, all of our guests did too. They specialize in Indian, Indian Fusion but can plan any type of wedding. They have a very diverse portfolio of clients and will even let you check out a wedding to see if you like their style. I am telling you they will make your wedding day the most amazing day of your life. Email them at shevents@gmail.com and ask for Sabrina or Nisar.

My husband is Scottish-American and I am Indian and we were looking for wedding planners who could…read morehandle the culture-clash and create a nice fusion of the two cultures. Sabrina and Nisar did an AMAZING job and we couldn't have been happier with our wedding. We mainly worked with Nisar and we are so grateful for the work that he did. I am more wishy-washy than most brides and Nisar was supportive and helpful in creating a vision for our wedding that made me, my husband, and our families happy. We had bagpipes, an Indian priest, a Christian reverend, a pianist, a funky DJ, and more at our wedding and Nisar was able to put everything together in a cohesive manner. He was always reachable and communicated well with all participants in the wedding. Other than that, he is just a pleasant and lovable person to work with. He is now an honorary member of the Mehta family, in fact. Sabrina played more of a role at the beginning and end of the wedding planning process and did a great job at organizing all of the little details on the actual wedding day. My husband, our families, and I didn't have to think about logistics at all. As a great example of how Nisar and Sabrina can pull anything off, our Indian priest went ONE HOUR over the time he was supposed to. This was not anyone's fault; the priest clearly knew he was supposed to go for 30 min. for months before the wedding. He just decided to do his own thing the day of the wedding. Nisar and Sabrina adjusted beautifully, to the point that no one knew that this happened. The pianist, bagpiper, photographers, videographers, DJ, decorators, and everyone agreed to shift their schedules because Nisar and Sabrina have such a good relationship with them. For something that could have been a terrible disaster, my husband and I sometimes forget that happened because Nisar and Sabrina dealt with the situation so well.

We had our daughters' wedding at Cafe Brauer. I selected the primary vendors, band, etc. and needed…read morea wedding planner (or so I thought) for "day of" only. Linda came highly recommended. She ended up helping me with so much more (exceptional invites, menus, ceremony program, recommended "CAKE" for wedding cake - excellent). Linda was wonderful in coordinating all the vendors and logistics 'day of' as well! She was extremely helpful, detailed, and an absolute delight to work with! Highly recommend!

i am a "type A" perfectionist. i have difficulty trusting others to do a good job because i'm…read morealways thinking i could just do it better myself. i received linda's name from a friend who is also a fellow perfectionist. i hired linda for "day of planning" which i should say is really more like 2-4 wks before planning (and frankly from the day i hired her, we were in contact at least once a week). the only major differences between her 2 levels of service are whether or not you want her to negotiate contracts and attend tastings with you etc. by the way if i could do it over again, i would have TOTALLY used her to negotiate contracts (i hired her after i had all of my vendors/contracts solidified). anyway, linda is professional, efficient, organized, responsive, extremely easy to work with and exceptional at her job. i would recommend her to anyone in a heartbeat. she literally makes it so that you don't have ANYTHING to think about worry about or do on your wedding day other than have fun. my wedding would have been so much different (stressful, stressful, and more stressful) if i didn't have her taking care of all of those last minute details. i cannot stress how wonderful linda is and how happy i am with her services. i sincerely believe my wedding was such a success and so enjoyable for ME and my husband because of her!

Steve played an AMAZING set for our wedding!!! He had the crowd out there dancing until the very…read morelast minute. Everyone raved about the song selection and loved that he had no problem accommodating requests. I've never seen my friends dance for that many hours straight, even at other weddings! His ability to play an almost entirely vinyl set also made our day, and the sound quality was amazing. Anyone else who books Steve is lucky to do so. From start to finish, he was accommodating, communicative, and reasonably priced. We will definitely book him again in the future if we need a DJ!!!!

Takes SEVERAL days (if you're lucky!) if not weeks to respond to 1 email message even if your…read morewedding is only a few months away. Very hard to reach, practically doesn't respond. Her final email to me (after I emailed her to remind her that she hadn't responded to my email despite several days) was: "I have a really large event today and will reply tomorrow! -Ali Phillips." ... and she never ever responded. Completely unreliable and unprofessional. Nobody should be treated like this nor would want to be treated like this. If your wedding is 3 years away and you can afford to wait possibly several weeks by the time she responds to your single email (if she ever responds), then by all means go ahead and choose her as your event planner. Regarding your response below, you need to interact appropriately -and professionally with all customers who have reached out to you whether or not they have signed the contract yet. I have email proof of these interactions. There is another review on this yelp page who also reported a very similar experience to mine. Please respond to your customers when you say you would within 48 hours - this was absolutely not done in my case.

Ali was the best decision for wedding planning! We hired her to be the day of coordinator for our…read morewedding and she made the day seamless. She had everything organized and was highly engaging 2 months leading up to our wedding to help finalize all the details. From getting ready in the morning to helping ensure the venue was ready, the day went off without a hitch due to Ali and her team.

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!

It only took one meeting to know I wanted to work with NLED. After providing them with a brief…read moredescription of the building opening I was working on, Cory and Cathy came prepared with research and creative ideas so we could hit the ground running. The leadership of my institution had a large stake in this event and it meant a lot to me knowing NLED was completely invested in its success. We faced many last minute changes leading up to and even on the day of the event, but they seamlessly made everything fall into place as if we'd planned it that way all along. In addition to Cory and Cathy's great work, their team of onsite professionals put everyone at ease and were very well prepared to take on the challenges of the day. I know this speaks volumes to the organization and level of detail that goes into the events they work on. And the cherry on top is they made the entire process so enjoyable that no matter how hard everyone was working, we were always having a good time.