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.

I hired Ashley a year and a half before my wedding, actually the week after my sister's wedding…read morewhen I saw her work first hand. She impressed me that much. "Do I need a wedding planner?" a bride (or groom) may ask. Surely it is an added expense but the best way I can describe Ashley's services is that she allows the bride and groom to feel like a guest at their own wedding. We had a meeting about a month before wedding when she went over EVERYTHING. She then followed up with all vendors to make sure everything was addressed and made a timeline (which is a lot harder than it seems). I had a lot of decorations planned and knew I was going to need someone to move them. A budgeting technique of mine was to reuse the ceremony decorations again in the ballroom. Ashley set up the ceremony and then moved it all to the ballroom. And not only was she spot on with decorations, she made sure the rest of the wedding went without problems. Once the wedding was over and guests were transitioning to cocktail hour, she was there asking us if we needed anything. She showed up during professional pictures outside of just the groom and I with waters (almost on que when photographer asked us if we had plenty of water during the day). She brought me appetizers and wine while my hair and make up got touched up. She came running into the ballroom to inform us of an unique photo opportunity (a rainbow). She was really there for EVERYTHING and I was almost stress free thanks to her and her team. Trust me brides (and grooms), her service is something that is worth it- I promise. Also, I commend her for her response to COVID and the postponement of our wedding. She allowed a change date without added charges or headache.

Ashley is w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l! I used her as our day of planner and don't know what I would have done…read morewithout her. I met with Ashley many months before my wedding, where she clearly presented how she would function as our planner and I was sold. She is organized, knowledgeable, and was able to communicate well with all of my vendors as the big day drew near. My wedding day was awesome and I knew I had nothing to worry about with Ashley running the show. During wedding weekend she kept my stess level at a zero (much lower than my normal level), managed/facilitated the reception set-up, made an emergency liquor run during our reception, and ensured all guest and items safely left at the end of the night. Thanks for everything Ashley :)

ANOTHER UPDATE... 7/2/08…read more So lucky me... I did receive my wedding album last week (3 weeks before my one year anniversary). And I do have to say the album turned out wonderful. But I didn't receive the free portrait that was included in the package I purchased. I do admit that when I first emailed the order I forgot to include which picture we chose. I did write it on the order that I mailed in with our money (that they never got). So I realize that they didn't know which picture we chose, but were they planning on asking? It's called customer service... I shouldn't have to micromanage them. The worst part was that I paid them already in cash. Since I was giving them the money when they dropped off the pictures at my work, they requested cash... just in case they gave us the pictures and we gave them a bad check. It's ironic that it turned out the other way around... I paid them in good faith that I was receiving everything that was suppose to be included in my order. I was hoping that I was done dealing with them... but I guess not.

I got stuck using Whispers. I had originally booked the a place called Footprints at the same…read morelocation in Addison. We gave the deposit and set the dates and they told me we didn't need to do anything until about 1-2 months before the wedding and they would call me to finalize details then. Call with any questions. Time goes by it is now a month before my wedding and I haven't heard from them. I called and noticed the voicemail now said Whispers! I left a very concerned message. What happened to the company I booked with and paid a nice deposit to, do they still have my wedding on their calendar, am I going to have a photographer at all??? I was terrified! A few days go by and no one has called me back. I demanded to get a call back that day. Someone called me back. My first question was where was Footprints and why wasn't I notified there had been a change? I felt I had a right to meet with a new company and see what they were like. The man didn't answer my question. He just kept saying oh we are the same if not better. I asked about the photographer we had reserved and paid extra for, I was told he wasn't there anymore, but they too had someone even better. I asked if I could get my money back that we spend to request the other gentleman. No. They said I had to pay the remaining portion of the contract as soon as possible. I said I wanted to see a new contract listing out everything that was on the original contract. I was told it would be mailed that day. I said I will pay when I get the new contract. Waited a few days no contract. Called and left several messages. I finally got the contract 2 weeks before my wedding. It all looked good so I signed it and send it back with a check. By this time I had looked everywhere for a new photographer and there was nothing. I asked about the place cards that were part of the package. We got them 3 days before the wedding and they were so ugly! It was supposed to have our picture on the front. It didn't. Finally the wedding day arrives and the photographer gets lost coming to the house, even though I had given them directions when I picked up the place cards. He was only 20 minutes late, but still. Everything at the house goes smoothly The church went fine. After the ceremony we did the standard wedding party and various parts of the family. I told him that was all I wanted for posed pictures, except one large picture of my family at the receptions. The reception went well except for the hour I spent in the hallway doing all kinds of posed family portraits. When I said we were done he said no I had all night to dance. I reminded him that we agreed no more posed pictures. We wanted more candid shots of people dancing and being part of the reception. There were 2 songs worth of candid shots. We are told the proofs will be up in 3-5 days. Two and a half weeks later they were up, but they looked terrible. I called and asked why they seemed blurry or wide angled? I was told they would fix it. They did. We had said we wanted the more photo-journalistic style and that was why we were paying more for a specific photographer. Nope didn't happen. No one could order on line yet so I collected all the orders and turned them in. I asked when we could do our order for our digital album (that we paid extra for) and was told to get all the other orders in first. I had to organize the entire album myself. I am not creative. I paid you to do this. No one told me how it could be done. This is months later after all the orders are in turned in to them and the money they called me and said something about needing my album order ASAP or we wouldn't get an album. By this point my husband and I moved out of state and we had to do this in person. It was right before Thanksgiving. I told them we wounld't be home until Christmas. They didn't care. So my mom went it with my drawings of how I wanted the pictures laid out. And what I wanted in the backgrounds. I asked them to call me to go over it with me via phone. They didn't. They weren't even there the day my mom went to drop it off. So finally I go in over Christmas to finalize everything for our album. There were lots of changed to be made. The only thing they did right was use the pictures I put it. The page order was wrong and the backgrounds were terrible. Our album got ordered, but none of the pictures family had ordered had come in yet. I started called again; I got a voicemail saying they were out of the country!! They left a number to call in case of emergency. I called it the next week figuring everyone gets a vacation. Well that person never called me back. After 5-6 calls to that number I stated the next call would be from my attorney. We got our album 3 days before our first anniversary.

Rev. Joette Waters was amazing. Her voice is so wonderful and the words that she speaks are just…read moremagical. We wanted a very non-traditional ceremony and Joette gave us just that. It was unforgettable and absolutely lovely. Her professionalism and love for what she does clearly shows. I would recommend her time and time again. Thank you so much Joette for everything that you did for us. Love, Claudia & Rob

We are more spiritual people than religious. We got married outside and wanted to have some…read morereligious overtones for some of the parents and grandparents without going overboard. Joette was perfect. When we met with her, right away we new that she was right for us. She listed to what our needs were, made some suggestions when we didn't know what to do all the while treating us as though we were her own children. The ceremony itself could not have been better! I would recommend her to a friend.

Hiring Amy as our DOC was the best $700 I've ever spent! She was truly fabulous on the day of the…read morewedding. For instance, we forgot to order a corsage for my husband's step-mom so Amy whipped up a corsage from the toss bouquet! She made sure we were on time, fed, and informed. I was very calm, surprisingly, on my wedding day and I owe a lot of it to Amy! She did this all while 8 months pregnant too! There are so many little details that go into a successful wedding day - hire Amy, and enjoy your special day! You deserve it.

Amy I love you! We hired Amy for our Day of Coordination for our wedding a few weeks ago. I live…read moreout of state so I had to put my faith in recommendations as I wasn't able to meet with Amy until three days before my wedding (totally my fault). She came highly recommended so I hired her. She is easy to get a hold of if you have any questions or concerns leading up to the day of. She met with us at our reception before our rehearsal and we dropped off all of our wedding related stuff (menus, placecards, guestbooks, programs, unity candle....etc..) This was great because we didn't have to worry about any of it the day of. It was all there and set up. She created schedules for myself and the bridal party. She was around for the setup of the church and the reception and she was in contact with all of my other vendors. She was at the hotel where I was getting ready right on time and made sure that everything ran smoothly from the second she got there to the end of the night. I am so grateful for all of her help and the fact that we didn't have to worry about ANYTHING on our big day. She made the entire evening a no-stress event. We enjoyed the entire thing. She was also one of the more reasonably priced DOC's that I had found. Amy is a friendly, reliable and fantastic DOC. Trust me. Hire her.

I want to start this by saying that everything about my wedding was so perfectly smooth that I…read morecan't thank Raegan Mae events enough.  Krysti and Nicole were there every step of the way to answer any questions, even ones I didn't think to ask.  They were always one step ahead of me for my entire wedding planning process and helped make my day go exactly the way I imagined! From the beginning I knew I had made a great choice to have help with my big day.  I had a florist cancel on me three months before my wedding, I panicked but Krysti and Nicole jumped into action.  The same day that I informed them of the cancellation, they had a list of florists picked out for me to talk with and had already called with inquiry's to advise me who would best jive with my particular sense of style. It was wonderful! I had no idea how much planning goes into family photos, but they made sure to help me map out eveything before hand so eveything ran smoothly from our first look to the many family photos.   They were there the day of and I began to call them my wedding fairy godmothers.  They handled everything I needed, even the little details I forgot.  I needed baby's breath, and they ran out to get it.  They even helped figure out where to do our first photo op (and there were so many at my outdoor venue Starved Rock) which is now one of my favorite pictures! You don't just need someone to just be a planner for your wedding you need to hire someone so invested, you feel like they are a long time friend.  Someone who can understand your vision, who can work with you to add all those personal touches, someone who is always thinking one step ahead of eveything.  I found this with Raegan Mae Events and I can't thank them enough for everything, what they did for my wedding was more than just a service.  Krysti and Nicole were my Wedding Fairy Godmothers!

Myself and the new bride reached out to Christine, and from the beginning she was absolutely great…read more We had quite a few setbacks in our wedding planner and it seemed that everything that could go wrong did. Christine, assured us that everything would work out and had such a message she gave us, that made us feel at ease. From the beginning she walked us through the process with the county and how to properly to do our license and what was needed. We were lost as our photographer cancelled on us at the last minute and the misses was quite upset as now we did not have a photographer and Christine stepped in and gave us a recommendation that far exceeding our expectations. Even at the last minute booking we were never rushed, we were provided several options for the ceremony and each one was remarkable, it was hard to choose. So we took different options and sent them to her, and let me say it was allot of changes and there was no hesitation as she delivered examples each time, even with a couple last minute changes, I was expecting a different reaction, but we were wrong and she delivered with such grace and patience, I sure would not have had. The day finally came and I met her first, of course the bride was running a bit late, mind you it was 25 degrees out and we were having an outdoor wedding. She came and talked to me and we walked where the ceremony was going to be. It was time, and as my wife was walking down the aisle, she made sure I did not peak bit was telling me how beautiful my bride looked and as a guy you know I wanted to see, but she with military style kept me focused. The time has come, and even with a fur coat, it was really really cold. The ceremony, we never imagined the message that was delivered would ever be that emotional and with love in the message but the love in her voice as she delivered dour ceremony. Not only did we feel it, our guests felt it as she just didn't read through the service, you could feel that it was a true feeling in her voice that was amazing. The only thing I regret, was not getting hand warmers for us, as seriously it was cold but a beat was never missed. Christine, thank you for being a part of our ceremony, thank you for uniting us as one, you will always be part of our family. There are far and few true sincere people that not only believe in their work and take so much joy in what they do. The calling you have is an inspiration to us all. Thank You so much!!!!! Dave and Alissa

Christine did such a great jobshe made the day stress free. Her words were beautiful. She's a girls…read moregirl . Took her time to help me fix my backdrop and helped me poseshe followed up and made sure I picked up my marriage certificate. thank you Christine ! 10/10

My fiancé and I found Michele Rose listed on a number of wedding websites. After reading her bio,…read morewe felt she might be a good fit for us based on her website. It was important to us to have an officiant who performed all types of ceremonies, especially same sex, as we feel strongly about this topic. I called Michele Rose and we set up a time to meet at a local Panera. We all sat down and chatted for a bit and then we discussed what we were looking for in an officiant. She asked us some questions about our background and showed us a portfolio of weddings she had performed. She also went over her ceremony creation process and we were very impressed. She asked us how she might best get to know us and I suggested she may want to talk with our parents. This idea was very well received and ended up adding a very special touch to our ceremony. Needless to say, we decided to move forward and provided a deposit by check and signed the contract with her prior to leaving. As our wedding drew closer we received an extensive questionnaire from her along with instructions to fill out as much or as little as we were comfortable with. It was a bit like homework, but it was completely worth it. After we completed our questionnaires, our parents were contacted and then we received the first draft of our ceremony. After a few rounds of edits we had everything ready for the big day. In the days leading up to the wedding I sent our DJ and day of coordinator a copy of the ceremony and on our special day things went perfectly. Our friends and family raved about how personalized and "us" the ceremony was. Many asked if Michele Rose knew us outside of being our officiant (she did not). A few of our guests mentioned it was the only ceremony where they both laughed and cried. Overall, the day was perfect, beyond our expectations and we couldn't be more grateful for the personalized, wonderful and memorable ceremony provided by Michele Rose.