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.

We booked Fred Stadtler to do a karaoke show at our wedding reception. He showed up on time,…read morebrought his own equipment, and was very professional. He had booklets full of song titles for us to choose from, songs from every genre. He got our guests excited and had everyone up there singing by the end of the night. I received nothing but complements about his show from my guests. I HIGHLY recommend Fred Stadtler Productions for a karaoke party.

Everything was great! I really appreciate his effort and thoughts throughout it,l. He was super…read morehelpful

Family put on a great Birthday celebration, highlighted by blackjack and craps with amazing dealers…read more(Vivian rocked!) and staff. They were helpful and encouraging to those who had never played - making for an incredible night!

It's been a few years since Captain America and Spidey showed up late to my kids bday party. Since…read morethen I've seen Royal Princess Parties in action at a bunch of parties and always been impressed....and their characters have always arrived on time My daughter is no longer asking for Cinderella, Elsa, etc to come to her firends...this year she asked for Taylor Swift or Katy Perry to attend her rock star party. Always up for a challenge I called a bunch of character companies. The majority told me not possible, but Melissa at Royal Princess Parties said she could make it happen with just an extra $50 since it's a character she doesn't currently carry. She just needs 2 months notice to design the costumes and have the performers learn the specific roles. I so appreciate their flexibility and my daughter is going to be psyched to rock out with "Taylor" in a few months.

My daughter had been asking for the last six months since she first saw Frozen if Elsa could come…read moreto her house to play. So, for her 3rd birthday we thought perhaps a princess could be a good idea. although I wasn't sure whether she would like it or be kind of intimidated by an impersonator. It worked wonderfully! She was completely in awe of the Snow Queen / Elsa (Jamie) who came to the party. They sang songs, played hot potato with Olaf, did freeze dance, and read stories. The princess gave her a crown and a hair pin and my daughter totally treasured them! After her nap later I put the crown on her and she told me only Elsa knows how to put the crown on her correctly ;) Melissa and the company were easy to work with. All the kids at the party had a great time and the parents said it would be a good idea to do for a get together to pitch in on together just to entertain the kids! My only recommendation would be to schedule the princess to come 30 mins or so after party starts. We had her come 15 mins after but not all the kids had arrived yet and so not everyone got to enjoy the full time we had booked with the princess.

When it came time to pick out an invitation for my daughter's bat mitzvah our party planner said…read morethe best option was Stefanie Penner. My daughter and I met with her on a Friday afternoon and she had done her research ahead of time learning about our event theme, etc...and had lots of different options to choose from. After an hour with Stefanie we chose a gorgeous sparkly invitation. We make decisions pretty fast, but I was told that first invitation meeting can be several hours long. On our way out the door our party planner mentioned that Stefanie was extremely fast. Fast is an understatement because by the end of that evening (and this was a weekend) I had proofs and pricing waiting in my inbox. Impressive! We decided to do invitations for adults and virtual invites for kids. Stefanie worked with us to design the same invitation on green envelope. We also used a QR code in the invitation that went out to adults, which linked to an extremely tricky website rsvpify. You need a PHd to figure out how to operate rsvpify and I would have given up if it weren't for Stefanie who spent many hours of our time figuring this out. Once it was time to send virtual invites out to the kids all I had to do was push a button. Stefanie event offered to do that part for me, but figured I could handle that one. We did have a printing issue with our actual invitations. They came in months early and Stefanie wasn't happy with the quality when she noticed the acrylic front was coming off the glitter back. She worked with the company to redo the invitations and round 2 was perfect and also came in months ahead of schedule. Beyond invitations Stefanie also did our table seating printing and napkins. When i picked up the table seating cards I realize they had been printed in the wrong size due to the promotional store sending her a wrong sample. I had a slight panic attack, but Stefanie to the rescue once again where she had everything printed in the correct size just 24 hours later. I love a beautiful paper invite, although I"m on the fence if I would do one again for my next child just because of how often mail gets lost/delayed these days. However, I will definitely use Stefanie again for any physical and/or virtual invitations...and all other printing needs. She was truly such a pleasure to work with and saved the day again and again!

If you want JOY and if you want EASE, hire Marz! I hired Marz for my son's bar mitzvah. He and his…read moreteam were so fabulous that years later I sought out Marz for an adult birthday party. Marz knows what he is doing with every aspect of a party - he is fabulous at working with you to develop the party timeline, and he is a master at creating the energy and environment you want. He is also a pro with logistics. He creates joy for different age groups at the same party and creates a great environment for a purely adult party He has incredible expertise and depth of knowledge regarding music and people. He plans ahead but also reads the room and adjusts the music accordingly. At both parties, Marz had people having a blast on the dance floor. At my adult party, people had a great time dancing and one woman said she and her husband had such a great time dancing that they "felt young again." (They are a very fun couple in their 50s). Marz is also compassionate and kind. He understands and cares about people. I felt cared for and taken care of. Marz is a joy creater. If you want JOY and if you want EASE, he is the person to emcee/DJ your party!

DJ Marz and the rest of Charizma are out of this world amazing at what they do!!! Our wedding was…read morelast Saturday and our guests haven't stopped raving about them. I just got this text this morning: "We really did have the best time! We don't normally dance the entire night at weddings, but your DJ was fantastic tbh and we were just having so much fun. The hype but also his mixes were top notch. There was never really a moment when I was like, "oh this song is boring so I'm gonna sit out." Just bangers the whole night lol." Need I say more? Hire this expert crew - I promise you won't regret it for a second!

Henry Richard is a very nice guy. We had met 3 times to prep and even spoke the night before and…read morehe managed to mess up the Bridal Party Reception entrance. He messed up the order, the names and even got the BRIDE and GROOM's name wrong. The music was not timed to the specifications I mentioned in the notes on the site he wanted to be used. His equipment is awesome, but overall we would not recommend him for a wedding.

We just had our wedding over labor day weekend. Henry did a fantastic job, he got everything set up…read morein a timely fashion. Most of our songs that we requested were played, he read the room to see how people were liking music. Henry was very conscientious with our time frame and waited for our okay to move on to the next little event. We highly recommend them!! Our guests and us had a blast!!

I do not recommend, would give zero stars if I could. They are very unprofessional. They do not set…read morethe correct expectations at all. They lied to me regarding the minimum amount of guests in the initial phone call, and then after the party I inquired about it, saying I felt I paid for 10 people over. (At $30/pp, that's a lot of money). The lady was very rude and was trying to argue with me via email and then told me she was blocking me. Even though I felt I had the bait and switch, I hadn't planned on putting a review in, I was just going to let it go. But TBH the response I received over simply inquiring over what I was told vs what I ended up paying for, was very unprofessional and shocking. So here I am. I don't want anyone to feel like I do after hiring a professional company for an event. I am very disappointed with service and my experience. I feel like I got hosed. As for the party itself, two people showed up, one weirdly and awkwardly demanded payment before the party started. She literally walked up and interrupted me speaking to an elderly guest of mine and said "I really need to collect payment right now, my boss has messaged me twice and I will get in trouble if I don't collect before we start" Talk about a red flag, I should have had them leave at that moment. I'm the host of the party, I have a lot going on, I was on my way to get the cash, which I had told her approximately 5 minutes prior to her walking over. That entire situation happened within 15 minutes of her being in my home and nothing had started yet. I just paid the balance requested, I was very uncomfortable, and I feel like they take advantage of the fact that the host is all over the place with the party and guests. Anyhow, she guided the party along, while the other lady sat on a folding chair off to the side and did literally nothing. Guests were the actors and they gave out silly prizes to everyone. Save yourself A LOT of money and buy a kit and do it yourself. would be the exact same murder mystery experience, just saving hundreds and not dealing with a company that is awful to their customers.

So much fun and really great directors! We will do this again for our family reunion!read more