Words cannot express how thankful I am for finding Patty at Fairy Godmothers Inc! Patty is…read moreabsolutely wonderful and so incredibly talented. I didn't have much of a floral vision, so I needed all the help I could get. After meeting with Patty and discussing different ideas, she asked if we had a theme for our wedding. At the time, we also didn't have much of a theme, other than wanting to highlight the city of Chicago through the skyline. So, I showed Patty our wedding invitation and she immediately had an idea for our centerpieces. She showed me a large clear vase (and floating candle) with a cut-out of the skyline that wrapped around the vase and I immediately fell in love with the idea! She then added flowers and greenery around the vase to complete the look. It was the perfect look for our big day, and the centerpieces looked so amazing at our venue! On the day of the wedding, Patty arrived on time with the bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages. All the flowers looked so fresh and elegant. I could not have asked for a more perfect look! She also added a small charm to my bouquet in memory of my grandmother and it was beautiful. Patty even stopped by our church to ensure everything was perfect, even though this was not a part of our contract. She truly went above and beyond and I am forever thankful for talent and kindness. Patty also offers other services such as day of coordination, and other wedding details. Although I didn't need to use those services, I am sure she is as exceptional with those services as she is with the florals. Patty is a true gem. She is kind, knowledgeable, creative, and passionate about helping to make your wedding day truly the best day of your life. Thank you Patty!!!

Patty truly is a fairy godmother. She just handled my wedding this past weekend and of all of the…read moreelements of my wedding, the flowers and decor was the star of the show. I was having a smaller wedding and honestly, my goal was to spend as little money as possible on flowers because I didn't feel like they would make much of a difference in a wedding as small as mine. Patty set me straight and showed me how much these things can make a difference especially in a wedding like mine. I spent more than I had originally intended, but I will tell you that the end result was worth every penny. Patty had some great ideas and is extremely creative. I met with her to plan everything and gave her some basic ideas such as colors and themes and she turned that into the most beautiful wedding I could ever imagine. So many of our guests complimented us on the decor and flowers and we gave away the centerpieces because we hated to see them go to waste. Everything was just perfect the day of too. I had to worry about nothing and all of the other vendors commented on how great she was to work with. I would definitely recommend Patty and use her again. She was a pleasure to work with and she is not only florist, but really an event designer who will make yours shine. One note is that they do not take credit cards, but they were very flexible with payment scheduling.

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.

I hired The Eventful Life to do flowers for my wedding on June 6 and I am so happy I did! I met…read morewith a ton of florists, none of which I really grooved with and none of which that seemed to get my vision. Then I met Jess and everything changed. Our initial meeting was great; we grabbed a beer and talked everything through. Then, she sent me a Pinterest board with a bunch of flowers and visuals. I had no updates to make to the board, I just loved what she put together. We met again with Jess and Steph a few weeks before the wedding to go over details and make some adjustments because I kept adding stuff. I ended up accumulating most of what we put the flowers in (boxes, jars, bottles) and they let us drop those off a few days before the wedding. It was so nice not to have to deal with that in the last minute. They're so accommodating. It was also very exciting when I was at my rehearsal dinner and got a text of a picture of our altar arrangements. I want to point out that Jess and Steph are just cool gals! It was very important to my groom and I to have vendors that we'd want to hang out with, and these two are no exception. They are fun and a joy to be around. Not to mention they executed perfectly! The flowers were beautiful and looked great all night. I would absolutely hire them again for another event.

WOW! Steph and Jess at The Eventful Life are absolutely amazing. We worked with Jess for day-of…read morecoordination. From the very beginning, she asked great questions - some that we had answers to, and some that we weren't even thinking of. On our wedding day, she was cool, calm, professional and shared our excitement, making it an absolutely perfect day. She was always right there when we needed anything. We were very involved in planning every aspect of our wedding, and hiring friends whenever we could. Jess and Steph understood our vision perfectly, and made everything happen on the big day. They are excellent event planners and were tremendous resources to bounce off ideas about timelines, floor plans and vendor coordination. We would STRONGLY recommend The Eventful Life for day-of coordination, especially (speaking from very personal experience) for those lovely Type A brides with 15-tab spreadsheets, to-do lists and detailed plans. They make it all happen.

I had the pleasure of working with Cindy Shanholtz of Effortless Events for our company's 100th…read moreanniversary dinner and celebration, and I cannot recommend her highly enough! From the moment we began planning, Cindy's attention to detail, professionalism, and creativity shone through at every step. Cindy took the time to truly understand our vision for the event and worked tirelessly to bring it to life in a way that exceeded all expectations. She seamlessly coordinated every aspect, from the venue selection and decor to the catering and entertainment. Her recommendations were spot-on, and her organizational skills ensured everything ran smoothly on the day of the event. The 100th anniversary dinner itself was nothing short of spectacular! The atmosphere Cindy created was elegant and celebratory, perfectly reflecting our company's history while looking forward to its future. Our guests were wowed by the thoughtful touches, from the custom table settings to the beautifully designed timeline of our company's milestones. What really set Cindy apart was her ability to handle every challenge with grace and poise. Despite the complexities of planning such a significant event, she kept everything stress-free for our team, managing all logistics and vendors without missing a beat. It was clear that Cindy and her team truly cared about making this milestone event unforgettable. If you're looking for an event planner who can turn your vision into a flawless reality, Cindy Shanholtz and Effortless Events are the way to go. She made our 100th anniversary celebration an extraordinary experience, and I can't wait to work with her again in the future! Holly Both VP Sales & Marketing, Plymouth Tube Co.

This is my 2nd posting for Cindy and her team at Effortless events. I recently hired them for…read moreanother wedding celebration in Chicago for my daughter who got married in DC. Again, they did not disappoint. Cindy's attention to detail is remarkable. She recommended the venue and took the reigns. From the flowers, decor and layout it was perfect. She suggested so many fun things...like a s'mores bar for dessert where guests assembled and "cooked" their own! We had mini individual cast iron skillets with fresh chocolate chip cookies and guests could top them with ice cream. Everyone raved about it and EE did it all...I just showed up and enjoyed it. Thanks Cindy + team!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!

We have a wonderful time working with Jennifer and Fern. They were our "day-of" wedding planners…read morefor us but they did... oh, so much more! We started working with them well before the wedding, largely to make sure we were on track with our schedule (catering, entertainment, invites, etc). That went just fine. We also had an added bit of fun (that turned out amazing). My partner and I have been together for a long time and friends didn't know what to get us since we already have a full house. So when we told our friends of our wedding plans (and planned outfits) they decided to get us a band for the wedding. Which is great but now Jennifer and Fern had the grooms + random friends to coordinate with. Our friends worked directly with Bon Events and they ALSO had nothing but good things to say. In fact, Bon helped them secure the band and work out the final details. I feel they went above and beyond and made our wedding an amazing event. I didn't have to think about a thing on our wedding day except to make sure we ate (Bon also had secured food for us at the wedding... since it's hard to eat when you need to say Hello to everyone) and made sure our guests had a lovely time. I cannot recommend them enough!

What can I say about Jennifer & Fern…read more.. Honestly, no words can describe how amazing these 2 women are, they were supposed to just be our "Day of Coordinators" for my wife & I's wedding this past October but throughout the year and a half that we used their services we were in contact with them constantly. Furthermore, they were happy and excited to help us make sure that we were on track and that our wedding would be exactly what we wanted. They never made us feel like "just another client" or even once said "you didn't hire us for this" they were just always there, and always helpful. They were there for us anytime we needed encouragement or had fears about a decision we had made they were right there to back us up and encourage us to go for what we wanted. They also ran our rehearsal like drill instructors and made sure everyone knew their role, down to how fast they are walking the aisle and where to stand on stage. These women are really a lot of fun to talk to and work with but when it comes down to it they are professionals who take their clients needs very seriously. We hired them for the "Day of coordination" and when it came down to that they did an amazing job, our wedding probably had a few hiccups that day, maybe even a disaster or two, but my wife and I didn't see, hear or even suspect anything, more importantly neither did our guests. Jen and Fern had a staff of 3 people working under them for our event and between the 5 of them not only was our venue completely flipped from "Ceremony mode" to "reception hall" within 30 minutes but the entire night went perfectly. They even went as far as to grab food for my wife and I from the caterers so we wouldn't even have to get up from our table. Jen & Fern I hope you read this, Jen & I had our dream wedding, we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into making sure it happened and I 100% feel like you guys did too. That wedding was the best party of our lives and we owe that to you. Thank you so much for everything you did, we will never forget it.

Great service ! Everything is very detailed oriented !…read more Staff is phenomenal I loved how they planned every single detail for our party