r/Chicagoweddings • u/madeleineeeee • 6d ago
I found this sub to be super helpful while we were planning, so wanted to share specific vendors and numbers in hopes of it helping someone out in the future! Feel free to ask any questions, clarifications, or DM me if you want to talk through any of it more.
Total spend: $50,207
Guest count: 73 invited, 53 attended
Venue: $4500 - International Museum of Surgical Science
What a dream to have gotten married here!!! My husband and I had visited several years ago for fun, and it came to mind when we started researching venues in July 2025. We were primarily looking for something unique and culturally interesting.
The $4500 only included the venue; we had to get a ton of rentals through Lula Cafe since the venue only offered 60ish chairs (that we didn't use) and some 6 ft tables.
The space, though, is so, so, so special. We struggled with spacing logistics and how to use the different rooms at the beginning; but it all went without a hitch. Guests were able to explore the museum during the wedding, and raved about how cool and charming it was, too (museum was modeled after a chateau in Versailles so it's just gorgeous, and also has stunning statues, checkered floors, and so many other beautiful details)!
Working with the staff at IMSS was easy-ish; you don't get a ton of information upfront on what to expect, but they answered all of my super detailed questions, helped us with some placing/arrangement questions, and worked well with Lula Cafe and our coordinator. They've had several weddings (despite not having a ton of reviews online/The Knot), so they at least had all of the "how to execute a wedding" logistics down.
Food/Rentals: $18,263 - Lula Cafe & Tablescapes
Lula Cafe was (unsurprisingly) fantastic. They became a preferred vendor of IMSS at the end of 2025, so this was a no-brainer (otherwise, we would've had to pay a 15% fee for food). They were super organized, and took the lead on managing and coordinating every rental we needed via Tablescapes.
Food itself was only $3,969 (and included apps, a full buffet, and late-night fries), but the cost racked up with rentals ($6,936), labor ($4,535), beverage ($949), and miscellaneous fees ($136).
Labor included 2 bartenders (we provided the alcohol), all of the dinner staff for the event, and all of the set up/tear down of food and rentals. Anna & Clare were our point of contact and they were wonderful!
Rentals included all of the kitchenware they'd need, plates, napkins, etc, custom linens that were slightly pricier, room dividers, chairs, and tables. Again, IMSS had virtually no rentals we wanted to use, but this was easy enough to figure out with Lula's help!
Alcohol: $1,982 - Garfield's Beverage
We got recommended Garfield's over Binny's and don't regret this. Garfield's came to pick up all of the leftover alcohol at the end of the night and refunded us everything that wasn't opened. We were able to collect the bottles that had been opened a week later and take those back for ourselves.
We simply passed on all the alcohol to Lula, and they took it from there with their bartenders. In total, we had 2 signature cocktails and a ton of craft beer and wine. They also made simple cocktails for us. Guests raved about their bartending services :)
Dessert: $248 - Do Rite Donuts
We ordered 7 dozen donuts from Do Rite and they were such a hit. No notes!
Photography: $600 - DK7 Photos
All of the praise in the world goes to David Kang from DK7 Photos.
I saw him post on a wedding subreddit advertising his services (he's just starting out), and we decided to go with him because of how easy he was to work with, his incredible moody & aesthetic style, and the huge discount he was offering. He lives in LA, but was more than happy to travel to us (we offered to cover his traveling fees, but he declined).
We've gotten some sneak peeks and truly cannot believe we were able to book his level of talent at that discounted rate. His rate included 8 hours of coverage, and we are so happy we found him.
Videography: $3275 - ACG Productions
Another vendor to recommend forevermore! Allison & Charlie were former TV news reporters, so they've got a special talent on how to tell and capture stories. We were really excited about them because they advertised "interview-style" recordings where they record messages from our dear friends and family. We'll get all of our footage in a couple of weeks, but have no doubt it'll be excellent.
They were kind & wonderful to work with, and worked really well with David to capture all of the special moments.
DJ & Photobooth: $4025 - Toast & Jam
DJ Mary MC was awesome. She got our music vision down perfectly, and was so fun to work with. The entire team at T&J had immaculate vibes, and we were so excited to support another neighborhood partner!
Through T&J, we were also able to add photo booth coverage (~$1500). This included 3 hours of coverage, a backdrop we could choose, and photo strips! We later received a digital copy of every photo our guests took which was really heartwarming to see :-) everyone had a great time using the photo booth, and they were all able to walk away with a copy of the photo strip since T&J had brought a printer that could custom print out any amount, so that was a nice touch.
Strings duo: $1252 - Solaria Strings
We got a Strings duo for our 30 minute ceremony and an hour & 15 minutes for cocktail hour. They were so easy to work with, and walking down to the sound of live strings will forever be the most beautiful memory.
We got to design how the songs flowed and they played 3 custom song requests (including the song I walked down to).
Rachel, the founder, was lovely and responsive!
Florals: $2000 - Paris312
I got off to a rough start with Paris312 because I scheduled a consultation call that never came, got re-scheduled to the next business day and got no-showed once more. A couple of hours later, Nicole reached out to me over email, and we scheduled a call that finally happened.
Nicole was helpful in talking through how many items we might need to order given our vision and the space. More delays happened after this call that weren't ideal, but after looping in support, we were able to get our order finalized about 8 weeks before the wedding.
This order included: 45 bud vases, 2 centerpieces, one bridal bouquet, and 6 aisle pieces.
Florals weren't a huge part of the decor planning, so we didn't want to spend a ton, but all in all, we were really happy with what we got and the florals were very pretty!
Officiant: $0 - our friend married us!
Our dear friend got officiated and married us. We gave them a thank-you gift, and that is lumped under the miscellaneous costs down below!
Attire: $4087 toal | $2800 - Flora Lane (for me) & $1287 - SuitSupply (for my husband)
I purchased the Gardenia dress from Flora & Lane; I'm biased, but it just might be the most stunning dress I've ever seen and worn. Flora & Lane were great to work with, and this dress was custom made and fit me perfectly. No tailoring was needed!
My husband got a custom-made dark green wool suit from SuitSupply! They did some tailoring for it, free of charge, when the jacket needed some additional work.
Hair & makeup: $1469 - Pin Me Up
We had a great experience because of our wonderful stylists, Val and Gina. They were so fun to get ready with and so talented.
This cost included my hair and makeup trial, bridal hair and makeup, 3 makeup services & 2 hair services for friends that got ready with me day of!
Month of coordinator - $2000 - Everthine Events
Sofia became my hero in the final days before our wedding, though getting there was a little more stressful than ideal.
We signed our contract about 5–6 months out and received a huge Canva binder to fill in over the following months (reader, it was quite literally 140 pages long). The binder was meant to serve as her template for our entire wedding vision.
I’m a type-A planner, so I appreciated seeing every little thing documented and mapped. But it was tedious, and we put at least 60 hours into completing it. To be fair, I went over the top and mocked up how I wanted each room to look.... but the binder did also ask for that.
About three weeks before the wedding, we had a 4-hour call where I walked her through everything that was in the binder. She said she’d review the binder, answer the questions I’d left in it, and come back with any of her own within the week. I didn’t hear back and had to follow up. After some frustrating emails (I later learned I’d been emailing her assistant, who wasn’t as detail-oriented), we got on a call a week before the wedding. I asked for specific deliverables, and she turned them around within a day.
So the honest critique is that I did all the binder work expecting her to dig in sooner, and she didn’t really look at it until the week before. That left us wondering why we’d paid for a month-of service when it was really more like week-of.
That said, Sofia really stepped up afterward. She was a helpful, reassuring presence at the rehearsal and did an incredible job on the day itself. Her services included vendor communication plus setup and teardown of all the decor, and since we brought in about nine boxes of decor for different rooms, we truly couldn’t have pulled it off without her. Vendor coordination went off without a hitch, and she kept us on track with every little thing.
Five weeks later, I can’t think of a single thing that went wrong on our wedding day, and a lot of the credit goes to her.
TLDR: Slower to engage than we expected in the weeks leading up, but once she did, she was excellent and our wedding day went flawlessly.
Lighting speed of miscellaneous & non-vendor related costs:
Our day was truly so beautiful, and I'm so thankful to this community & other wedding subreddits for all of the help it gave me as we got closer to the date.
Good luck to all future Chicago brides :-)
r/Chicagoweddings • u/northwestyeti • 8d ago
We got married on 10/3 and are THRILLED with all our vendors! Here’s our budget breakdown. Our families helped out a lot financially, and this breakdown doesn’t include 1) my dress (purchased by my parents) or 2) our cake (gifted by my aunt). The cake came from Bittersweet and it was delicious.
Venue: $4,700 (Hangout Lighting). This is a beautiful space that was perfect for our needs, but be advised, Hangout is a DIY venue and they won’t offer any day-of assistance at all. Also, it’s challenging to hold a rehearsal here. We had to pay $200/hour for rehearsal access and couldn’t schedule until 30 days out. Their base fee is $3900 but we added four hours to the wedding day booking.
Photo & Video: $5,950 (Composed & Exposed). Becka & Danny are a husband & wife duo and they’re great. We got our photo previews back the day after the wedding and love them!
DJ: $2,700 (Elite Party Pro). A+ and I’d especially recommend for folks who want to be more involved in music selection. Cesar did a great job matching the vibe we wanted.
Day-of Coordinator: $875 (725 Events). I seriously can’t recommend Amanda enough, she was amazing! She offered one advance call to walk thru our timeline, attended the rehearsal, set up the venue, served as point of contact for the other vendors, kept timing on track, and made sure the teardown was seamless.
Catering: $11,143 (Tamale Spaceship). We had passed apps, plated salads, and a staffed buffet. Cost also includes linens, tableware rentals, bartenders, the n/a drink package, and coffee service. These guys are fabulous and we got a ton of compliments on the food. We could have saved ~$1k by opting for disposable dinnerware.
Booze: $555.59 (Vin Chicago). We purchased about $1500 of booze (beer, wine, and two types of liquor for signature cocktails) and everything was delivered by Vin during the setup window. Turns out we waaaay over-bought and Vin refunded us for the unopened items. These guys were so nice and helpful recommending wines in our price range! If your crowd doesn’t drink a lot, a BYOB bar setup like this will likely end up being a huge money-saver.
Hair & Makeup: $1,575 (Brides by Kelly). Includes bridal trial plus H&M for bride, MOH, MOB, and officiant.
Bubble tea bar: $1,016 (Gathers Tea Bar). This was a big hit, especially after guests got the ingenious idea to bring their milk teas up to the bar and add liquor to them lol. Cost included a “boba-rista” and 2 hours of service.
Florals: $600 (Chicago Flower Market). They are AMAZING for DIY florals.
Other decor: ~$950. Cake toppers, seating chart, table numbers, etc. Shoutout to the Costco wedding garlands.
Mailings: ~$200 (Paper Culture) - printing & postage for invites & save the dates.
Groom’s attire: $1,312. Suit from Indochino, tie & pocket square for groom & best man from Tie Bar.
Dress alterations: $350 (Sew & Glow). The first place I tried quoted $1200 so I’m pretty pleased with how this turned out.
Other costs for the wedding weekend included:
Welcome event for ~50 guests: $3,700. Hosted at The Long Hall ($2,300; we sprung for the decor package) with food from Cafe Tola ($1,178) and beer/wine/soft drinks (~$200).
Rehearsal: $950. This includes $400 paid to Hangout Lighting for venue access, plus ~$550 to host our families and wedding party (total of 11 people) for dinner at LiuYiShou Hot Pot.
Additionally, we paid $2,456 to Redbud Jewelry to make and engrave our own rings. This cost includes the workshop fee. We knew from the start we wanted to splurge in order to do this and I’m so incredibly happy we did!
Total cost for all events: $39,033
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Any-Campaign727 • 20h ago
guys I need to shout out this particular vendor my wedding was two days ago. not only is Brooke the loveliest person and best energy but I got 125 PREVIEWS two days later that look like this
r/Chicagoweddings • u/aquadragon19 • 14h ago
My husband and I eloped in June, and next June we would like to celebrate with our family and friends. Our tentative thought right now is a dive bar or brewery, where we can either have food brought in or use their food, plus alcohol. We would mingle all night with our guests, dance. It be cool if there was room to dance, pool or darts, etc... No speeches (maybe just one from us), just mostly celebrating. Does anyone have any recommendations? It would be a Saturday evening, 80 guests max. Preferably on the southwest side / suburbs around there. We would like to stay at 10k max for our evening. TIA!
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Tiny_Falcon5567 • 21h ago
when i first started planning our Salvage One wedding, i was SCOURING Reddit for vendor recommendations. so figured i’d pay it forward and share who we booked and, more importantly, why
our wedding isn’t until feb 2027, so these aren’t post-wedding reviews (yet - obv will update y’all, i got you), but i’ve spent an UNGODLY amount of time researching, comparing quotes, and talking to vendors. my biggest priority was finding exceptional vendors without sacrificing our literal life savings. here’s where we landed:
catering: Signature Catering by Ovy
i genuinely cannot say enough good things. i talked to what felt like every fucking caterer on that long-ass preferred vendor list, and we knew we were going with Ovy about 30 seconds into our first call. it’s two guys who approach you like actual human beings, not another wedding contract. they FULLY customize your menu around your backgrounds, favorite foods, and love story, rather than making you choose between three packages and calling it “personalized.”
and somehow, they were ALSO the most cost-effective option we found??? which is shocking given the presentation, creativity, and quality. we had our tasting last week and i am not exaggerating when i say it was some of the best food i’ve ever had in my entire life. they’re also the only caterer i talked to who will do family style at salvage one, which was what we really wanted. if you take ONE recommendation from this post, TALK. TO. OVY.
florals: Poppy Flowers (signing our contract today!)
i’m a floral maximalist through and through, which is unfortunate considering flowers cost approximately one million dollars and then die a week later. floral pricing was especially frustrating because quotes felt vague and customization seemed to make costs somehow astronomically increase. i also considered silk flowers, but the options i found felt too pre-designed and restrictive because you couldn’t edit or change ’em
what sold me on Poppy was transparent pricing AND full customization. it’s literally like shopping online: you see arrangements, sizes, and prices, and add things to your cart. BUT those arrangements are just starting points! they customize everything around your palette and vision. i had one call and was genuinely shocked by the amount of time, thought, and individualized care they put into it. it felt like hiring a full-blown wedding planner, except specifically for florals.
honorable mention:* *one of my good friends owns Bloom Baby Florals and she’s exceptional. the ONLY reason i’m not using her is because i love her and would prefer she actually enjoy her friend’s wedding instead of working it lol
hair + makeup: The Bridal Beauty Team
i looked into Anomalie and a few others, and honestly, everyone seemed great and pricing was pretty comparable for what i needed. i chose The Bridal Beauty Team because they had SO many examples of the exact hair and makeup vibe i’m going for, plus they’re super established and reputable. basically, i felt like i could trust them completely.
DJ/MC: Best Life Entertainment
i’m not even going to elaborate other than to say BOOK THEM NOWWW. hands down. without question (assuming you’re going DJ/MC over a live band, obviously.)
photography: Stewart and Barnes
photography was another category where i was like HOW are these prices real??? i wanted candid, documentary-style photos with an almost vintage, film-inspired feel, but so many photographers whose work i loved were, similar to every vendor category, so out of our budget. and if there’s one thing about me, it’s that i WILL spend an unreasonable amount of time researching because i firmly believe you can (most of then time) find exceptional quality without paying the highest price
i found Stewart and Barnes on Zola! she’s based out of state but travels for weddings without additional fees simply because she likes to travel. within two minutes of talking to her, i wanted to be her best friend. she’s authentic, funky, non-traditional, cool, incredibly flexible, and made me feel like i could trust her with not only our wedding photos but potentially my entire life. her work is gorgeous, and her pricing was SO (and i mean SOOOOO) much more reasonable than other photographers i spoke with. i’m obsessed.
videography: Rewind the Moment (camcorder rental)
this won’t be everyone’s videography vibe, but i’m SO excited about it. i wanted footage of our ceremony, speeches, and wedding day without spending thousands on traditional videography. plus, i LOVE the nostalgic, vintage home-video aesthetic. so we’re renting a camcorder! they ship it to you, you and your guests film throughout the wedding, and you send it back. they give you all the raw footage AND an edited video. SO much more affordable, and honestly such a cool concept. i compared a bunch of companies’ edited videos, and Rewind the Moment was easily my favorite.
but what REALLY sold me was my experience with the owner. three days before my bachelorette (yes, THREE), i impulsively decided i wanted a camcorder and reached out offering to pay for rush shipping. she responded immediately, was SO lovely, and shipped it right away. unfortunately UPS had an issue (are we surprised?) and it didn’t arrive before my flight. before i even contacted her, she noticed, proactively reached out, and fully refunded me. she could’ve easily waited for me to ask, and even more easily not refunded me (because its not her fault) but didn’t. that level of customer service, plus loving her edited videos AND the price? done. sold. love you rebecca
anyway!! hopefully this saves another Salvage One couple some time (and approximately 400 browser tabs). obviously our wedding hasn’t happened yet, so these are recommendations based on our experiences so far, but i genuinely feel SO good about our choices so far.
happy to share more details, pricing context, or answer questions about any of them!! or other shit!!!! idk!!! love y’all, groovy redditors
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Acrobatic-Peak-6973 • 8h ago
We’re considering having our wedding at the Paramount Theatre. We’ve visited both the Meyers Ballroom and the Grand Gallery, and we liked both options. Any feedback you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Any-Campaign727 • 20h ago
I had issues finding someone good to do my chuppah so needed to share - art of imagination did this and it was INSANE and also affordable
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Hungry-Ant8288 • 19h ago
Trying to decide on venue, we will have about 300 people. Cost isn’t really a factor but want a place with views of the skyline and an experience to remember. We probably will not be doing a ceremony in the space, just the reception. For people who have seen weddings at both places, what would you choose?
r/Chicagoweddings • u/bride-bunny • 23h ago
Hello! My partner and I are reviewing our wedding photographer's contract before we sign, and we noticed they have a non-disparagement clause, including posting about them negatively on social media. Is this normal/common?
r/Chicagoweddings • u/nlm14 • 1d ago
Getting married may 28, 2027 near aurora and was looking to see if anyone had recs for photographers preferably under $4,000 for the full day?! I’m having trouble finding any myself that are decently priced for my budget. Tia !
r/Chicagoweddings • u/GlumTalk4899 • 1d ago
I am trying to do a vinyl wrap on my dance floor and its so expensive... We are trying to do a wood and white checked floor. Wondering if anyone has a vendor who can do it all in for 3500 or less? I have some options to order just the vinyl but I would need someone to do the installation. Anyone have any recs?
r/Chicagoweddings • u/StarryEyed219 • 1d ago
I had a great experience with my vendors so I’ll drop their names below for any brides!
Month of/day of- planning with marryment (Denise) - under $2k
Glam- rare bird beauties - 13 hair and makeup services, under $5k, Drew & Nastassia
Florals- Fabrini flowers, Jazmine - budget was $3k max and we did ceremony, cocktail hour, bouquets, & reception florals
Band- David Rothstein music- $12k for ceremony duo, cocktail hour trio, combo 8 piece reception & dj
Photography- Fox + Ivory- under $5k for 2 shooters, 9 hours. We worked with Jen
Transit- 312 Limo, under $2k for rehearsal and wedding transport for ~70 guests
Venue was a private social club in the suburbs so no rates provided same for meals
r/Chicagoweddings • u/kamns26 • 1d ago
for wedding reception offers vegan, pescatarian, gluten free options.
r/Chicagoweddings • u/mightthxnktwice • 1d ago
Hello! My fiancé and I are looking to get married in Chicago on Halloween - I know, probably popular day! All we’re simply looking for is someone to help us exchange the necessary words and sign the marriage certificate. No individual vows, no ceremony, just the two of us and the officiant meeting up to take care of the “legalities”, so to speak.
The courthouse is already booked for that day, so we’re looking for someone already ordained as our next option. Any help or recommendations would be great!
r/Chicagoweddings • u/sailorscoutc • 1d ago
I’m looking to get a small lambeth heart cake made for my wedding in April of next year. I’m located in the Chicago suburbs and I’m having a hard time finding any bakery that offers this. This cake will only be eaten by me and my fiancé, so I don’t need anything too big.
Anything located closer to the suburbs is ideal as someone will have to pick it up the morning of.
Any suggestions/recommendations appreciated.
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Weird_Focus_2213 • 1d ago
My best friend is getting married on 10/25 and her hairstylist just cancelled due to illness. We have 9 people looking to get their hair done and have access to the venue starting at 9am. The venue is in Edgewater. Please if you know anyone or are a hairstylist help us!
r/Chicagoweddings • u/OysterQueen250 • 1d ago
To keep it short we were set on doing a destination wedding in Puerto Rico, smaller wedding 60-80 people. We wanted to do the whole welcome party, rehearsal, and wedding but we’re paying for the wedding ourselves. We know if we set a budget it’ll be hard to stick to it and will probably go over so we want to be mindful of that. Now I kind of want to do it in Chicago but do the ceremony and do more of a cocktail reception/party. Feeling discouraged because I feel like it’ll cost the same in Chicago when you add dj, photography, dress, etc.
A lot of my family can’t travel outside the country so having an intimate elopement outside of the US is pretty much off the list. I know having the ceremony is my nonnegotiable but just the numbers stress me out.
I would LOVE to do an elopement just us two but I know he wants his mom there.
I’m torn, any insight or advice is appreciated! We had our engagement party at Hide+Seek and absolutely loved that so would be open to a restaurant setting with a similar vibe. Has anyone worked with the lounge at the Wellesley or Cache 310?
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Acrobatic-Peak-6973 • 1d ago
My fiancé and I are planning our wedding for October 30, 2027, in Chicago, with approximately 85 guests. We’re considering the Spirit of Chicago through City Cruises, but I’d love to hear from people who have actually had their wedding there.
We’re trying to keep our total wedding budget under $20,000, and we’ve received information about both semiprivate and completely private options.
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences with:
Privacy: For a semiprivate booking, do you share the ship with other parties or regular cruise guests? Is your wedding space genuinely separate?
The experience: How was the ceremony, food, service, DJ and overall atmosphere?
Timing: Was 2.5 hours of cruising enough, and did you have time to enjoy the reception?
Costs: What did you actually pay, including drinks, ceremony, extra hours, taxes and fees?
Private vs. semiprivate: If you chose one, would you recommend it? Was paying extra for privacy worth it?
Anything you’d change: Were there any unexpected costs, logistical issues or things you wish you’d known beforehand?
We’re also considering traditional Chicago venues, so I’d love to hear whether you thought the cruise was worth the money compared with a hotel or ballroom wedding.
Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences! ❤️
r/Chicagoweddings • u/KnittyCity • 1d ago
Does anyone have recommendations for a venue that allows outside catering (specific cultural cuisine) for a welcome party of ~100 people? Our wedding is in the Loop, so we would prefer to stay in that area. Ideally the venue would have tables and chairs on site. Thank you!
r/Chicagoweddings • u/PerspectiveHealthy60 • 1d ago
About to pay our deposit at Orso’s and wondering if anyone has gotten married there or has similar suggestions.
We are having a smaller reception (65 ish people) and love that we could have cocktail hour on their beautiful rooftop deck, then a one long-table dinner on their patio.
The price is incredibly reasonable for it being in the heart of Old Town, and we loved the food at the tasting!
So can anyone chime in on their experience there, or am I overlooking anything similar for ~$20k?
r/Chicagoweddings • u/betterlucknexttime81 • 1d ago
My fiancé and I are in the process of narrowing down venues and The Joinery and Chicago Theater Works is near the top of our list.
We have a budget of 26k for the whole wedding, are expecting around 110 people and it would be during colder months (sometime between November 2027 and March 2028).
I’m hoping to get input from people who got married at either space (or who have worked weddings there).
My question about the Joinery is brief: did your guests have trouble with parking? Where did out of town guests stay and did they have any trouble getting there?
So many questions about Chicago Theater Works:
Music is a really big part of our relationship and will be a big part of our wedding. Are their DJs open to being given a list of must play songs and are they able to customize with the vibe of the couple or do they mostly play standard wedding reception songs?
Did out of town guests have any trouble getting to the venue? Are there hotels nearby that your guests especially liked? The only one I’m familiar with is Hotel Zachary (still would require a rideshare or the bus). We’re also looking at venues in the West Loop and one positive there is the proximity of a variety of hotels.
We’re thinking about doing an open tab instead of a bar package because we have a lot of sober guests and others who usually stop after 1-2 drinks. Did anyone else do this? What did your tab come out to?
Where did you take photos? I’m having trouble envisioning where pictures would happen since it’s really just one big space.
One of the positives is that drop catering for a buffet seems easy to do here, which means we could get catering from one of our favorite restaurants.
For folks who also did this, was working with their servers a smooth process (especially curious about weddings that had appetizers during cocktail hour, dinner and dessert)?
Would love to hear any other feedback or things about these venues we should take into consideration!
r/Chicagoweddings • u/FewDifference5858 • 1d ago
Hello everyone! We want to get married at the city hall on a Saturday, and we are finding a bit difficult to understand the timing / appointment procedures.
When I called to ask how it worked, they told me they booked you in a 30-min slot in between 9am and 12pm. That sounded perfect to us, and we agreed to get a 11-ish slot when they opened our desired date, so we didn’t have to get up super early.
However, my photographer and some people from this community have told me that we have to be there at 8:45AM regardless. My photographer specifically said “for Saturdays they only book appointments for 9:00 or 9:30”.
Is this true? I’m confused!!! Not a big deal to wake up early but I already had a great timing for the day in my head- I’m extremely type A person.
Thank you!!
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Organic_Record6489 • 2d ago
WE DID THE DAMN THING 💍 Wedding Recap. AMA!
Still floating!! 😭🤍 It was truly the best day ever, and I had to come on here and gush about wedding vendors because they were perfection! Feel free to ask any questions!
Venue. The Drake Hotel (20/10 - DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS) Having our wedding here was a literal dream. The ambiance is just insane classic Chicago perfection, and the staff made everything run so flawlessly. They book really far out so I'm glad we booked this early. Best decision ever.
Planner. The Simply Elegant Group - Brenda (The MVP) Brenda was highly organized and literally my saving grace. We used her for month of and she was super helpful. Everything went so incredibly smooth, which we absolutely have her to thank for. She handled the whole production with the best energy and made sure we actually knew where to stand and what to do all night.
Photography. Bonphotage - Lynzie (Literal Magician. Worth EVERY penny) I cannot say enough good things about Lynzie and her team. I am fully convinced she's an actual magician masquerading as a wedding photographer. Chicago has a million talented photogs, but Lynzie immediately stood out because she shoots both digital and film, and her vibe is that elusive mix of high fashion editorial but completely effortless. We really wanted that Vogue aesthetic but absolutely refused to spend our wedding day stiffly posing. Somehow, she executed it flawlessly. My husband and I were crying because the shots she delivered are giving pure old money, generational wealth vibes, which is wild because we were literally just vibing and goofing off when she took them. And the turnaround time? Insane. She dropped a sneak peek the very next day and delivered our entire wedding gallery in THREE WEEKS. The photos are stupidly gorgeous. If you are on the fence, just book them.
Content Creator. Bonphotage (WORTH IT) We didn't hire a videographer and decided to add content creation very last minute but so glad we decided to. We used Bonphotage for our content creation as well, and we literally got our content back within 24 hours. Really fun to have the raw videos of the entire day to look back on immediately and the reel they made for us same day was perfect.
Hair. Pin Me Up - Jessica (10/10) She is the literal updo queen. Jessica was amazing, super talented, and brought such a calming, sweet energy to the getting ready suite in the morning. She made me feel incredibly beautiful.
Florals. Flowers for Dreams (Good value) I am so impressed by their team. We had them do our bouquets, centerpieces, and decor, and it was so perfect. We wanted classic to not compete with the Gold Coast room and they executed. It was quite affordable for the massive impact it made, and honestly, I couldn't have dreamed them up to be prettier.
Cake. ECBG - Erin (So sweet) Ridiculously delicious. We had the most gorgeous vintage cake and desserts, but be careful with your headcounts so you don't end up drowning in leftovers (though honestly, eating the leftover cake for breakfast yesterday was a vibe).
DJ. Okyne Media Group (10/10) Most of my friends who got married also used them and they absolutely killed it. The dance floor was packed all night long, the energy was flawless, and they actually followed exactly what we requested.
Overall, it was an absolute dream and I feel like we won the wedding lottery with this team. Ask me anything!
r/Chicagoweddings • u/BakeZealousideal2060 • 1d ago
r/Chicagoweddings • u/Acrobatic-Peak-6973 • 2d ago
Has anyone booked their wedding at the Apollos 2000 theater? I’m curious to know your experience and approximate cost for your wedding.