Hi ladies-- I have only posted a few times, but have appreciated so much all of your advice and suggestions. Wedding was great, here is the rundown... Highly recommend = I would have paid twice as much to have them Recommend- Totally pleased, great decision Recommend with reservation- Bumpy road along the way, but turned out fine Do not recommend- Would go out of my way never to use them again Venue/ Caterer: Pazzo's at 311- Recommend One of the more affordable options downtown. The room itself is dramatic and offers a killer view of the Sears Tower (no, not Willis
). Fay is the catering manager and was wonderful. She always got back to me about questions and was on top of everything the night of the event. The only thing I didn't like is that they started breaking down the tables before reception was officially over... yes, I know they want to get home, but we paid until 12. As for catering, food was outstanding, I had three people tell me it was the best wedding food they have ever had. Florist: Flowers by Victoria - Highly recommend Vicky's quote came in about $1000 less than the others. She is so friendly and her work is beautiful. I got so many complements on the bouquets and the centerpieces were exactly as I had hoped. DJ: Chris from Spin Productions - Highly recommend Very professional and mixes the music so well-- you don't even realize that the song has changed. He took our suggested play list and made it even better... he would put on a song that I love and I would say to myself... " God, I should have included that on the list." It was like he read my mind. Also, maid of honor kept requesting the Electric Slide (which was a DO NOT play) and he politely told her that he wouldn't play it no matter how many times she asked. Thank God! Cake- Oak Mill Bakery- Recommend with reservation The cake was good and was delivered on time, but I had a hell of a time getting an appointment and when I did, I had to wait for an hour. If the price wasn't so good, I would have gone elsewhere. I also got the impression that they wanted to talk me into the more expensive cakes, when I clearly knew what I was looking for. Limo- Mirage Limo/ Town and Country Limo - DO NOT recommend This was the one thorn in my side during the planning process. Completely unorganized and non-customer friendly company. Mirage was recently bought by Town and Country and it appears that a lot has fallen through the cracks. They changed our contract without telling us. Even when I called the week before the arrange final payment, I was still not informed. When they did finally inform us (4 days before the wedding), my fiance asked to speak to the supervisor, who hung up on us after refusing to give us a written confirmation of the changes that were made to the contract. What a mess. I was just thankful a bus showed up the day of the wedding, but I will NEVER use again. Dress: I Do Bridal Consignment - Recommend with reservation Kelly is the owner of this little shop on Belmont. She is an excellent saleswoman and really knows her stuff... she will look at your body and pick out a few dresses that you will fall in love with. However, she is very unorganized and she stood me up for two appointments... one before I bought the dress and one when I was picking it up. She was very apologetic, but I was much less forgiving the second time. I grabbed my dress (lovely, by the way) and figured I would find my own alterations elsewhere. Alterations- Mary Catomy - Highly Recommend I know everyone raves about her on this board. They are right. She is great. No complaints, only compliments. Hotel Block- Hotel 71- Recommend Other than a few mixups checking in (i.e. getting a room with one king instead of two queens, etc), the Hotel 71 was a wonderful place to have our block. Ridiculous views of the river and an extremely friendly staff. We mainly worked with Perrin, who was great. We also had our morning- after brunch here on the 39th floor. It offers amazing 360 degree vies of the city... our guests were so impressed with the ambiance and the tasty food. Food was a little pricey, but it was worth it for the view. The penthouse would be beautiful for a smaller wedding, ours just got too big. I think those are the main ones. I hope it is helpful to someone. Please feel free to write me at rrothrau @ yahoo dot com for more information about one of the above. Time to start the Honeymoon. Thanks again!