Just posting my final vendor reviews, they'll probably take up more than one post, but I had GREAT vendors, so I hope they are helpful to you!
RECEPTION VENUE - A++
I used Belvedere Events & Banquets for our New Years Eve wedding. I began working with Caroline back in May when we were engaged & began the planning stages. I visited the venue and immediately fell in love with the whole feel & ambiance - it is very modern, clean and just absolutely lovely.
I planned our wedding from Washington DC so all of my correspondence with Caroline and the Belvedere was via email. She was always responsive to all requests, flexible & very easy to work with. I'm glad I can say it, because planning the wedding from far away was EASY with her!
The day before the wedding we took all of our reception items in, I explained how I would like everything to Caroline in about five minutes & went on the way. The evening of our reception, I was highly anticipating seeing our room and when I walked in, all I can say is it took my breath away, literally.
Absolutely what I imagined it would look like, it did, only better! From the table decor, head table set up, room staging & beyond, it was fantastic. The food was terrific, the staff superb, the lighting perfect, the white winter wonderland theme I dreamed up was executed PERFECTLY! I do have to give credit to Yanni Design Studio, who displayed our drapery and light background, which looked stunning with the whole theme.
There are not enough adjectives to describe the Belvedere, even their entrance foyer is beyond gorgeous, the Christmas decor was tasteful & lovely. I give this venue an A++ and would highly, highly recommend working with them for your wedding. In fact, we were already discussing having our 25th anniversary there :-) THANK YOU to the wonderful staff of the Belvedere, our wedding reception was perfection!
PHOTOGRAPHER - A
We used Studio One Photography of Naperville at the recommendation of our friends who used them for their wedding earlier this year.
They were responsive, helpful & very nice to work with. Once we chose the package we wanted, we signed the contract & made our payment with them.
We were assigned to work with Joe Nelson, and as with our photographer, he immediately put me at ease about the wedding day as soon as I talked to him. I told him what I was looking for and he said it would be easy! The whole day of videoing was painless from our end, he was awesome to work with, such a cool and nice guy, very helpful too!
The one negative was that for the amount we paid it did not include video editing, which I was hoping it would, however, there is an option to pay for editing by the hour if we should choose to add it.
I highly recommend looking into Studio One for your wedding - they were excellent to work with, both on photo & video side!
FLOWERS - B+
For our New Years Eve wedding, I used Joann, owner of Flower Fantasy in Norridge upon recommendation from my husband's sister.
I contacted Joann to explain to her what I was looking for. I'm not a fan of flowers, so I wanted to keep it simple. I printed photos of exactly how I wanted everything & provided them to her, I did not get bridesmaids flowers because I used flower balls instead. I got a bridal bouquet, small throw away, groom/smen, parents & grandparents flowers, all very small & simple with a few specific requests. She agreed that she could provide it all, I signed the contract and paid the deposit.
Flowers arrived the day of the wedding and they looked nice. I was 90% satisfied with them, while they didn't look exactly like my pictures I sent her, they were very nice and looked good in all the photos.
I would use her again in the future & recommend, but what I would suggest is (if possible) going in to meet with her & provide her photos to make your wants very clear. She is not responsive to email, even though when you call she'll tell you she got it, but never let you know she did, which didn't make it very easy planning from a distance. All in all, it got done, the flowers looked nice and I was happy with the outcome of the product.
RECEPTION DECOR - A+
Upon recommendation of our reception hall, we chose to use Yanni Design for our backdrop & lighting at the reception. We met with them and were quoted a price for what we asked for, which was simple backdrop & up lighting behind our head table.
I worked with Shari at Yanni and she was nice to work with. There was a slight miscommunication of price on her part from what she quoted me (and I wrote down during the meeting) and what the contract price turned out to be. However, this was resolved once we talked to her and the owner about it and we received the price we were quoted in the end.
The backdrop & lighting itself was absolutely stunning. Without it, our reception would not have been anywhere near as beautiful as it was. The whole 90 foot wall was draped with purple lighting to add the perfect hint of winter color...it was breath taking. I would recommend using them for any event, wedding or otherwise, because the work truly is stunning. One lesson learned is, always get THEM to write down their quote price - it will make things easier as the process progresses. All in all, an A+ for a job VERY well done!
CAKE - A+
The Baking Institute was one of our options through our reception hall. I reviewed some of their work and chose to use them for our New Years Eve wedding.
My husband and I had our hearts set on a cake from their website that looked like luggage, since we love to travel. After meeting with them, they informed us that cake would not be near big enough for our guest count and we would have to purchase additional sheet cakes, totaling over $500. Once we heard that, we moved on to another design, which was entirely suggested by Igor. He suggested a 5 tier square cake (square, simple & white were the only three specifics I had in mind) with white icing, a ribbon around the bottom of each tier matching the bridesmaid dresses and adding a diamond monogram to the front of the second layer. He drew it up for us & it looked very nice and simple, so we agreed & left it up to them.
Let me tell you, am I glad we didn't choose the luggage cake, because the cake they designed was fabulous! It was so simple, but the simplicity made it a knock out. It was perfect, exactly how he drew and described it! The 5 tiers made it seem very glam and the simple square lines with the diamond monogram was stunning.
I give them an A+ for knocking it out of the park on our cake. Easy to work with, it took about 15 minutes at our tasting to decide what we wanted & to top it off, it tasted DELICIOUS! If you want a gorgeous & tasty cake, I would definitely give this place a try!
For our videographer, we used the same company & were very very pleased with the work he did, he was also awesome to work with, such a cool guy (Joe Nelson with Studio One Photography). A+
We used a good friend, whose father owns a DJ business, Custom DJ's of Orland Park to DJ for us. It turned out to be a great idea since she knew us so well and got our music taste exactly right for a New Years wedding celebration, the dance floor was packed full the entire night until the very last dance. A++
The only negative review I had was working with House of Brides for mine & bridesmaids dresses. Their reviews on all websites including Yelp speak for themselves. I would recommend reading reviews before going there so you know what kind of customer service to expect working with them. My dress & the bridesmaids dresses did turn out to be perfect & I loved each of them, so it wasn't an entirely terrible experience, they are just incredibly rude & unprofessional in dealing with customers...especially brides. C-
Hope these help! I had a lovely wedding and one of the best nights - I wish you all the same!
Danielle