Sorry this is REALLY late (I got married last July), but vendor reviews were helpful to me in planning, so I still wanted to post this. I used a regular grading scale (A+, B, C-), even though some deserved multiple ++++
Day of Coordinator: A+
LOLA Event Productions (Lauren) - WOW, right away Lauren showed us exactly why we hired them to make our day run smoothy! We hired LOLA just to take care of the day of duties, but really they do more than that - such as confirm vendors and coordinate the rehearsal (all the stuff you don't want to do, but has to be done, and correctly). Long story short, 2 hrs before I was to walk down the aisle, my bridal bouquet was delivered & not only was it not at all what I had described multiple times, but it was atrocious! Lauren listened to what I had envisioned, took the bouquet, and went off to fix it. Her asst stayed with us, and her intern was with the guys, so everything was still covered. As I was about to walk off the trolley at the church and down the aisle she came in and handed me EXACTLY what I wanted! I honestly couldn't believe it. And a cascade of white orchids it not an easy project to find last minute. The whole day & night ran perfectly, and they even took all our gifts, etc from the church/reception and dropped them off at our house at the end of the night. It was so nice to have everything there when we got there the next day. Hire Lauren=no worries
Reception/Caterer: A+ / A+
Adler Planetarium/Food For Thought (Michelle) - What more can you say about the Adler? The room/set-up is breathtaking! At first I was unsure about being restricted to only using FFT as our caterer at the Adler, but that was quickly forgotten. FFT has PHENOMENAL food! And you have about a million different options of what you would like to serve (or you can special order drink/wine as we did). Everyone LOVED all the food, and when I requested our specialty drink to be Calimochos (a Spanish drink combo), they practiced making it, tasted so they could describe, and made them perfectly! Their staff is UNBELIEVABLE!!! They were so friendly, described the drink at cocktail hour, remembered which people liked what, helped me a couple of times, I mean they really went above and beyond.
Cocktail hour band: A+
Gizzae Band (authentic reggae band)- First sign of a good husband? Let his wife have her favorite music for at least cocktail hour
THESE GUYS ARE AMAZING! I'm sure most people won't need a reggae band, but if you do, hire these guys! We heard them at a friend's reception yrs ago & I fell in love. All our guests kept commenting how fantastic they were.
DJ for reception: A- / B+
Spin Productions (Chris) - First off, all the things you want done right, these guys did right - introductions were flawless, played my requested songs during dinner hr, kept talking to a minimum, and kept the dance floor PACKED all night. Everyone had such a good time, and I know that was hugely in part of the DJ. Unfortunately I'm a music freak, so my complaint is that I described we wanted modern pop upbeat music to be played after the first dances, and I can't remember him playing anything newer than 2006 the whole night (other than the songs I requested). Everyone loved the old school, but I was like REALLY? AGAIN? And he played the FULL LENGTH of every song. Even one of my friends was like - um, he can cut it. And some were pretty generic songs/bordering on "cheesy wedding songs". I would've preferred "Single Ladies" (not played once) or other RECENT songs, but nope. This is partly my fault, I only gave him a few songs to play. I ran out of time and thought it wouldn't be a problem. So if you're picky like me - make sure you have a longer "must play" list.
Photographer: C+
Emotia (Ray) - I have so much to say about this that I can't write it all. My father used to be a professional photographer & I take a ton of photos for friends/family/myself so I'm sure I'm more picky than the average. He was very reasonable, took a lot of photos, and was there the entire day. If you want more of a description, please email me and I will go into more detail - mocandy555 @ hotmail.com
Videographer: A-
n2ition productions (Brandon) - Since we only wanted video to have the day captured, not for artistic value, we didn't want to spend a lot. Brandon was perfect because he was just getting into the wedding circuit and was very reasonable. He and his team really captured the WHOLE day! And the "recap" was great! My husband & I have watched it at least 3-4 times. The only reason why he got a minus was because there was miscommunication about what time he should end even though it was in the contract, and therefore missed several great dancing performances that I knew in advance were going to happen. He did apologize though which I greatly appreciated.
Transportation: A / A / A
Flying Lady (white trolley) - used for the bridal party
Chicago Trolley (red trolleys) - used for the guests to get from church to hotel, then hotel to reception
Aries Charter (mini bus shuttle) - cheaper than trolley so we used these for the end of the night when it really didn't matter what it looked like (which I think was recommend by our DOC Lauren) saved us a lot!
All 3 were easy to work with, were on time, ran their routes perfectly, had great sound (I made cds for all), and had pretty cool drivers (especially Flying Lady).
Flowers:
These were a friend of a friend's company so I prefer not to rate them, plus I've never seen them mentioned on here anyway so I doubt it would be of use.
Cupcakes: A
Phoebe's Cupcakes - I'm not a cake person, never have been, never will be, so the thought of spending all that money per person almost had me throw out the whole idea. Until I found Phoebe's. Not only were they less $ than a cake, I absolutely loved them, all of them (200+ flavors available). They're not like a regular cupcake, they have a better consistency. I seriously crave them every now and then and have to go buy some. The only problem was the presentation, and I'm not sure if the flower people didn't bring enough flowers, or the cake people were sleeping, but the presentation was bare - like nothing but cupcakes on cardboard platters. But in the end, people remember the taste, and everyone commented how much they LOVED the cupcakes.
Hotel for OOT guests: A+
Dana Hotel & Spa - I have to include them in this list because they were phenomenal! They worked with me to block rooms, change reservations, hand out OOT bags to each room, and there were no issues. This was very important because most of our large families are from OOT, I think we used 30-35 rooms if I can remember. Everyone commented how nice the hotel was. And it was soooooo reasonable for a downtown hotel, no one could believe it!
One more to mention-
Rehearsal dinner venue: A+
SUNDA restaurant - I'm sure a lot you on this board have been there, so you know the food is really delicious! But besides that, they have a great private room upstairs, beautifully decorated, versailles chairs, nice linens, and impeccable service! One of the managers was around and at the second it looked like we needed something he was there. And for everything you got and the quality of it, the price was very reasonable.
I hope this helps someone at least a little. If anyone wants to discuss any of these vendors more, please email me - I don't check PMs or the Knot anymore.