Your Q's...Our A's

Question 1

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A VENUE COORDINATOR AND A WEDDING PLANNER?

Answer

A venue coordinator manages items that pertain specifically to the venue. This often includes food and beverage services, servers, bartenders, staffing, and on-site facilities. Sometimes a couple may not even meet their venue coordinator until well after they book their venue, or at times, they may be assigned a new venue coordinator during their planning process. A wedding planner is hired specifically by the couple and does everything in the best interest of the couple from the moment they are hired until they are married. We provide a consistent partner from start to finish. This type of planner manages all venues involved over the wedding weekend and is on-site at the getting ready location and off-site ceremony. My job as your planner is to orchestrate the entire event from start to finish, making sure your planning and wedding experience is as stress-free as possible, leaving you to enjoy the day fully.

Question 2

WHAT SETS YOU APART FROM OTHER WEDDING PLANNERS?

Answer

What makes us unique is how involved we are with your wedding planning. We do not merely make recommendations or suggestions and then just help you implement your plans. We are your partner throughout the entire process, we will be with you for all your meetings, and we manage all of the implementations. You get to be part of the fun decision-making details, but we will handle the logistics so you can enjoy your engagement. Heads up, we tend to get involved in the nitty-gritty details that may be too much for other planners to get their hands on. And we really educate our clients, not only on the vendors while planning, but often help merge traditional moments of a wedding and reimagine them to the personalities of our couples so their celebration is “totally them”!

Question 3

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE VENUE?

Answer

We have worked in many traditional and unique locations in Chicago and ‘the Burbs” over the years, such as museums, libraries, hotels, historic homes, mansions, tents, office buildings, restaurants, private residences. I wouldn't say we been to a few places, but when watching the local news, I can recognize a ballroom based on just the background, architectural features, or views. To see the (insanely long) list of locations we’ve worked at, click here.

Question 4

CAN YOU SEND ME YOUR PRICING?

Answer

We would love to! We offer complimentary initial consultations (by phone, virtual, or in-person) to help assess each couple’s specific needs. Once we learn the scope of your planned wedding along with all of your wishes, desires, and concerns, we can then offer you some custom package options that are the right fit for you.

Question 5

WHY DON’T WEDDING VENDORS LIST THEIR PRICES ONLINE?

Answer

We believe there’s a huge issue in the wedding industry, and a lot of has to do with pricing. For couples, it’s extremely frustrating that they can’t just go online and easily find general pricing information from wedding vendors. Without this information, it becomes exceedingly difficult to put together an accurate wedding budget. But wedding vendors experience this frustration as well! It’s not so easy for a caterer to quickly give you a figure without asking a lot of questions first. After all, a 7-course plated dinner is going to be significantly more expensive than a buffet. The truth is, there are so many variables many vendors must take into consideration, it just isn’t possible to list pricing details, because every wedding is different.

Question 6

WHAT ARE SOME DIFFERENT TYPES OF WEDDINGS YOU HAVE WORKED ON?

Answer

We have been so lucky over the years to have worked on weddings of all shapes and sizes spanning religions and cultural boundaries, from interfaith to traditional Chinses tea ceremonies; there isn’t much we have not seen! We have worked on weddings with as few as 16 guests and others as many as 400 guests! And we’ve had the pleasure to work with same-sex couples and a double wedding as well!

Question 7

CAN WE STILL BE INVOLVED IF WE SELECT YOUR FULL PLANNING PACKAGE?

Answer

Very involved! We want you BOTH to be part of the decision-making process. The more opinions and ideas you contribute, the better we can design and mastermind for you. Your wedding should be personal, so it should look like the two of you created it together. We are here to implement and execute your vision! If you are incredibly busy with work, school, or family, we will make sure that you are still making all your own decisions. We will just provide more guidance and suggestions to make the process simple for you. If timesaving is what you need, then that is what we will do for you.

Question 8

HOW MANY WEDDINGS DO YOU TAKE ON PER YEAR?

Answer

We never double book wedding dates. To ensure that our attention to detail is laser-focused and each of our couples have the hands-down wonderful experience we take on about 20 weddings a year.

Question 9

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DAY OF THE WEDDING CURVEBALL YOU’VE HAD TO HANDLE FOR YOUR COUPLES?

Answer

A couple changed both the timing and location on the morning of their wedding.

Question 10

WHAT WAS THE SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME YOU’VE HAD TO PLAN A WEDDING?

Answer

It was 16 DAYS, like 2 weeks & 2 days before the wedding! We received a call the night of July 3rd from a bride in a panic (who was expecting our voicemail); her wedding planner ghosted her, was about to go on a week-long work trip, and had a wedding booked at the Ace Hotel on July 20th. The Groom & I worked together daily and pulled off a perfect hipster West Loop rooftop wedding.

Question 11

DO YOU CARRY INSURANCE? AND WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Answer

Yes, we hold both General Liability and Professional Insurance coverage. Why does this matter when hiring your vendors? Not only does this protect you from being responsible for any damage to your wedding venue that a vendor may accidentally cause, but it is also requested by most reception venues now. As the planner, we provide a certificate of insurance (COI) to your venue as well as collect COI from each of the vendors. Besides, don’t you want to know that whomever you hire is a true professional and is prepared for the worst-case scenario?! Lastly, I highly recommend each couple obtains wedding insurance for their day as well, for a small price, the peace of mind in case an issue arises is money well spent. This 3-prong approach to insurance is like having a Plan B; once you have one in place, you often do not even need it!