calling all past and present Chicago brides

I need your help...

I would like very much to feature more excellent and budget-friendly vendors on my little wedding bloglette, but I've just scheduled the last of my vendors, and it appears that I'll run out of reviews by the end of next month!!! Eeek!

Herein lies my request. Do you have vendor recommendations that you'd be willing to share with me? If so, dish, women, dish! The future brides of Chicago need to know!

Here's what I would need from you:
your name
your website, if you have one
your wedding date
number of wedding guests
vendor name
vendor cost
vendor contact information
short description of your experience
all emailed to me at TheEverydayBride{at}gmail{dot}com...

*The term budget-friendly is a relative one. Therefore, please do not hesitate to submit your vendor, whatever the cost, as there will undoubtedly be many other brides who agree with your definition of budget-friendly. Can't wait to read about all of your vendors!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently got married and had Cold Stone Creamery in Lockport cater our wedding reception. This is the store we always go to since it is in the town we live in but when I was picking out my flavors and toppings another bride was booking her engagement party and she lives in NorthBrook and they said it was no problem to cater an event that was alittle bit aways

I choose the option of having the ice cream sundae bar atation and everyone loved it! I was going to do the option of the portabkle frozen stoen that they would mix the ice cream and candy on just like in the store but the sundae bar was a little bit cheaper.

We had our whole wedding catered for way cheaper than our cake or a chocolate fountain would have cost. This Cold Stone in Lockport is really pretty reasonable and did a beautiful job. My theme was fall with leaves and broze colors and they set their table up to match my theme for free!

At Christmas thats all my family could talk about was the sundae bar. I would go to this Cold Stone off 159th even if I moved away because they treated us so good. I couldnt decide on my flavors or she let em try all of them again and again and gave me really good suggestions.

We also had a Cold Stone Candy station setup with cold stone containers on the way out for people to et on the way home
They also do total Ice Cream cakes!
We had 200 guests, they gave me a quantity discount and I had the middle Ice cream sundae bar package. It was about 3.00 pp plus tax
After spending hours, weeks, months searching I found them and it was the best deal I had yet to come by.
Good Luck!

Colleen said...

OMG, Kelly! Who would have ever thought!? I will be sure to add this to my upcoming vendor series! Thank you so much for the info! (...and thanks for reading!)

Quiana aka Haute Chocolate aka Mrs. B said...

Hi my name is Quiana and I tied the knot with my wonderful husband in July of 07. Here's a brief list of the vendors I used and can give TWO thumbs up to!

Reception: Chateau Del Mar, Hickory Hills ( located literally 10 minutes outside of Chicago- south west on 95th street) I think this place is one of the best kept secrets period! I had 175 guest - our cost ended up being $35 pp and that included open bar all night & zero cake cutting fee

Photographer: Danielle Aquiline
(shes so great that shes already booked until 2010). Her prices are exceptionally reasonable approx. $1000 for full day of wedding photos and she even throws in a FREE engagement session.

Alterations: A to Z Tailoring in Hickory Hills, IL (A wonderful
seamstress who has worked at three weddings that I know of besides myself). I paid approx. $300 for the alterations of both my wedding dress and my reception dress. 90% of her customers are brides to be.

Flowers: I was a strict budget so I decided real flowers were not going to feasible. Instead I ended up making my own bouquet, my bmaids bouquets, centerpieces and almost every other decorative thing in the wedding. I had so many great comments that 6 months later, I started my own wedding decor company Chocolate Brooms and Bouquets -www.chocolatebroomsandbouquets.com,specializing in bouquets made from wood flowers!

Colleen said...

Mrs. B - THANK YOU!!! Just perfect! I will definitely add it to an upcoming post!!!