Our Vendors:

St. Gabriel’s Church
St. Gabriel's Church
Our church was unairconditioned and HOT. But it was so beautiful.

Reception:
Silver Lake Country Club
silverlakecc.com
We loved this reception hall. When we got engaged, we looked at prices for places in the city and they were all way too expensive. This was the only place that we looked at in person, and right away we knew it was for us. It was beautiful and the price was awesome. For those interested, we paid about $60 a head, total. That was food and top-shelf open bar. No other rental fees.

In addition to the whole place being beautiful including the outside area – we received many compliments on both! – but all of the staff there was friendly, helpful, and went out of their way to help us. Amy was very thorough the day we had to have all of our favors there: she was sure to go through everything and make sure how it all needs to be set up, she was patient with all of our questions (sometimes repeat questions, since the soon-to-be married couple, his parents and her parents all showed up at different times), and made us all feel comfortable before one of the most stressful days of our lives. The other staffer who stood out in our minds as going above and beyond is Donna. Donna was our server at our food tasting, my wedding shower, and for the reception. Every time that we came into contact with her we were impressed. She made sure everything was taken care of, and even made sure that we had (more than enough) food to take to our hotel with us after the reception so that we could have a chance to eat.

Cake:
Creative Cakes
realbuttercream.com
We had tasted a few cakes before the cake from this bakery, but this cake (plus the friendly service we received) made us go with this bakery. Even though we could tell the women were busy the morning that we came in for our tasting, they made sure that they answered all of our questions and didn’t make us feel rushed at all. The flavor of the cake and fillings, as well as the many choices, made it hard for us to pick out exactly what we wanted – they were all so good! They had many books available to go through to find a design, but I had brought in a picture of a cake that I loved and they were able to make mine look like that. I received many compliments on the cake, both how it looked and how it tasted.

Pricing information for my cake: I paid $2.75 per serving for my cake. I had 5 layers, two of which were chocolate, three were white cake. I had a different flavor filling in each layer: we went with chocolate, mocha, strawberry, lemon, and pineapple. They delivered the cake before my guests arrived and set it up.

Limo:
Mirage Limo
gomirage.com

In addition to renting an 8-passenger limo to transport the bridal party from the church to the reception, we also rented a small bus to shuttle guests from the hotel to the reception and back.

The limo was stocked with champagne, soda, and beer for us to enjoy while we were riding in it. It was equipped with a TV inside as well. The driver was very friendly.

The bus we rented was a 30-passenger bus, and we had some of the hardest working bus drivers that I’ve ever seen. The busses were running between the hotel and reception during most of the night. The driver had the patience of a saint in dealing with the last trip back of the night. Our friends weren’t ready to stop the party, so the bus driver stopped at a liquor store for them on the way back to the hotel and made sure to do a head count before he pulled away again.

Pricing information: 8-passenger limo for 3 hours: $342. 30-passenger bus for 5 hours: $510. The bus cost $72 per hour for every hour that we went over 5 hours. Total cost for us: $796, including gratuity.

Photographer:
Clark Photographics, Inc.
www.digi2photos.com
digi2photos.com

Being in Chicago, we could have easily spent thousands of dollars on the photographer, but being the penny-pincher that I am I refused to go overboard with it. Looking on the internet one night, I found this photographer. Their prices were amazing! Going to the shop, it is the smallest thing, and I walked right past it! The owner, Scott, was very helpful in explaining everything – after all, he does this sort of thing all the time and I had no idea what questions to ask for the most part. The photographer that worked with us was very demanding in getting his shots but also reasonable. He wanted us to have the best pictures that we could. And we took a lot of pictures! They also use all digital.

What we got:
GOLD $2300 - This is the price on the website now. We got last year’s price of $1900.
9-hour coverage
300 4x6 photographs in leather album
Deluxe Renaissance wedding album with 24 8x10’s or 30 5x7’s
Two extra sets of proofs with album for parents
11x14 Photograph with frame
Studio portrait session – we used this for our engagement photos.
Negatives or digital images on photo CD
DVD slide show
Upload pictures to web site for three months

Flowers:
Fasan Florist

This is a neighborhood florist that everyone I know has used. I went in for a consolation, not knowing if I was going to use them, but thought they were amazing while I was there. The woman I was working with, Maggie, was very helpful. I had warned her ahead of time that I was a ‘flower girl’ and she was very understand and helped me pick out simple things that looked beautiful. This place also had many books that you could pick bouquets from, but I brought in a picture of what I wanted my bridal bouquet to look like and it turned out more beautiful that I could have imagined. This florist did all of the flowers for the wedding, although I wasn’t involved in all of it. My mother in law was in charge of the centerpieces for the reception, and they were able to work that out from 200 miles away, except for meeting face-to-face for the first time on Friday morning.

What we got: Bridal bouquet, 2 female attendant bouquets that were smaller versions of the bridal. 7 corsages for the women in our lives, 10 boutonnieres including a smaller version for our ring bearer, and two arrangements for the church. We paid a total of $396.94 for this, and everything was white roses. My mother in law paid for the reception flowers, and I don’t know how much that cost. The bouquets were delivered to my mother’s house while we were getting ready, the arrangements to the church, and the flowers to the reception were put into their vases and set up at the hall.

DJ:
Sounds Abound
www.soundsabound.com
soundsabound.com

I was actually referred to this DJ from the wedding community on LiveJournal. Their website impressed me, and so did the owner when we talked to him. Coming in to talk to them, we found out that they also have a wedding shop and if you book your DJ, you can get a percentage off anything in their shop (including invitations). They have something like 20 Djs working for them, and we could watch videos of them (in the office or over the internet) and choose one that we liked. We could also set up our playlists either online or in person with the DJ. We received so many compliments on our DJ; he really did a great job. We gave him a few must play songs, a do-not-play list, and told him that we want lots of music that everyone will like, and threw in the fact that we like cheesy 80’s music. Every time a new song started, people on the dance floor would comment, “I love this song!”

What we got:
The Signature Gold Package is our most popular package for one reason: it has everything you need to make your reception the very best. We paid $1095 for the package.

- MC of your choice
- No request fees (except for Ken O.)
- DJ assistant
- Music for up to 6 hours
- Standard sound and lights
- Online Event Planner
- Unlimited office staff service
- Meet with your MC

Invitations:
annswedding.com

We went with an invitation called Top 10 Countdown. Again, we received so many compliments on the invitations; our friends and family had comments written on the response card when they sent them back. People asked us if we deigned them ourselves. When we ordered, we received it within a few days! This website has everything to coordinate with your invitations, which makes it really easy to get everything at once.