So fun to be a part of the Martha Stewart Spring Wedding To Do's article today! Read all the tips here on Martha Stewart Weddings!
I had so much fun writing about my business for The Estate Blog and being asked to contribute as one of their preferred creative partners. I got to answer some fun questions for them about me, my business and my love of the City of Chicago! Here are some excerpts below of that article. You can read the full article on The Estate Blog.
Get out the heart sweater and chill the champagne, it is Valentine's Weekend!! A chilly weekend is predicted in Chicago and here are my top picks for having a wonderful Valentine's weekend with your loved one!
In September, I was honored to be asked to speak by Sarah and Andrea from Cherry Berry Events at Camp Wedding at the Camp Wandewega, located in Wisconsin. This was their inaugural wedding retreat and I was looking forward to meeting some new friends in the wedding industry. I attend a couple of event conferences a year and I was intrigued by the concept of Camp Wedding, with wedding professionals being in a camp environment.
Want to learn about the event industry from one of the best wedding planners in Chicago? Ali Phillips of Engaging Events is looking for a great intern for the winter season. Intern should be available one business day a week and available on some weekends. Please send resume, 2 references and cover letter to info@engagingeventsbyali.com.
We LOVE LOVE it when one of our favorite wedding blogs features our work! Elizabeth Anne Designs featured a wonderful wedding we did last fall at Holy Name Cathedral and River East Art Center!
Check out Morgan and Mike's wedding on Elizabeth Anne Designs and then check back later this week where I share all the awesome pictures with you!
Amazing photgraphy by Becky Hill Weddings
My friends, Stevi and Matt Savage started a wonderful new nonprofit called Photo Serve. It is a wonderful organziation bringing together photographers who willingly will volunteer for those in need. They will be traveling to Casas Por Cristos in Acuna, Mexico in September with guest mentor, Mike Colon, and will be building a home for a family in great need. I am so proud of my friends for getting together and starting an organization that shows how we can give back. And what a great way for photographers to document people helping people but also to be able to network and learn from each other.
There is an amazing service in Chicago by Davis Imperial Cleaners which every bride should look into! They will perfectly press and steam your dress and deliver it on the day of the wedding so you don't have to worry about wrinkles in your dress! Or, it is a great idea to also talk to the location you purchased your dress about if they can do this for you as well and deliver your dress directly to your house, hotel or location you are getting ready. That way none of your bridesmaids will have the burden of worrying about steaming or ironing your dress.
Last week I talked about my time at the Engage!11 Conference in San Diego which was the most amazing four days with the most incredible people in the wedding and event industry. What I want to talk about today is the wonderful speakers who imparted their wisdom of the Wedding World with the attendees. And we are not talking just fluff and stuff, we are talking great business advice from people who are the leaders in the industry. Hard core fact and information about the business of weddings which we can all apply to make our business better.
I am so excited to share this wedding with you today. I loved working with Laurel and Dave on their wedding at the Hotel Palomar and adored how Laurel wanted to have so many cute and personal touches on the wedding day. One of my favorite parts of the wedding day was the groom's cake by Tipsy Cake and the wonderful red florals by Alexandra at Exquisite Designs. And with Sarah Alair as the photographer, I knew the pictures would be just amazing as you see below.
Hands down, hiring Ali Phillips as our wedding consultant was the best decision we could have made. Ali’s professionalism was evident from our first point of contact and never once wavered throughout the course of our engagement. She had answers to every question we could think of, and I am still blown away by how organized Ali is. In addition, Ali’s flexible, cheerful and dependable.
She thought of things that hadn't even occurred to us, and kindly reminded us of little things along the way that we could do to help dot every "i" and cross every "t." Ali played a huge role in bridging the gap between sanity and insanity, and for that we are extremely thankful. Consequently, our wedding day went off without a hitch. Ali provided guidance and support throughout the planning process. She has all sorts of great secrets, ranging from how to save money to lists of reasonable (and exceptional) vendors that were willing to work with our budget. We can’t thank Ali enough for her contribution to the day that we will never forget. —Jen & Louie Jimenez May 23, 2008 Wedding
We are thrilled to recommend Ali to anyone who is looking for a wedding coordinator! Ali was absolutely great to work with and she struck the perfect balance between professionalism and humor. She is extremely organized and diligent in her follow-up and provided us with a much needed sense of direction throughout the process.
I am so excited to tell everyone this, I could hardly wait to post this. I have signed a lease for an office space today! It is SO CUTE! It is in Bucktown in Chicago. The address is 2045 West North Avenue, Suite 2A. Just West of Damen Avenue and on the South Side of the street. It is a little corner office and a conference room to host meetings. I can not wait to get my design hands on this place, put in a plant and set out some gorgeous wedding pictures.
Shelby and Doug were married on October 20th, 2008, at Parkview Lutheran church, an adorable little church which is actually in my own neighborhood! Their reception at A New Leaf was a blast for their guests! Their guests enjoyed a wonderful dinner upstairs in the apartment and danced until the wee hours of the morning.
With the onset of winter arriving this week in Chicago, your lovely ladies may need a little pashmina wrap to keep them warm on your wedding day. I recently found this GREAT website for "Pashminas":http://amazingcollections.com that you can search for colors that match of complement your bridesmaids dresses. They are offered in cashmere and viscose ranging in price from $18 to $40 and is a great present (and also useful) for your bridesmaids!
They also offer white and white pashminas which will match your dress and can be used for a little added warmth while you exit your limousine!
Katie and Mike exchanged their vows at the historic St Joseph's Catholic church in Old Town. I LOVED working with Katie and Mike Cunningham on their November 3rd Wedding at St Joseph's Church and the Renaissance Ballroom at the Intercontiental Hotel. Everything about Katie and Mike's wedding was wonderfully elegant and sophisicated. Katie chose a black and white color scheme for her modern wedding style with an accent of green in some of the flowers.
"See Kurt Gurber's FABULOUS pictures":http://gerberscarpelliweddings.com/kate Photography by "Kurt Gerber"://gerberscarpelliweddings.com Flowers by "A Stem Above"://astemabove.com Entertainment by "Fun Times DJ"://funtimesdj.com Linens by "Carousel Linens"://carousellinens.com
Testimonial
From the moment we sat down to meet Ali, we felt completely at ease with her and knew we would enjoy working with her in planning our wedding. She was involved with all aspects of our wedding from the beginning to the day of and we couldn’t be happier that we chose this option. Ali kept us on task from our first meeting—letting us know what details we should be completing at present and what we should be thinking of next at all points in the planning process. Wedding planning is stereotypically known to be stressful due to the sheer amount of time and effort put into planning every little detail to make a wedding the special, magical day that the bride and groom envision. However, I can honestly say that planning your wedding does not have to be stressful! With Ali’s help, we actually had a lot of fun planning our big day and I surprised myself as well as my family and friends with how calm I remained throughout the entire planning process. We really appreciated Ali’s vendor suggestions and absolutely LOVED the vendors we chose for our wedding.
Thanks to Ali, our wedding day played out without a hitch and we got to focus on each other, our family and friends rather than worry about the many details that go into having such an event run smoothly. We highly recommend Ali and are so thankful for all of the work she put into making our wedding day “perfect.”
