These people almost ruined our wedding. First, the limo that was supposed to take the bridal party from the hotel to the church, took a long route for some reason and got us there 15 minutes late. Then he failed to go get the groom and the groomsmen, which caused our ceremony to start late and prevented us from taking any pictures at the church after the ceremony. Then, we found a cooler full of beer riding shotgun with the driver. Finally, none of the alcohol that was supposed to be in the limo was there. I would never never recommend using this company.

I would give Cafe La Cave more than 5 stars if I could!!! This reception venue made our wedding the best wedding we or any of our guests had ever been to—and I am saying that because my guests could not stop telling me how fantastic our wedding was and how it was the best they had ever been to. Café la Cave is not only a beautiful facility, which has some of the best food you will probably ever eat (which they can do because it is a restaurant rather than a hotel), but they will help you plan all the little details and ensure that everything comes off beautifully. They offer all the little upgrades and details that made the day so special, like a sweet table that spanned half the back wall, and a martini bar with an ice sculpture. They also have packages which include a full premium bar for 5 hours, which allows your guests to drink whatever they want from the time they arrive until they leave. Their staff is the best in the business. Randy, the coordinator, coordinated the entire evening so our guests were never bored or waiting for the next thing to happen. They took care of everything so I didn’t have to worry about it. I cannot even put all of the little things they do to make the day easier and more special for you because I do not have the time or space, but suffice to say that if you have your reception here, people will talk about it for months and remember it forever.

They take the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen of weddings. When we initially interviewed them, their slide show made me cry. I also love the way they do a complimentary engagement session so that you are familiar with the photographer who will be doing your wedding. Another great thing about them is that the photographer you meet with is the one who photographs your wedding. Unfortunately, they definitely have some cons. All they talk about is money: how much money they are making on your wedding, that people don’t buy that kind of picture so they don’t take them, how it is not worth it for them to do this and this because they don’t make any money on it, etc. They are also what I find to be very, very expensive. Finally, the great bulk of the pictures they take are of the bride and groom. We have almost no pictures of our wedding party and families. We have no pictures of me with his family or him with mine. We have no posed pictures with his grandparents. We have almost no pictures of people enjoying themselves at our reception. The pictures of us are phenomenal, but it would be good to remember other people on our wedding day too.

Adriana Aude is a makeup artist out of Chicago who used to be a model, but now does make-up for tv, movies, magazines, and weddings. She does an absolutely beautiful job. She did the makeup for me, my mother-in-law, my husband’s grandmother, and a few of my bridesmaids. Each of us looked more beautiful than I have ever seen us, but we still looked completely ourselves. I looked flawless, and I have never felt more beautiful. She made me look exactly like I dreamed I would look on my wedding day.

Lati is a genius with hair. She and her assistant came to us in our hotel room and made each girl feel beautiful and gave them each completely different styles, both up and down. The pricing was incredibly reasonable and the convenience of not having to leave our hotel that morning was great. My hair was exactly what I wanted and I have never felt more beautiful.

Hotel Block: They gave us a great rate for a lot of hotel. The entire hotel is suites so all of our guests had beautiful rooms. They ran complimentary shuttles for us between the hotel and our reception both before and after the reception. They gave us a discounted rate on the hospitality suite for in between the ceremony and reception, and for the after-party. They took care of getting all our guests welcome-bags and provided a private breakfast room for us the day after. They were easy to work with and pleasant.

Tatiana, the proprietor of Mila Design is a genius with flowers. The centerpieces she makes are creative and beautiful. One of my favorite things about her is that she can work with any budget and make it look fantastic. She asks what you have to work with and she makes the most out of that amount. She will shift the budget so that the flowers that matter are spectacular. We had some problems with the church flowers, such as instead of corsages, we had all boutonnieres, and there were no roses for the mothers, and my bouquet and the maid of honor’s bouquet were missing the pearl accents, but they fixed our bouquets and attempted to tie on the boutonnieres to make them corsages. The reception flowers completely made up for anything before that though. They were stunning.

Ralph Wilder was a bright spot in my wedding. He coordinated with my aunt (the cantor for the ceremony), and the music minister of the church to come up with all the music for the ceremony. I had to do almost nothing except pick the processional, recessional, and unity candle songs. He assisted me in picking the appropriate songs and did everything within his power to reduce my stress and make at least the music portion of the ceremony beautiful. The music was perfect.

We had Ralph Wilder’s 10 piece orchestra as our reception music. We had piano during cocktail hour, 4 pieces over dinner, and 10 beginning at 9 pm. The music was phenomenal. The dinner music and cocktail hour music was appropriate and entertaining without being intrusive or loud. The dance music was perfect. They have a song list that ranges from oldies to Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back. They sing, they rap, they move with the crowd and entertain. Everyone at my reception loved them and made sure to come up and tell me how much they loved them. Practically everyone in the whole place was dancing. At the end of the night, I looked around and practically everyone was still there, even older people I expected to leave earlier.

The church was one of the prettiest in the Arlington Heights area, which is why we chose it, and the priest we originally spoke with was very nice. But that is where the pleasantries end. The music minister was incredibly strict on what music was allowed and we basically had the choice of hymns or classical. The church discouraged us from making the ceremony personal in anyway and instead tried its best to make our ceremony like a typical Sunday Mass. We were not allowed to decorate the church beyond altar arrangements, and we were not allowed to throw anything outside the church (birdseed, rose petals, etc.). We were given a 2 hour time frame to use the church which was so strictly enforced that the “wedding coordinator” who was present threatened to mandate that our priest cut his homily short because the limo driver had messed up and the ceremony started late. She also forced our grandmothers and mothers to walk down the aisle before the groom and groomsmen were even present so they were not part of the processional. Finally, because we were delayed in starting, they would not let us take more than 5 pictures (literally—5) at the altar because they needed to set up for the mass starting a half hour later. The church was pretty much a nightmare.

The cake was good but not great. If you want to change the shape or add anything beyond standard white icing as a decoration, it will cost extra by the slice. The flavors offered were traditional, with a few fun ones thrown in (like pear), but overall it was just an average cake, nothing to write home about.