4 Imprint out of Wisconsin was incredible, if was not for them we would not have had wedding favors. We were able to order the containers for our numerous pounds of Jelly Bellys only 1 week before the wedding and received them in enough time for the wedding. We gave them a design to imprint and they got it to BagMakers (in Marengo,IL) in enough time and then we were able to go and pick up the bags in Marengo four days before the wedding. I am thankful to the woman who was so gracious to help us with the quick turn around process in the making of the favors. The bags looked like litte silver purses with velcro closure and handles with balck imprinting of our name, wedding date, and two hearts. They were beautiful and worked wonderfully for the Jelly Belly favors.

Five of us spent the day in Chicago for my bachelorette party. I was specific in that I did not want to go to a strip club but I wanted to be surprised and I DID NOT want to plan any part of my party (I was already planning the entire wedding). The girls decided to take me to the club Excalibur in Chicago for their Bachelorette show. The show consisted of two male strippers and all the bachelorettes in chairs in a circle on the dance floor (you had to make reservations and then the cover charge covered appitizers, the show, and cover charge to the rest of the club after the show was over). The show was tasteful and the strippers involved each and every bachelorettes in the show, no one was left out and then all the bachelorettes friends (or who ever was with them) got to go out on the floor at the very end if they desired. It was a lot of fun and you could take pictures and even by a video of the show. I was surprised and very entertained throughout the night.

Our wedding was outdoors in a picnic grove so we needed chairs for our guests. We looked all over for resonable chair rentals and most places wanted $4+ for chairs and our ceremony was only going to be about 15 minutes long (it was 11 minutes to be exact) so we did not want to spend $400 on chairs. We were finally getting to the point of people were going to have to stand when we went to our local Ace Hardware and were able to get white folding chairs for only $1.50 each and $20 to set up and take them down (other places wanted another $100 for set up and removal). This was the saving grace of our wedding and I will be forever grateful for them!

Our wedding cake was done by a local baker that our reception site uses and Pam at the bakery definitely took care of us. The wedding cake was beautiful and even with the opps of the reception site with the table size and wrong cake topper Pam and her staff were able to make it work and make the cake look wonderful. We were also able to have a fun cake of yellow cake with lemon filling, it was a very refreshing cake for summer. We were also able to get a replica made of our cake topper for our one year anniversary which was just as amazing as the wedding cake.

After Hours Formalwear was very accomidating to our needs for suiting our ringbearer to the dad's of the day. They were able to take care of everyone's measurements accurately so there were no issues the week of the wedding when the tuxes were picked up and everyone looked great.

I could not have been happier with David's Bridal. We went on Thanksgiving weekend to go dress shopping (my maid of honor was over 4 hours away at college so we had to do it on a weekend she was home) and it was busy but we were always taken care of. I only had 2 bridesmaids but they were very different ages and we were able to find two dresses that complimented each other and their ages without any hassle. I was able to find a beautiful dress and all my accessories(veil, shoes, bra, head piece, and puffy underskirt) for under $1000. The dress was a perfect fit at the time and I was thrilled. About 4 months after purchasing the dress (3 1/2 months before the wedding) I had lost 25lbs and the dress was litterly falling off of me. I went back to David's Bridal and they had the same dress still in a smaller size and were able to exchange it for me at no cost to me, most places would not have done that and just would have encouraged me to do alterations (which would have cost more than the dress). I could not have asked for better service when chosing my dress.

D'Andrea's in Crystal Lake promised us that everything would be taken care of and in hindsight they did not take care of the bride and groom as well as we had hoped, on the other hand our guests did not know anything was wrong and loved it. The food was amazing and I have no complaints about that at all! What I have complaints about is that our wedding cake was put in a corner on a 3 foot table when it was suppose to be at the head of the dance floor on a 5 foot table, the wrong cake topper was on top of the cake (a funny statue my dad gave me was on top our cake) and the Precious Moments statue marked in Big Letters CAKE TOPPER was still in the box under the table. And finally the wait staff dumped our champagne and wedding cake before we got to drink it all or eat any cake because we were talking to our guests. I had said that I did not want any cake that wasn't eaten dumped but that apparently was not paid attention to like the word CAKE TOPPER. The reception hall was beautiful and the bar was great, it was just the minor things that cannot be changed that I found to be a bit upsetting. We are very lucky that this was the only thing that went wrong on our day but if going with this reception hall (which I do recomend-very good price and great meal) BE VERY SPECIFIC about what YOU expect.

Overall the production the DJ's for Show on the Road put on was great and all the guest were throughly entertained. My only complaint about them was that they were hard to hear when they were talking and I wish they would have started the dancing earlier (to get our butts moving from talking so much). Our guests swear it was one of the best receptions they have been to though, and the party favors provided were a great hit.

The limo company was great. We needed to use our limo as a blockade for me before I walked down the aisle (it was an outdoor wedding), and 4 Star was able to provide us with a great limo to do that with. The decorations and color combinations was perfect and Mark was a great limo driver, he was a lot of fun. The limo worked out great!

Essence Photo and Video did an amazing job at our wedding. Trevor did a wonderful job capturing our wedding day and Lorelei did an amazing job putting our wedding album together. The wedding packages offered has something for everyone and we did not feel that anything was missing from our pictures, it was on of the best experiences of our wedding.