Bittersweet Pastry Shop and Cafe – Wedding cake: A
Yum! The cake was beautiful (simple, which is what we wanted) and delicious. We had a three tiered, chocolate glazed square cake. 2 layers were chocolate, chocolate, chocolate (husband’s family are chocolate addicts), 1 later was hazelnut with passion fruit and fresh raspberries (picture at www.tinyurl.com/rosewedding2). The tasting at Bittersweet (we had 3 cake tastings) was fabulous. They have every 2 people a plate with a sample of every cake they have, as well as different fruits. There was a platter in the middle with every flavor of frosting and filling. Sue Ann is the cake coordinator (not sure that’s her official title). She was very helpful and nice, and had great suggestions. Price was very fair, and our guests really enjoyed the cake.

Delicious, delicious, delicious! I had no less than 30 people tell me how great our food was. Blue plate really worked well with us to do the non-traditional stations we wanted. We had four stations: Chicago, Mexico, Asia and Desserts. On the Chicago station: mini deep dish pizza, mini hamburgers, fries in red and white ‘boats’, mini Italian beef… On Mexico: mini burritos (3 kinds), guacamole, mini quesadillas, chips, salsa… on Asia: cashew chicken, orange scented coconut rice, lo mein served in small to go containers, dumplings, all kinds of sauces in ramekins. On Desserts: mini vertical tarts, mini blueberry pies, chocolate covered strawberries, mini-crème brulees. (By the way all of the menu I’ve just described is just a sample – we had a lot of variety). We wanted to give our guests the true Chicago experience with real Chicago food and the ethnic foods we love. Our guests raved. For all of the food, and the top shelf open bar, I think the value for price was very reasonable.

Blue Plate’s staff was also fantastic. We worked with several people over the 6 months we were engaged as they had some people switch positions. Each person was very nice, and organized. Every person who worked our event was so nice, welcoming and professional. We had one server (Kim) dedicated to us all night, making sure we actually go to eat and drink. She was great – always there but never intrusive. Megan ran the evening from set up through dinner, and was really on top of things. We had a complicated set up (5 different types of tables, 10 different linens, a ceremony room etc.) Megan and Lori (from Lola) made it all perfect. The tastings (we had 2) were really exemplary, wonderful experiences. During the first tasting, we sampled every single dish and appetizer (and then some as they gave us several choices for appetizers and we had a couple versions for some of the main dishes). The tastings were held in their facility, using the linens and chairs we would use for our wedding. It was a wonderful way to see how everything would come together (they even had a dozen roses as a centerpiece that they sent me home with.) They accommodated my large tasting party (me, my husband, maid of honor, bridesmaid and wedding planner).

We had 2 minor issues: a few of the dishes we had requested changes to (and went back for a second tasting for) did not actually get changed. They were minor changes, and didn’t impact the overall feel at all, so I was not really concerned. Also, the passed appetizers had trouble reaching the back of the room. I think we were probably short one server, although I didn’t really hear any complaints.

Beauty on Call – Make-up Coordinator/agent: C
Let me preface this by saying at the end of the day, my make up was great. But that was a stroke of luck, and I would not recommend BOC. BOC is an agency that represent independent makeup artists and hair stylists. The first MUA they sent was late for my mom’s trial, but she did an OK job and my mom wasn’t that picky. Then during my trial she was late again, and her work was just so-so (but I am not terribly picky either, so I just scheduled a second trial with her to try some new looks). I did ask her to make sure she was on time for the wedding (which she then used against me to tell the BOC agents that I was a high maintenance bride – I was cc:ed on an email by mistake, which is how I know.) Finally, she texted me at 3:55pm for my 4:00pm trial that she was not going to be able to make it. I had my shower that night and I was hoping to have my make-up done for me, and had worked my day around the trial. BOC eventually found me a new MUA 5 weeks before the wedding, but were not incredibly helpful (and charged me for the 2 trials that I had with the flakey MUA, who as it turns out is an employee of BOC, not a contractor.) BOC was very expensive. I would recommend going directly to a MUA instead of going through BOC.

Lori Stephenson - Lola Event Productions - Full Wedding Planning (Including DOC): A++++
Lori was fantastic. I am not from Chicago, my family does not live here, and my husband's work schedule does not allow him to leave during the day for appointments. Lori came with me to all of my vendor appointments - she knew what questions to ask, and how to negotiate the contracts. She has worked with a variety of vendors, and recommended a couple to me that I would never have found otherwise (see my photographer review below). She is very creative, and was great to have on hand at the event design meetings and my dress fittings. Work requires me to travel quite a bit, and Lori took on all the follow up I would have had to do myself, kept track of vendor payments, where we were on budget and all the little details that I just couldn’t deal with given my travel. As the Day-Of (for both my rehearsal dinner which was 120 people and my wedding), I could not have asked for more. Extremely organized, I didn’t have to think about a thing except enjoying myself (which is saying a lot – I am very ‘detailed’ by nature.) If there were any problems, I did not know about it. Finally, Lori was just great to work with. She is fun, full of ideas and energy. I’ve seen coordinators swear, lose their cool, create chaos – Lori was the exact opposite. I would highly recommend her, and her team (she brought an assistant and an intern to the wedding) to anyone.

Michael Monar Photography : A+ (pending all final pictures and album)
Michael did both our engagement session and wedding. The engagement session was included in the price of our wedding package, and was a great time for us all to get to know each other. Here is a sample of the engagement pictures: http://tinyurl.com/RoseEngage . I think his style is very laid back, definite bent towards the artistic / photojournalistic style, and his eye for composing shots is really stunning. http://tinyurl.com/RoseWedding shows some of the pictures from the wedding, and I am so, so pleased. I can’t wait to get all of the pictures. On the day of the wedding, he was a really calming presence – I feel like he (or his second shooter) was always there capturing the shots, but he did not add to any of the chaos (and believe me, there was some chaos.) Michael started his own studio not too long ago, so his portfolio on his website is only a small portion of his capabilities. (He used to be with a larger, very well known studio, and as such cannot use the weddings he shot for that studio on his current site.) I feel like I got all of the value of that big-name studio for a fraction of the price. Michael was recommended to me by Lori (my wedding planner at Lola) and I would recommend him highly.

Kehoe Designs – Renee Price – Floral and Décor: A
Kehoe does beautiful work, and overall, Renee was great to work with. Early on there were a couple hiccups in the planning process (original proposal was 3x my clearly stated budget, issues with translating what was shown in the sample showing onto the proposal). But all was cleared up quickly, and I have to say, the décor was beyond what I had hoped or imagined. Right now I don’t have my final pictures, but look in http://tinyurl.com/RoseWedding2 (towards the middle of the slideshow) and you will see some beautiful floral pictures that a friend took. You can also see the Chuppah they specially constructed for our wedding – very clean lined and modern – it was really stunning in the space. Renee was creative with my budget (which was comparatively small for Kehoe) – she designed the chuppah as well as the Lucite “troughs” that lined the aisle. They were filled with floating candles and flowers, and together with the runner, made a very contemporary, but warm feeling to the room. In addition, as I didn’t want a traditional wedding feel, Renee designed 8 or 9 different arrangements for me to have on the tables – each one was inventive and used flowers, fruit and candles in interesting combinations. http://tinyurl.com/RoseWedding has a photo of the candy bar they assembled (I provided candy and containers, they provided table, decor and arranged the candy). Everyone was blown away – although that may be partly due to the fact that I bought over 100lbs of candy ;-). They also did some simple uplighting, which was beautiful once it was darker outside.