Chicago Vendor Recommendations?

[Haven]

Are there any Chicago brides out there with vendors worthy of recommending? I just spent quite a bit of time looking for vendors and it is extremely overwhelming. We will be getting married in my synagogue''s gorgeous (and brand new) social hall, and they do not have any restrictions on which vendors we can use, so I need some help narrowing down our options. Our synagogue is located on Chicago''s North Shore, in case anyone knows any great vendors up north, too.

As of right now, we don''t have any vendors chosen. I''m specifically looking for:

Caterers
Photographers
Videographers
Florists
Bands (Jazz quartets? String quartets? Full band? We don''t know what we want yet.)

Hmmm, that''s everything, isn''t it?

Thank you for your help!

 

[portia]

Hi Haven,

We had our reception last summer downtown in the River East Arts Center (we got married in Colorado and decided to do a larger party back home in Chicago). Here''s who we used:

Caterer - Calihan Catering. The owner is our neighbor so we definitely knew we would use him. The food was amazing. That was really important to us... we wanted the meal to be fantastic. The service was exceptional as well. There were two waiters standing at the inside of the entrance with water, champaign and white cosmopolitans so every guest was greeted with something to drink when they entered. It was a really nice touch!

Florist - Stems. The flower arrangements were so beautiful. They are so creative in their designs! The owner did a mock up for us which was nice because we ended up needing to make changes so I''m glad we had this option.

Band - TVK Orchestra - Very easy to work with. Great sound and vocalists!

We didn''t have a photographer (stupid mistake that we still can''t believe we made), however my SIL used Artisan Events and their photos turned out really beautiful. The principal photographer is pretty expensive, but I guess you can hire her associates if you don''t want to spend that much. That is what my SIL did and her photos are gorgeous!

I also have to rave about my makeup artist - Darcy McGrath. I was so reluctant to get my make up done because it NEVER looks good on me, but she did an amazing job! I''ve never had my makeup look that good. Apparently she has been in InStyle magazine and she mentioned she had done makeup for Anne Hathaway, Oprah and Halle Berry. I will definitely use her again for special events.

We also used a wedding coordinator for the day of the event but she ended up helping up out a few weeks prior. Her name is Rachel Bradley and I believe she is in the North Shore area. She did a great job! Made it easy on everyone... all we had to do was just relax and enjoy the party.

Let me know if you need any more info. Have fun planning!

 

[Haven]

Portia,

Thank you so very much for all of this information. It is so much easier to begin with a few personal recommendations than it is to muddle through the pages and pages of vendors that are listed on various websites. I really appreciate that you took the time to share all of this information, that was so very kind of you!