Where to even begin?! From the FIRST meeting with Arin, I knew this was going to be a special experience- she had pre-reserved our dream venue (The Field Museum!) just in case we wanted to get married in November... which we did! Arin is so full of ideas, kindness, and energy- she took my vision of color and RAN WITH IT... leading all of our vendors to create the absolute night of my dreams. Arin is incredibly responsive (nights, weekends, ALWAYS), organized, and creative. She wished me luck and sent me coffee before my dress shopping, asked for updates during my bachelorette, and even texted mere DAYS after giving birth to wish me well on wedding day. Arin shines so bright - and is a safe space in what can be a crazy/confusing industry. I am so thankful to Arin for the happiest night of my life- looking back, there isn't ONE THING I would change. It was perfect. read more

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If I could give BCB 10 stars, I would. They are amazing! We recently worked with BCB to plan and execute my son's Bar Mitzvah (they do more than just weddings!). We had the privilege of working with Susan and Johnna. Susan is a visionary who can help you dream big and tap into your imagination, and Johnna makes all your dreams realities. Our event was held at 1970 N Lincoln (formerly Stanleys), which has been closed for almost a decade. Susan and Johnna were magicians and made the venue come to life, ensuring we had the epic dance party we envisioned. No detail was left unattended, from the creative catering to the security to the coat check to the lighting, the DJ, the party's flow, and then some. After the event, there was an issue with our bus company in which one bus never arrived. BCB was able to get a last-minute bus to come, all without letting me know, so that I could enjoy the party and not stress. I cannot recommend them enough. I only wish I had another party to throw so I could work with them again. If you're looking for an incredibly creative, thoughtful, detail-oriented, fun-loving, caring team to throw your next big event, look no further than Big City Bride. They are THE BEST! read more

"PERFECTION" is the only word that can describe our wedding and our entire experience working with Claire (Weller) Brown and the rest of the BCB team! Claire was quick to reply to our questions and always made herself available to meet or Zoom with us - truly, we don't know how she juggles it all so effortlessly! She understood our vision down to the very last detail and executed it flawlessly, even recommending ideas we never would've thought of that helped make our day even more special. The selection of vendors BCB recommends is incredible -- everyone is so professional, easy to work with and they all provided quality, beautiful work leading up to and on our wedding day. We're still receiving comments like, "We had the most fun ever at your wedding!" and "The whole weekend felt so genuine, was well thought through and beautiful!" and we know Claire and BCB are owed the credit for these wonderful compliments. We're so thankful and feel so lucky to have worked with Claire! We're coming away with not only the wedding of our dreams, but also a great friend that we plan to stay connected to for years to come. read more

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Chrissy from Big City Bride was one of the first people we reached out to after getting engaged, and it was the best decision we made throughout the wedding planning process. Chrissy jumped in right away with her incredible energy and enthusiasm, and made the whole journey stress-free and fun! Her incredible vendor recommendations, constant communication, detailed timelines and impeccable execution made our wedding dreams come to life. We were able to go into the wedding weekend knowing every detail would be taken care of, and by the end of it we were lucky enough to have had wonderful experiences with nearly the entire BCB team. The words "thank you" will never be enough to Chrissy and everyone at Big City Bride! We will look forward to working with you for family events and celebrations for years to come. xoxo Molly and Matt read more

I will never be able to find the exact words to describe how thankful I am for having Susan Cordogan and Madison Hansen as our wedding planners. Shortly after we got engaged, we connected with a few wedding planners but Susan and her team shined significantly brighter than everyone else. Susan and Madison went up to bat for us, held our hand throughout the entire planning process making it completely stress free, and we had SO MUCH FUN along the way. Needless to say with their dedication, fantastic work ethic and extensive knowledge of the industry, they curated a dream sequence of a wedding weekend for us that felt like magic. We simply cannot thank Susan and Madison enough for bringing our wildest dreams into reality. We will forever be grateful for this amazing experience and cannot recommend the BCB team highly enough! read more

My (now) wife and I worked with Claire from BCB and could not be more grateful to her for everything that she did for us. We chose Claire originally because she seemed the most interested in listening to our thoughts about the wedding, rather than having a small set of venues, vendors, etc., that the other planners would foist on all their clients. Our initial impression of Claire was exactly right. She listened to us throughout the process, on issues large and small, and ultimately became able to channel our thoughts and preferences flawlessly. That's not to say that Claire just implemented our thoughts -- on the contrary, she had incredible ideas that we absolutely loved and that are among our favorite details of the wedding ceremony and reception. Most important, though, was really Claire's warmth, personal attention, and professionalism every step of the way. Even when some of those steps (and the wedding) were immediately after the birth of her (super-cute) son. Claire was an incredible planner. Her organizational skills were out of this world -- no detail was lost and we did not feel overburdened in any way. In addition, we all discussed and agreed on an overall and itemized budget at the beginning, and she kept us on track throughout. Claire also gave us the confidence to implement our vision for our wedding. We are just incredibly grateful to have worked with her. read more

Claire Weller made it clear from the beginning that she would always be available to my now-husband and I to help every step of the way, and would be incredibly organized & accommodating. Soon after I submitted an inquiry with Big City Bride, Claire reached out and told me she loved all of my ideas and was already full of excitement about helping me map it all out. What started as an introductory phone call sort of turned into a mini therapy session as I told Claire how overwhelmed I had felt since getting engaged about the entire wedding planning process. As someone who has Master's level training in counseling, I was blown away by Claire's empathy and understanding. Before our first meeting with her, I already felt sold that I wanted to work with her. I might add that my husband was against the idea of hiring a planner; he felt that we could easily do it all ourselves (ha!). As soon as we walked out of our first meeting with Claire for which she had already constructed an entire timeline of our planning process and wedding day (without us even hiring her yet), my husband immediately turned to me and said that we HAD to hire her. Claire not only helped us plan our wedding, but she also helped my mother-in-law plan the rehearsal dinner. Both events were exceptional in every way. Her foresight and attention to detail made the planning more fun for us. (I will never forget seeing her personally replacing candles on the dinner tables that seemed to be burning out of control... a sight to see!) At times I started to feel stressed by the number of decisions and moving parts (family dynamics, etc... brides will know), Claire seemed to know exactly what to say and made me feel sane again. She is a great listener and was a pleasure to work with. Our friends and family loved her and frequently referred to her as the most bubbly person they have ever met - I could not agree more. Over a month out from our wedding I am still missing and loving the best day of our lives, which I can really thank Claire and our incredible vendors (with whom she had very close relationships) for. On that note, Claire made sure that we had the BEST of the best, from photo to food to venue. We got our first choice on everything. Claire and her team at Big City Bride are the best! read more

Big City Bride - Long dinner table design - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Arin at Big City Bridal was our "day of" planner and made our wedding day stress free. From the moment Arin became involved in our wedding she was on top of details and was in constant contact with us. Returned emails and texts promptly. Answered endless questions. Early in the week prior to the wedding I was able to drop off all of those items that needed to be at the wedding but are a pain to bring in addition to luggage etc---like a big basket of flip flops and sign among other things. Arin arrived at the rehearsal with all of the necessary items and ran the rehearsal for us. Wedding day she arrived at 12 and worked tirelessly, seamlessly until 12 that night. Professional, personable, organized, energetic and available for any and all questions or last minute tasks. Big shoutout to Arin@bigcitybride.com . read more

Big City Bride - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Arin (Calamari) Busch and Big City Bride are without a doubt the best wedding planners in the city. I am very organized, so at first thought I might not need a planner - but there is SO MUCH and Arin was so incredibly helpful with every step along the way. She was positive, energetic, and so knowledgeable. She was so fun to work with and made my whole family feel really comfortable as well. She took care of every detail and worked to bring our vision for the wedding to life. She was incredibly responsive. There is nothing you could possibly want more in a planner. She is the BEST! read more

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Christine is amazing. I can't say enough about her professionalism. Christine is kind and compassionate, she will make you feel like her only bride. She takes care of every single detail to make your day absolutely magical. In less than 3 days, she was able to put together a positively breathtaking event, because my venue was unable to accommodate. If it wasn't for Christine we wouldn't have made it down the aisle nor been able to celebrate with our loved ones. She is 5 star!! Go with Big City Bride & Christine - you won't regret it!! read more

My husband and I got married on New Years Eve in Chicago at Union League Club. We had the most positive and enjoyable experience working with Big City Bride. Arin Busch was our wedding planner and I cannot even begin to rave about her enough. She made the entire planning process so smooth from picking vendors to day of coordination, she was truly amazing. She always gave us multiple vendor options and her recommendations were all so good. She was so responsive to my millions of questions and kept us on track with updated timeline sheets with items to be completed. She nailed every single detail and our wedding turned out so beautiful. It was truly the best day of our lives and the wedding of our dreams. Arin made that all possible! On the day of, she was so beyond organized and on top of it. She was willing to do every single task for me including running back up to my hotel room multiple times for me to get my slippers and makeup, bustling my dress, and even lint rolling the floor to make my pictures even better! I cannot recommend Big City Bride and Arin enough. We couldn't be more grateful for our experience. read more

We hired Arin of Big City Bride as our day-of-coordinator. Other than deciding to marry one another, this was the absolute best decision we made for our wedding. Arin did incredible work (and with such grace, patience, and enthusiasm). She emailed back and forth with the band, caterer, flower vendor, and venue contacts to make the perfect timeline. She made copies of our marriage license, readings, schedule, contracts, and contacts. She handled taking all the wedding sundries (the bathroom baskets, programs, signage) to the venue. She collected our marriage license, gratuity for all the vendors, and even offered to personally check us into our hotel so we don't have to think about it--all things we would have had to do ourselves or delegate. The pricing at Big City Bride is incredibly reasonable, especially considering all the work that they can do. We had the best day and were able to enjoy every second because of Arin! read more

A few short sentences on Google does not do justice to what Chrissy and the BCB team gave to my wife and I. We had the perfect wedding plan all ready to go until COVID upended everything. There were so many unknowns and concerns when everything first got shut down and Chrissy worked tirelessly to line up all of our vendors for a new date in 2021 all while providing a sense of calm to both of us. Fast forward a year to the actual wedding date and she executed everything to perfection. The day couldn't have been better. We could enjoy the entire weekend knowing everything would happen just the way we wanted it to because Chrissy & team were there for us for whatever we needed. read more

Claire Weller is a true miracle worker. We had originally been planning an April 2020 wedding in Chicago, which was postponed and replanned multiple times. We decided to shift directions and get married in our hometown with just Family with a dinner in my parents backyard to allow for social distancing. Without missing a beat, Claire helped us to plan the most amazing micro-wedding. It felt like a true fairytale. During both the initial planning process and then the re-planning process we were amazed at Claire's creativity, kindness, honesty, problem solving and availability. Throughout the re-planning process, she was always prepared before discussing our next options. Not once did she show us half of the story, she always had all the information before she presented it to us. I cannot stress enough how amazing she is. I could not imagine planning a Wedding with out her. I wish I could give her one million stars. read more

Type A personality here! I thought I could do everything myself. I am so GRATEFUL to have hired Big City Bride! I would have never made it; There are so many details and items that you will not consider or forget. I thought I had it all figured out until Kayla came along! Kayla Mousser was our Wedding Planner and she was wonderful. She was so helpful and really helped with coordination and execution. Our wedding was beyond amazing and people are still talking about it! Kayla was attentive and helpful and responded to my e-mails very quickly! (this was huge for me! I am a quick to respond to e-mails and I expect the same). Without Kayla, I can tell you without a doubt, our wedding would not have been as beautiful and organized as it was. We love Kayla and BCB; We couldn't have done it without you! read more

Johnna Johnna Johnna ! We can't put into words how amazing it was to have Johnna Metcalf on our wedding planning team. She is without a doubt one of the most hard working and compassionate people we have ever met. She was with us every single step of the planning process and was an advocate for us at every single turn. She is extremely detail oriented, organized, and so beyond dedicated to her clients. She truly cares and it shows. She literally flew across the country to meet with us before our big day! She is as genuine as they come and as sweet as can be, but also knows how to get things done. She is without a doubt the absolute best. We would 1000% recommend hiring JOHNNA from BCB ! So lucky to have had you plan our big day J. Forever grateful for you and all of your hard work ! We love you to the moon XOX read more

If I could give Big City Bride a thousand stars I would! My husband and I worked with Arin and the petite package (day of coordination) and she was truly a dream. I've never met a more kind, hardworking, or passionate individual. She truly takes care of every detail. I heard a saying that "three things will go wrong" on every wedding day. I can confidently say that we had zero due to Arin's care! She took care of coordinating all of the vendors, helping us stick to the exact schedule, and helping with all of the little details the day of. Her calm and collected demeanor was so appreciated to be the support we needed on our wedding day! She went out of her way to think of all of the little above and beyond things such as keeping aside a plate of hors d'oeuvres for us since we did pictures during cocktail hour, had a literal bag of tricks for anything we could need the day of, brought our reception tennis shoes to my mom and I to change into before we even realized our feet hurt, and took care of bringing all of the "stuff" up to the family suite after the wedding so we didn't have to lift a finger. I highly recommend using Big City Bride - and ask for Arin! It was truly the best money we spent on the wedding! read more

Words CANNOT express how amazing our whole wedding experience was. From Start to finish - everything was smooth, organized and stress free. Claire is a GOD SENT ANGEL! Claire truly listened to us and was able to guide us towards everything that made our day... Magical. From choosing the PERFECT venue, the most delicious food, best music, and photographer, it was seamless and best of all, it was "US". It goes without saying that - BIG CITY BRIDE met every expectation 10 times over, our wedding has been exactly a month from this review and we are still on wedding cloud nine! Yury and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts; we couldn't have done it without you!! read more

Thank heaven for Kayla and Big City Bride! I was gifted a "day of coordinator" from a very generous friend and being a planner (not professionally just type A) I thought, "eh I don't need that" but boy was I wrong!! Kayla reached out to me a few months before the big day having me send her all my contracts and info and when we had our first meeting she was already on top of everything! She made me the most beautiful day of timeline as well as contacted ALL of my vendors and family members/ bridal party to make sure everyone was in the loop on where to be and when. Having her the day of the wedding gave me the biggest sense of ease knowing someone else was on top of everything. She helped so much that I am sure there are things she did that I will never know about. Seriously having (at least) a day of coordinator will be the best decision you'll make when planning your wedding. You can't do it all alone!! You need help and having an outside eyes and ears (not a family member because they are trying to enjoy the day too) as well as someone who will take charge where you might not want to ie: getting family members to listen when trying to take those group family photos, your day of coordinator is your wedding super hero! Thank you Kayla and big city bride!! read more

Extraordinary company, even better people. I trust them completely. Be thankful you found them and enjoy every moment.

I had found Chrissy and the ladies at Big City Bride through two friends from high school who had used her for their Chicago weddings. To be honest, she was the only one I had contacted and interviewed when my husband and I were looking for a wedding planner. We went with the Grand Plan as both my husband and I work full-time and he travels for work and my Mom lives in Michigan. The first meeting with Chrissy, I loved her bubbly personality and really started to feel a bit of ease about the wedding planning process. Throughout the process, Chrissy never pushed or pressured us into something that was out of our budget. As a bride to be, I had no idea these were things to consider for a city wedding and that you want to get your venue before you actually book the church. Little did we know convention season starts in the city in May. Chrissy and her team found out that our proposed wedding weekend coincided with the Restaurant Show, which posed problems in trying to get hotel blocks from hotels as the majoirty of them weren't doing blocks for that weekend. Chrissy and her team were able to snag four different hotels with like ten or twenty rooms each. We spent a Friday morning for a few hours looking at about ten potential venues that could fit a big party like ours. We took the weekend to decide on a venue and we had decided on the Great Hall at Union Station. We were all ready to put down the deposit, had emailed Chrissy the paperwork, to find out a day or two later that Union Station was not accepting any events for 2016 at that time. We ended up picking the Millennium Park Rooftop Terrace. Millennium Park couldn't confirm our wedding date because they hadn't quite put together or finalized their 2016 event schedule. In the meantime, Chrissy worked her magic and was able to secure us our second choice backup venue while we waited patiently to see if we would get approved from Millennium Park. Needless to say, this was all very stressful but yet a huge sigh of relief that we didn't have to stress about not having a venue if Millennium Park denied our date. I don't know what Chrissy did, but she was able to keep our backup on hold for six months without us having to give a deposit and she stayed positive and continued our planning process with Millennium Park as our venue even though we didn't have full confirmation. Six months later we got approved!! Our big day was here! Chrissy and her team kept us on schedule from the time they showed up to the Trump. We had everyone dressed and ready to go for pictures at 11:45am. Since our ceremony was at 3pm, we decided to get as many of our family pictures done at the Trump before the ceremony. We were able to start the ceremony a little bit earlier than 3pm, we were worried we weren't going to be able to take all the photos we wanted done after the ceremony since we only had 15 minutes to take pictures at the ceremony. Chrissy and her team got our LARGE wedding party down the aisle quickly and we actually finished the ceremony earlier than expected. That gave us plenty of time to get all our pictures in. Cocktail hour went off with out a hitch, once in the tent for the start of the reception, again everything went according to plan and schedule! Our dinner was amazing, instead of a traditional sit down dinner, we decided to go with stations. We decided to go with a smaller wedding cake to cut and had a banana's fosters station and build your own shortcake bar. What was really nice is Chrissy reused the main bar we had at cocktail hour and turned it into the dessert and coffee station. Another thing that was awesome and such a surprise to me is that Chrissy reused our placecard board to pin up all our Garrett's Popcorn give aways. Our reception was amazing! Chrissy and her team really took care of everything and I really got to enjoy our reception and dance the night away! Our experience with Chrissy and ladies at Big City Bride was unbelievable! They really helped us with everything from start to finish, a lot of stress was lifted off my shoulders throughout the wedding planning process. Many of the guests that attended our wedding also had nothing but praises about how organized, professional, and helpful with any if there were any problems that arose during the day about these awesome ladies! To many brides they are so happy that the wedding planning was over because it was so stressful, but for me I really enjoyed and really started to miss it after the wedding! My advice to any brides reading this, if it's in your budget or if you're on the fence on factoring a wedding planner into your budget, hiring these ladies was totally worth it! Even after the wedding, I still keep in touch with Chrissy! I will be ever so grateful and always remember her and the other ladies at Big City Bride for making our big day so special and memorable! read more

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Chrissy Magliano is just about my favorite human being on this earth! I could write an entire dissertation about how wonderful Chrissy, Christine Cronin, and everyone at Big City Bride are, and it still wouldn't do any of them justice. We started working with Chrissy in 2018, with an intended wedding date of Fall 2020. As you can imagine, things didn't quite go as originally planned. Chrissy guided us through the entire wedding planning process - and then re-planning process as we had to shift the wedding weekend to a year later in 2021 - with more grace, patience, and kindness than we could have ever imagined or asked for. Chrissy held our hands through every tough decision along the way, set us up with vendors that exceeded our wildest expectations, and helped us navigate all the added complications caused by the pandemic. Our entire wedding weekend went like clockwork, with every last detail perfectly handled and directed by Chrissy and company. If a single thing went wrong, we had no idea! We truly could not be more grateful to her and everyone else at Big City Bride. It felt like we got to work with a dear friend for our wedding planning, and we already miss having our regular calls with Chrissy! If you're looking for a wedding planner, do not hesitate to work with Big City Bride. They are truly too amazing for words! read more

Susan and her team are absolutely the best! I am a very organized and well planned person, so I wasn't sure I would need the help of a wedding planner, however my mom thought it would be a good idea to bring in a coordinator. We interviewed around and we really liked Susan and her team because they were very thoughtful, well connected and organized. Bringing them in, early in our process, turned out to be one of the best decisions we made, looking back!! They helped us to find the best band and other vendors (we received more compliments from our guests on "where did we find our vendors?!"), Susan guidance in this area was great. She will really help you shape the day and party you are looking to have! On our wedding, we never once worried about one planning detail. Susan had everything figured out and well orgainized. We, along with our family and wedding party, were able to truely enjoy the entire day (no one had any real responsibilities), so the whole day everyone was able to focus on celebrating (which is what we wanted!) Susan and her team were truely invaluable! If I were to do it all over again, I would not change a thing. And for any future big celebrations, you bet I will be looking to bring them in again! read more

1. Amazing 2. Organized 3. Efficient 4. FUN! Now for those of you who read more than the first sentence. We got engagement in December 2011. I was not sure whether or not I wanted a wedding planner. I knew I atleast wanted a Day Of Coordinator, but at my mother's insistence (ok, so sometimes Moms are right), I went to look for a wedding planner to help us through the entire planning process. I found Chrissy through reviews I found online and immediately booked an appointment. Turns out, she also coordinated one of my parents friends weddings (which also got rave reviews). After meeting with her, I knew that she was the perfect person. My husband and I had talked about getting married for some time prior to our engagement, so I had done my research on vendors and ideas for what I wanted in advance. I also thought that meant I had a grip on what would happen. However, when our engagement came, I was only 2 months into my new career and I knew I needed a bit of hand holding, and more often, someone to get me to actually get things done. I am more than just a bit of a procrastinator, but with Chrissy's reminders, I almost always had things done the day of the deadline (Sorry Chrissy, I know I am not the easiest when it comes to this!!!). I just wrote reviews for our DJ, Photographer and Florist and my husband was asking about the reviews they got from others, all were fantastic, his response "Yet another reason why Chrissy was indispensable". So VERY true. We don't have much time to go around interviewing hundreds of vendors. Chrissy listened to what we wanted and then narrowed down the field for us. We only had to go to her office (which is super cute and gives tons of ideas in its own right) to meet with them... no driving around like crazy people! Even the people we didnt choose would have been great... thats how wonderful the vendors she works with are! I think my favorite thing about Chrissy came on the wedding day itself. When you haven't seen so many people in so long and are caught in the commotion and celebration its hard to stay focused- she does it for you. We zipped through pictures (all turning out fabulously) at a speed I didn't think possible. This meant... more time for fun!. She is meticulous when it comes to detail and doesn't forget a thing. She will keep you on track of everything and come up with wonderful suggestions. Our wedding turned out more beautifully than I could have imagined. Another fabulous point, with her taking care of the details, she made sure we had time to view the room, get some appetizers and have time to take in the whole thing, instead of being crazy people the whole time. Everyone in my office could not stop telling me how I was the most calm and collected bride they had seen... Don't get me wrong, I had my moments of stress, but I would have been a mess without Chrissy. Her personality is so perfect for her line of work. She is nice, caring and fun loving, but also detail oriented, punctual and professional. Not only was Chrissy great, but the rest of her staff was wonderful as well. We are so thankful that Big City Bride was apart of our day. Chrissy was instrumental to every part of the process. If you want a smooth and exquisite wedding, if you want to enjoy your own wedding... HIRE BIG CITY BRIDE!!! read more

At the end of our wedding weekend came a sad moment: receiving an email from Claire with the title "so long for now." I knew that moment was coming as all my relatives said their good-byes and left town, but I swear in some ways I was more prepared for that than for Claire's good-bye. I really didn't know how to properly thank her for all she had done, and for how much she went above and beyond for us. It is hard to imagine how I would have gotten through the challenges, the harder side of all the fun stuff, without someone like her, who not only kicks ass at her job and enjoys doing it, but has such an endlessly positive attitude. She *literally* made my whole family fall in love with her. My sister, who was newly engaged, was so floored by just the few days she spent with Claire she wanted to take her back to California with her. A year and a half before, when I was looking at all the bios on BCBs website I saw that Claire was listed as the "creative" one, and that is why I asked for her specifically. That certainly turned out to be an understatement. Her creativity goes beyond just table settings and DIYs. She was able to problem solve on a much higher level when the year before my wedding turned into a particularly difficult year in my life health-wise. She was able to make and then re-make a dozen times over whatever plans were necessary in order to match what my day to day capabilities were. Every little detail we chose came together in the end to blow everyone, all my guests, away. I had such a hard time visualizing it, but when I first saw the lit-up chuppah, it all started to dawn on me how much work we had put in to every single detail, and how much of a difference that would make. My relatives could not believe that we had made every single one of those flags, or tinsel stirrers. So many people came up to me to say that our vows were inspirational to them, that our ceremony made them rethink aspects of their own marriages and feel more hopeful about love. Many people told me it was the most beautiful wedding they'd ever been to, used the words fairytale. All along the way I asked Claire, "Are you sure this is going to work? Are these colors really right, the lighting, the flowers...how will it really look in this space?" And she always assured me, it is going to look amazing. And it did. There is a lot more to Claire than the details. She did everything for us and more, and with the extra struggles I faced I really don't think it would have been nearly as good or as special without her. She is an amazing person, incredibly intuitive and dedicated, creative is an understatement, and a whole lot more than just really damn good at her job! Of course, she is really good at her job, and she clearly loves it. I don't know that I have ever seen anyone work so hard and at all hours and always with a smile. One of the most charismatic people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, Claire literally "kills it with kindness" no matter the scenario. She gets everything done even in tense situations, even involving money, business transactions, unwilling vendors, stressed out brides and relatives. I was a very stressed out bride. Claire literally went to bat for me multiple times, which was not something written into in her contract. She faced obnoxious bridal boutique bitches for me, negotiated contracts with hard-ball vendors in a manner that impressed my mother and father, the labor and contract lawyers. When on my wedding day, an hour behind schedule because of my health problems, I looked in the mirror and broke down because the hair extensions I had to wear (since most of mine had fallen out) were not right, she grabbed the scissors from her emergency kit and we joyously snipped my extensions until they were perfect, as if she had been a hair dresser in a prior life. It seemed like she could take any bad situation, diffuse it, and have everyone laughing along with her in a matter of seconds. Probably the most frequent thing I heard from her was the sentence, "I can do that." A month later, driving through Lincoln Park, my husband said at a red light "maybe we should stop in for a Claire hug." We both miss her. And even though it is a matter of fact, not opinion, that she is an Athenian Goddess, a wedding warrior, the most endlessly positive person I've ever met, don't try to tell her because she's as modest as they come. Now it is so written on the internet, Claire, you must accept it as truth!!! If you do not hire this woman to plan your wedding, not only are you insane to trust your big day to anyone else, you are missing out on knowing a fantastic person who will make the next year of our life even more joyous. read more

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Booking a wedding planner was a tough sell in the beginning - when you're already spending so much on a wedding, it's really difficult to set aside some of that budget so that someone can help you. But after having been through the experience, I can easily say that working with Chrissy at Big City Bride was one of the best decisions we made. Pros: We selected the Grand Plan Package, which basically includes site selection to event execution, designing to coordinating. The first pro to this was the budget; Chrissy took our bottom line and created an itemized budget, including details we would never have thought about. I can't stress enough how important this budget was during the planning process - it's very easy to hemorrhage money without realizing it. Another big plus was the vendor selection. Once the budget was created, Chrissy laid out vendor choices for us. No thinking involved, just point and go. For our venue, she contacted every site and set up a viewing time, so we were able to just spend a day viewing venues. Not only that, she was able to walk us through the flow of each venue, and help us envision how the evening would go (not all venues will do this for you!). In a big city like Chicago, where it's hard to get a venue to even return your call, this made things so much easier and less stressful. Finally, organization. From creating a checklist of all of the items we needed to bring to the venue to creating a payment schedule for the vendors, the level of organization Chrissy and Big City Bride bring to wedding planning is what takes the stress away. Having someone check the details, and tell you what to do and when, so you can just enjoy the wedding weekend is the biggest pro I can think of. Cons: I'm giving a 5 star review, so take these with a LARGE grain of salt... I found some of my favorite vendors myself (our ceremony musicians and make up artist, for example), so don't be afraid to do some research on your own and look outside the BCB approved vendors. Most of the items we budgeted for ended up costing more than we planned. This is par for the course in the world of weddings, especially when you're a picky bride, and with their experience in the industry I was hoping BCB could help us more accurately estimate costs. Just make sure to ask if each vendor or item fits in your original budget, it's easy to get swept away! Bottom Line: In my first consultation with Chrissy, she had a million questions about my engagement, my fiancé, my vision of a perfect wedding. I felt from the beginning that she was genuinely interested in getting to know us, and helping us pull off our dream day. Incredibly professional, organized, and personable, Chrissy and the crew at BCB take most (if not all) of the stress out of planning and executing your big day. Our wedding was beautiful and memorable, and I would recommend BCB to any new bride/groom planning their wedding. read more

Susan susan Susan! Love love love! Words can't express how professional and driven this woman is! The company also has many options to pick from! Susan not only helped us plan our perfect wedding, but she also had the best customer service a couple could ever ask for! If there was ever something that you and your future partner can't decide on, she is a great mentor to help you through it. Their facility is also beautiful and very fitting for their job needs. We had our wedding at Emerson Creek and they completed every checklist we needed! The day was not easy and they made it breeze through flawlessly! We had the chaos of cameras following us around throughout the entire wedding. Documenting and opening up to camera wasn't her biggest challenge. We were!!! Susan handled it like a champion. I'm so grateful for Susan and her team at big city bride! Any challenge you throw their way they will be able to handle it! read more

It was absolutely wonderful working with Arin at Big City Bride to plan our wedding! My fiancé (now husband) and I had selected a tricky venue for our tent wedding and knew we would need some help bringing our vision to life. I spoke with a number of planners in the Chicago-area but Arin was the FIRST planner that actually made me EXCITED about the wedding planning process! Not only is she fantastic at her job, but she's also extremely personable, positive and so SO much fun to work with. Definitely a breath of fresh air! From the get-go, BCB was willing to work with us to customize a package that suit our needs. While we didn't hire BCB for every aspect of the planning process, Arin was always willing to help or answer any questions I had along the way. I was also a pretty hands-on bride but Arin was incredibly patient, always provided her professional input and collaborated seamlessly with me to ensure all vendor, logistics and venue needs were addressed. I'm extremely grateful for that! On the day of the wedding, rain and thunderstorms required us to switch to our backup plan. The process went so smoothly that our guests didn't even realize that our ceremony and cocktail hour were supposed to be outdoors -- all thanks to Arin! We received tons of compliments from our bridal party about how helpful Arin was. Behind the scenes, Arin was juggling a number of vendors, a large guest count and poor weather. Everything went wonderfully! We had our dream wedding and it couldn't have happened without the help of Arin and the BCB team. Thank you all!! read more

Susan = THE Best in Chicago. Hands down. Susan handled our wedding, which quickly spiraled out of control with a never ending guest list topping 425, and has also multiple parties for my wife's company. Each experience has gone off without a hitch and Susan and her team are the reason each event has been an over the top success. One word to describe Susan - PERFECTION. She accepts nothing less and has the credentials to prove it. If you are looking for someone extremely organized, knowledgeable and with the inside track on the best venues and vendors in the city. Look no further. PERIOD. read more

By far, hiring Chrissy from Big City Bride was the best investment we made for our wedding. We were the kind of couple who hadn't really thought about specifics for our wedding, but we had an idea of how we wanted our wedding to be: more casual than fancy and focused more on a fun party for everyone as opposed to the focus *all* on us. We had no idea about colors, venues, bands, flowers or food. And I have to say once we started looking at all of the options on our own, it quickly became overwhelming. That's when we decided to look into wedding planners. Several of the ones I spoke to seemed to already have a formula for how they thought our wedding should be...some of them didn't even return my calls or emails. Then we spoke with Big City Bride and got a scheduled appointment with Chrissy. From the start I knew Chrissy was going to be a god-send. She listened to what we wanted and didn't want...and from there was able to get a true sense of the type of wedding we were looking for. She really took time to get to know us and our personal likes and dislikes. Her extensive knowledge of venues and wedding vendors was amazing. She was able to pick out two or three of each vendor that she thought we would like and we went from there. Chrissy scheduled meetings with the vendors, handled negotiations and made sure we didn't miss any details. Not only was Chrissy absolutely amazing at gathering vendors, she is meticulous at keeping a schedule and budget. She had everything planned down to the minute and down to the cent. Which really took a TON of the stress away from us. Chrissy was with us every step of the way. On our wedding day she was incredible, handling all of the behind-the-scenes coordination so that my husband and I could be guests at our own wedding. She kept everyone in the wedding party and all the guests on track and was able to gracefully handle any challenging/picky relatives. It is evident that Chrissy LOVES her job...and we couldn't recommend her enough. She truly made our wedding the most beautiful and perfect day that we could have imagined. Chrissy made wedding planning easy, fun and stress-free. Whenever anyone asks me what my #1 tip is for planning a wedding, I always say to hire Chrissy. She is truly one-of-a-kind. You cannot go wrong with her. read more

When I contacted Big City Brides I was greeted warmly and given many options to meet. They were very accommodating with my difficult schedule. I did my first meeting with Kayla and she was a pleasure to meet with. She was organized, kind, thorough, and a great listener. Her smile is very contagious! I had to change my appointment to an earlier slot and she accommodated last minute as well. Great customer service! Although I did not end up going with BCB, I would at least encourage brides to meet the team and see what they can offer you. They did have very competitive pricing and was affordable for the work they were offering to do. Thank you Kayla! read more

First, let me start by saying I never write reviews. In fact this is my 1st ever on Yelp. However, I could not pass up the opportunity to say how incredibly happy we were to have Big City Bride plan our wedding, specifically Susan Cordogan!! Susan is the most detail oriented, energetic, passionate, professional, no nonsense (yet fun) person you could ever ask for to bring your vision to life. She is extraordinarily talented and it is very evident that she gives her heart and soul to planning the most perfect day you could imagine. She will remove any stress that comes along with planning a wedding and put your mind at ease. We happen to live in NYC and couldn't have felt more comfortable knowing BCB was on the ground in Chicago taking care of business! Having Big City Bride plan our wedding was truly the best decision we could have made. read more

Big City Bride - BCB amplified our chosen venue with the attention to details! - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Arin Calamari (Busch) made not one but two of our weddings spectacular. She was personable and energetic and it felt like I had a best friend helping me plan my wedding. Throughout covid, she kept her cool and made quick educated decisions that made me feel in control and comforted in a time when no one knew what was going on. Both of my weddings were nothing shy of perfection because my friends at Big City Bride we're there behind the scenes making every detail shine. I honestly don't know where I would have been throughout all of the chaos without my husband, my mom, and my wedding planner. They were the most important people in making the most important day the best day of my life. I cannot thank Arin enough for all that she did for me. If you're questioning getting a wedding planner- look no further. Arin from Big City Bride has got you! read more

While I have not been married or planned a wedding, I have been to several Big City Bride events and they were absolutely, positively spectacular! Susan is incredibly talented and creative. She's also super sweet and polite. read more

I cannot imagine what my wedding would have been like, had Kim from BCB not come to literally save the day. I didn't think I needed a planner or coordinator, but the week of my wedding I changed my mind. My ceremony was in Grant Park and the reception was in The Blackstone Hotel. A scary weather forecast sent me running straight to BCB. I felt at ease the minute I met with Kim... and this minute happened to be on the Tuesday right before my wedding!! Kim took care of absolutely everything... most importantly, the stress of making the final call regarding where to hold our ceremony (due to the weather). Kim was on hand to hold everything together, keep me calm, and deal with the possible change of ceremony venue. Luckily, the weather ended up being beautiful and Kim coordinated everything perfectly. Kim's assistance included (but was not limited to): -Sending out info to everyone in our wedding party -Tweaking all of the arrangements with our vendors -Working with the vendor we rented chairs from to make sure the ceremony set-up was perfect -Transporting and setting up all of my DIY'd pieces (never would have had time for that) -Putting together candy bags at the candy bar to make sure guests took advantage of it -Making sure all of my vendors got paid -Breaking a lot of the wedding down and making sure all of our personal items were returned to us I'm sure I'm missing about a billion other things that Kim did. She and her assistant were life savers. As another person mentioned, hiring a wedding coordinator is a tough sell... but it is TOTALLY worth it. I can't tell you how valuable Kim is... I wish I would have saved myself some trouble and contacted her much sooner! Thank you, Kim!!!!! read more

Claire was our day of coordinator for our perfect, gorgeous summer wedding in downtown Chicago, and I truly believe it would not have been even close to as wonderful without her amazing work. She was thorough, organized, and made me feel completely at ease during that ready-to-tear-my-hair-out-and-just-elope point of wedding planning. She helped make my dream wedding a reality, and helped me fill in the parts I wasn't sure about or hadn't even thought about. Most importantly, on the day of my wedding I was able to truly enjoy the moment without worrying about the details, as I knew everything was in her very capable hands. It's worth mentioning that she's super sweet and easy to get along with. In a sea of people that will certainly have opinions about how and what you should do with your wedding, she is a refreshing listener while also being able to provide actually good advice and information. read more

We thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In retrospect, we could not imagine pulling off the most incredible day of our lives without you. Watching you work reminds us of why you are the best in the biz! We never could have had such a magical day without your help. And Kim was so lovely and sweet! read more

There are a million wonderful things I can say about Susan and her team but I will try and keep it simple! From the day that I called Susan to start planning my wedding she LITERALLY treated me like I was family. My husband and I had a tent wedding in Lake Geneva, WI. The fact alone that we were making our own venue was a job in itself but Susan effortlessly and brilliantly made it our real life fairy tail wedding. After a short 9 months of planning, the day had arrived and not a single thing wasn't covered. Her and her assistants were our wedding NINJAS! If there was something I thought about, it was already done. I had absolutely nothing to worry about and Susan and her girls made sure I knew that. Throughout the entire process, I don't think there was one thing that went unnoticed. Thank you so much Susan and the BCB girls!! read more

Now that we're back in town and the dust has settled (mostly) - I can give the much needed praise to Big City Brides and especially Claire Weller who we could not have done our big day without. From the moment we met her, Fei Tang and I knew she would be the perfect person to handle everything - and she did, no matter how many twists we threw at her (and there were many). From helping my parents write a custom ceremony to getting them ordained for the day to even lending me her shoes at the reception once my feet started to hurt, Claire went above and beyond in every way possible, making our wedding easy, fun and uniquely us to the last detail. I would recommend her in a heartbeat to anyone needing a wedding planner (and might convince some planning to go without that they need her). Love you guys!! read more

Chrissy from Big City Bride was amazing! She helped make our wedding planning so enjoyable and not stressful at all. She was able to tell our style/what we were looking for exactly and made it all happen effortlessly. She clearly has lots of experience planning weddings in chicago and is very knowledgeable in all aspects of the process. Our wedding turned better than I could have hoped for. We received many compliments that it was the best wedding they've ever been to. Not one thing didn't go according to plan (at least not that I noticed). I already miss going to our planning meetings with her. I would highly recommend considering BCB if you're looking for a wedding planner! read more