I was introduced to the wonderful women of Michelle Durpetti Events though my brother who runs Ben Mahoney Productions in Chicago. Our wedding was a little unusual in that we live and were having the wedding in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was a little nervous at first with MDE being in Chicago and us being in Hawaii. After starting to work with the ladies, Emily Weinstein in particular, my doubts went away after about 30 seconds. We worked with MDE for over a year, and it couldn't have been more of a wonderful experience. MDE had never thrown a wedding in Hawaii but you would have never known it. The research, recommendations and relationships they made with the Hawaiian vendors rivals any planner who is actually based in Hawaii. Not only was the wedding far from where they are based in Chicago but it was also a Jewish/Military wedding. MDE understood how we wanted to the wedding to look and made it come to life. They were always calm, collective and supportive even when things got a little stressful due to the fact that the groom was deployed to Afghanistan for 9 months of the planning. They were extremely organized, helpful, detail orientated and through with every detail whether it be big or small. Not only were they excellent with their planning but you got the sense from all three women, Michelle, Emily and Sterling that they really cared about you. They wanted the best for you and wanted to make a truly special day for you. I feel like we have this bond that will remain long after the wedding. They created a dream wedding for us and I am so sad that its over. I HIGHLY recommend using MDE for any of your big events. You will not only have a exquisite event but you will also work with planners who truly care about you. MIss you girls! Come and visit again soon! read more

I was initially introduced to MDE through my best friend who had used them for her wedding in May, 2012. I liked Michelle and her team so much that when we started wedding planning I knew exactly who I wanted to work with. We worked with MDE for over a 1 1/2 years - during that time they always remained available for questions and always made us feel like a priority. MDE excels at: -Vendor recommendations. MDE is cool & hip and so are the vendors they work with. -Customer service -And most importantly, acting as a buffer for family dynamics (i.e. making your Mom or your future mother-in-law happy) Their priority is the bride/groom and ensuring your vision becomes a reality. read more

We hired Michelle Durpetti Events for month-of coordination for our September 2013 wedding and consider it to be the single most important investment we made towards our beautiful wedding day. While we decided to use MDE for month-of management, they were always available to us via email throughout our 11 month engagement. We worked primarily with Emily Weinstein, but both Michelle Durpetti and Sterling Berry were tremendously helpful as we planned our semi-destination wedding two hours away from Chicago. Emily's attention to detail, prompt correspondence, expertise, and professionalism is unparalleled. There were times where I thought I could take on too many DIY projects and Emily gently guided me out of ideas that she knew would take away from my vision for a stress-free, relaxed wedding day. I was able to truly enjoy the morning and afternoon of my wedding day getting ready with my bridal party and family members, without ever once having to deal with the logistical details of the day (vendor load-ins, set up, etc.) MDE not only executed the creative details I spent the past 11 months planning, but also the entire course of the day which was captured in a precise 10-page timeline. My husband, our families, and I are so grateful for the ladies of MDE and especially Emily for helping us to have such a beautiful, absolutely perfect wedding day. Hire these ladies now, you will not regret it! read more

The ladies of MDE, Michelle, Emily, Rachel and Sterling, are the most professional and hard-working women around. They are incredibly efficient at executing ANY project that comes their way. Throughout the many projects that I have had the pleasure of collaborating on with them, the outcome was nothing short of amazing. They go above and beyond the scope of the project, and not a single detail is overlooked. I would highly recommend working with them for any event. read more

As Director of Development for a mid size performing arts organization, I am always interested in our bottom line with special events fundraising and maximize our small teams resources. MDE has what it takes to produce creative, engaging events within a conservative budget. They managed all of the event logistics, negotiated all vendor contracts, and were incredibly organized throughout the entire process. They were prepared at meetings, gave direct tasks to our team, and were meticulous in maintaining our budget. Thanks to MDE, our team was able to focus on fundraising, which resulted in increased net revenue from the prior year. MDE was worthy every penny (which was completely moderate and appropriate for the scope of work). We look forward to working with them again for next year's Gala! read more

We had a fantastic experience last weekend working with Emily Weinstein of Michelle Durpetti Events! Our music company provides music for over 100 weddings each year, so we work with many event planners in Chicago. This was our first time working with Emily, and it was for a wedding that included ceremony (with room reset), cocktails, dinner, and dancing. Emily and her team were fantastically organized and calmly confident. Simply put, they are an absolute joy. In the weeks during planning, Emily returned calls promptly and if an answer to a question wasn't readily available, she had a response in under 24 hours. Every detail, either large or small, was given the utmost attention. If there was a concern about the event's flow, she processed every request with one goal in mind...success and ease for the client. Period. In my opinion, from a vendor's point of view, from the first e-mail and phone call, it was clear that we would be collaborating as a team. With her direction, this was one of the best parties of the summer. Our client loved her and so did we! If you need a wedding specialist, please contact Emily Weinstein of Michelle Durpetti Events...you will be SO glad you did. They get our highest recommendation!! read more

My husband and I agree -- MDE was the most important vendor we hired for our wedding. My husband and I started the wedding planning process without a planner, but soon realized that we were in over our heads. MDE had us hooked after showing us a sample wedding day timeline prepared for one of their former clients. From that timeline alone, it was immediately apparent that MDE was thorough, organized, and possessed a wealth of knowledge about how to execute all of the wedding day details. After hiring MDE, they exceeded our already-high expectations. MDE quickly responded to every e-mail (usually within minutes), provided amazing vendor recommendations, and kept us on track and up to date with all of the developments throughout the planning process. If we had a wedding-related question or issue, all we had to do was send an e-mail to MDE, and we could rest assured that they would find us the answer or solution we needed. Finally, during the month before our wedding, MDE took over all vendor communications. This made the last month of wedding planning much, much easier to handle. We only needed to manage our e-mail exchanges with MDE, instead of with ten different wedding vendors. I can only imagine how much time and stress we saved by hiring MDE. When the big day arrived, my husband and I truly felt like guests at our own wedding. Throughout the day, MDE demonstrated their amazing talent of being constantly available to us, yet discreet and behind-the-scenes. Every part of the day flowed smoothly, and I felt totally at ease with MDE behind the wheel. The wedding was beautiful and fun and better than we could have ever hoped. Their coordination and execution helped make the money spent on all the other vendors completely worth it. To summarize, we can't say enough good things about MDE. We are eager to recommend them to anyone needing a planner for any type of event, wedding or otherwise. read more

Emily Weinstein of Michelle Durpetti Event served as the wedding coordinator for my August 2013 wedding and I would HIGHLY recommend her to any bride. After interviewing several wedding coordinators, I was instantly drawn to MDE based on their level of professionalism and attention to detail. After receiving a copy of the standard "day of checklist" (~10 pages), I knew that I would be in good hands. In the months leading up to the wedding, Emily was able to provide a number of vendor recommendations and advice on a variety of topics. She never made me feel like I was bothering her and always responded to my emails incredibly promptly. 6 weeks before the wedding, Emily began to take over the day-to-day coordination with the various vendors. Instead of me having to coordinate with numerous parties, Emily would send me organized and concise emails with questions and comments that she would then share with the appropriate parties. Emily got along seamlessly with all my vendors, and was the appropriate amount of stern and polite with those who less than cooperative. During the rehearsal, Emily managed our large and unruly wedding party and we received several positive comments about how nice she was throughout the entire process. And on the day of our wedding, I did not have to worry about a thing as Emily and her team had everything covered. Thank you MDE for making my wedding day perfect! read more

MDE is amazing! They were with us every step of the way making sure that we were on track to have everything completed by our big day. Michelle, Sterling and Emily worked as a team and were included on everything from day one. From recommendations for vendors to emotional support when things were overwhelming, they were there. Our big day was so special and went off exactly as we had imagined it. Everything was absolutely perfect and we couldn't have asked for a better team to make it happen. We highly recommend MDE for your wedding or event planning! read more

During our wedding planning my husband and I went back and forth on hiring a day of coordinator for our wedding. He thought it was an extra expense we could do without especially when the hotel was providing an event coordinator. When we met with the ladies of MDE were were very impressed! They were ALL business and professional which is what you want in wedding coordinators. Even though we hired them only for their day of coordination services and not their full wedding planning package I still felt that they were there every step of the way to help us. They provided great recommendations for vendors that were within our budget and also provided valuable insight into vendors that I had selected on my own that they had not such a great experience with. When things got sticky with of our vendors they stepped in and helped resolve things. Michelle and Emily both called me on more than a couple of occasions to make sure I was confident and comfortable with my vendors and to go over any last minute details. A few weeks before the wedding they introduced themselves to all of our vendors and made sure that they were the primary contact thus eliminating the need and the stress for us having to get involved with bringing everyone together. The stress that most brides feel the week before their wedding and what everyone warned me about most of that never happened because I hired MDE. I actually got to go to the spa, spend time with my bridal party and family the week before instead of dealing with vendors, handling logistics, etc. Don't get me wrong all brides are stressed the week before but I wasn't nearly as stressed because of their help. They put together a time line of events for the weekend that many our our vendors appreciated and said that they have never seen a time line so thorough. They took all of my emails over that past 6-7 months (and there were a lot) with all of my multiple changes and put together this comprehensive time line for us to review. We barely made any changes to it. These ladies are organized and efficient! From the rehearsal the night before and on the day of the wedding they were there making sure everything was set up correctly and family/bridal party knew where to go and believe me it was not easy to manage our bridal party. Everything ran so smoothly and it was only because the MDE ladies were there on our big day. Even at the end of the night they took care of taking our toasting flutes, gifts/cards, etc. up to our room which was one extra thing we never even had to worry about. We actually got to enjoy our wedding. There have been so many weddings I have been to where the bride and groom look stressed on their big day when things go wrong, vendors not showing up, etc. or seeing the bride/groom and bridal party having to lug their gifts, cleaning up and collecting vases, etc. for the florist. We didn't worry about any of that! After the wedding my husband admitted that the ladies of MDE were worth every penny! Brides, all vendors are important to your big day, however, we discovered that there are vendors that you cannot cut back on cost and that are MOST important to your big day. We discovered that your day of coordinator and your photographer are the most important so make sure you choose carefully. You will not be disappointed if you choose the ladies of MDE as they are fabulous! read more

We had the opportunity to work hand in hand with Emily from Michelle Dupretti Events and she was wonderful. One Night Band has played tons of weddings and has worked with many wedding planners, but we've never run across someone as organized, polite and hard working as Emily. She was an essential part of making the entire wedding a success! I would highly recommend Michelle Dupretti Events for any of your wedding planning needs - you can't go wrong with them! read more

I was introduced to Michelle Durpetti Events thru Ben Mahoney Productions in Chicago. I must say I do not know how we would have gotten thru my daughter's wedding without them! Michelle, Sterling and esp. Emily were just wonderful to work with on this event. We had a destination wedding in Hawaii. The problem was that I was in Chicago and the bride and groom were in Honolulu. The hotel was chosen in Waikiki. The wonderful thing was that MDE became the liaison between our hotel and myself. At one of our first meetings, they had already spoken to the hotel catering manager, had the layout for the room, had a list of what was needed and had referrals for lighting, flowers, chairs, invitations etc. They knew what was needed to make a beautiful event and made it so easy for me. I know Emily spent hours gathering the information and was wonderful in still letting me always know where we were with everything. She always kept our budget in mind. I also had planned 2 additional events that week. One was a "meet and greet" evening and the other was a Sunday Brunch. Again Emily spent hours calling different venues and hotels, checking what was available and the locations. It was her hard work that created those 2 wonderful events. All our guests had a wonderful time. The day of the wedding was as perfect as possible and MDE did not let us down because they were there with us. I feel it was as close to perfect because of them. Everything was organized, scheduled so we all knew where to be, at what time and what to expect. I had one of the other vendors compliment them and stated he had never seen a wedding so well organized. I truly felt it was the goal of MDE to make the most beautiful wedding for our family and they did! read more

I highly recommend Michelle and her awesome staff! MDE was my Wedding Coordinator for my St. Patrick's Day Wedding! My Wedding was perfect because of MDE! They organized a INCREDIBLE Timeframe for the sequences of my Wedding Day....My Guests thought we had a Flawless Wedding because MDE organized the Wedding party for my Holy Name Cathedral Wedding to setting up a Detailed Elaborate Wedding Reception for my St. Patrick's day Theme! I highly recommend MDE if you want to have a perfect Wedding Day! Having MDE as my Wedding coordinator, I had no worries on how our details would be carrried out as they had a incredible Team!!!! read more

I don't even know where to begin to explain how thankful we are that we hired Michelle and Jill from MDE for our wedding! These girls went above and beyond to help make our wedding the most amazing day of our lives! I interviewed several other planning companies, but knew right away that I wanted to work with Michelle and her team. She was extremely professional, yet very personal and we connected right away. When Michelle first showed me an example of the timeline that they put together for their clients wedding days, I was very impressed but was not aware of how much time and energy it took to put together until we started on ours. These girls had the day planned out, down to every minute. I have great respect for people that pay that much attention to detail and are that organized. Michelle and Jill were always readily available to help me with any and all wedding tasks! Their well-informed opinions on vendors and many other things were extremely valuable in helping to plan our wedding. The experience the girls at MDE have gained over the years planning events in Chicago made me very confident in what they were suggesting to me. They know pretty much every vendor in the city and have worked with them one way or another so they knew exactly who I needed to hire to make our wedding day everything we imagined. While we had a few issues arise the day of our wedding due to weather, Michelle and her team handled them very professionally and none of our guests even knew that anything happened, and neither did we, until after the reception! These girls put us completely at ease the entire day. This was a gift in itself because we were able to completely enjoy our wedding day from the minute we woke up to the minute we left the reception. They were hands down the best investment we made for our wedding! I wish we could do it all over again every weekend! =) Thank you so much for everything MDE! You girls are rockstars! read more

Michelle and her team helped to organize our daughters wedding from start to finish! She has a dedicated staff who are passionate about doing the best for their clients. We worked with Michelle and Jill and they were always available anytime with any questions we had. Michelle does have a knack of matching the right vendor with your taste and personality. Saved us a ton of time searching for vendors. She was able to tell us what was important to spend money on, and what was not to make that wow factor! All in all, the day was perfectly orchestrated and organized to the littlest detail. Money well spent for our peace of mind! read more

There is seriously no better wedding planner than Michelle and her team. From the second I got engaged, I told my mom we need to work with her! I didn't even think about going to anyone else because Michelle is simply the best! Our wedding day wouldn't have been possible without all the help and ideas from Michelle. Throughout the entire planning process she kept us on track and provided us with the best advice to make our wedding day perfect. Her attention to detail, organization, and experience is what makes her so successful. She came into every meeting with such enthusiasm and excitement while still being extremely organized and professional. Her knowledge and expertise is unparalleled. She gives the best advise and I felt truly had our backs when it came to booking the vendors. In addition to helping us plan an over 500 person wedding, she and her team also made the day run so smoothly. They were there from morning till night making sure everything was getting done/happening when it was supposed to. My mom, my dad, and I could not have done this wedding without Michelle and her team. Thank you for everything you did to make our day run perfectly!!!!! Again, MDE you are the best!!! read more

I had such high hopes to work with this company as her website appeared that she was cool and fun. I received a call from a Julie, She emailed me a wedding contract which was standard contract that they apparently send out to everyone. Since my event was my 50th birthday, I didnt need all of the wedding stuff. I was told I would hear from Julie soon with a revised contract.. I am still waiting. .. I called and called, once she called me back from what sounded like a bar and she was partying.. She said I would have the contract the next day.. crickets... I guess if you are planning a 100 thousand dollar wedding you are golden, but if you are planning a 50 thousand dollars elegant dinner party with a Chef from the Bravo's Top Chef show, you are out. Not to mention that I actually called the main number to follow up and give a last chance.. no return phone call.. I guess they dont care about how bad their business practices are... DISAPPOINTED.. read more