Vendor Reviews
First want to say we got so lucky with the weather. By the time the ceremony was over and we got to downtown Naperville for some outdoor photos all the lights were on the trees and covered bridge and it was slightly misting snow as we took pictures by the old time street lights at the Riverwalk!
Ceremony
St. Margaret Mary Parish
1409 Green Trails Drive
Naperville, IL 60540
Traditional Catholic Mass Ceremony. No bells or whistles but everything worked out in the end. We did not have any extra decorations. You are assigned a wedding coordinator through the church and helps you out on your rehearsal and wedding day. That was nice to have someone to help.
Ceremony Music: all musicians picked through the church because there was a music workshop a few months back to have musicians come and perform and such. That was a really good idea to have and it helped alot.
Ceremony Vocalist
Julie Kornak.
Love her. So sweet and she has a beautiful voice (obviously). I have referral information if anyone is interested.
Ceremony Organist/Pianist
Megan Hassinger.
Easy to work with. But emailing her was a lost cause but she showed up and played beautifully on both the piano and church organ.
Ceremony Violinist
The String Duo
Unfortunately on the day of our wedding only 1 person showed up instead of the 2 people with which we signed a contract. The day of the wedding, we were not given a reason as to why only 1 person showed up. We had printed on our programs that the String Duo consisted of 2 violinsts, which is what we had paid in advance. After our honeymoon, I contacted the person who didn't show up and was told a substitute was supposed to show up but apparently never did. Also, we were never told that a substitute was going to be used. Afterwards, we were refunded half our money. Based on our experience, we do not recommend their service.
Reception
Abbington Distinctive Banquets
3 South 002 IL Route 53
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Everyone there is so nice and easy to work with. Day of wedding you are assigned a "captain" basically a head waiter. Dian was great and took care of everything. By the stroke of midnight she had all our leftover food, cake, cake topper, flutes washed, presents and everything else packed up for us and ready to go. I highly recommend. It's beautiful, classy, elegant if that's what you are looking for.
Florist
Shamrock Gardens
Flowers were marvelous. More than I expected. I do not recommend getting a cascading bouquet. It was really heavy.
Bakery
Pastry Pantry
Cake was provided with our package. Just choose some basic flavors but the cake was beautiful and no complaints what so ever.
Chair Covers
Covered Affairs
Simple and elegante. I loved the results. I never actually met the owners who are a Russian couple, just spoke with them over the phone.
Hotel
Hilton Lisle-Naperville
3003 Corporate West Drive
Lisle, IL 60532
Was a preferred vendor for Abbington. Had to pay for shuttle for our guests to and from reception and did not want to give us all our paid runs as we did not have many rooms blocked. Although we really did...a bunch of our guests did not book before our due date for the block or did not book until our wedding block of rooms just did it on their own so we really ended up having a lot of people, we just didn't have a correct count. The ladies I worked with (Leigh Ann and Mary) are very very nice and accomodating. Allgaugers is a great restaurant.
DJ
Fantastic DJs
DJ: John
DJ was John Marcopulos. He's great. Everyone was dancing the whole night. You get your own login online to plan your event. They have a whole staff of great people. They are apart of Wow what a Wedding which is a consulting business and can offer you photobooths, limo, photographer, videographer services and recommendations. I could go on and on about how wonderful these guys are!
Photographer
George Street Photography
Photographer: Gokhan
Gokhan is sweet guy. Good to work with, makes you feel special, all the qualities of a good photographer as they are with you 10-12 hours. From what I saw as he was taking pictures I liked. However, we had our engagement photos taken at George Street by another photographer and they looked horrible. So, hopefully the wedding day pictures are stunning. George Street has good prices and multiple locations.
Transportation
M&M Limo
Standard stretch limo. It was on time and clean and you can book your reservation online. I liked it.
Dress
David's Bridal
Very long, horrible story about the dress. Fast forward about 3 weeks before my wedding when to DB in OL to buy a dress asap. Picked a sample dress that needed a little tuck in the waist and the bustle. When to get it 11/26/2010 and the bustle was missing a hook so my mom came back and picked it up 2 days before the wedding for me and brought it to the rehearsal. It did not have a hook clasp at the end of the zipper and by my butt was still the hole from where you hold the bottom of the zipper (I thought they are supposed to sew that up after altering??...) so thank god for Janet our coordinator at the church had extra pins and pearls to fix it. Sigh. Had similar problems with my BM dresses we purchased but not at a different location.
Shoes
Shoe Carnival
I ended up wearing ballet flats for the ceremony, snow boots for outside pictures and mary jane heels for dinner and dancing.
Bridesmaids' Dresses
David's Bridal
Save the Date
magnetstreet.com
I loved our STD magnets. Very cute and the price was great!
Rings
Groom: amazon.com
Bride: Helzberg
I love Helzberg jewelry. I plan on getting another band to complete the set. Dave's ring is Tungsten Carbide and is very nice and shiny.
Faux Fur Bolero Jacket
dhgate.com
I will not use this website for further purchases. I saw a simple faux fur jacket for like $30 and was so happy as most I was originally looking at were at least $70. Unfortunately, it came about 3 MONTHS later than it should and did NOT look like the picture online. The collar was not fluffy and it was supposed to be white, not ivory or any kind of off-white color. I ended up wearing it for outside pictures anyways. It was not comfortable.
Silver Pashminas
amazon.com
I feel so bad..on the day of the wedding my bracelet kept getting caught in my bridemaids' pashminas ripping out threads! I also hoped they would have been a little warmer as the purpose was for them to wear outside but my girls pulled through for me!
Bridal Garter
lightinthebox.com
This was an adorable something blue. When it came it looked just like the picture online, but was about 3 times as big!
Cake Topper
amazon.com
I thought this was so cute. Turns out they carried the same topper at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, but oh well!
Bridal Jewelry/Bridesmaid Jewelry/ Mother's Brooches
weddingfactorydirect.com
When I purchased several months ago, the jewelry was beautiful. Day of the wedding almost everything for the bridesmaids was tarnished or rusted. Granted it was all basically costume jewelry, but it did not look nice. If you do buy from this website, buy a couple weeks before the wedding so nothing has time to tarnish/stain. Also my earring broke so I had to wear a BM's earrings. My bracelet did not tarnish or anything (probably because I kept it in the packaging until the day of the wedding) and I had so many compliments on it.
Jewelry Boxes
jewelrysupply.com
Bought plain black boxes for all my bridesmaid jewelry and mother's brooches. They came with cotton inside. Prices were really good.
Bridesmaids Totes
americanbridal.com
When I purchased these I thought they were going to be pick with blue edges and a black initial. Instead they were pink with brown edges and blue initials. Don't know what happened but I thought they were cute.
Honeymoon
cheapcaribbean.com
Good prices. Easy to do. Did everything right online and they email your itinerary and flight information to you. Would definately use this website again. Booked all inclusive hotel in Cancun with shuttle to and from airport. Weather wasn't as nice as I expected but we did have a nice, relaxing HM.
Ceremony
St. Margaret Mary Parish
1409 Green Trails Drive
Naperville, IL 60540
Traditional Catholic Mass Ceremony. No bells or whistles but everything worked out in the end. We did not have any extra decorations. You are assigned a wedding coordinator through the church and helps you out on your rehearsal and wedding day. That was nice to have someone to help.
Ceremony Music: all musicians picked through the church because there was a music workshop a few months back to have musicians come and perform and such. That was a really good idea to have and it helped alot.
Ceremony Vocalist
Julie Kornak.
Love her. So sweet and she has a beautiful voice (obviously). I have referral information if anyone is interested.
Ceremony Organist/Pianist
Megan Hassinger.
Easy to work with. But emailing her was a lost cause but she showed up and played beautifully on both the piano and church organ.
Ceremony Violinist
The String Duo
Unfortunately on the day of our wedding only 1 person showed up instead of the 2 people with which we signed a contract. The day of the wedding, we were not given a reason as to why only 1 person showed up. We had printed on our programs that the String Duo consisted of 2 violinsts, which is what we had paid in advance. After our honeymoon, I contacted the person who didn't show up and was told a substitute was supposed to show up but apparently never did. Also, we were never told that a substitute was going to be used. Afterwards, we were refunded half our money. Based on our experience, we do not recommend their service.
Reception
Abbington Distinctive Banquets
3 South 002 IL Route 53
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Everyone there is so nice and easy to work with. Day of wedding you are assigned a "captain" basically a head waiter. Dian was great and took care of everything. By the stroke of midnight she had all our leftover food, cake, cake topper, flutes washed, presents and everything else packed up for us and ready to go. I highly recommend. It's beautiful, classy, elegant if that's what you are looking for.
Florist
Shamrock Gardens
Flowers were marvelous. More than I expected. I do not recommend getting a cascading bouquet. It was really heavy.
Bakery
Pastry Pantry
Cake was provided with our package. Just choose some basic flavors but the cake was beautiful and no complaints what so ever.
Chair Covers
Covered Affairs
Simple and elegante. I loved the results. I never actually met the owners who are a Russian couple, just spoke with them over the phone.
Hotel
Hilton Lisle-Naperville
3003 Corporate West Drive
Lisle, IL 60532
Was a preferred vendor for Abbington. Had to pay for shuttle for our guests to and from reception and did not want to give us all our paid runs as we did not have many rooms blocked. Although we really did...a bunch of our guests did not book before our due date for the block or did not book until our wedding block of rooms just did it on their own so we really ended up having a lot of people, we just didn't have a correct count. The ladies I worked with (Leigh Ann and Mary) are very very nice and accomodating. Allgaugers is a great restaurant.
DJ
Fantastic DJs
DJ: John
DJ was John Marcopulos. He's great. Everyone was dancing the whole night. You get your own login online to plan your event. They have a whole staff of great people. They are apart of Wow what a Wedding which is a consulting business and can offer you photobooths, limo, photographer, videographer services and recommendations. I could go on and on about how wonderful these guys are!
Photographer
George Street Photography
Photographer: Gokhan
Gokhan is sweet guy. Good to work with, makes you feel special, all the qualities of a good photographer as they are with you 10-12 hours. From what I saw as he was taking pictures I liked. However, we had our engagement photos taken at George Street by another photographer and they looked horrible. So, hopefully the wedding day pictures are stunning. George Street has good prices and multiple locations.
Transportation
M&M Limo
Standard stretch limo. It was on time and clean and you can book your reservation online. I liked it.
Dress
David's Bridal
Very long, horrible story about the dress. Fast forward about 3 weeks before my wedding when to DB in OL to buy a dress asap. Picked a sample dress that needed a little tuck in the waist and the bustle. When to get it 11/26/2010 and the bustle was missing a hook so my mom came back and picked it up 2 days before the wedding for me and brought it to the rehearsal. It did not have a hook clasp at the end of the zipper and by my butt was still the hole from where you hold the bottom of the zipper (I thought they are supposed to sew that up after altering??...) so thank god for Janet our coordinator at the church had extra pins and pearls to fix it. Sigh. Had similar problems with my BM dresses we purchased but not at a different location.
Shoes
Shoe Carnival
I ended up wearing ballet flats for the ceremony, snow boots for outside pictures and mary jane heels for dinner and dancing.
Bridesmaids' Dresses
David's Bridal
Save the Date
magnetstreet.com
I loved our STD magnets. Very cute and the price was great!
Rings
Groom: amazon.com
Bride: Helzberg
I love Helzberg jewelry. I plan on getting another band to complete the set. Dave's ring is Tungsten Carbide and is very nice and shiny.
Faux Fur Bolero Jacket
dhgate.com
I will not use this website for further purchases. I saw a simple faux fur jacket for like $30 and was so happy as most I was originally looking at were at least $70. Unfortunately, it came about 3 MONTHS later than it should and did NOT look like the picture online. The collar was not fluffy and it was supposed to be white, not ivory or any kind of off-white color. I ended up wearing it for outside pictures anyways. It was not comfortable.
Silver Pashminas
amazon.com
I feel so bad..on the day of the wedding my bracelet kept getting caught in my bridemaids' pashminas ripping out threads! I also hoped they would have been a little warmer as the purpose was for them to wear outside but my girls pulled through for me!
Bridal Garter
lightinthebox.com
This was an adorable something blue. When it came it looked just like the picture online, but was about 3 times as big!
Cake Topper
amazon.com
I thought this was so cute. Turns out they carried the same topper at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, but oh well!
Bridal Jewelry/Bridesmaid Jewelry/ Mother's Brooches
weddingfactorydirect.com
When I purchased several months ago, the jewelry was beautiful. Day of the wedding almost everything for the bridesmaids was tarnished or rusted. Granted it was all basically costume jewelry, but it did not look nice. If you do buy from this website, buy a couple weeks before the wedding so nothing has time to tarnish/stain. Also my earring broke so I had to wear a BM's earrings. My bracelet did not tarnish or anything (probably because I kept it in the packaging until the day of the wedding) and I had so many compliments on it.
Jewelry Boxes
jewelrysupply.com
Bought plain black boxes for all my bridesmaid jewelry and mother's brooches. They came with cotton inside. Prices were really good.
Bridesmaids Totes
americanbridal.com
When I purchased these I thought they were going to be pick with blue edges and a black initial. Instead they were pink with brown edges and blue initials. Don't know what happened but I thought they were cute.
Honeymoon
cheapcaribbean.com
Good prices. Easy to do. Did everything right online and they email your itinerary and flight information to you. Would definately use this website again. Booked all inclusive hotel in Cancun with shuttle to and from airport. Weather wasn't as nice as I expected but we did have a nice, relaxing HM.
