An Event Less Ordinary

My daughter’s wedding was July 15, 2015. We were so thankful the day of the wedding that we chose An Event Less Ordinary to be our day of planner. I spoke to a lot of wedding planners and Amy, unlike others, nailed every issue that I had regarding the wedding. My main concerns were transportation and a timeline; she immediately offered solutions to best handle the situation.
Weddings can be a bit chaotic and ours was no exception. There were little issues, like my ornate shoe becoming entangled in my gown… Sam quickly resolved it with a piece of tape that she had in her «magic bag.» And bigger issues, like the Palmer House losing the bride’s sweet little adorable dog, Lilly. Once again Sam resolved it by being able to contact the hair stylist. Sam was absolutely, incredibly amazing. She is a little ball of fire! Sam is professional and able to handle ANY problem that arises. Snippy, uncooperative limo driver? No worries, he was no match for Sam! They helped to decorate the ballroom and they were available whenever we had the slightest issue that needed addressing. The day would have been so stressful without AELO. It truly is worth the investment.

Absolutely the best! A day-​of coordinator was the first thing that we took care of once we had a date and venue set. From An Event Less Ordinary, we got Carolyn and her assistant Alyssa. We met up with Carolyn at a Starbucks and the love grew from there. She was really fantastic from beginning to end — the perfect balance of laid back and let’s get shit done. Carolyn was also incredibly supportive of all of our ideas and let us be us.
She really kept our day organized and was incredibly flexible in meeting with us. To quote one of my matrimony homies: we «had a great team this weekend. They were all leaders and always took initiative.» Carolyn and Alyssa just knew exactly what needed to happen and they did it with very minimal instruction from me and that was really just priceless. With so many other things to think about and make decisions on with wedding planning, it was so nice to have someone that I could trust to «make things pretty.»

Brittany was AMAZING! I was assigned someone else originally for my day of coordinator, but she ended up leaving the company since she got promoted at her other day job, so Brittany ended up taking over just a few months before my wedding. With the stress of trying to open up a hair salon the same time as planning my wedding, I was not a very responsive bride-​to-​be when Brittany initially contacted me to figure out what my vision was and all, but Brittany was patient and determined. Once I realized my salon wasn’t going to be opened in time anyway, I finally got back to Brittany and we discussed my vision. I provided her with some diagrams I had drawn out to show her how I wanted the aisle look like for the ceremony and how the tables should look like for the reception and provided her with whatever other information she needed to help bring my vision to reality.
Even thought Brittany only had a short amount of time to get an understanding of what I wanted, she was able to give me exactly that and made my day simply fun and stress free. If anything had gone wrong at all, she definitely did her job and kept me from know about it. Thanks, An Event Less Ordinary, for assigning Brittany to help with my day!

First word: Outstanding! More words to follow…
Brittany and her assistant literally were a life saver, and we can confidently say helped make our wedding day OURS. We had our ceremony and reception at The Grove Redfield Estate in Glenview, and AELO worked to make sure we could focus on our friends, family, and celebration rather than last minute snafu’s, setups, forgotten items, small breakdowns of plans, and so many other things. We used them for day of coordination, but feel like we got much more than that. We also had a chance to meet with Amy & Carolyn and they are consummate professionals with great personalities.
Long/​Short: I would quickly and readily recommend them to anyone I know, or they know. They were Outstanding.

We hired Carolyn from An Event Less Ordinary for a full coordination of our wedding that took place July 11. It was the first decision of many, but it might have been the best. I’ll try to look back over the year and recreate a picture of all the ways she helped us so as to best shower her with all the compliments she deserves.
From our first consultation, I knew An Event Less Ordinary was the planner we wanted to work with. They were prompt and thorough for our first meeting, but more importantly, so easy and fun to talk to. In interviews with other coordinators, I already felt overwhelmed as they ran through massive checklists of items asking us, «Do you think you’ll want help with this? What about this?» Carolyn, on the other hand, asked pointed questions about our vision for our wedding and our shared history. It felt like getting coffee with a new (extremely interested) friend rather than a business transaction.
Since my husband (still get a thrill out of saying that) and I are busy people, our main reason for hiring a planner was to keep us on track and save us the trouble of wading through every vendor listed on the internet looking for the perfect fit. During our venue and vendor search, Carolyn found options that perfectly lined up with what we wanted, made appointments, provided feedback based on our impressions and gently nudged us when we needed to hurry up and make a decision. At an appointment with one vendor, I leaned over to Carolyn and said, «It’s amazing how everyone we’ve met with have been so wonderful to work with and keyed into what we want.» She smiled and said, «Yes, that’s why I recommended.»
As we got closer to the date, we were in communication with Carolyn almost daily. I started talking about her so much that a friend asked me, «How did you and Carolyn become friends?» I had to admit, «Actually, I hired her. I just feel like she’s my friend.» (A friend that is as interested in my wedding as I am, and incredibly organized…)
But the day I really realized the value of An Event Less Ordinary and Carolyn was our wedding day. It was whirlwind of activity and emotion, and in the thick of it I probably couldn’t have even told you my own name. After the wedding, when my mom asked how I thought Carolyn did at the wedding I said, «I was just so happy every time I saw her face.» I knew she was fully on board for what we wanted, completely invested in the event, and totally in control of what needed to be happening and when. Every time I saw her face, I thought to myself, «Everything is under control. All you need to do is have fun.» I cannot imagine a better assessment of a person with the word «Planner» in their title.
The day after the wedding, as we sat in our hotel room overlooking downtown Chicago eating reception leftovers Carolyn snagged for us since we were too busy dancing to eat, I thought, «I hope every bride can be as lucky as me to have such a heartfelt and dedicated team working to make their wedding special.»

Had our wedding at Garfield Park Conservatory with Carolyn and Nicole. Nothing but great things to say about our experience working with them. Like a lot of people, we were on the fence at first about whether we needed to hire an event coordinator. We can honestly say that we have 0 regrets after the fact. Carolyn was extremely friendly, professional, and knew how to take care of business. It was clear that she’s done this a few times which took a lot of the wedding stress out of the day.
Thanks!!!

I can’t say enough about Carolyn and Nicole at AELO!!! If you are thinking of hiring a day of coordinator, or more, DO IT! its worth it, from someone who just got married, June 19^th, 2015, I can tell you, that having Carolyn on board was a lifesaver. Coordinating a wedding is a tough job, any assistance you can get is worth it:) Carolyn was so incredibly helpful leading up to our big day, easily accessible by email, text or call for any questions we had leading up to the wedding. Carolyn even came to our house to meet with us and go over plans and «to do’s» months and weeks leading up to our big day. For the «day of» coordination, Carolyn contacted each of our vendors and ensured that everyone was on board and on the same page for the day of. Carolyn assisted my husband and I with creating a wedding day timeline, and then sharing that with all of the vendors This took a lot of stress away from my husband and I, we didn’t want to be contacting and coordinating with vendors on the day of or even night before the ceremony. It was so easy to turn everything over to her and trust her with coordinating our vendors at the venue. Carolyn attended our rehearsal dinner and was the first face i saw once arriving at the venue on the wedding day. She was vital in setting up the ceremony, making sure all of our vendors were there and getting set up, as well as coordinating our wedding party and ensuring they were where they were supposed to be.
The second the ceremony was over, Carolyn made sure we had a drink in our hands and 10 minutes alone to soak in what had just occurred. Carolyn and Nicole also made sure that our family photos went off without a hitch and that my husband and I got to see our venue space before all of our guests. The rest of the night Carolyn and Nicole both, organized, coordinated and made sure the night went perfectly! If there was anything that didn’t go smoothly, i never would’ve known it. Having Carolyn and Nicole made our wedding stress free and allowed for my husband and i to truly kick back and enjoy our party! Carolyn’s assistant, Nicole, even graciously offered to take all of our remaining items at the venue once the night was over, saving us our one of our family members from having to do it. Although there was a small charge for this, we didn’t mind at all, well worth the cost. I would highly highly recommend An Event Less Ordinary, specifically Carolyn, as your day of coordination for your wedding.

We hired Amy for partial and day-​of coordinating, and we are so glad we did! She helped us find a venue, a photographer, and hair and makeup stylists. Her advice made the process so much easier, especially since we were planning long-​distance. She also answered the fifty gazillion questions that we had along the way. Day-​of, she and her two assistants (Sam and Rachel) were absolute godsends. They made the day flow so smoothly, and we had absolutely nothing to worry about because we were in expert hands. They set up all of our decorations, made sure we had alone time together right after the ceremony, corralled various wedding party and family members as needed, and made sure everything happened on time and smoothly. We would highly recommend An Event Less Ordinary!

A+! An Event Less Ordinary was incredible from start to finish. Their communication was always seamless and easy to comprehend and so very helpful along the way. They always made a point to meet us close to our house when we had the initial meetup and day of coordination meetings. We had many things that we were piecing together in terms of décor for our wedding venue and we couldn’t be happier with how beautiful everything turned out. Look no further when deciding on event coordinators. Thank you Amy & the team for making our day simply magical!

I am guilty of not writing a review sooner. My wedding was last June and like all the other reviewers, I cannot say enough about the amazing service I recieved from AELO. We worked with Amy who was nothing short of wonderful. I knew from my first meeting that all was going to be alright. Having never planned a big event before I knew I would need some help with some things but I also was excited to take on some aspects on my own. We were having a smaller wedding but it was really important to me that it was still a classy and very personal affair and not a shabby chic nightmare. I utilized their partial planning and day of coordination services. I knew absolutely nothing about limos and transportation services and feared hiring the wrong company. We were gonna be in need of a big ol’ bus to transport all of our 45 guests to 3 different venues the day of the wedding and I really wanted to depart our ceremony in a pedicab/​rickshaw. They recommended the greatest companies ever and at the best prices possible. We were very happy with both recommendations. Both companies were very professional to deal with.
The day of went so smooth and seamless. The venues were decorated exactly how I envisioned and then some. We totally stayed on schedule. And just the fact that no one from either family or any of our friends had to lift a finger was so awesome. Usually with a small wedding you have to rely on loved ones to help with things but with having Amy and her crew there that wasn’t the case at all. It was the smartest decision I could make regarding our wedding. If you are even considering hiring help for your wedding, look no more. You will be hard pressed to find better. It will be the best money you’ll ever spend, I promise you that!
Thank you Amy and crew for all that you did to make our day perfect!

It hurts to write this review, because I just don’t have the necessary vocabulary to accurately describe how WONDERFUL Carolyn is. Like, I need to go back to school for 4 more years just to be able to realistically describe how much of a life-​saver she is. But, alas, I’ll try to do it on my 4 year college degree level vocabulary.
I’m super laid back but super type-​A (I know, makes no sense) so I didn’t go bridezilla on what exactly needed to be done (perfect shades of purple, etc) I just needed help getting it done while trying to hold down a full time job and my sanity. I had spreadsheets, lists, timelines — and Carolyn STILL came up with stuff that I forgot. Seriously from the moment she came over to meet with me (at MY apartment — talk about convenient!) I felt like a huge weight had been lifted. She’s super SUPER organized, sweet, and CALM. I don’t know how she does it! I would give her my financial information and have her plan my financial future — she’s that smart, reliable, and organized.
In the weeks leading up to the wedding she was constantly emailing and available — not getting a hold of my caterer was a pet peeve of mine — but Carolyn responded to my texts in freaky fast time — like Jimmy Johns — only BETTER.
My wedding day was FLAWLESS — and I attribute that all to Carolyn and her AELO team. One of my favorite sayings is «when you’ve done everything right, people won’t think you’ve done anything at all» — the day went so smoothly that I almost forgot she was there! But sure enough, schedule was on time, venue was flawless — and without realizing it I always had food and drinks in my hand. One of my favorite FAVORITE moments was when I complained about a headache — Carolyn opened up her fanny pack (!!!) and handed me two Advil without saying a word. It doesn’t get any more romantic than that folks.
I’ll stop gushing but I have to say that the BEST DECISION I made (besides choosing to marry my wonderful husband) was choosing Carolyn to help with the wedding. Seriously — that was a better decision than the VENUE AND FOOD — that’s how good she is. Take money out of your dress budget to hire her if you have to — she is WORTH IT.
Thank you Carolyn and AELO team for making my day a DREAM :)

It’s a shame there’s no 6-​star option, because 5 stars simply aren’t sufficient to express how wonderful Carolyn and Samantha were on our wedding day. We booked Carolyn to be our day-​of coordinator, and she worked tirelessly, with incredible kindness and aplomb, to make sure that our wedding was the best day of our lives. Admittedly, things were somewhat of an unorganized mess until Carolyn came along, but she immediately put us at ease and assured us that there wouldn’t be any problems. And for all we know, maybe there were some problems – it was a DIY wedding, and there were a million opportunities for things to go wrong – but even if there were, Carolyn completely shielded us from all the chaos so that we could focus entirely on enjoying the day. She was also unbelievably attentive. At one point in the night, my wife’s shoe started bothering her, and while she didn’t tell anyone, Carolyn noticed her fidgeting with the straps and brought her some sort of magical tape that immediately alleviated the pain. We’re so incredibly thankful for her efforts, and we couldn’t recommend her more highly. Don’t think twice – book her now!

We hired Amy from An Event Less Ordinary for partial planning and day-​of coordination. We liked her businesslike attitude and her willingness to adjust the contract for just what we needed instead of charging us for services we didn’t want. We made a lot of choices that didn’t fit the conventions of a mainstream U.S. American wedding, and Amy was not only nonjudgmental but supportive.
Amy helped us find a photographer, a hotel for our guests, and a hair stylist/​make-​up artist. It took a huge load off our planning workload to not have to research these vendors ourselves, and Amy was patient in answering our questions about what was reasonable to expect and handled a lot of the inquiries with prospective vendors prior to the final contract signing. We ended up getting a spectacular deal on the hotel room block. I also really appreciated her help with finding a make-​up artist and hair stylist, as there were a lot of items to negotiate for the package, and having Amy handle most of the communications took much of the stress out of the process.
The day of the wedding proceeded remarkably smoothly; whenever I thought of something that needed to be figured out, I would find that it had already been taken care of.
I highly recommend An Event Less Ordinary for anyone who requires wedding coordination services in the Chicago area!

Carolyn was godsent!!!
My husband and I had her as our day of wedding coordinator and we were blown away with her professionalism, hard work, perfectionism, and her loving demeanor. She really truly cares to make your day perfect and smooth in every way possible. I would recommend An Event Less Ordinary to any bride. That was money worth spending!!! She made our day carefree and smooth, and I would have been a wreck without her (being a bit type A that I am ;-)).
We loooooove Carolyn!

Amy and her assistant, Ciara, coordinated our wedding on 10÷12÷13. Our best wedding decision was to hire AELO! Everything ran so smoothly. I was particularly impressed with how they put together our centerpieces. We had several pieces: books, candles, figurines, table numbers and bud vases (see pictures). We just dropped it all off, including buckets of flowers, and they arranged everything so beautifully. They really went above and beyond! Amy kept things running on time, I don’t recall any issues coming up at all — at least none that I caught wind of! I felt so relaxed and relieved to have them there. It was so nice that after putting so much time and work into the wedding we were able to hand everything off to AELO and just enjoy the day of! I highly recommend hiring them for your event!

I’m a wedding photographer and had the pleasure of working with Amy and Carolyn for the first time last weekend. They were both very attentive, yet calm and as a result the event ran very smoothly. As a vendor, I also appreciated that they were looking out for me the whole night. They got things done, from small details to big ones.

We met with a couple of day of coordinators (DOCs) and we knew after our first meeting that An Event Less Ordinary was the one for us. We felt completely comfortable with both Amy and Carolyn, they were relaxed and fun and comfortable — they felt like people you’d like to hang out with. Their rates were reasonable. It felt like a match.
We were right to trust our instincts. They made our wedding day perfect. I had been extremely stressed about all of the moving parts that had to be coordinated that day for deliveries to floral to catering and… Well, see? It doesn’t seem like that much… I can’t even remember all the other things because I didn’t have to deal with them. Amy and Carolyn made sure that the day just went smoothly. I didn’t think about the timing of anything on our wedding day. They got both of us plates of food so that we didn’t miss our own dinner because we were socializing (it was a casual cocktail style dinner, not a sit down). I could go on and on about how awesome they are, but ultimately they made it possible for my husband and I to enjoy our wedding day.
Thank you both!

I LOVE AELO! If you’re trying to find a wedding planner you NEED these gals.
Talk about making wedding planning easy! We hired Carolyn and Amy to plan our entire wedding. They really listen to what you want and help you find it in your budget. They never ever push ideas on you either. If you don’t want it it’s not going to happen. But they are also there to give you their experienced advice. Which I admit I needed. (a situation with disposable cameras…)
I did not have to stress one bit the day of the wedding. I mean of course I had normal day of wedding stress. But nothing to do with my venue or my vendors or anything for that matter. My job was to look pretty. Mission accomplished! They coordinated the schedule of the day and had everything under control.
They actually had two weddings on the same day. So I did not get to work with Amy at my actual wedding but she was there for the whole process. They hired an intern for the day and he came to meetings the week prior so he could get a feel of what my wedding was supposed to be. And it was just perfect.
All in all these gals are detailed, affordable, and just simply amazing. I can honestly say I had my DREAM wedding and they were a giant part of making that happen.

LOVE AELO! We had them as our day of planners for our wedding in April 2012. I had the best wedding day because of them; I didn’t worry about a thing. They created a great timeline and made sure every vender was on the same page. Anytime I had a question they where very quick to respond. If you are looking to enjoy your day please go with AELO they are so sweet and wonderful to work with. Thank you Amy and Carolyn for helping make our wedding so amazing!
~Mike & Christine

Amy and Carolyn did a fantastic job as our day-​of planners/​coordinators. Without them, our wedding day would not have been as much of a success and surely would have added to the stress my wife and I had in the weeks leading up to our big day.
Because of our budget we could only do the day-​of planning but Amy and Carolyn were available to answer our questions by phone or email and also help reassure my wife when she was worried about our caterer or other planning issues she was not sure of what to do.
AELO’s guidance along the way and especially in the last few weeks before our wedding really helped put us at ease and feel confident that they had everything under control.
Less than a week before our wedding my wife and I sat down with Amy and Carolyn and went through everything, from our vendors and their contact info and our entire timeline. After going through every detail (which we apprecaited) and asking all the right questions my wife and I felt great about the wedding and that the coordination was in good hands. We were having some major issues with our caterer and Amy and Carolyn not only took over communication with them weeks before the wedding but AELO was firm with them about what was going to happen and how and to leave my wife and I alone before the wedding. Our caterers were obnoxious in so many ways but AELO really helped take control of the situation and tell us how things will proceed with them.
During the last week we had a lot of communication with AELO and all of our questions were answered. Carolyn ran our rehearsal with ease and my wife and I gave all of the things we wanted to be set up for the wedding (boxes and boxes of stuff, wishing tree, gift box, centerpieces, candles, table #s, etc) to Carolyn after the rehearsal and the next day everything (including the flowers we had delivered to the hotel) was set up beautifully in the ceremony space.
The actual wedding day could not have been more of a success. The ceremony and reception were beautiful and went extremely well. Amy and Carolyn took control of the logistics, set up/​breakdown, and everything was in order and went off without a hitch. It was such a whirlwind day it was nice to know we had a great team that was behind us the whole day. Once of the main worries my wife and I had was how will everything look when we arrive at the reception? Will everything we communicated be where it should be? One of the best moments of the day was walking into the reception site from the shuttle and peeking into the room and seeing how magnificent everything looked and how everything was exactly how we wanted or even better!
The only couple really small complaints we had were that we felt during the family pictures after the ceremony it was a little chaotic trying to get everyone we needed for each picture. AELO didn’t have the list of the order of pics and who is in each pic so I had to get it from the photographer and yell out people’s names myself along with my wife. I wish AELO would have taken control and yelled out the names and got everyone together quickly as this pics took longer than expected. The other thing was that there was clearly a sound issue with the mic in the reception space and we were hoping AELO would talk to the DJ to figure out the problem before the speeches started. However, they might not have noticed being busy with other logistics and the DJ was more responsible for fixing this issue himself.
All in all AELO may be new and still gaining experience but they proved to be a fun, reliable, knowledgeable and take charge coordinating business that gets the job done for a great price. Amy and Carolyn took so much of the weight off our shoulders in the last few weeks through the day-​of and helped make our wedding day unforgettable!