I was torn about hiring a planner, as I’m a relatively organized and type-A person who had already exceeded her wedding budget. Let me tell you – this was the best decision I made in the entire wedding planning process! Looking back now, I don’t know what I would have done without Joan and her expertise! The selling point for me was the realization that it doesn’t make sense to spend thousands of dollars for an event without hiring a professional to oversee and coordinate the many moving parts involved. I didn’t have to be the point person for all the vendors and most importantly it limited my interaction with my challenging venue manager. I got to just enjoy the day and not worry about anything – our wedding truly went off without a hitch (or I didn’t know about any issues, which is fine by me!). There was a huge benefit of having someone with extensive experience give me advice and tell me what works well in various situations. Planning a wedding is an intense process and it was made easy by Joan and her team. I was able to trust and outsource nearly all of the last minute coordination between vendors, which was a huge relief with my demanding work schedule. I’ve since been to a handful of weddings where there were minor snafus (couldn’t hear the vows, DJ didn’t have the first dance song (!) etc) and I couldn’t help but feel grateful we avoided any similar glitches. I have nothing but amazing memories from that day and I am truly grateful to Five Grain Events for being there for me.

Joan was absolutely a necessity for our wedding. She is so kind and thoughtful on top of being insanely organized and extremely responsive. We had to postpone 3 times due to COVID and she and her team were such a huge help in re-organizing vendors and updating everything. She didn’t leave a single stone unturned when going over all the last minute details, and the day of the wedding- wow. We honestly couldn’t have done it without her. The entire event was impeccable and if there were any snags, we had absolutely no idea. The only job my husband and I had was to enjoy the entire day and we 100% did, thanks to Five Grain. I highly recommend them!!

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Joan planned a wedding for my friend Kate. Everything about the wedding was perfect. She was very detailed oriented and thanks to her hard work the wedding couldn’t have gone any better.

–  Joan O., Dallas

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The best money we spent on our entire wedding. Seriously. They would have been worth it at twice the price. Our lead contact Emily R. was prepared, thoughtful, patient, creative, responsive, informed, generous with her time, and thoroughly professional. And everyone else on the team we interacted with was just the same. These folks love what they do and clearly care about their clients. Their emotional investment in their work shows in every interaction.

As for the fees and duties – they catered a package for exactly the services we needed, and didn’t try to push us on services we didn’t. Then they proceeded to go above and beyond on the limited scope of their contract anyway. They gave much more of their time than the contract stipulated. And as for their fee, they probably paid for themselves with the deals they were able to help us negotiate with various vendors. Plus most importantly, they provided us with invaluable counsel. Their recommendations were informed by deep familiarity with the entire Chicago wedding industry, from vendors to venues to transportation logistics to you-name-it. And they weren’t afraid to tell us what we didn’t want to hear. Most of the time they figured out a way to make our preferences a reality. But on more than one occasion, they talked us out of something we wanted to do – and each time, they turned out to be right. It takes confidence and credibility to provide this kind of honest counsel, rather than just agreeing to everything your client says.

On the day of, we were completely protected from any and all drama. We were able to float happily through our day, unburdened by logistics, problem-solving, money, vendor conversations, relative-wrangling, etc. This was very much due to Emily’s diligence and competence, as well as our confidence in her. We really did have the perfect day that we wanted. And the two of us were perhaps the only ones who knew how much of that was due to Emily and FGE. Because somehow she managed to keep the whole circus clipping along while remaining pretty much invisible to the average guest.

I should also add that right in the middle of the busiest preparation crunch-time weeks, Emily had to deal with a serious personal matter that could have very reasonably taken her out of work and off the project completely. It would have been absolutely understandable. But not only did she remain in contact with us, still providing critical and helpful counsel, but Joan and the rest of the team stepped in to cover her in a seamless manner. This is the level of personal investment and care that made us so grateful. They really do treat their clients like family. We felt like our day was personally meaningful to them, and it showed in their work.

Hire these people. Tell everyone you know to hire these people.

Five stars. Six, ten stars. Eleventy-billion stars. All the stars.

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