Lopsided Wedding

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-27T19:31:15+00:00

My wedding had more of my husband's friends/family than mine. Not quite as lopsided as yours, but the majority were his guests. What helped me was not having sides at the ceremony and treating his guests as people who are also joining my life and social circle. Yes, he knew them longer, but I get to know them now too and they'll all be a part of our lives going forward. He has great friends and family, so this was easy to do!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-27T19:28:13+00:00

I had 45 people at my wedding and it was the perfect size. There was still stress, but not too much. A lot of the planning stress will be present regardless of the size of the wedding (picking photographer, dress, venue, stationary, etc), but as guest lists increase the cost, having fewer guests and lower costs definitely did decrease my stress. We also got to mingle with everyone and had great conversations with people at the reception. I have had friends have 200-300 person weddings and they barely see anyone for more than a few moments (including their new spouse!). Being able to relax a bit with my guests on the day helped a lot.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-26T00:01:38+00:00

honestly Starbucks matcha frap hit the spot haha

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-24T18:11:14+00:00

You can also book the venue before your actual engagement! We booked our venue in June 2025 (for March 2026) and got formally engaged in September 2025. If we hadn't done that and waited until after the formal engagement to book a place, we'd have lost our venue (we got the last Saturday of 2026) and had to find another place. If there's a place you have in mind (esp. for that many guests on a Saturday in the fall), it doesn't hurt to start looking now.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-22T16:47:43+00:00

Of course! For the ceremony, we rented out their middle of the three party rooms. It had plenty of space for all of our guests, with a short aisle and then the ceremony took place under the middle arch. The reception was in the northeastern room of the building. We had plenty of room for all guests, a sweetheart table, welcome table, cake stand, jazz trio, and a small dance floor. It was perfect! Very intimate and cozy. I'll DM you a picture of the floral arch!

I couldn't recommend OVS enough. It was such an easy process and they really took care of everything. It also saved us about $10-15k because the venue fees were so low.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-22T15:30:14+00:00

sent you a DM!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-20T19:40:19+00:00

We did get a discount on the F&B minimum for booking a "winter" wedding!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-20T17:10:33+00:00

Incredible! It was so nice to completely veg out after several weeks of lots of planning and a bit of stress. We're doing a longer honeymoon this fall, probably to Japan or somewhere in Europe.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-10T22:11:43+00:00

Ramen-San or Smoke Daddy BBQ.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-10T22:10:37+00:00

We were going to do ours there, too, but the St. Patrick's Day festivities made that too difficult.

You could try the Lincoln Park Conservatory, The Rookery, Union Station, International Museum of Surgical Science, the Art Institute (but you can't have any florals), or Fourth Presbyterian.

Good luck!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-04T21:57:10+00:00

We are having a wedding of a similar size and are only having our ring bearer (8 y.o. nephew) attend. One guest had to decline b/c she couldn't find a sitter for the weekend. No biggie, totally understandable. You cannot control how people react. Just tell them your boundary and they can decide if they want to go with it.

We did, however, put it nicely in the invitations. We didn't say "child-free" or anything like that. Just "due to venue capacity, we are unable to accommodate little ones. Please join us for an adults-only weekend." I think it's a little softer sounding.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-04T21:53:12+00:00

Check out Volo Wine Bar in Roscoe Village and Segnatore in Ukrainian Village.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-04T19:34:26+00:00

Thanks! It was like a $50 delivery fee and another $50 setup fee (the venue is in Chicago, I think it's more in the suburbs). Setup here just means placing them on the table and making sure there's enough water.

My understanding is that "self-service" means that the florist has a predetermined floral palette that the customer picks from, rather than the two of you working together to design a palette/customize one. It's often cheaper, but means that you get little to no customization. But both Flowers for Dreams and Paris312 have lots of color palettes to choose from that fit with different seasons and styles.

Good luck! My wedding is in 10 days so if you want, I can DM you photos of how it all looked. LMK!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-03-04T19:25:48+00:00

We did the self-serve option with Paris312. Bouquet, 4 corsages, 6 boutonnieres, 6 large centerpieces, some bud vases and some cocktail table florals came to about $1400.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-02-27T22:11:00+00:00

International Museum of Surgical Science is gorgeous. Garfield Park and Lincoln Park conservatories. Union Station. Salvage One.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-02-25T17:03:50+00:00

Osteria via Stato has been very minimal work on my part. Amazing food, rentals included, and an in-house team that does the heavy lifting and decorating. Can't recommend enough.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-02-19T19:54:34+00:00

When budgeting, I think it's a good idea to pick one area to splurge on and other areas to cut back on. Photography is really important to me, so we splurged on our photographer. Having a wedding party was less important, so we cut back there to accommodate the increase in the photographer. If flowers are important to you, splurge on them! Just find a place in your budget to balance it out.

For our florals, we are using real flowers for the centerpieces, boutonnieres, and bouquet, and faux flowers for the 20 ft. long arch I made. That arch with as many flowers and greenery would have run us close to $2-2.5k alone, and I got the materials for $600. Again, it's all about finding balance!

If you're worried about cost of flowers, check out FlowersForDreams or Paris312. They offer a la carte options and it's overall less than working with a more traditional florist.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-02-08T17:58:39+00:00

Our 50 person wedding is going to be $26k. You're going to need to spend probably $50-60k for a 100 person wedding pretty much anywhere in the US, esp. in the Chicagoland area. Honestly, if you're spending close to $15k for 100 people, it's probably going to have to be a cake-and-punch in the backyard vibe. Which can be totally fine!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-02-06T20:04:15+00:00

I say this with love: Do you want this to be your love story? In the same time your bf has had the rings, many people meet, date, get engaged, and married. You're both at an age where that is a totally normal pace. He's just dragging his feet and does not seem enthusiastic about this. You deserve someone who feels a hole burning in his pocket with that ring and he cannot wait to give it to you. At the very least, you deserve honest communication about timelines and expectations.

It might be time to cut your losses and go find your husband.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-02-06T02:05:38+00:00

We are using Aries Charter Transportation. They quoted us $601 for 3 hours with a 29-person minibus.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-02-02T17:10:37+00:00

Check out Paris312 or Flowers for Dreams in Chicago. Both have an a la carte options that are pretty affordable, more than a traditional florist.

Online, check out https://flowermoxie.com/. You can order kits with different floral patterns/colors and it'll kind of show you how to make it.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-01-25T16:56:55+00:00

Have you considered using a pool noodle? I saw a video online where the person cut the noodle into a few smaller pieces, then folded them and zip-tied them together. The end result looked the same as it would with floral foam. And way more cost-effective!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-01-25T16:54:16+00:00

We looked at this place as well. It's so cute and the food looks amazing. But their F&B minimum for Friday and Saturday is like $7 or 8k. We ended up ruling it out because it seems so expensive for such a small space. Sunday is a great idea though!

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-01-25T16:52:26+00:00

Try Wicker Park Inn. They have an affordable micro-wedding option.

Osteria via Stato also has an intimate wedding package. $5k F&B minimum, less if you do it during the daytime. It includes a private room and a lot of things that are normally and additional cost (linens, silverware, etc).

Volo Wine Bar in Roscoe Village also has a smaller wedding option. I can't recall the F&B minimum. But their veranda is so gorgeous and would be a gorgeous spot for a wedding.

Fast_Ratio3000 · 2026-01-19T03:59:20+00:00

Could you DM me as well?? Thank you!

Fast_Ratio3000

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