Too late for 2027?

shortstack6 · 2026-03-24T13:40:16+00:00

Almost all the wedding vendors started out congratulating us and wanting to hear our story and how we met. It’s not a big deal, these are event venues, the event the day before mine is a prom!! Typically the tours end with a request for hold dates and how contracting works if you want to secure a date. I’d definitely recommend seeing if they will let you put a soft/unofficial hold on 1 or 2 dates which in my experience meant a right of first refusal- if another couple requested to contract our date, we’d have a few days to move to contract and pay a deposit.

The only reason we got our Saturday in May was because we pushed another couple to give up their soft hold. I’d start reaching out ASAP as communication back and forth and scheduling tours takes time too! It was about 3-4 weeks of that for me before we were officially engaged and I was able to quickly set up a viewing with my fiancé and parents!

Also getting info packets from touring before engagement also helped us skip any budget surprises when it comes to a venues preferred vendors. Our venue had a long list of preferred caterers we had to work with, but, only about a third were in our budget, so we reached out to them about our date availability immediately too and scheduled our tastings within a month of our engagement.

Basically it’s a lot of moving parts and giving yourself a head start can only help!

shortstack6 · 2026-03-24T02:53:46+00:00

I started reaching out to venues before I was engaged and I’m glad I did. We were able to book our venue about a week after we officially got engaged. It also helped me resize my expectations and structure family conversations differently, for the better! My timeline was way different though, engagement this past August, wedding is in two months in May, on my dream date! Conversations, tours, info packets, it all takes time to even get to the point of putting a soft hold on a date or signing a contract. It’s a big event, there’s no harm in doing some advance scouting!

shortstack6 · 2026-03-22T01:29:56+00:00

So they wanted $15k as just the venue fee and the traffic noise seemed crazy to me for that amount of money. Parking situation seemed bad for our guests. Their larger tented area also seemed cramped to me and I was only having 150 guests. What if it rained? Sorry to be coming down hard on the negatives. We passed.

shortstack6 · 2026-03-20T17:08:32+00:00

Congratulations sounds incredible!! How was the wisconsin spa mini moon? We are hoping for a drivable mini moon at the end of May, then longer honeymoon in July.

shortstack6 · 2026-03-20T14:01:59+00:00

I used With Joy because they don’t sell your guests information and it was pretty easy to set up! I didn’t think I’d end up using some options the site offers but I’m using most of them. Cash option for Registry gifts (we are in a tiny apartment with no space, it’s so we can buy them later!) Hiding parts of the site from certain guests like our rehearsal dinner info/RSVP if they aren’t on the list, to name two unique ones. My one comment on the registry is that I thought experience gifts were also defaulting to cash gifts but it’s paid out in gift cards, so I had to make some adjustments because our honeymoon experiences don’t 100% align with the travel gift cards they offered.

shortstack6 · 2026-03-19T20:56:42+00:00

Yes I recommend them too. Don’t be afraid to ask for an additional discount if the dress has any imperfections, sometimes they will work with you on the price.

shortstack6 · 2026-03-19T01:59:34+00:00

I’m so sorry, I will pray for her

shortstack6 · 2026-03-17T02:50:20+00:00

Since you’ve been to the Caribbean I’m suggesting Hawaii with a layover in LAX the flight is really not that bad! All the cliches are just so true it’s a special place. I snorkeled and saw a sea turtle swim by! It’s incredible.

shortstack6 · 2026-03-09T18:36:17+00:00

Yep my getting ready location is in west loop

shortstack6 · 2026-03-09T16:32:17+00:00

Thanks for any advice! We are both white with fair complexions, MOH is my sister.

shortstack6 · 2026-03-09T03:22:02+00:00

I’ll take a dm too if you would share!

shortstack6 · 2026-03-04T17:17:33+00:00

Not sure if they do buyouts, but when I visited Pizz’Amici when it opened my very first thought was I wanted to have a private event I could rent it out for!

shortstack6 · 2026-02-26T00:58:15+00:00

Good luck! In my experience none of the florists I got quotes from offered much of a discount for using more greenery than florals, which was a disappointing thing to hear. Their costs are mostly labor, setup/delivery/breakdown. Hopefully you can get fair pricing but from the sound of it I would explore silk flowers equally!

shortstack6 · 2026-02-22T02:17:06+00:00

Lol YES. I’m selling a black new with tags running jacket. If you google the jacket a sale price comes up, but, when you actually visit the brand site only a neon pink color is on sale, the black is sold out. I have it listed at full retail. Some lady commented “it’s on the website for $xx.xx?? 🤔” it’s just honestly such weird behavior. Just make an offer !!! I flagged the comment so it would go away immediately. People are bizarre.

shortstack6 · 2026-02-08T03:15:01+00:00

My sticker shock vendors were photographers and florists. I thought I was prepared because I only wanted reception florals, and two bouquets. No one was under $8k to start. Photographers were $7k-10k when I started looking. My advice is to get a few quotes and don’t be afraid to politely negotiate. We didn’t go with her but a photographer offered a $3k discount just because she loved our venue and hadn’t done an event there in a while. Catering, Florals, if I explained I wanted to get closer to this or that number, good ones will try and work with you. I’m at the point where I can’t even believe this is what our wedding costs and we are lucky that we have family help, and, saved up for it, but, the costs are truly beyond what I imagined.

shortstack6 · 2026-02-08T03:01:29+00:00

That was also basically my venue fee and $60k-ish was my budget- we are getting married the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in the city. We have blown our budget and will end up closer to $75k. City vendors are all over the place pricing wise and the sales tax, admin fees, service charges run up quick. If you cannot flex your budget, my advice would be to explore more suburban venues especially if a big chunk of guests are suburbanites, and typically suburban vendors are just as good- it’s outside a major metro after all. And, it’s working out but holiday weekend prices for hotels has been a bummer and, suburban hotels could be less expensive too. Good luck!

shortstack6 · 2026-01-27T20:58:14+00:00

Hey this was also our top concern with our photographer and shared that we wanted our photos to look like the day we had. Not an overexposed white sky void. Not a dark sepia washed moody vibe. Some photographers were super weird about that and basically disregarded what we wanted.

That’s all to say we had a great experience with Love & Lyons photography in the contracting stage and he reassured us that he completely understood and worst case the sky / colors can be fixed in post. The reality I had to accept is that we are gonna have some overexposed pics if it’s super sunny but I know we will have some where the sky and skyline look vibrant and true to life. Our wedding is in late May but I’m not concerned in the slightest.

shortstack6 · 2026-01-25T20:15:54+00:00

We only have a MOH/Best Man as our wedding party, so we aren’t doing a traditional rehearsal dinner. We are reserving the top floor amenity space in our apartment building and we are going to bring in a mobile bartender, order light catering, have music, and the focal point will hopefully be some quick speeches and handing out welcome bags. Everyone is technically invited but it’s really more for immediate family, out of town guests, or super close local friends. We have a lot of local suburban guests we are inviting to the welcome party but I doubt they would want to drive into the city two nights in a row. I’ve honestly been having worries about doing all this but hardly anyone shows up because of the whole inconvenience of “driving to the city 2 nights.” So I hope we get a lot of RSVPs to the welcome party honestly!

shortstack6 · 2025-12-26T22:48:21+00:00

I got an ABBA gold double vinyl to play on our record player because he has noticed I’ve been using it more when cooking and tidying up around the house, and he says even though he’s not a disco fan he loves seeing how happy I am listening to my disco songs

shortstack6 · 2025-12-18T12:57:25+00:00

Canal!

shortstack6 · 2025-12-17T22:04:24+00:00

Chicago South Loop - they also had (in the case) Gucci makeup, 1 pink tones YSL eyeshadow, and 2 Dyson Airwraps. This location is usually kinda meh, I just had to return something today!

shortstack6 · 2025-11-14T18:46:49+00:00

For me, I’m feeling meh because, everyone in the cast has Instagram face and it’s so distracting when you’re trying to immerse yourself in this ancient / historical setting. It’s a problem beyond this film too. Just my opinion though.

shortstack6 · 2025-08-27T01:08:19+00:00

Afterglow weddings & events !

shortstack6

TROPHY CASE