I can't really help with recommendations since we did our own flowers and I got my dress up in Lake Geneva, but I would stay away from Edward Fox for photographers. It was a nightmare dealing with them as my wedding photographers.
I got married in 2004 in Oak Park, so just a little bit outside Chicago. All of our vendors were great.
Our florist was Westgate Flower and Plant Shop.
Our hair and make-up were done at A Matter of Style.
Our photographer was Ebert Studio (www.ebertstudio.com). We absolutely loved working with Ebert Studio, our photographer was Jeff Ebert and he was so professional and on-top of everything. Pretty much every photo they took was fantastic (they took a ton!) It was so hard to choose which ones we wanted in our album, they were all so amazing.
I would post pictures of things, but we don't have the images on this computer... sorry = (
I second the Edward Fox photography warning (we did not use them but the 4 people we know who did had a bad experience.) Chicks that Click did our photos. If I did it over again I would have had 2 photographers instead of 1. My photos were ok.
I see all these moms who can do everything and I think... I should have them do something for me..
We used Dale Horn Photography for our wedding. However, we got married in the Northwest Suburbs. I do believe he travels. He was great to work with, did exactly what we wanted and was very prompt with our photos.
One of my BMs' mom worked at a florist shop in Arlington Heights. We had her do our flowers. they were great - but for the life of me I can't remember the shop name
I got married in fall 2007 in Chicago. We used Amanda Hein as our photographer and would highly recommend her, although her prices have risen considerably since then.
I suggest she go to the Chicago Brides board on The Knot since there are almost daily reviews/suggestions for photographers in different price ranges.
My cousin was married recently and was thrilled with her photographer, Michael Rastall, whom she found on Craigslist.
I DIY'd my flowers, so no help on that but many Chicago Knotties rave about Kio Kreations.
I found my makeup artist on Craigslist, www.annafiglewicz.com She was fine and reasonably priced.
I have a friend who got married in Chicago recently (we wanted desperately to go, but we had another wedding that weekend to which we'd already RSVPed--but that's not the point here, sorry!) and they ended up hating their photographer. I'll drop her a note and find out who it was.
I would definitely recommend The Knot, though. The wedding section here moves pretty slowly these days!
My husband's cousin just started doing wedding photography. She is really quite good, and since she's just starting out might be more reasonable. I honestly don't know her prices. She did fabulous newborn pictures of my daughter.
Okay, so the photographer she swears they should not use is Timothy Whaley and Associates. Apparently the day of, the photographer was both bossy and forgetful, and the images captured that day ended up being a completely different style than the portfolio my friend and her husband were shown when they booked with them. So they're very disappointed in the final product, and when they brought that up with their primary point of contact at the company, that person began bullying them and yelled at them that they had better not go leaving negative feedback anywhere. It sounds like a mess!
Good luck! I hope your sister doesn't run into anything nasty like that!
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