Reviews of Chicago Vintage Weddings (Event Planner)

Juveriya Mir

This is such a cute place in Pilsen. The event room has a nice base for baby showers or bridal showers. About 20 people can fit easily. The chandeliers and the Vintage Vibes is so adorable. I was here for an event and I don't know exactly what kind of event planning they do, but you can definitely renhy this place out! Awesome!

Kimberly McDermott

Oh, Kate, my nuptials hero. If you’re a lover of all details vintage, Chicago Vintage Weddings has the best selection and quality in the city. I had a specific vision that Kate and her staff brought to life beautifully. Our theme of mismatched table settings in an industrial loft space with earthy green table runners and reclaimed wood tables could not have been more picturesque. Moreover, if you want to remove any semblance of stress or annoyance on your wedding day, you can’t go wrong with the team at Chicago Vintage Weddings. I had the utmost confidence in Kate and her assistants from the moment I met her over a year ago. With coveted spreadsheets in hand, I was positive I had covered the important details leading up to the wedding, and thus initially only used CVW for vintage rentals. I quickly, however, learned the value of hiring a seasoned professional for the actual day of coordination. My organizational skills paled in comparison to Kate; she provided recommendations beyond the scope of her responsibility. And in addition to exceptional planning, she performs her role with such enthusiasm and heartfelt consideration for every couple. While hesitant to spend our precious budget on tasks we thought we could handle alone, Kate made JT and I feel completely at ease leading up to the week before. From last minute vendor communication & prep meetings to hauling cases of champagne and table accessories, she and her team deserve their contract dues and more. Kate is one of those individuals who can anticipate challenges but always has a cool, calm, pleasant demeanor. When our beverage vendor refused to purchase more alcohol when we ran out two hours before the reception’s close, Kate handled the situation with sheer grace, ensuring the bartenders had more supply within the hour. Essentially, if you’re weighing the ice sculpture versus a wedding coordinator, your money will go much further with CVW’s services (and they don’t melt, either). While there are many coordination services in Chicago, our decision to use Kate and CVW was simple; she has impeccable taste, is kind and forthright, and will work tirelessly from sunrise to last call to ensure your wedding is one for the books.

Gio & George

My husband Giusseppi and I got married September 28th of 2019 and we most definitely could not have had a smoother day if we tried. It was all thanks to Chicago Vintage Weddings. I knew who I wanted to hire as soon as I got engaged and I'm so glad we made it happen. Kate, was so kind and made us feel so special the entire time. We went with the 6 week coordination package which was just perfect for us! The last four weeks are always the most stressful and hectic and due to the help of Ellen, Giusseppi and I were able to focus on just what we needed and the rest she handled. We felt so loved and looked after and Ellen was the best fit for us! I truly believe if we did not hire them we would have been panicked and stressed weeks before the wedding. I can't say enough great things about this team! They really made us feel like family and I would get married all over again just to remain in constant contact with them. We love you guys! GG

MadeleineJaret MintonGlazer

We rented a vintage white sofa, mixed colored water goblets and cake stands from Kate and CVW for our June 2018 wedding. The goblets really made our tables look special and the sofa was wonderful for photos and for elderly guests. Delivery and pickup was easy and on-time...Kate even rolled with the punches when the venue owner required a Sunday pickup that typically costs extra. We had a total "blank space" venue and a lot of vendors so having a seamless delivery and setup with Kate was wonderful. Kate responded to e-mails promptly and was such a cool person when I met her at an alternative wedding show. Definitely recommend CVW for making your wedding decor memorable!

Jacqueline Seiler

Chicago Vintage Weddings was so great to work with. They were a pleasure to work with from the start, very responsive and organized. I worked with Kate for my rentals and she was very friendly and professional! Everything was delivered on time, and exceeded my expectations of how beautiful the plates and linen would be, and everyone at the wedding was talking about how great it was! I would highly recommend them, everything about it was wonderful and made my special day more beautiful, and done with ease!

Rebecca Lakin

We used CVW for rentals and coordination. Kate and team was absolutely wonderful to work with. They really made our event amazing - so much so, that days after the wedding, family and friends texted and called to tell us how fun and amazing our wedding was. CVW made sure everything ran smoothly and really made our wedding plan come to life. They made it so we could enjoy our wedding rather than stress about the details of making it all come together. Hiring Kate and team was easily the best money we spent for our wedding.

Katie Cochara

I had a really great experience working with Kate and Elizabeth from Chicago Vintage Weddings, and would highly recommend working with them! Their storefront is incredibly welcoming and so charming. They have such beautiful and unique pieces that are available for rent. I rented a vintage gold and white beverage cart for an inspiration photo shoot I orchestrated. Planning the photo shoot was incredibly stressful, but working with Kate was a breeze! She was prompt in answering my emails, sent my contract over immediately, and even arranged for delivery and pick up of my rental. I truly look forward to working with CVW again in the future!

Monica Escalante

Our wedding went absolutely perfect! Kate and Elizabeth were both very responsive to all of my many demands :) I loved working with both of them and now that everything is over with, it feels strange not communicating with them!I felt at ease knowing they were taking care of every little detail and even bringing things to my attention that I wouldn't have noticed. They immediately saw my vision, executed it without a problem and it was perfect! Both were very organized and detailed-oriented. I also rented China from CVW for my bridal shower at the last minute and Kate was able to pull it off for me. All of my guests said my bridal shower were amazed at the china and the uniqueness of everything. My only regret is that I did not hire them for full wedding planning. In hindsight, I should have. For any of you debating, don't hesitate, definitely hire for full planning, it is worth every penny and then some. I would highly recommend it! Even now, all of my guests rave about my wedding and I know that it was mostly due to CVW and their attention to details!

Georgiann Voissem

Where to start! Kate and her team were professional and SPOT ON with taking care of EVERY need for my daughters wedding. We are a hands on family and we needed to do nothing other than what we wanted, which was very little. Chicago Vintage Weddings took care of a temperamental venue contact, provided the wedding with pizzaz in the decor and literally took all the details to the nth degree. I am so incredibly grateful to Kate and her team. TOP NOTCH!

Katie Keup

Fantastic location, good parking, nice place!

Steve Won

Chicago Vintage Weddings's day-of services made our wedding day so much easier. So we decided to introduce the challenge of planning a wedding by ourselves from 400 miles away in Michigan, but it was a relief having Kate as our day-of coordinator. She also helped us consolidate rentals through Chicago Vintage Weddings, and she worked with us to figured out the look we wanted without busting our budget. Leading up to the wedding (within a few weeks), we were grateful to have someone take on the load of coordinating with the vendors. On the day-of, we didn't have to worry about a thing, and everything went extremely smoothly. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! If you want to just enjoy your wedding day without worrying about logistics or coordinating people, we absolutely recommend working with Kate. - Katie & Steve

Olivia Margolis

My husband and I recently worked with Chicago Vintage Weddings for our wedding about a month ago. Kate was our Day of Wedding Coordinator and did a fantastic job. She was ON TOP OF EVERYTHING. I felt like I didn't have to worry about a thing - ESPECIALLY the actual day of the wedding (it went off without a hitch)! We also rented out plates, wine glasses and cafe lights from Chicago Vintage Weddings and were thrilled with the way they turned out. Our guests loved the added charm that they provided to our special day. I highly recommend Chicago Vintage Weddings and Kate if you want to have a stress free special day.

Klaudia Stachura

I worked with Kate Lerman to coordinate her clients' wedding transportation. She was so easy to work with and make every step of the process flawless. Looking forward to working with Kate and her team in the future!! :)

Jennifer Johnson

My husband and I worked with CVW for our September wedding and had a wonderful experience. We rented a ton of pieces from Kate's awesome vintage furniture collection and hired Pixie as our month of coordinator. Our guests LOVED the furniture - it created the exact ambiance we were hoping for and made for a beautiful backdrop to celebrate our day. Pixie is seriously the sweetest human and so professional. Our wedding was a bit quirky - we threw it in a very non-traditional location that required some serious logistics planning and Pixie ensured everything went perfectly. There were so many little things in the weeks leading up to the wedding that we weren't thinking about or didn't have time for, and if it weren't for CVW, our wedding day experience would have been much different. This team has some great connections and can really pull strings to get things done last minute (if needed)! Our wedding party and family all had great things to say about Pixie and my husband and I are so thankful for all the hard work she put into making our day special. THANK YOU!!!!

Kimberley Meyers-Thum

AMAZING service!!! I was in need of wedding support as I was moving from Chicago to the Bay Area and was not going to be able to handle the final details of my wedding from over 2,000 miles away. I never wanted a wedding planner/coordinator, but I had to be realistic and realize that I was going to need help! I found these fabulous ladies from Google search and feel in love with their website and vision, and I instantly had a gut feeling that these ladies would know what I wanted and help me make it come to life. And that is what they did and then some!!! After we met and talked for over an hour I knew they were the ones that I needed to hire for my month of coordination. There were a few ups and downs with the details of the wedding, none of them with CVW, and Kate and Elizabeth were so professional and supportive and really went above and beyond what I hired them for. Elizabeth kept in touch regularly to assure she had everything from me, vendors, wedding party that she needed for my special day to be perfect, and it was!!! From assuring the timeline was just perfect, to helping me with my broken bustle, they were absolutely spectacular!!! I would recommend Chicago Vintage Weddings for all of your wedding coordination/planning needs!! They will listen to your wants, help you to make them come alive, and be there for you every step of the way!!! And, did I mention that you can rent amazing vintage pieces from them??!! Perfect!!

Elysa Buss

My husband and I hired Kate and Chicago Vintage Weddings for some rentals and day of coordination for our wedding on 1/12/19. We could not have been happier with Kate as our planner. She was a superwoman and made our wedding absolutely perfect. I was told that I would not actually get to enjoy my wedding day because of all the little details that I would be worrying about throughout the day. Thanks to Kate, this was categorically untrue. I didn't worry about a single thing the day of or even the weeks leading up to the big day. Kate took care to make sure that our vision came to life. Kate also worked with my mother-in-law to plan a great rehearsal dinner and welcome reception. I didn't waste a minute of thought about these events because I knew Kate was on top of everything. She was also able to easily navigate some of the more awkward family situations and she did so with grace and discretion. There is absolutely no better person to hire for your wedding.

Scott Mores

Everything about our experience with Kate and Chicago Vintage was amazing. As our day-of planner, Kate stepped in about a month before our wedding and was an absolute life saver. From day one, she made us feel so much more at-ease about our wedding and helped reduce the stress of planning right when we needed it the most. Kate does an excellent job and communicating with vendors and keeping the wedding party and family in the loop about all the important details. The schedule she sent out to the people involved in our wedding was so detailed and helpful and made it super easy for everyone to know where they needed to be when. Working with Chicago Vintage was one of the best decisions we made during our wedding planning, and I would recommend them to anyone.

Emilia Mickevicius

Our wedding day was everything we had dreamed of, thanks to CVW's day-of coordination (which was really more like month-of!). We were planning our wedding remotely from a different state, which made it really important for us to have a great coordinator, and I am so glad we invested in their services. We were matched up with Ashley, who was wonderful. In the weeks leading up to the big day, she took over all communication with our vendors, ensuring that everyone was on the same page for things to go as planned, and facilitated a final run-through at our venue that everyone involved really appreciated. She also perfectly tracked and ensured our progress with finalizing the nuts and bolts of our ceremony (like the script, music, etc.). On the actual wedding day, we really appreciated Ashley's calm and organized presence - she was always magically right there before we even had to look for her. My impression as the bride was that if anything went wrong behind the scenes, I was not aware of it whatsoever because everything seemed to go perfectly! I cannot believe I ever thought having a coordinator was optional - I truly don't think I would have been able to juggle all these details myself, and Ashley's ability to do so was very impressive. She thought of things I never would have remembered and made sure that we had clear plans in place for all those details, all the way from the timing of our ceremony music cues down to the glassware quantities we were renting. She really went above and beyond, and even took some great candid photos while I was getting ready with my bridesmaids, which are so great to have as we wait for our official photos to come back from our photographer. To us, our coordination package felt like a very good value for the way it took day-of tasks off our hands and gave us peace of mind. We would absolutely recommend CVW's services!

Marki Manby

Working with Kate and Chicago Vintage Weddings was the best decision we made in all of our planning! She is highly organized, very thorough, pleasant and easy to work with, assertive yet very personable with vendors, easily accessible and very responsive which are all great qualities to have in someone planning a big event such as a wedding! And that was just leading up to the big day! Then, day of, Kate was really, really great. She was essentially present and yet invisible the whole time! Meaning, she effectively made sure the whole day ran smoothly with as little distraction for us as possible! And, the few times she did approach, she had a huge smile on her face! We couldn't have done it without you, Kate! Thank you so very much!!

Helen Schwartzman

My daughter was married on October 18, 2014 in Oak Park, Illinois. Approximately two months before the wedding we realized that there were too many things that had to be done in too short a time period and we turned to Kate and CVW for help with planning before the wedding as well as with taking care of day of coordination tasks and activities. I am so happy that we did this as Kate was absolutely amazing with suggestions and recommendations for the band and the photographer (at this late date this had not yet been arranged!) as well as for seating and the arrangement of tables (this was a cocktail reception not a sit-down dinner), organizing a candy bar, decorating the wedding venue on the day of the event (this included renting some of the really interesting furniture and other decor related items that CVW has available), coordinating day-of activities at the church as well as the reception site and a million other things that we are probably not remembering at this point. Everything came off perfectly and it was a truly extraordinary day with so many compliments from guests about how elegant and beautiful and organized the event was. We cannot say enough good things about Kate, and her assistant Elizabeth, in terms of how important they were to making this such a wonderful and memorable day for the bride and groom and their parents, friends and family. Top-of-the-line service in every possible way!

Sarah Savaiano

We booked Kate as our day of coordinator for our wedding at the Palmer House on August 1st and she was by far the best decision we made throughout our planning! She was extremely easy to talk to and completely understood everything we wanted to do and was genuinely excited by all of our ideas! Kate was so good, she even gave us suggestions that were better than what we were originally thinking. We were always on the same page and she really helped my husband and I get and stay organized. She was incredibly professional from our first meeting to our last and even helped us organize a few surprises at our reception. I can't imagine working with anyone better! Thanks again Kate!

Erin Leuschel-Perzov

The day after we got married, my (now) husband said, "It's difficult to quantify just how valuable Kate was." Now, he's a man of few words, so the fact that he chose those speaks to our wonderful experience working alongside her. Let's start at the beginning: Once upon a time, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing planning our wedding. I'm also incredibly Type A, really picky, oh, and chronically indecisive--the worst possible combination for wedding planning. Despite that, we wanted to throw a really wonderful event that our families and friends would love as much as we did, and we wanted to honor a budget that kept things reasonable. We also work way too much, so to even have time for laundry felt unrealistic; that said, we were pretty sure planning a wedding would not go well. Then (bugle solo), Kate to the rescue! We couldn't be happier that we found Kate at Chicago Vintage Weddings. We knew that she would help us with the stress of wedding planning, and we were right. She is SO wonderfully organized, and it was such a calming influence to have her cross-checking our decision-making to ensure that we weren't...well...ruining everything. It was also SUCH a huge help having someone to bounce ideas off of or make decisions! Every single decision involves hundreds and hundreds of variables, so to have Kate dramatically reduce those to only the best options for us and guide us through that was unbelievably helpful. Kate also has beautiful taste. I'm aesthetically very picky, and although I didn't want to break the bank, we wanted things to be lovely. With her rentals and aesthetic guidance, she was able to create such a beautiful wedding day, and all without me turning into a stress-induced bridezilla. Kate dramatically reduced our stress and improved everything about our wedding. That's for sure. However, what we didn't expect was for Kate to help so much financially. You'd think that a wedding planner would increase the cost of a wedding, right? Although there is an up-front cost, she was able to help us prioritize, negotiate, and minimize in clever ways we'd never have thought of, and all without compromising how wonderful the wedding was. It was so helpful to have someone there to say, "Nope, that won't make a difference if we say no to that. We don't need it," and to trust that's the case. She ended up spending less than we'd originally budgeted, and all while still making things perfect. I think the best thing about Kate, however, is her unwavering kindness. I must have emailed her a gazillion times, and to say they were "verbose" is probably an understatement. I joked that Kate probably had my face on a dart board because I was bugging her oh-so often. Despite that, Kate was always incredibly patient and kind. She never became frustrated with us or became unresponsive. Instead, she was patient, kind, and helpful, even in those crazy few weeks beforehand when things invariably get bananas. We had such a wonderful wedding that truly was even more wonderful than we'd hoped, and Kate played such a huge part of that. We'd recommend her to anyone searching for a wonderful wedding planner.

Robert Beatty

I can't speak highly enough as to Kate and CVW for their help on our wedding day and the weeks leading up to it. She coordinated with all of our vendors and the venue to make sure everything would run smoothly. She’s extremely professional, has amazing attention to detail and is the perfect addition to what can already be a hectic day. We had several unexpected issues on the day of our wedding and Kate was on top of EVERYTHING. I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d trust to coordinate my wedding. You will not be disappointed in CVW!

Alissa Trowbridge

Kate is the best! We rented her beautiful water glasses for our wedding and received many compliments on them. From our initial conversations to the drop off the rentals, Kate was friendly, efficient, and very professional. You're in good hands with Chicago Vintage Weddings!

Jill Summers

I was so excited to find out about Chicago Vintage Weddings at the Chicago Green Wedding Alliance annual eco-wedding fair, Committed. We wanted our wedding to be fun, chic, and most importantly, sustainable. It was also important to us to use vendors whose ideals and practices were aligned with our own, so we like that CVW is small business that proudly supports marriage equality and local animal rescue efforts. CVW’s inventory is infinitely more wonderful than run-of-the-mill rental houses, with tons of character, humor, color and personality and it was also more affordable. We ended up renting everything we couldn’t get from our venue through them, and even adding design services to make sure that all of our components worked seamlessly with our location, floral and other decor. The dessert and appetizer tables they designed for us got so many compliments, and pieces like their wonderful lanterns, the vintage seating lounge, and carnival lighting transformed our venue into a magical place! The last thing I will say is that although I prided myself in not being a high maintenance bride, I did have tons of questions and lots of emails, additions and changes. CVW always made me feel they had unlimited time for me and were happy to be getting my emails. They are also a “make it work” group of gals, even getting my chairs from the ceremony site to the reception (they were so adorable I wanted them at both!) in under an hour’s time. Wonderful, chic, amazing taste, great service, affordable, and you’re supporting a local woman-run small business. This is a win-win-win-win-win situation!!

John Scott

Kate was fantastic to work with on our recent wedding. We chose her “Brigitte / Day-of-Coordination” package due in part to our event planning experience as well as our budget. In hindsight, we wish we would have hired Kate for her full planning services as she was incredibly helpful and took away all of the stress we had been feeling for many months of planning on our own before she got involved. Her day-of coordinating actually begins about 5-6 weeks out from the wedding date at which point she met with us to go over all the details we had already planned. From that point on she took over all of the vendor communications which was great so we could focus on the real importance of the day - our love for each other. We got many compliments from our vendors/officiant/family that Kate’s emails were the most detailed they had ever seen. She really does think of everything, including many things that hadn’t even crossed our mind. It’s helpful that she also has a rental side of her business which allowed us to pick up a few decor items that fit in perfectly with our aesthetic. Kate and her assistant were on point throughout the day, ensuring everyone arrived on time and everything was setup according to our vision. Even when the night was winding down, we frequently saw Kate walking around, making sure everything was still running smoothly down to the last minute. We have no idea what we would have done without having Kate involved for our big day. Like I said, if we had to do it all over again (and thank goodness we don’t!), we would’ve hired Kate for her full planning services. Thank you Kate!

Anne Pifer

We hired Kate and team for full wedding services and we rented their beautiful collection of items for wedding decor. We are so happy we made the decision to hire CVW from the very beginning of the wedding planning as it helped with budget planning and some important initial decisions. I was too swamped at work to be able to handle all the details of planning, and Kate made it very seamless and stress-free at the beginning to secure key vendors and locations. In particular, one of the vendors almost double-booked our date, but Kate worked with them to figure out the problem and behind the scenes she figured out a solution to ensure we got our venue. She did this without letting me know about the drama until she had a recommendation on a solution. Throughout the wedding planning process, Kate was always professional, extremely responsive, and handled my micro-managing really well (I couldn't let go out all the control!) During the wedding weekend, Kate had everything very well organized, kept me and family calm, executed on all the details, and made it a perfect day for us. I will never forget walking into the reception and thinking just how perfect and how "us" it looked. All of CVW's rentals perfectly captured our style and who we are. There is absolutely no way I could have pulled off such a perfect day without CVW. I would highly recommend working with CVW for full-planning and for rentals. Thanks again, Kate!

Sue K

Kate was our daughter's "month of coordinator" (and the owner!) We cannot praise her organizational skills and her attention to details enough! She called all the vendors involved and coordinated their deliveries so we didn't have to worry about it the days leading to and the day of the wedding. We were handed an itinerary that was extremely detailed for the day of the wedding. Kate and her staff took care of everything the night of the wedding. If we needed anything at all, she was on it. Kate did the take down and even dropped off the decorations and flowers at our room where we were staying, so we could continue the celebration! We truly would not have had such a smooth wedding without her and her staff! Because of Kate, we felt no pressure at all on my daughter's wedding day!

Casey Carlson

Before hiring Kate, I am not going to lie... I wondered why any sane person would ever plan a big wedding. Six months away from our big day, my finance and I decided to change our wedding venue and I was in a state of panic that was paralyzing. We found Kate and quickly brought her on board to help with a partial planning package. Gradually that panic I had felt turned from a numbing fear, to a giddy excitement... and by the week of my wedding, everything was SO organized that my finance and I had literally NOTHING to do. Kate was so on top of things that we got to take the week of the wedding to just relax and be excited. Everything was handled. I kept being like- shouldn't we be stressed right now? But no, it was bliss. The wedding itself was a perfectly choreographed dream sequence. There are no words to describe the sense of comfort we felt on the day of the wedding knowing Kate was directing the show. Perfection sounds cliche, but she was nothing short of everything you could ever ask for in a planner. Professional, organized, punctual, and precise. She was calming and commanding and brought a energy to the space that screamed "I GOT THIS." I didn't realize that our honeymoon would be spent entirely re-living the day of the wedding over and over again. We rode that high and still have not come down. It's like there is "real life," and then there is the wedding week in a whole different category of reality. You just don't know how magical it will be until you experience it. Kate- you brought the magic. You made it happen. You are a unicorn-riding princess goddess divine who sprinkles love-dust on all those you encounter. I AM SO GLAD WE FOUND YOU. You dream maker you! I can't wait to get to re-live the memories of our wedding- you so carefully crafted- over and over forever. Now, I GET why people have big weddings. Because once you live it, you tell everyone you know how it was "the best day of your life." And it was. INFINITE THANK YOUS to Kate and Chicago Vintage Weddings.

Lauren Brown

I found Kate early in my planning process and she was invaluable to making my planning stress-free and fun. She consulted on the event styling and helped planned logistics with the calligrapher and florist, which she also screened and obtained quotes on my behalf. Having her liaison with these important vendors took a lot of the detailed planning off my plate so I could focus on other details. I loved the way our wedding looked and I couldn't have done it without CVW!! She was professional from start to finish and was incredibly flexible in the week before the wedding. I highly recommend meeting with Kate and supporting this amazing local business!

Carson Smith

Kate and her team were all amazing to work with! From our first meeting, Kate understood our vision - she listened as I showed her pictures and pinterest boards and asked all of the right questions. She clarified details that I had completely forgot about, and helped to create a plan that we were both comfortable with. Our ceremony and reception were held in the same location with a room flip in-between. We opted to hire two of her team members to help with the flip and they were amazing. Our tables were set beautifully and I didn't have to worry about anything. We got so many compliments on the detail that the vintage china and glassware added to our overall vision. We will certainly be using Chicago Vintage Weddings again for future events, big or small. The prices are amazing and the service is even better :)