BigCityBride Blog

How sweet it is ….to find a pink food truck in Chicago! Our Thursday just got better … and we have to share.

Our LOVE for food trucks continues! The Sweet Ride just rolled through the Lincoln Park area of Chicago and Big City Bride flagged them down. Look at all the amazing treats to be had! Nothing like banana pudding, whoopie pies, cupcakes, cookies, and push-up cupcakes to sweeten an afternoon.

Five minutes after this picture nothing was left but a few crumbs..and a few very happy Chicago wedding planners.

Before we fully enjoyed every morsel of this Chicago food truck’s treats we chatted about the possibilities of letting the Sweet Ride pull up to a Chicago wedding (our wedding planning brains never turn off!) They were so excited to discuss the possibilities of customized menus and customized packaging. Whether this adorable little truck is waiting outside when your guests are leaving or you have them pull up as a sweet surprise at a Chicago wedding shower  … the possibilities are endless.

Winter is a perfect time to cuddle up by the fire with your love. However, the winter months are long and although the frequent lazy nights inside are nice, getting out into the brisk fresh air can be good for a relationship. The wedding planners at Big City Bride always support romance, especially in Chicago so here are a few ideas for enjoying this unseasonably warm Chicago winter with your love.

In a city like Chicago, there are endless opportunities for date nights. Take Millennium Park for example. Not only are there lite up trees surrounding the park which makes a walk romantic and scenic, but you can go ice skating hand in hard underneath the infamous bean. Hours and details and this dreamy photo can be found here: Ice Skating | Millennium Park | Explore Chicago

If you don’t want to fight the frigid temperatures but you still want to partake in a winter activity, go ice skate at the worlds highest ice skating rink in the John Hancock Observatory. You and your partner can Skate in the Sky! Afterwards head to the Lavazza Expressions Cafe in the John Hancock  for some scrumptious hot chocolate.

If the idea of iceskating inspires fear not romance then leave the heart of the city and head into the quaint and beautiful Lincoln Park neighborhood. Here you will find the well known Lincoln Park Zoo. Get all bundled up and enter for free to see the animals who love winter, and participate in the zoos various winter events, workshops, and activities. Here is a calendar to view what upcoming events the zoo is offering so that you can plan a fabulous date night.

If you really want to get out of the city for the day, explore the Chicago Brookfield Zoo. Chicago is pretty special to have two amazing zoos and it’s fun as a couple to say you’ve seen what the city has to offer! Here, see two brand new snow leopards and afterwards participate in a myriad of activities. This is a great time to visit Chicago Brookfield Zoo because Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays are all free entry days!

If you aren’t the outdoorsy type of couple but you are still looking to get out of the house, you can venture out to one of Chicago’s wonderful and historic museums. Here’s your chance to really check the city highlights off your dating to do list! We are so blessed to live in a city with The Field Museum, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Adler Planetarium, The Shedd Aquarium and The Chicago Art Museum. To add to this, all venues are so close to each other and amazingly located on the beautiful Lake Michigan. Take a stroll on the lake, explore a few museums, and grab dinner afterwards to discuss!

The wedding planners at Big City Bride hope these ideas can help you and your love get out of the winter slump and have a little romantic Winter fun! Chicago is too great of a city to only enjoy in the summer. Go explore. Go stroll. Go skate or observe or eat or learn or shop. Enjoy!

We’re so ecstatic for more great news from the Knot! Their Chicago issue always feature a fabulous variety of weddings throughout the city. With styles and ideas for every bride it’s a wonderful reference for brides to be. Big City Bride is honored to have our wonderful brides featured as inspiration for everyone just starting the wedding planning process.

Be sure to flip through the newest Chicago issue for their “10 perfect Chicago weddings.”  Mary Kate & Ryan are the first feature and it looks amazing! The four page spread shows off all the fun details of their “West bound” el themed wedding. From delicious letterpress print materials to the el car place cards this wedding at the Chicago Cultural Center was perfectly them. As a Chicago wedding planner, that is the ultimate goal! A stunning wedding perfectly tailored to the wonderful bride and groom.

Thank you to Riverbend Studios for capturing this event so beautifully that The Knot wanted to show it off to the world!

With the snowy and cold Chicago winter upon us, everyone is already itching for the spring season to arrive. Since we have a while until then, the wedding planners at Big City Bride wanted to remind you of all the beautiful flowers that will eventually come into bloom. Brides are now preparing for their Chicago spring weddings, and the Big City Bride wedding planners want to share ideas of what types of flowers soon to be married couples can use to make their wedding day a picturesque one.

Here we have a Daffodil to the left and a Forsythia to the right. Yellow is a great spring color, and these flowers would make for a bright spring wedding. Here’s an idea! Gray or navy bridesmaids dresses and linens would allow the flowers to pop. A fun color scheme will light up a Chicago venue, and leave an everlasting impression on all the guests!

A bride can never go wrong with purple flowers at their wedding. The Hyacinth on the left and the Lilacs on the right are just two of the many purple flower choices a bride can pick from. For the big day, think about incorporating a variety of candles and lighting to make for a romantic wedding reception.

Spring is also the perfect time for pink! Aside from pink Roses, Peonies and Sweet Peas are gorgeous choices to have in bouquets at the wedding ceremony and in centerpieces at the wedding reception. Using pinks can transform any Chicago wedding venue, and put a smile on guests’ faces upon arrival. Lilly’s of the Valley (shown on far right) can be very sweet too!

Tulips and Viburnums are another great spring wedding flower option. Tulips come in so many colors and varieties that they are a great addition to whatever floral you have. If you’re going for colorful design, the Viburnum berries can be a fun accent.

A couple can not go wrong by choosing to have spring flowers present on their wedding day! The wedding planners at Big City Bride know that choosing the right flowers can completely transform a Chicago wedding ceremony and a Chicago wedding venue! If you choose flowers that are in season then the cost is much more budget friendly! Winter can be a drag, but we have so many spring weddings to look forward to!

http://www.flowers-cs.com has provided us with these photos, go to their website to check out even more spring flower options!

We’re so excited to share this with everyone! Chicago doesn’t see a party like this very often. The most luxurious, sexy, and festive Christmas party Chicago has ever seen in a private garage. As an event planner in Chicago we specialize in solving problems, and this Chicago venue had its challenges. Without water, heat, bathrooms, or lighting and filled with vintage cars this space needed an epic transformation and that’s what we gave it.

Guests arrived to a tented sidewalk, and entered on a red carpet through a threshold of draping to a room that literally dropped jaws. Showcasing six vintage cars, Big City Events (Big City Bride without the I Do’s) planned the party true to the integrity of the space. Cars were highlighted with lights from below and within. The brick walls, wood posts, and wood ceilings were made stunning by vibrant lights. The raised VIP section allowed guests to watch the crowd, the drinks flowed all night, late night snacks roller skated into the party, and the disco balls made the whole space sparkle. Never before have I seen such a stunning ceiling installation. In contrast with the incredible wood ceilings, the reflection made it feel like the night sky was overhead. With the lighting constantly changing this Chicago event became a PARTY throughout the night. Nothing could have been more fabulous!

For more images visit Big City Events & Big City Bride here!

It’s always an honor to be featured on a blog, especially one that brides and grooms love.  Today ChicagoStyle Weddings magazine posted a photo shoot that we did with them last year. Their feature ‘Designers Challenge’ asked Chicago wedding planners to take a vision and use an assigned team of Chicago wedding vendors to make it a reality. Together with the Chicago wedding florist, Chicago cake designer, and Chicago invitation designer, Big City Bride created a look we like to call ‘Haute Pink’. We love the mirror, the bright pink pops of color, the sparkly metal runners, and the custom made linen!

Be sure to check out the ChicagoStyle Weddings blog by clicking here!

Thank you to Gerber & Scarpelli Photography for taking such great photos!

For all the brides with a little anxiety for a rainy wedding day…focus on a few quick tips to make it bearable rather than focusing your energy on changing weather patterns. Hate to say it – but you don’t have that power, nor does your Chicago wedding planner, to change the weather.

But, we do have umbrellas and a little hair spray for the frizzy flyaway you didn’t expect. If rain or snow are in the forecast then plan accordingly. Don’t ask your hair to do things it doesn’t naturally want to do unless you’re okay with your curls springing back up after your first few photos.

You Chicago wedding planner is there to make sure you feel beautiful and stay dry and warm on wedding day. Darcey Lohman, of Big City Bride, kept Lauren looking stunning and Edenhurst Studio couldn’t have taken more beautiful Chicago wedding photography. It’s always fun to capture the behind the scene moments of the day.

Winter has finally come to Chicago! As much as we loved the clean streets and the surprisingly warm weather December brought us, Big City Bride is excited to finally see snow. By the constant sounds of snow blowers and shoveling outside our window today, it seems everyone has been waiting a long time for the whiteness Chicago is usually sick of this time of year. But it’s new to 2012 and so of course your favorite Chicago wedding planner had to take a quick minute for an office picture, and we thought we’d share.

Our day has been full of a few more visits to the window than usual. It’s so wonderful to see beautiful snow once again! Here we are loving the winter wonderland outside the Big City Bride office. We just had to see it for ourselves!

For all of our out of town brides who may not know all that Chicago winters have to offer, we thought we’d send a sneak peak of our day. Here’s the view outside your Chicago wedding planner’s door. Every single tree twig perfectly and delicately covered with a layer of white. Everything quiet.  Everything peaceful.

We’re cozy in our Lincoln Park office today. The candles are burning, coffee and tea are on every desk, and lots of wedding planning in the warmth of Big City Bride. It’s a good place to be.

Sending our love from our winter wonderland, Big City Bride

Strings are a wedding staple, but we have an idea that will ROCK your reception!  A rock violin show is a great way to entertain guests for cocktail hour. Playing modern covers, they are sure to entertain your guests with an energetic talent that you would never expect in a wedding violin group. Fool your guests into thinking you chose a classical string quartet and shock them with a modern twist on tradition.

During your cocktail hour or your Chicago wedding reception, this will surprise and entertain your guests. Chicago wedding planner Big City Bride loves the chance to plan surprises into their events to keep guests excited throughout the night. A Chicago wedding planner knows tricks for timing and execution that can make a great entertainment act into something dramatic and unforgettable! This might be the stand out edge you’re looking for!

Thanks to Robyn Rachel Photography for capturing the fun.

As we begin to look forward to a very exciting 2012 at Big City Bride…we pause for a moment to remember 2011.  Of course we remember working at our favorite Chicago wedding venues and the best Chicago bands. We remember our favorite wedding cakes and our favorite wedding bouquets. We remember our favorite wedding invites, our favorite Chicago wedding food, our latest nights, funniest meetings, and mostly our clients who have become new friends.

But in all of the details that concern a Chicago wedding planner, we can’t deny that when we reflect on wedding day we look past the wedding details and focus on the true celebration at hand. And so, we remember the amazing couples who we’ve had the priveledge of planning with. We remember the incredible love that our office runs on…whether humorous or supportive or quiet or crazy romantic…our office is overflowing with love and that is why we do what we do. So most of all when we look back we remember the loved ones who gathered to celebrate our Big City brides and grooms and all the fabulous fun!

And so as we move into 2012 with high hopes and strong spirits…we toast to our brides and grooms of 2011 and before. Without you on our side as our supporters and our friends we could not be the Chicago wedding planner that we are. Thank you and Cheers!

And we toast also to your toasts… To the friends and family who have nervously poured their hearts out over champagne to tell you they love you and wish you a successful marriage…. To the words that make even your wedding planner laugh and cry in the back of the room because watching you happy is what we live for…To the moment when you’re surrounded by all your people with a full glass and a happy heart…CHEERS!

Cheers to Robyn Rachel Photography for the above Chicago wedding photography!

Cheers to Edenhurst Studio for the above Chicago wedding photography!

Cheers to Riverbend Studio for the above Chicago wedding photography!

Cheers to Allori Photography for the above Chicago wedding photography!