Big City Bride

Big City Bride: Best Decision We Made! Big City Bride exceeded our expectations across the board. We worked with Susan Cordogan, the owner of BCB, who I reached out to because she was the planner for my sister’s wedding 9 years earlier, which was also amazing. I can’t say... Read More enough about Susan and BCB. Susan’s experience and expertise with wedding planning in Chicago was a huge advantage. Our first task to pick a venue is typically the most challenging part of the process, especially in a city like Chicago with such high competition to secure a date. However, Susan set up just one day to visit ten venues, and by the end of the week we had our dream pick at the Chicago Cultural Center for the date we wanted. From then on, our expectations continued to be exceeded. During the actual planning process, the biggest benefits were Susan’s familiarity and close relationship with the vendors, as well as her ability to manage and work within our budget. Right away Susan narrowed down vendor options to those that fit our style and budget, and worked out significant discounts. She was also a great liaison with the vendors, which was very convenient because it allowed us to focus on the more important (and fun!) aspects of the wedding. Our planning process was incredibly organized down to every detail; she proactively kept us on track, and our friends and family were shocked as to how relaxed we were throughout the process. No matter what type of obstacle we encountered, and we ran into quite a few, Susan resolved it quickly with an incredibly positive and professional attitude. For the day of, we did not have a worry in the world. Susan and the team made the family and wedding party feel relaxed, and everything was perfectly timed (which I assumed to be impossible based on many of the weddings I had been to previously). What surprised us the most, aside from how smoothly everything went, was how astounding the wedding looked beyond what we could have imagined, especially the décor and overall look and feel. Susan played an especially large role in that, and her hard work showed. BCB and Susan were the best investment we made in the entire process!

Big City Bride: a league of its own..

If you’re going to hire a wedding planner in Chicago, look no further than Big City Bride. I am a full-time law student, so I needed someone who could stand by my side throughout the whole process; someone to handle even the most minute details, the logistics, and who could... Read More understand my demanding schedule. I interviewed just about every wedding planning company in Chicago and in terms of the services, support, and individualized attention Big City Bride is in a league of its own, while still maintaining the same price points as its competitors. From the moment I walked into the BCB office until the very last song played at my wedding, the whole BCB team was with me every step of the way. I was given the option to use my own vendors, or to choose from the wide array of vendors that Big City Bride referred. While Big City Bride handles the planning they are - in a way I can’t fully comprehend - able to perfectly capture what you envision. Even if the vision cannot be successfully articulated, they are such masters of the craft that they will bring it to life and carry it out, above and beyond all expectations. I am a type-A personality, so naturally I was hesitant to relinquish control to someone I didn't even know, but after my first phone call with Chrissy Magliano (my BCB planner), I knew I was in good hands. The Moral of the story is this: as far as wedding planning in Chicago is concerned, BCB stands above the rest in every aspect. Your search is over, look no further than Big City Bride. You WON’T regret it.

Simply the BEST.

I cannot say enough about Big City Bride!!!! We could not have planned our wedding without them! When we got engaged in February, we were just slightly late in the game for planning the summer wedding of our dreams. After meeting with Claire Weller from Big City Bride, we... Read More were certain she could make our dream a reality in just 5 months!! She was so positive, upbeat and fun and we loved her enthusiasm! She got on the venue search immediately and she guided us in the decisions that needed to be made right away. With my mom helping with the planning from Ohio, she did an excellent job of keeping both of us informed in every detail. Claire made the wedding planning process FUN and easy and allowed for us to enjoy our season of engagement. Because of Big City Bride's amazing connections and relationships with all of the best vendors in Chicago, we were guided to incredible people to work with, while staying within our budget. Claire navigated every obstacle with ease and we were so impressed with her ability to stay positive and adapt to anything and everything that came our way! The Big City Bride team made our wedding day the absolute BEST day of our lives. It was totally stress-free and all we had to do was show up and enjoy! They had the day planned to the minute and when we saw the room for the first time, we were absolutely blown away. It was more beautiful than we had even dreamed it could be! Our guests had an incredible time and so did we :) We know how much time and hard work went into every detail of our wedding and we could not be more grateful to Claire and Big City Bride for everything they did to help us create our urban, elegant and "twinkly" wedding of our dreams!!

Words CANNOT express how amazing our whole wedding experience was. From Start to finish - everything was smooth, organized and stress free. Claire Weller is a GOD SENT ANGEL! Claire truly listened to us and was able to guide us towards everything that made our day... Magical.... Read More From choosing the PERFECT venue, the most delicious food, best music, and photographer, it was seamless and best of all, it was “US”. It goes without saying that - BIG CITY BRIDE met every expectation 10 times over, our wedding has been exactly a month from this review and we are still on wedding cloud nine! Yury and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts; we couldn’t have done it without you!!

Hiring Chrissy Magliano as the wedding planner for our daughter's wedding was the best decision we could have made. Chrissy was able to guide Sarah and Rob through the maze of available choices for caterer (Limelight was beyond our expectations), the band (Greenlight -... Read More people are still talking about the band!), and the flowers...WOW ...Platinum Events outdid themselves with the flower arrangements. Chrissy created a schedule for the rehearsal and the wedding day (March 25, 2017) that kept us all on task but let us enjoy every aspect of the weekend. Our daughter was totally relaxed for her wedding. The photographs (Riverbend Photo Studio) definitely reflect the happiness and love felt throughout the event. Thanks Chrissy and Big City Bride for helping us create a wedding that we will always remember. We would not have changed one thing.

I had found Chrissy and the ladies at BCB through two friends from high school who had used her for their Chicago weddings. To be honest, she was the only one I had contacted and interviewed when my husband and I were looking for a wedding planner. We went with the Grand Plan as... Read More both my husband and I work full-time and he travels for work and my Mom lives in Michigan. The first meeting with Chrissy, I loved her bubbly personality and really started to feel a bit of ease about the wedding planning process. Throughout the process, Chrissy never pushed or pressured us into something that was out of our budget. As a bride to be, I had no idea these were things to consider for a city wedding and that you want to get your venue before you actually book the church. Little did we know convention season starts in the city in May. Chrissy and her team found out that our proposed wedding weekend coincided with the Restaurant Show, which posed problems in trying to get hotel blocks from hotels as the majoirty of them weren't doing blocks for that weekend. Chrissy and her team were able to snag four different hotels with like ten or twenty rooms each. We picked Millennium Park Rooftop Terrace for our reception. Millennium Park couldn't confirm our wedding date because they hadn't finalized their 2016 event schedule. Chrissy worked her magic and was able to secure us a backup venue while we waited. Needless to say, this was stressful but yet a huge sigh of relief that we didn't have to stress about not having a venue we got denied. Chrissy was able to keep our backup on hold for 6 months without a deposit and she stayed positive and continued our planning process with Millennium Park in mind. 6 months later we got approved!! Our big day was here! Chrissy and her team kept us on schedule from the time they showed up to the Trump. We decided to get as many of our family pictures done at the Trump before the ceremony. Chrissy and her team got our LARGE wedding party down the aisle quickly and we actually finished the ceremony earlier than expected That gave us plenty of time to get all our pictures in 15 mins. Cocktail hour and the reception went according to plan and schedule! What was really nice is Chrissy reused the main bar we had at cocktail hour and turned it into the dessert /coffee station. She also reused our placecard board for our Garrett's Popcorn give aways. Chrissy and her team really took care of everything and I really got to enjoy our reception and dance the night away! Our experience with Chrissy and ladies at BCB was unbelievable! They really helped us with everything from start to finish, a lot of stress was lifted off my shoulders throughout the wedding planning process. Many of the guests that attended our wedding also had nothing but praises about how organized, professional, and helpful with any if there were any problems that arose during the day about these awesome ladies! To many brides they are so happy that the wedding planning was over because it was so stressful, but for me I really enjoyed and really started to miss it after the wedding! My advice to any brides reading this, if it's in your budget or if you're on the fence on factoring a wedding planner into your budget, hiring these ladies was totally worth it! Even after the wedding, I still keep in touch with Chrissy! I will be ever so grateful and always remember her and the other ladies at BCB for making our big day so special and memorable!

Wow - Big City Bride was the best decision my fiance and I made about our wedding. The entire Big City Bride team was a joy to work with, especially our planner, Claire. Claire is organized, energetic, full of unique ideas, artistic, and professional. She is an advocate for... Read More making sure what you dream becomes a reality. Claire quickly understands your vision and ideas and can then make excellent recommendations. We absolutely loved all of our vendors including catering, hair and makeup, floral & design, and cake! I loved that I never stressed about anything on my wedding day - I was completely relaxed and knew that BCB had everything under control. Thank you for a dream wedding, Claire and BCB!

Having Big City Bride plan our wedding proved to be a great choice; to say Kayla Mousser was amazing is an understatement. In the months spent planning the wedding, we found Kayla to be a great listener, intelligent, highly organized and friendly. In short, she was very... Read More enjoyable to work with. Despite all the many moving parts involved in planning and execution, Kayla made it all seem so smooth. She was great at guiding us through the many and (at times) difficult decisions. The amount of time and stress she saved us is hard to measure. On the wedding day itself, she was magnificent. In a situation where so many things could have gone wrong - under Kayla’s calm and confident oversight - it all went on without incident. We owe Kayla and BCB a great deal of gratitude for making us feel like guests at our own wedding. Thanks Kayla and BCB! We highly recommend hiring BCB and Kayla.

Big City Bride is the BEST - they planned our Chicago wedding and made it the most romantic, glamorous and personal experience. Susan Cordogan is truly a magic maker - she has the unique ability dive into your mind and weave reality from your DREAMS. My husband and I chose... Read More BCB because we have been fortunate to be the guests, year after year, to the high-level events that BCB plans - hosted by our friend who has used BCB exclusively to plan his holiday fundraisers for over a decade. Known to be the most sought-after invitation in Chicago, these private parties captivate attendees, creating a unique experience that is truly spellbinding. Because we have this experience as guests onboard the BCB experience, we knew that hiring them to plan our wedding would deliver a guaranteed result. Susan and her AMAZING team are truly unparalleled in this highly competative industry - she was the pioneer of bridal planning on this level. Her outstanding reputation and respect among vendors is clearly reflected in witnessing her relationships at work - it is a beautiful coordination to watch her make things happen with ease, in what would be a difficult or impossible situation for anyone else. From concept, to the event, to after the event - BCB makes the experience seamless and fun. As a bride, the staff truly became my girlfriends - making the entire process personal and exciting. The team becomes as invested and enthusiastic about your wedding day, as you are, with a level of talent and professionalism that is unmatched. We love you Big City Bride...thank you for giving us the best wedding ever!

Kayla at Big City Bride was AMAZING. She made the planning process so smooth - from securing us the best vendors in the city to troubleshooting any problems on our behalf to ensuring flawless execution the day of, she made it look easy. Additionally, she was my most trusted... Read More confidante throughout the process. She was always available to discuss ideas and reassure me, even when it wasn't necessarily included in her scope of work. It was obvious she wanted the best for our wedding. When I walked into the venue, I was blown away! My vision came to life in the most perfect way. It's such a cool feeling to be able to say the prettiest wedding you've ever been to is your own. As far as event management, it went without a hitch. Kayla keeps things moving and accomodated every single request we had the night of. It was almost like all I had to do was snap my fingers. To not have to think about anything other than having a good time, while knowing your guests are taken care of, was truly priceless. If you're thinking of hiring a planner, hire BCB! It was the best money we spent. Kayla, we are SO beyond grateful for you. It was the most perfect wedding.

It was the best decision we made to have Big City Bride help plan our wedding! Kayla did a spectacular job and she exceeded any and all expectations we had of her! With her help in planning our wedding it flowed smoothly and with such ease! Both my husband and I as well as our... Read More families could not be happier with how everything turned out! We cannot thank Kayla and everyone at Big City Bride enough for all of their time, hard work, patience in making our wedding day so beautiful! :)

When I was looking at reviews to decide which wedding planner to go with- or to decide if I wanted to hire a wedding planner- one reviewer said that there is no amount of money that you could pay for the Big City Bride service. It struck a chord with me and it still does now... Read More after the wedding day has come and gone. Claire and the entire staff at BCB were an absolute dream. As the first one to get married in my family, my parents didn't have any experience with today’s wedding industry. I am in medical school, my husband works full-time, and my parents are also full-time professionals. It would've been impossible for us to do what Claire and BCB did for us. They knew all the top-notch vendors in Chicagoland and crafted the perfect team for us. All the vendors they recommended were absolutely wonderful and beyond our expectations. Above all, Claire and BCB fostered trust with us that is invaluable during your planning. BCB takes the time to get to know and connect with you. Knowing that you can trust in them completely is something that is worth much more than the cost of a planner. It really allowed us to enjoy the day and enjoy our loved ones. Additionally I don't think many brides and grooms realize the importance of creating a team of vendors that work well with one another. It is not simply enough to cherry pick your favorite vendors. Crafting a team that has rapport with one another really makes a difference on the wedding day. For example, the videographer and photographer were comfortable with each other and had worked together previously. Since they have to work hand-in-hand on the wedding day, it was really nice knowing that they had a plan with how to shoot the day. When it comes to the design and the catering it also makes a huge difference to have the planner and the caterer and the design team on the same page and communicating with one another, as there is a lot of rental equipment to coordinate together. Excellent communication will help them to find the best prices for you and ensure you are not charged double for the same items. This is what BCB does for you. They create an entire team of people that work together and have the same goal in mind. Our planner Claire made sure that all the vendors converged on the same goal and that all details are addressed at the most competitive price. Claire is so enthusiastic and craftsy. She brought pure joy to the table and absolutely loves what she does! She really takes the time to build rapport and get to know you as a person. This helps her truly understand what you want out of the wedding and she just loves getting to know her clients that much. My whole family fell in love with her and my mom even hired her to plan our bridal shower which was an unbelievably magical Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter themed tea party!

We were recently married in Chicago and our wedding day was amazing thanks to Kayla Mousser and her team! Our experience with BCB and Kayla was wonderful from start to finish, and we would recommend her to anyone and everyone looking for an amazing wedding planner in Chicago!... Read More Thank you Kayla for such a memorable experience!

It's not just about the wedding day, it's also about the journey to that special day. Susan Cordogan guided me and my daughter through a relaxed and enjoyable process to create an incredible wedding weekend experience. Always professional and respectful, she asked the right... Read More questions at the right time. Gave us unique and creative ideas that set our wedding apart from other affairs. We had guests that have attended many events/weddings tell us that this was the best party they had ever attended! Susan thinks of everything and has ideas for all budgets. Most importantly, she took time to get to know us so that she knew how to add those special personal touches that made our celebration unique to us. Absolutely, highly recommend!!

Big City Bride was the best decision I made during the wedding process. Susan and Kayla were the best people to work with. They make sure every little detail is covered. I couldn't imagine having a wedding without them. Everything went to plan and I can't say enough great things... Read More about them. The took so much stress away from an already stressful day. Thank you guys so much. Anyone else reading this better hire them because they will make your life so much better.

The best money we ever spent for the wedding was hiring big city bride! Kayla Mousser was our wedding planner and I cannot tell you how valuable she was to making our wedding perfect!!!!! I will recommend Kayla to everyone. We could not have done it without her!

I believe wedding of the century was how everyone has described my wedding this past summer...and sadly it has nothing to do with me!! My amazing wedding planner Chrissy put on the most magical evening for my husband and I and all of our guests. Everything from the flowers to... Read More the food to the timeline being organized down to the second was incredible and I am foreve in her debt! If your looking for the best wedding planner in Chicago this is it and they will make all of your dreams come true :)

Susan and her team are WONDERFUL to work with!!! I'm incredibly impressed with the entire team. Everyone is so friendly, hard working, and talented at what they do. I highly recommend Big City Bride as THE place to go to plan your dream wedding!

When we started planning our wedding we thought we could do it on our own. We quickly figured out we needed help and fortunately we found Chrissy Magliano at Big City Brides. What she was able to do for us; from finding the perfect venue and vendors, to fine tuning he vision for... Read More the event, was priceless. She was professional, fun to work with, and on top of the timeline from beginning to end. The wedding day was perfect. Nothing we would change, and we owe that to Chrissy. She was exceptional. Thank you Chrissy.

At the end of our wedding weekend came a sad moment: receiving an email from Claire with the title “so long for now.” I knew that moment was coming as all my relatives said their good-byes and left town, but I swear in some ways I was more prepared for that than for Claire’s... Read More good-bye. I really didn’t know how to properly thank her for all she had done, and for how much she went above and beyond for us. It is hard to imagine how I would have gotten through the challenges, the harder side of all the fun stuff, without someone like her, who not only kicks ass at her job and enjoys doing it, but has such an endlessly positive attitude. She *literally* made my whole family fall in love with her. My sister, who was newly engaged, was so floored by just the few days she spent with Claire she wanted to take her back to California with her. A year and a half before, when I was looking at all the bios on BCBs website and saw that Claire was listed as the "creative" one, and that is why I asked for her specifically. That certainly turned out to be an understatement. Her creativity goes beyond just table settings and DIYs. She was able to problem solve on a much higher level when the year before my wedding turned into a particularly difficult year in my life health-wise. She was able to make and then re-make a dozen times over whatever plans were necessary in order to match what my day to day capabilities were. Every little detail we chose came together in the end to blow everyone, all my guests, away. Many people told me it was the most beautiful wedding they'd ever been to, used the words fairytale. All along the way I asked Claire, “Are you sure this is going to work? Are these colors really right, the lighting, the flowers…how will it really look in this space?” And she always assured me, it is going to look amazing. And it did. There is a lot more to Claire than the details. She did everything for us and more, and with the extra struggles I faced I really don't think it would have been nearly as good or as special without her. She is an amazing person, incredibly intuitive and dedicated, creative is an understatement, and a whole lot more than just really damn good at her job! Of course, she is really good at her job, and she clearly loves it. I don’t know that I have ever seen anyone work so hard and at all hours and always with a smile. One of the most charismatic people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, Claire literally “kills it with kindness” no matter the scenario. It seemed like she could take any bad situation, diffuse it, and have everyone laughing along with her in a matter of seconds. Probably the most frequent thing I heard from her was the sentence, “I can do that.” A month later, driving through Lincoln Park, my husband said at a red light “maybe we should stop in for a Claire hug.” We both miss her. And even though it is a matter of fact, not opinion, that she is an Athenian Goddess, a wedding warrior, the most endlessly positive person I’ve ever met, don’t try to tell her because she’s as modest as they come. If you do not hire this woman to plan your wedding, not only are you insane to trust your big day to anyone else, you are missing out on knowing a fantastic person who will make the next year of our life even more joyous.

If you are planning a wedding and want it to be everything you can imagine and then some, you NEED Big City Bride! We contracted them for the Grand planning package for our daughters wedding in downtown Chicago on January 2, 2016, and are sooo glad we did. We were placed with... Read More Chrissy and what a find. She is truly remarkable-sweet,happy,knowledgeable,patient, but most of all a real friend. The vendors she recommended were all fantastic. They all exceeded our expectations and we are still getting compliments on how beautiful and fun the wedding was. Everything went off without a single glitch,in fact thanks to Chrissy and her assistance, we never seem to have a stressful moment. Even when there was a problem with my daughters hair Chrissy stepped in and eased the situation and got everything back on track. Chrissy and Big City Bride now feel like new found friends and we are very sad to be done working with them.

Hiring Chrissy and Big City Bride was the best decision we could have made for our wedding planning. Chrissy is amazing. She navigated and guided us through the whole process with timelines and kept us ahead of schedule, which we certainly wouldn't have been without her! She... Read More made everything so easy for us. For instance, she has all the information about the number of people, etc. local venues could hold and she easily narrowed the list down to a number we could visit all in half of a day. She also can easily find out venue availability and we were able to book the perfect venue in a day! Chrissy comes with recommendations for vendors she knows will get the job done in the manner to ensure the day goes smoothly, which it certainly did. We never had to worry about things not getting done. Best of all, on the wedding day we literally didn't worry about anything; we just enjoyed our wedding. we would absolutely recommend Chrissy and Big City Bride!

My sister and I both used Chrissy at BCB to plan our weddings, after seeing how amazing she was with my sisters wedding I knew I wanted to use her for mine, and it was no question that she was going to do an amazing job. I can't stress enough how happy I was to hire her right... Read More from the start, if you are on the fence about doing it it's the best money you will spend on your wedding. Without her knowledge and serious expertise my wedding would not have been as flawless and enjoyable as it was. There is no way I would have had the time to find the best of the best and exactly what I was looking for and bring it all together. What I love about BCB is that whatever vision or whatever you want they are going to deliver for you but better then what you could even think to do on your own. There are so many little details that she thought of I wouldn't have even been able to do, having someone work out contracts for me was so helpful and just knowing how the industry works saved me so much time and money. Having BCB there on the day of made everything run so smoothly and allowed myself,my husband, friends and family the opportunity to enjoy everything and not have to stress out about making sure everything was taken care of. You will not regret using anyone at BCB and it shows in their work, I would recommend to anyone that you are better off finding room in your budget for them then you are spending it on anything else.

I can honestly say that Chrissy was the key to a perfect wedding for my daughter and new son-in-law. If there were glitches in the day we didn't know about them. She is very detail oriented and kept us on track with her calendars and lists. There is no way the day would have... Read More been as perfect without Chrissy's help. I would recommend her in a heartbeat!

Best Decision of my Life!!!

When I got engaged, my mom immediately pushed me to get a wedding planner. She lives across the country from where I live and where I planned to get married, and she said she felt more comfortable if there was someone in Chicago who could guide me in my planning. To be honest... Read More I was hesitant; I had a year until my wedding and I was pretty sure I could handle it. But my mom insisted, so we scheduled a meeting with Big City Bride. I am SO FREAKING THANKFUL that my mom scheduled this meeting!! Claire Weller was my planner, and she is amazing! Yes, she's incredibly friendly and funny, but above all she is a FANTASTIC planner! I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted for my wedding beyond a few Pinterest pictures, and she was extremely helpful in making decisions and really narrowing down what exactly I was looking for. I really commend her with how patient she was with me - I can't tell you how many times I would show up to a meeting with her totally exhausted and overwhelmed with work, barely able to even think about my wedding, and she always put me at ease, got me focused, and really just made the whole planning process a complete dream. She set up meeting with photographers, caterers, florists...everything! She even helped me navigate some personal family/friend issues that came up by staying gracious and helping me to keep what truly mattered - me & my husband - in focus. When you get engaged, it's hard to really wrap your mind around how much planning a wedding really takes, and now that my wedding has come and gone, I can't imagine doing it all on my own. Claire and her team (special thanks to Mary who helped out a lot!) MADE our wedding! Seriously, I got more compliments on how wonderful Claire was during everything than I think I did on anything else! The best part was that my family, friends, fiance, and I were able to completely enjoy the day. Claire made sure everything was set up and all the vendors had all the information they needed. After the reception, she already had everything loaded up (including dessert!) and at the hotel so we could truly enjoy the whole weekend. I really, really can't recommend using Big City Bride and Claire Weller more!