Engaging Events by Ali

We had to change our wedding plans due to Covid, and hired Ali a few weeks before our small ceremony to be our officiant. We had a great experience working with her. Communication was handled mostly via email, and then we met via zoom once the ceremony was written. She gave us total control over what we could change, and she created a beautiful ceremony for us.

Ali is absolutely amazing, and my husband and I can't give her enough praise! We hired Ali for full-service planning about a year out. She planned our multi-day, multi-cultural wedding, and everything went so smoothly, especially given the complexity of our wedding. I tried to write everything here, but there were so many good points, I ran out of room, haha! Full review is on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/engaging-events-by-ali-chicago-2?hrid=3fD2GQIrI8pp648ACiCbIQ So I will say, she was pricier than a bulk of the planners we interviewed. HOWEVER, I will be the first to say that she was COMPLETELY worth it. If I had to do it all over again (don't worry, we won't, haha - very hypothetically speaking), we would still hire Ali especially knowing the time and headache we saved. Also, all our vendors loved working with Ali so it made everything pretty seamless. There were a few minor hiccups that I found out about after the fact, but Ali handled them so well that we didn't even notice during the wedding. Overall, we were able to enjoy our wedding weekend without worrying about all the logistics thanks to Ali and her wonderful team! More than 1+ month out, we are still getting many compliments from our guests on how well organized the wedding was. Thank you, Ali!! If you're looking for a reliable planner that executes well AND has a great personality, I would not hesitate to recommend Ali in a heartbeat!

Ali is a very special person and one of a kind! She is kind, diligent, hilarious and someone that you can count on. From our initial phone call to the day of our wedding (November 12, 2016) she made this process so enjoyable. One thing that stuck out to me was when she said "I like working with nice people." I found that comment to be comforting throughout the entire process and with that she introduced me to vendors that were full of life, professional, and that could keep up with my extreme decisiveness. (She also seems to know everyone in the city of Chicago) Ali embraced my personal style and made sure that was not compromised throughout the planning process. With 11 bridesmaids and 11 groomsmen with a lot of energy and opinions, Ali kept everyone calm, happy ,and reassured them that she (and her team) had every detail under control. She was absolutely right, that day was nothing short of a fairytale. I would highly recommend Ali! Although she was my wedding planner, I hope to keep in contact with her throughout the years, as I said before, she is one of a kind!

We hired Ali to be the "day of" planner for our daughter's wedding at the Museum of Science and Industry. I had done all the planning and just wanted someone to "have my back" wedding day. What more can I say - Ali had my back! I consider that a high compliment. We were worry free on the wedding day because Ali took care of everything. One issue - Ali can be hard to reach as she does many event out-of-town.

If you want to have the wedding of your dreams, then there is no better planner then Ali! We have been working with her for over two years on our wedding, and believe me when I say that we never could have had such an amazing night without her. Wedding planning is stressful and time consuming enough, so Ali makes the whole process as easy and as enjoyable as it can possibly be while also working with your schedule. She knows just about every vendor in the business, and helps you choose just the right ones for your particular wedding. As a bride who had no idea where to even start or which type of colors, vendors, or theme to use, Ali was always right there with me with helpful suggestions to point me in the right direction.What's even more wonderful is that she also has great assistants who just make the big day go even more smoothly. We could not imagine working with anyone else but Ali, and we HIGHLY recommend you choose her for your special day!

We used Ali in our October 2010 wedding. She also did my sister's wedding in 2005. Ali did such a great job of listening to the vision that we wanted for our special day. She had a great recommendations for all of the vendors. We worked with her from the moment we were engaged. She was available, enthusiastic, hard working, and had great suggestions. The day went perfect, and we couldn't ask for a better planner.

I started stalking Ali's work long before I was engaged (but had already begun secretly reading wedding magazines) when I saw an article about her in Chicago magazine - she was listed as the "BFF" of Chicago wedding planners. As soon as I was engaged I set up a meeting and she lived up to the article - my now husband and I adored her - she was the BFF described – personal, energetic, down to earth and every bit professional. The first thing Ali did with us was come up with what we wanted people to walk away from our wedding saying - we wanted it to be magical, a fairy tale come to life. We started working and were so impressed with what she was able to accomplish for us. Her organizational timeline and information binder and worksheets she provided kept us on track of our budget, our payments, and what we had to get done; her relationship with the other vendors was priceless - they expressed to us they loved working with her and seemed to want to bend over backwards and go above and beyond to get things right as we were Ali's clients; her knowledge of etiquette and tradition was invaluable; her attention to detail and organizational skills enabled us to trust her to be on top of every last thing while we tended to our busy work schedules. Ali made what seemed like a stressful and overwhelming task fun from beginning to end. On the day of the wedding, I had not a stress in the world as I knew Ali was all over everything. It truly was the best day of my life – the vision we had from the beginning had truly come to life with not one thing overlooked. As we interacted with the guests I heard the words “fairy tale” and “magical” from just about everyone. We could not have possibly gotten this done without Ali. I would highly recommend Ali to any bride; she was truly essential and irreplaceable in turning our wedding vision into reality.

Ali was awesome! Our wedding was amazing and we couldn't have done it without her. She kept me calm throughout the process and was so much fun to work with. We had interviewed a few planners before we chose Ali - she was the one we clicked with the most and I knew her upbeat personality would be just what we needed. Her vendor recommendations were fantastic - I would have never found my perfect florist and invitation designer without her. As an example of how it doesn't get any better then Ali - the night of our rehearsal dinner Ali showed up at the hotel a bit early and came up to our room to check on us. We needed to be out the door in just a few minutes and neither of us was near ready and I was starting to panic a bit. Ali asked what we needed and proceeded to iron my husband's shirt. Seriously! I calmed down immediately and we made it out on time...and everything else that weekend was like that, exactly on time!

Ali is the real deal when it comes to wedding planning. She is so passionate about her work and makes the entire process incredibly fun! Ali had so many great ideas that made our wedding unique. All of the vendors that she introduced us to were incredible! Every single detail turned out better than we could have imagined. I HIGHLY recommend Ali if you are considering using a wedding planner for your wedding. She is the BEST of the BEST!

Once you get past the sticker shock, it is well worth what she gives you leading up to your wedding. Assistance in planning so many details that could go overlooked was a Godsend with my busy schedule. She is also a genuinely kind woman.

Ali has so much experience and she is full of ideas and creative solutions to fit the personalities of the individual. She knows and has great relationships with all of the vendors and so is able to recommend based on what the couple is looking for in a vendor.;At times I felt as though she did not get back to me soon and sometimes she did not answer the questions I had sent via email.

Ali is extremely organized and helped to put our minds at ease. We were able to relax and enjoy our wedding thanks to her management of the event.

I loved how easy Ali was to work with and how promptly she handled problems on our wedding day. Honestly, I'm a very persnickety, high stress person and I was worried that on my wedding day, I would be a real bridezilla. However, after seeing how Ali had organized all the vendors and handled the one problem that I knew about, all of my worries disappeared and I truly enjoyed my day. Not once did I think about timeframes or schedules; Ali handled it all with precision and a smile.;I honestly can't say one negative thing about Ali.