Anticipation Events

At times I still shudder at our decision to hold an Indian wedding in Chicago in the midst of January, and I can honestly say that there’s no way we could have pulled it off without Elizabeth. This is the best wedding planning decision we made– hands down. We met Elizabeth (at Lagunitas Brewery!) about a month after being engaged, and were immediately put at ease, as she managed to calmly assuage a lot of our fears and questions, while matching our enthusiasm for a wedding at Thalia Hall, a venue she was, of course, quite familiar with. We were so impressed, we quickly recommended her to our mutual friends, who were getting married a few months before us. This gave us the unique experience of being able to watch Elizabeth in action prior to our own wedding, and when we saw how she seamlessly streamlined and ran Margaret and Tito’s wedding, we knew we were in good hands.
Although Elizabeth was ostensibly just our day-​of-​coordinator, we leaned on her for a lot of our major decisions. She subtly (and sometimes not-​so-​subtly) steered us to a fantastic florist, photographer, make-​up artist, and DJ, and we learned how much easier and less stressful wedding planning is when the various vendors know and trust one another. She is, as she promises, very much available with advice and recommendations from the minute you decide to work with her, and she has fantastic advice. All of her recommendations were always at our request so I never felt that I had to choose anyone she recommended. In a big city it’s easy to get overwhelmed by options and for us, being able to have a planner that knew our budget and our vibe was great. She would give us three or four options and I knew they had already been vetted.
As the big day neared, we came together and hashed out a detailed itinerary for every aspect of the wedding day, where she took into account not simply just our needs, but the needs of our wedding party, our families, and the various challenges of running an Indian wedding in January, including letting us have a mini-​baraat right through the lobby of Dusek’s. She is the most organized person I’ve ever met but never overbearing. She’s warm and funny, always positive, and generally the kind of person you would be happy to grab a drink with after your wedding. Needless to say, on the wedding day, everything ran smoothly and without a hitch, and I’d like to tell you more about exactly what Elizabeth did, but the two of us were too busy having the most fun of our lives. We could not have been happier with Elizabeth’s services, and cannot thank her enough.

We got married a few weeks ago, and I’m honestly not sure how we would’ve pulled it off without Elizabeth and Anticipation Events. She was hyper-​organized, always reassuring, and incredibly calming at what can be a stressful time. Elizabeth did a great job of taking full ownership of anything we sent her way, making sure we had nothing to worry about on the day of the wedding. Seriously can’t thank her enough for a job truly well done, nor can we recommend her highly enough if you’re looking for a day-​of coordinator for your wedding.

Anticipation Events worked its magic for our August 2014 wedding at Thalia Hall! We contracted with AE late in the planning game, when we had a freak-​out moment while working through millions of minor, never-​before-​considered details. AE saved the big day by hitting the ground running and making our event go off without a hitch, from the largest to smallest details. We worked primarily with Elizabeth, who was a treasure trove of knowledge and a great reconciler between me and my husband’s sometimes divergent viewpoints; her calm demeanor and politeness also made working with her a breeze. The whole AE team was professional, on point, and exceeded our expectations. Without a doubt, we’d highly recommend AE’s services!

Anticipation Events helped me through day-​of coordination, and more. I requested additional support from the AE team because my venue coordinator was extremely difficult and I needed someone in my corner to get things done the way I wanted to see them. Not only did AE do all the right things, but I felt like I had a friend backing me up. I worked with Elizabeth, and I could trust her style to make decisions on the day of the wedding that I really couldn’t do, not being on site during set up. Her taste for design is gorgeous so I could also ask her to just lay things out and knew she’d do a better job than I would.
The wedding was three weeks ago and compliments have been streaming in about how wonderful AE was. My mother was particularly impressed, and told me how Elizabeth manned all the important tables, having to stand up all my escort cards each time the door opened and knocked them over– about 10 times.
I had a couple vendors that I thought may actually not show up, because my conversations with them had been so limited. And sure enough, when I arrived I had such a sense of relief when AE told me everyone was there, on time, and they had been coordinating the game plan all week together. Plus, my husband thought she was pretty cool and it’s hard to get a husband on-​board with extra wedding spending. Win-​Win.
It was stereotypically the best night of my life and I feel so lucky to have just enjoyed it like a love-​struck idiot and not worry about a single detail. AE is worth every penny and more.
I would recommend to any bride to get at least a day-​of coordinator. You have no idea how many details start flying in the last few weeks that you’ll wish someone else was helping to keep track of with you.

Day Of Coordinator was the only vendor where we interviewed multiple people for the position. We came upon Elizabeth at Anticipation Events because our florist (Asrai Gardens) recommended her, and we felt it was important we chose a planner who had worked with at least one of our vendors before and was familiar with our venue, Wyndham Grand Riverfront (formerly Hotel 71).
Elizabeth could not have been better. We felt an instant, personal connection with her right away, which we did not get from the other planners. She really got us and our personalities. I could tell she could reign in my crazy wedding party during the rehearsal and still be cool, as opposed to a yelling task master.
She made sure that we had a walk-​through with our vendor and dj about 3 weeks before the wedding which was invaluable for getting everyone on the same page and working out details. We had our ceremony and reception in the same room, so getting the set up details right was essential. We had intermittent contact and questions about vendors that she helped us with over email, but she was instrumental on making sure the timeline and all vendors were on the same page the week of the wedding. At the wedding rehearsal, she could tell I was on edge with stress and did all of the organizing and inter-​vendor communications.
The wedding day ran very smoothly, and I know that it wouldn’t have gone down like that without Elizabeth. You know she’s there, but she’s not «in your face». My venue manager and Elizabeth worked really well together, and all of the little details like the dessert table, program placement, cocktail hour, ceremony set up… all of those things were totally taken care of without my having to worry about it.
I would highly recommend Elizabeth and Anticipation Events to anyone planning a wedding. My entire wedding party, my parents, and the guests noticed how smoothly everything went and were very happy with her services.

We got married last Saturday, and I couldn’t wait to write this review. Just shows you how much we loved Anticipation Events!
When we first met with Elizabeth, we knew immediately that Anticipation Events was the way to go for our day-​of coordination. From the very beginning, working with Anticipation Events has been nothing but extraordinary! Even with months to go before the wedding, our questions and concerns were always promptly answered. We are grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with Anticipation Events and Elizabeth as our day-​of coordinator.
Elizabeth has an amazing personality. She is extremely detail-​oriented, professional, and knowledgeable. The wedding timeline she creates and distributes to your vendors is reason enough to hire Anticipation Events! But not only does she help organize and schedule your day-​of, she also knows how to take care of her clients. During our venue walk through, she did not make us feel rushed at all. She worked with our venue coordinator and florists to address any issues that arose during the walk through. And during our rehearsal, she worked with the entire bridal party to make sure there were no questions left unanswered.
Elizabeth was instrumental in making our wedding day absolutely perfect. She was constantly working with our vendors, but would magically appear if you needed anything, including mints and scissors. She assisted in all aspects of the wedding, including set-​up and take-​down. We did not have to worry about a thing!
We highly recommend Elizabeth and Anticipation Events. Our families and vendors have not stopped talking about how smoothly the wedding day went. And we could not have done that without her. Our florists even said that every bride deserves to have a coordinator like Elizabeth!
Thank you so much for everything! –Aileen + Ed

We hired Anticipation Events and worked with both Elizabeth and Julia. Julia was our main coordinator for our August 1 wedding at the Floating World Gallery. With our venue you bring everything in separately — like decorating, caterer, alcohol delivery, chairs, lighting, etc., etc. So of course, a day of coordinator made sense.
What I wanted and didn’t believe was possible was that you could hire someone and you wouldn’t have to worry about ANYTHING the day of the wedding. I figured I would be fixing this or that problem and always being aware of what is and is not being done. I have to honestly admit that I did not have to worry about one thing at my wedding. I was able to get lost into the evening. Yes, there was a lot of planning and questions beforehand, but the event was truly ours to enjoy. Julia at one point was even watching our dogs outside, waiting for pet sitter to come and pick them up (they were our ring bearers BTW) and she insisted that I go back inside and forget about what she was doing. We had a photo booth for our wedding and she understood that the location we originally instructed her to place it would not work upon arrival and found the perfect spot for it. She took that kind of decision making off our plate. Actually, I may never totally know what she did and didn’t do but the end result was awesome.

My wife and I had a dream wedding out in the Iowa countryside and couldn’t have done it without Elizabeth. She was so on top of it and excited about our plan to have a wedding at a private residence that she came from out of town. She was integral in making our day organized, special, and easy — key ingredients to a perfect wedding.

We worked with Elizabeth and Julia for day of coordination for my daughter’s wedding. Elizabeth was our contact up to the day of the wedding. She contacted and verified details with all the vendors and created our timeline. Julia worked with us the day of the wedding. She was amazing! Professional and well organized. She even came armed with mosquito spray for our outdoor wedding ceremony! My daughter experienced major problems with her bridal gown during the reception and Julia drove back to our hotel to get my daughter another dress to wear! Thanks so much to both Julia and Elizabeth for helping to make this a special day for my daughter.

We chose Dank Haus as our wedding reception venue because they allowed us to choose all our own vendors and we knew this would help keep costs down. However, it also meant a lot of coordinating between multiple vendors leading up to the wedding. For this reason we decided that even with our modest budget a day-​of-​coordinator was going to be a necessity.
I found AE thanks to Unilocal and from our initial meeting with Elizabeth, I knew we were in good hands. She created a timeline for us and picked up communication with all our vendors the week of the wedding. This meant we could relax and spend time with the friends and family who came from out-​of-​town rather than stress over last minute details. I don’t even want to imagine how we would have pulled it off without her. We highly recommend Anticipation Events!

Elizabeth performed day of coordination for our destination wedding and we couldn’t have done it without her. She is well organized, professional, and has the attention to detail that is so important on the wedding day. We were finally able to relax with Elizabeth there running point with the vendors and timelines. She picked up on details that would have been missed, and proactively addresses situations/​issues to ensure they are handled in a timely manner. We will definitely be recommending Anticipation Events! –Ryan and Katie

We used Anticipation Events for the Day of Coordinator services for our wedding and it was honestly one of the best decisions we made. Julia was our actual Day of Coordinator and she was wonderful. She took care of everything from keeping everyone on schedule to sewing my cousin’s dress strap back on after it snapped from dancing to transporting all the leftover alcohol back to our hotel room. My husband and I didn’t worry about a thing on the day of our wedding. This alone would have been well worth the cost of a day of coordinator. However, day of coordinator services from Anticipation Events is so much more than that. The owner, Elizabeth, is not only one really cool chick, she is amazingly organized and a bit of control freak, but in the best way possible. You need someone like this for your wedding. We had a very stressful last minute venue change and Elizabeth immediately stepped in to help search for new venues and reach out to her network for suggestions. That, in addition to answering all of our wedding questions, creating a wedding weekend timeline, and coordinating all of our vendors to make sure everyone was on the same page, took a lot of pressure off my husband and me. Elizabeth genuinely cares about her clients and spent way more time and effort on our wedding than we ever could have expected even though we only used the day of services. I highly recommend Anticipation Events — it will be one of the best uses of your wedding budget!

We hired Elizabeth and her team as a stylist and day of coordination. Everything looked AMAZING. She is really on top of what needed to get done, set up reminders, and really suggested places where we can really save up to stay on budget. I can’t tell you how worth the time and money it was to have her as a day of coordinator. I was a little hesitant how everything would come out as my husband and I live VERY busy lives, and especially since we were in the middle of moving to Michigan (e-​mail/​texting did wonders) and every order was last minute on our part (hence it was great she sent constant reminders), but the wedding looked spectacular and looked like it came from the pages of the Knot. It was incredible considering how everything came down to the last couple of weeks. I also loved how she was able to narrow everything down to our vision (because I tend to change my mind and get a lot of ideas from blogs/​mags) and also provided us a pretty inspiration board for our day. PLEASE do yourself a favor and hire her… EVERYONE from the wedding couldn’t stop talking about how gorgeous and fun the day ended up. Thanks Elizabeth!

I used Anticipation Events for day-​of wedding planning.
My experience with Elizabeth was great from the start– she was enthusastic, got where I was coming from as a bride, and was a great go-​to for tips during my planning process. Elizabeth’s organizational skills and planning experience were apparent in the depth of questions she asked, the suggestions she provided, and the amazingly helpful timeline that she constructed.
I worked with Katie for my actual wedding day, who seamlessly picked up the ball from Elizabeth and rolled it right into a perfect wedding. Having Katie there to manage setup, details, vendor contacts and issue-​resolution was HUGE in allowing me to actually enjoy my wedding day. Not only did Katie execute everything I asked of her, but she also managed to read my mind to perfectly implement details that I totally forgot to even explain.
As an added bonus, these ladies have the personality to boot. Always great to enjoy who you’re working with.
Would definitely recommend them!

Elizabeth did day of coordination for my husband and I’s wedding on June 22^nd, 2013 at the Ravenswood Event Center. Elizabeth was so completely amazing. She took care of everything on the day of so that my mother and I did not have to worry about a thing – I cannot tell you how refreshing this was after having done planning for a nearly 300 person wedding for a year. The minor glitches on the day were handled by Elizabeth and I did not even have to know about them. She also gave me her old Toms shoes to wear at the wedding as my feet were killing me. Just overall, amazing job. If you are considering working with AE, pull the trigger!

Both Elizabeth, the owner, and Laura, our day-​of coordinator, were involved with our planning for the final month before the wedding. Yes, that’s right — even though we signed on only for day-​of coordination, they were both in touch with us and all our vendors long beforehand. Both of them showed up for initial walk-​throughs as well, and Laura ran our rehearsal perfectly. By the wedding day, I felt absolutely comfortable that we were in good hands — and we continued to feel that way all day long. Laura checked in with us just often enough throughout the night and did a fantastic job of making the last-​minute tweaks we needed (like changing the pickup time for our final guest shuttle back to the hotel). All-​around amazing experience — thanks, Laura and Elizabeth!

What can I say about the woman who helped produce one of the biggest days of my life?
Elizabeth is an exceptional professional with impeccable attention to detail. Her hard work and determination is unyielding– melting into the background when appropriate while still being at your side before you ever need her assistance. Elizabeth is an unwavering champion in your corner when snags arise and a «roll-​up-​your-​sleeves» kinda gal when you need the hard work done.
Desiring to be 100% hands-​off on «the big day», I can say with all honesty that it was just like pulling the bow off of a present; everything was so perfect. If anything was out of place or if there were snafus with the staff, we never knew.
I would love to go on and on about our wedding, because it was so amazing, but I do have to say it was all due in part to the magical efforts of Elizabeth.

AE was the perfect resource for my wedding this year. Not only did Elizabeth provide the best advice a girl could ask for, but she was extrememly dedicated to making our day the best day it could be. The week of our wedding we had a lot of issue with the venue and Elizabeth handled all of the stress with patience and grace. The day of our wedding there was an incredible amount of rain that actually ruined our whole plan for and outdoor wedding. Elizabeth coordinated all of the vendors and made the best out of everything, from setting tables to handing out drinks behind the bar. I can honestly say that our day would have never turned out as well as it did without Elizabeth at Anticipation Events. I would highly recommend her services to any couple.

My husband and I had a really long engagement (2+ years!) — we hired the photographer and booked the venue right away, and then kind of forgot about everything until five or six months before the wedding. So when we met with Elizabeth about two months out, we were feeling a bit stressed. I wasn’t sure we could make our DIY-​heavy budget stretch for a day-​of coordinator, but I wanted to meet with her and see if we could make it work.
I knew our personalities lined up right away — in part because she didn’t give me the same «are you completely out of your mind?» look that most vendors gave me when I said that I was getting all our flowers from the farmer’s market the morning of the wedding and that I didn’t care one bit about linens, etc, and in part because the second we told her that we were going to LA & Palm Springs for our honeymoon, she asked if we were staying at the Ace. (We were!)
Procrastinator that I am, Elizabeth was already booked, but mentioned that Aimee was available. I was a little bummed that we wouldn’t get to have Elizabeth there on the day-​of, but we clicked immediately with Aimee, too, and she went out of her way to make sure we had the chance to get to know her. It ended up feeling like we got two awesome day of coordinators for the price of one, because they were both an email or text away anytime I needed them!
I can’t count the number of times my husband and I looked at each other in the days/​weeks before and after the wedding and said that hiring Elizabeth and Aimee was some of the best money we spent on the wedding. They made all the carting things over (we got married at Salvage One, where you can bring your own alcohol, desserts, etc) and setting my DIY projects up so much easier. I can count so many ways that the day-​of would have been hectic without Aimee, but instead I got to enjoy everything with a glass of champagne in hand.

We hired Elizabeth as our day-​of coordinator for our June wedding at the Byron Colby Barn (Grayslake, IL). With our venue you bring everything in separately — like caterer, alcohol delivery, chairs for the outdoor ceremony — and do all your own décor. So we had our hands very full. A 4-​page inventory of craft projects and décor, etc. About 4 months out I realized — there’s no way I can orchestrate all this on the day! And I don’t want to saddle my family members with this. We needed, as my theater-​world dad said, a stage manager.
Enter Elizabeth! For a reasonable fee she handles everything on the day of the event, which really means a ton before the event too. She asked to be copied on all emails with my vendors and even family (wedding-​related topics of course!) and then offered her suggestions when needed. She offered to help with décor — she is incredibly talented, just check out her blog — and came with us for a walkthrough of the venue, where we went over everything in detail. She wrote me a day-​of timeline and we tweaked it together. She confirmed all details with my vendors and reviewed contracts. I really felt like we had a full-​on planner.
A few things will go wrong on your wedding day. Any time something needing fixing on our day (from turning up the a/​c to dealing with a late florist) Elizabeth was ON IT. She even coaxed our dear sweet ring bearer out of his momentary stage fright. I’m sure there are a bunch of things she handled that I’ll never know about. Everyone in our wedding & family remarked on how cool, calm and collected she is, even as she rushes around to be in ten places at one time.
Elizabeth was also was so attentive to my husband and me on the day. She made us plates from the buffet and then made sure we sat down to eat! (For that we are eternally grateful — our food rocked). She brought bottled water and cocktails out for the bridal party during our 80-​degree photo shoot. She kept us on schedule so I didn’t have to think, just enjoy. And enjoy we did! She also followed up after the event on a few other matters.
I’m now of the opinion that you can’t afford NOT to have a coordinator. I shudder to even think of our big day without her. In fact, I know. Elizabeth was booked on the night of our rehearsal, and offered to send a colleague instead, but we stupidly, stupidly said nah, our officiant will run it. Well, it was pretty much chaos. Never underestimate the value of a true expert running the show!
And did I mention she returns calls & emails promptly and has a great sense of humor? I could go on…