Five Grain Events

Hiring Joan was quite simply one of the very best decisions we made when it came to our wedding. We had a relatively short timeline by Chicago standards (got engaged just before Christmas and were married in July), and I’m really not sure how we would have pulled it all off without her. She provided great insight during the process of choosing all of our vendors, and her recommendations helped us narrow down the totally overwhelming number of options, which saved us loads of time and probably money. She was incredibly organized and kept us on track in terms of our «deadlines,» and if we’d had any questions about whether or not we’d made the right decision in hiring her, she completely blew us away in the month leading up to the wedding. She was totally on top of everything, and most of the time when I asked her about whether or not we had to do X thing that had never occurred to me but some blog or magazine or person who felt the need to give me «advice» mentioned to me, she’d say, «Oh, yeah don’t worry about that — I did that last week!» I almost certainly owe having a full head of hair on my big day to her being so on it during the blur of those last couple weeks before the wedding.
On the weekend itself, Joan and her team were totally professional and did a fantastic job of ensuring everyone was where they needed to be while still ensuring the event was about the two of us and our families and friends. She was totally visible and accessible to me, but the average guest likely had no idea she was even there, which is a difficult balance to strike and is part of what makes Joan so good at what she does.
I was never the girl who has been planning her wedding since childhood, and after our incredible day, I was frankly thrilled to have the whole wedding prep process be over with, but I was legitimately sad that it meant that I wouldn’t have an excuse to chat with Joan anymore! If you’ve gone through the whole wedding bonanza and find yourself thinking, «Aww I’m going to miss my planner!» when it is done — I truly can’t think of a more ringing endorsement than that.
I would recommend Joan and her team with absolutely zero reservation!

It was a great pleasure to work with Shannon and her assistant Kelly at our December wedding! We were initially on the fence about hiring a coordinator for our wedding, but it was the best decision we made. I don’t know what we would have done without them on the day of the wedding!
Within a few months leading up to the wedding, Shannon started by creating a detailed timeline of the event, and included all of the small details of the day that I didn’t even consider. I was blown away over the attention to detail when I first read the 3 page timeline of the day. Then we had a few meetings where we walked through the day and nailed down all of the details of the set-​up and vendor coordination. There were so many meetings and other necessary things to take care on the few weeks leading up to the wedding and it was a huge relief to have Shannon to take care of all of the major communications. She asked all of the necessary questions during the venue walk-​through, and kept everything organized in her impressive three-​ring binder made especially for our wedding, where she kept all of the contracts, timelines, etc. She also took all of the décor items we bought or made the week before the wedding and made sure they were set up the exact way we imagined it on the actual day.
Shannon was there to walk the wedding party through the rehearsal, which was a huge help since I would not have known what to do or tell our friends what to do. On the actual day of the wedding was when Shannon blew us all away. First, she was constantly communicating with and directing our vendors, which would have been a burden for me to have to do on the day of the wedding. But also it was like she was reading my mind the entire night. Whenever I had a question, or lost something, she was there resolving the situation. She and Kelly were also so friendly and fun to hang out with, that by the end of the night they became our friends. My friend even mentioned Shannon in her toast :)
All of the wedding blogs will tell you that something will go wrong on your wedding day, but literally nothing went wrong on ours thanks to Five Grain Events!

Hiring Five Grain Events was the best wedding decision I made by far. I worked with Jennifer and she was amazing — so friendly, kind, responsive, and professional! I am an out-​of-​town bride, so I really needed help and Jennifer was there every step of the way. My entire wedding ran so smoothly I can hardly believe it. Everything truly seemed effortless and I know that is because of Jennifer and Five Grain Events. I am truly impressed by what I saw, and the fact is that she was probably doing a million things behind the scenes that I don’t even know about. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

It’s hard to put into words how awesome Joan and team are. I know you’ll see it in other reviews, but it is true. This was — hands-​down, far and away — the best money we spent on the wedding. I cannot imagine how anyone gets through the planning/​day-​of without Joan.
Just knowing that every single detail was covered in the weeks leading up to the wedding gave my fiancé (and in turn me) a piece of mind you cannot put a price on. As a guy, it might be hard to imagine the sheer amount of decisions and ‘small stuff’ that has to be assembled the few weeks before the day, until you see Joan’s 10 page list.
Sure you can get a list from the internet, but the internet is not going to put together a detailed timeline of the day, coordinate with the numerous vendors, brides maids, groomsmen, mothers, mothers-​in-​law, etc, and then track down or follow up with the many people ignoring your emails to commit to times, drop off equipment, or whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. The internet is not going to answer frantic emails from your bride-​to-​be with quick, definitive answers to whatever the latest emergency is. The internet is not going to be the last guest to leave your wedding making sure everything is packed up and accounted for.
You know who is going to do all those things and a million more? Joan. I’m telling you, hiring Five Grain Events is a must. You make a lot of decisions leading up to a wedding, evaluate a lot of packages and options from a lot of vendors. This was the only thing at the wedding I could not have gone without. My wife and I can look back on our wedding day with no regrets, and know we enjoyed every minute thanks to Joan and her team.
Thank you!

Joan and her team always do a fabulous job

Joan Cinquegrani was our wedding planner for our daughter’s wedding this past Saturday night. We worked with Joan for over 14 months in planning the wedding. She was awesome and everything went totally as planned. We paid her a fixed fee and she provided the complete range of services. She is not inexpensive, actually quite a bit higher than someone else in the northern suburbs we also interviewed, but she is totally on the wavelength of the bride and groom because she is their peer. But she also was sensitive to what the we the bride’s parents wanted and navigated the path carefully. Joan even had a baby a month before the wedding and continued to be as attentive as possible under the circumstances, including personally putting together the gift boxes for hotel guests, and spending the entire day of, until nearly 1AM, on the wedding and at the venue. We recommend Joan and Five Grain Events highly.

We had the absolute pleasure of working with Shannon Gonzalez on our October wedding. We hired Shannon to be our day-​of coordinator, and my fiancé and I agreed, hands-​down, that it was the best decision that we made in the entire planning process and for our wedding (with the exception, maybe, of the decision to say «I do»…). We had a couple of meetings with Shannon in the couple of months leading up to the big day, where she collected a TON of detail about our family, wedding party, plans/​desires for photos, ceremony, processional, reception. You name it, she thought of it. While I knew she was super organized and could see it would be helpful to have her there, I didn’t realize just how critical she was to the day until that day. She and her assistant Sarah made everything flow seamlessly, and shuffled people from place to place just as we had planned. I didn’t have to think about ANYTHING — she even brought me my cowboy boots immediately after I was done with our first dance, because I had planned to change to be more comfortable. And she did all of this with grace and a huge smile.
It really was a great experience to work with Shannon, and I would recommend her to anyone who asks. Or anyone who doesn’t ask.

A friend recommended Five Grain Events to me and I can honestly say without Sara and her FGE team our wedding would not have happened. Sara had the unfortunate task of informing me not once, but twice that we lost our venue. The second time just months before our scheduled date. I’m sure many brides would have erupted into sheer panic but Sara approached each conversation with new venue options ready to be checked out and I knew everything would work out as long as she was there. Not only did she expertly handle the venue crisis but she provided support and assistance through every step of the planning process. I don’t think my wedding day could have been more perfect and a majority of the credit goes to Sara and her team.

I was given a list of day of coordinators from our reception vendor and proceeded to check them out on Unilocal.Five Grains reviews caught my attention and after meeting with Shannon Gonzalez, we knew we had found the right one! I love to plan parties, but I wanted to enjoy my daughters wedding. Shannon and her crew were fabulous and made it possible for all of us to enjoy the day. There were a lot of logistics and it all went off perfectly. I can’t thank Shannon, and her assistants, Nicole and Jennifer for their support and hard work in making this day perfect! I could not have managed without them! Everyone commented on what a great personality Shannon has.
I will miss her now that the weddings over!

Emily from 5G was the weekend of wedding planner for my niece. She was phenomenal – so organized, personal and courteous. It was a magical day and my family is still raving about Emily.

5G made our day the best it could possibly be! We were in the difficult position of planning a Chicago area wedding all the way from the West Coast and Joan and her team made it happen — my wife and I could not have done it without them.
5G can customize whatever level of support you need and they will exceed your expectations in every way imaginable. They directed us to outstanding vendors at various price points across the board, particularly our photographer and caterer, both of which I would also recommend.
If you’re thinking «maybe I could use some help with this whole wedding planning thing» or even just with the day-​of stuff, you should definitely go for it and you should absolutely consider 5G. Joan and her team’s attention to detail and willingness to go the extra mile really made the difference for our wedding.
At this is the time of giving thanks, I cannot thank 5G enough of all of their efforts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Five Grain was recommended to me by a friend and former colleague who had Joan Cinquegrani do her day-​of wedding handling. Without knowing it, another former colleague of ours Shannon Gonzalez was now working for them and as Joan was unavailable for our wedding date, I quickly requested Shannon. We paid for our wedding ourselves so we were only able to take them up on the day-​of stuff.
Having said that — Shannon and Joan went above and beyond the call with getting us ready in time and making everything perfect. I swear, I have no idea if anything didn’t go perfectly, because of how amazing they were. The day of, Shannon was everyone’s hero and while I know her personally and love her, everyone else who realized she was the planner were so impressed. Even my maid-​of-​honor, who is a do-​it-​all-​herself type of person, was like, «What would you have done without Shannon?» I don’t even know…
Five Grain anticipates every problem and questions and has tons of resources. If you can afford more of their help, I guarantee your pre-​wedding life with get tons easier. But even with the «cheapest» package, we got soooooo much help from them! And everyone at the wedding loved Shannon and her assistant, who would have stayed out of the way, I’m sure, but I kept introducing them and thanking them profusely.
Seriously, one of the best parts about our wedding planning AND day of!!!

If you are looking for a wedding planner who is organized, resourceful and just plain lovely, there’s no one better than Joan. She truly went above and beyond her duties and made our wedding day flawless. Although my husband, parents and I handled a lot of the pre-​wedding planning, Joan was there every step of the way and did far more than I had imagined. In the weeks leading up to the wedding and on the actual day, she truly excelled. I’m sure there were things that didn’t go exactly as planned, but I had no idea! I had guests (both male and female) tell me how they’d never been to a wedding that went so smoothly and appeared completely problem-​free. Thank you, Joan! We couldn’t have imagined a better day.

Lauren is my girl! This company is great and Lauren is outstanding. She is incredibly organized, knows everything about everything and is super fun to work with. I hired her to be my day of coordinator and it was well worth the money, I can’t imagine all the stuff I would have been worrying about on my wedding day if she wasn’t there. Thank you guys!

Our wedding in November could NOT have run as smoothly as it did without FGE and Shannon.
Shannon’s day-​of planning was impeccable, and her consultation meetings leading up to the big deal were incredibly helpful for me, and allowed me to «let go» a bit and remember that the details were in safe, capable hands with Shannon.
While the wedding day was hectic, it was like anything I needed, Shannon could provide. One of my bridesmaid’s dresses was staticky; Shannon had a static spray. My dress ripped, Shannon sewed it up. Someone needed floss, guess what? Shannon had floss and literally anything else you may need in her magic kit. Those details may sound small, but they went a long way to help make me relax and focus on the importance of the actual day.
She was warm, friendly, but could definitely take the bull by the horns when necessary.
I cannot recommend these guys highly enough.

Joan was, in a word, incredible. Organized, responsive, professional… Joan time and again impressed my now husband and I with how she helped us realize our vision for our wedding. She handled every detail, put out every fire, was there to talk me off every ledge or speak to my mother when I just couldn’t do it anymore. And she did it all flawlessly with a reassuring smile, delivering us our perfect day while helping us keep our sanity. Oh… did I mention that this woman HAD A BABY in the middle of all of this? She had one of the most important personal milestones in her life, and never once did we feel like the ball dropped for our wedding. Hire her. I’m going to say it again… HIRE HER. You can thank me later.

We recently got married and used Joan from Five Grain Events. I consider myself fairly organized and diligent but I could not have done it without her day of coordination. We were able to have a couple of meetings with her prior to the event and I reached out to her several times via email with questions. Joan was incredibly helpful because she was not overbearing or too controlling but rather, she was perfectly organized and was able to take a back seat whenever necessary. She held a great vendor meeting and was able to coordinate our «vision» at the venue just as we had planned.
We also received several compliments from our other vendors telling us how it was a pleasure to work with her. Joan and Five Grain Events is a great place to work with because they will help you with as much or as little as you feel you need.
Thanks, Joan!

Joan from Five Grain Events was amazing to work with. After planning so many events for my job, I thought a wedding would be a piece of cake. Little did I know that in the weeks leading up to the «big day,» I would come to rely on Joan more than I ever thought! While I was busy working 14+ hour days for an unexpected work project, Joan kept me sane by coordinating all of the details with each vendor, sending me friendly reminders and occasionally checking-​in to make sure I was doing alright. I have no doubt that without her, our wedding would not have been nearly as seamless or stress free! I would definitely recommend working with Five Grain Events for your upcoming wedding or event — they did an amazing job!

If you are looking for an extremely capable wedding planner with a fantastic personality, your search will most definitely end with Joan of Five Grain Events.
We hired Joan as our day-​of coordinator for our wedding last July, and we could not be happier with our choice. Joan is well organized, knowledgeable, proactive, funny and sweet as can be. I stood up in many weddings before my own, and I’ve seen firsthand just how difficult some planners can be to work with. Joan was just the opposite. She certainly crossed all of her T’s and dotted her I’s, but she was also funny, warm and a pleasure to be around. For a bride, a wedding day can be quite stressful, but because of Joan’s hard work behind the scenes, the day was perfect!
Joan’s services are also quite reasonably priced. We only used her «day-​of» services, but that included so much more than getting everything set the day of the wedding. She suggested vendors, met with us a couple times before the wedding, as well as answered many phone calls and emails. She also contacted the entire bridal party a couple weeks before the wedding, to let them know how everything would be playing out during the wedding weekend. She ran our rehearsal, and coordinated all of our vendors to make the actual wedding day seamless.
Joan is AMAZING, and you would be lucky to have her with you on (and before) your special day!

My first review of Five Grain Events was filtered by Unilocal for an unknown reason… so let me reiterate…
THANK GOD FOR SARA BALSOM FROM FIVE GRAIN EVENTS!!!
If it weren’t for her, my June wedding at Salvage One would never have launched as smoothly and beautifully as it did. It was the best day of my life and it never would have happened without the attention, detail-​orientation, conscientiousness, and talent of Sara. The owner, Joan, was also extremely easy to work with… and felt like an old friend… not a vendor. Fantastic customer service! Excellent!
I would recommend this vendor and service to anyone! The price was excellent and VERY WELL WORTH EVERY PENNY!
Thank you, Five Grain Events, for making the wedding day of my dreams a reality!!!