Vendor Review: Jeremy Roeder, First Class Weddings

Hi everyone...umm, remember me? I know, I know, it has been far too long since I've shown my face around here. I've been seriously dragging my feet finishing up ye olde recaps. But, in case your memory has completely been wiped of my existence - I'll give you the down and dirty highlights.

I had some rockin' hair and make up.

My husband got himself into some sticky situations before the wedding.

We had so much fun taking pictures around Oak Park.

I (umm, I mean, we) had a fabulous, fabulous cake.

Ok, so now that you're caught up and can kind of remember my Bee existence, let's dive back into the recaps!

Figuring out what DJ to hire was something that, quite honestly, I just didn't want to deal with. I had no clue how to choose a DJ or what to look for.

And then, we thought about our friends' wedding in St. Louis about a year before ours. Everyone danced. The DJ did his thing, wasn't cheesey, played great music. We heard through our friends that he was also interested in breaking into the Chicago market. That sealed the deal.

So, we contacted Jeremy Roeder of First Class Weddings and he was available for our date. Score! We booked him immediately.

Jeremy was really great to work with leading up to the wedding and open to whatever we wanted played. We ended up just making a master list of all of the songs that we would want played rather than giving a "yes" and "no" list. For during dinner, we made a CD for Jeremy to play because there were a lot of random songs that were meaningful to us but weren't really danceable.

Here's a shot of Jeremy hard at work:

Source: Laurie Peacock

And, of course, the results of Jeremy's labor:

Source: Laurie Peacock

Source: Laurie Peacock

All of our friends danced for the entire reception and there wasn't a single song played that I didn't love. Jeremy doesn't have a cheesey bone in his body. He's so professional and well spoken. Amazing!

And, in case you need more proof of Jeremy's fantastic-ness, coming up next are some dancin' videos from the reception.

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Vendor Review: Morgan Blaul (Hair & Makeup)

I'm pretty sure I contacted everyone in the greater Chicago-area who might do hair and makeup for weddings. I wanted someone to work on-site at the hotel I was staying at for the wedding, to do both hair and makeup, to be somewhat affordable, and of course, to be fabulous!

Morgan Blaul definitely personified fabulosity. She was super chill and great to work with for my trial. I showed her what I wanted for my hair, and she replicated exactly what I wanted. I had no clue what I might want for my makeup - I told her to do what would compliment me. She rocked it! Quite honestly, I looked so great after just the trial, I would have been confident walking down the aisle that day.

The trial was my first time ever wearing false eyelashes. Morgan applied them perfectly and I loved them. She even did extra long ones so they added this awesome, vintage feel to everything! In fact, Morgan's overall work had a general vintage 1960s twist that fit with the scheme of our wedding.

If you make the picture bigger, you can see my rockin' eyelashes!

Source: Laurie Peacock

And, still, I swoon over my hair! I kid you not, it looked as fabulous at the end of the night as it did at the beginning!

Source: Laurie Peacock

On the wedding day, Morgan brought another stylist (Heather) to help expedite things. Heather was great to work with as well and did an excellent job on my bridesmaids. We had 5 bridesmaids, my mom and me who all had our hair done and my mom, one bridesmaid and me who all had our makeup done. We didn't start hair and makeup until 10am and we finished around 2pm - not too shabby! Both Morgan and Heather worked efficiently but with beautiful end results.

I couldn't be happier with how things turned out and would recommend her a million times over to other brides.

Thank you, Morgan!

Other Vendor Reviews
Marilyn, Honeybee Weddings

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Vendor Review: Marilyn of Honeybee Weddings

I'm pretty sure the day after the wedding, I wanted to email each and every one of my vendors and gush about how fabulous they were! True story. However, Mr. S urged me to hold off until after the honeymoon...while we were away, we stayed off of Facebook and made ourselves invisible on Google Chat. I did sneak in a little Weddingbee (shh...), but Mr. S snuck in a few work emails, so I guess we're even.

On our first night officially in town released the gushing emails onto our vendors - I think Mr. S was just as excited as I was to share lovely words with the individuals who helped me our day so special!

Vendor Review: Marilyn of Honeybee Weddings

Source

I shared a little while back about why I chose to hire a day of coordinator (DOC). I wanted to know that the little details were taken care of, and that while I thought my DJ was a fabulous great guy, I didn't want to have to talk to him or anyone else about the timeline on that day. I was there to celebrate and have fun, darn it!

Marilyn delivered a hundred times over on the weekend of our wedding. She helped ensure our rehearsal the evening before ran smoothly, taught our ushers how to work the aisle runner and kept us all in line.

On the morning of, it was a relief to have Marilyn show up at the hotel with binder in hand. The monster spreadsheet she'd had me fill out in the weeks leading up to the wedding - covering timelines, bridal party contact info, reception set up details - was organized and at the ready. It was Marilyn who was calling down to the front desk for the extra chairs needed for hair and makeup, running out to pick up lunch for everyone, and getting all of us out the door and over to the church on time.

After the ceremony (which started ON TIME and went perfectly), we went off to take pictures, and Marilyn headed over to the reception site to finish setting up the little details, be present for cake delivery, dj set up, and to light all of those pesky tea light candles.

We were ahead of schedule with pictures, so we arrived at the reception site earlier than planned and were able to check out the ballroom while our guests were enjoying the cocktail hour. Everything was simply gorgeous! All that I had left for Marilyn to take care of was done perfectly.

Throughout dinner, Marilyn would pop over to our table and give us updates - we were ahead of schedule, so if it was fine by us we'd push back the toasts, or, the catering staff was leaving our cake out longer because it looked so fabulous (yay!!).

As we danced the night away and after some guests had left, Marilyn quietly gathered different decor items off of the tables and packed them away. She had the DJ announce that guests could take the table arrangements (something I hadn't even considered as an option), which solved the question of what we would do with all of these tall and short vases after the wedding! And, once we'd danced the last dance and were ready to leave, Marilyn had all gifts and decor boxed up, on a trolly, and ready load into my parents' car.

In a day that was a mix of excitement and anxiety, I so greatly appreciated having Marilyn there. She was cool, calm and collected. She allowed my family and friends to enjoy the day and not worry about coordinating a thing. Our budget didn't initially include a DOC, but I think our biggest regret would have been not hiring one.

Thank you, Marilyn!

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