Big City Bride

Owner of Chicago's favorite wedding planner

[bigcitybride]

Burlap runners with fabulous fall floral!! @crystalmoriarty #fallfloral #farmtables #chicagowedding #chicagoweddings #wedding #weddings #weddingplanner #weddingplanners #chicagoculturalcenter #culturalcenter #fallwedding

[bigcitybride]

We love this custom engraved cake stand on the adorable sweets table! @crystalmoriarty #chicagowedding #chicagoweddings #wedding #weddings #weddingplanner #weddingplanners #chicagoculturalcenter #culturalcenter #fallwedding #weddingcake

[bigcitybride]

Gorgeous farm tables with a sparkly chevron runner for the head table at this weekends Cultural Center wedding! @crystalmoriarty #chicagowedding #chicagoweddings #wedding #weddings #weddingplanner #weddingplanners #chicagoculturalcenter #culturalcenter #fallwedding

[bigcitybride]

#wedding #dancing with #goldcoastallstars #chicagoweddingband #music #band #bigcitybride

[bigcitybride]

A canopy for the #weddingcake #delicious #wedding #cake

[bigcitybride]

#bouqet sweetly made special with an emboidered #handkerchief #wedding #bigcitybride #chicagowedding #weddingbouquet #weddingflowers (at InterContinental)

[bigcitybride]

@kehoedesigns did amazing #weddingflowers #roses #chicagowedding #bigcitybride #bigcitybride #weddingplanner #romantic

[bigcitybride]

What a fun way to add some glitz and glam into your wedding! #chicagowedding #chicagoweddingplanner #glitter #goldandsilver

[bigcitybride]

2012 Wedding Statistics

This is a very large country where brides and grooms and wedding planners dream up and create very different events. Many of the styles, options, and costs are driven by where you are planning an event. Of course, Big City Bride knows Chicago wedding planning but it's fascinating to see what is being planned elsewhere! This gives a little insight. The below wedding statistics from the incredible research done by The Knot (XO Group Inc.) reflect their 2012 findings. 

  A note about Chicago wedding budgets - they found the average wedding budget for a Chicago wedding was $49,810 in 2012! That came in as number two beneath New York City (Manhattan) wedding budgets averaging $76,687!

  Average Wedding Budget: $28,427 (excludes honeymoon)

Most Expensive Place to Get Married: Manhattan, $76,678 average spend

Least Expensive Place to Get Married: Alaska, $15,504 average spend

Average Spent on a Wedding Dress: $1,211

Average Marrying Age: Bride, 29; Groom, 31

Average Number of Guests: 139

Average Number of Bridesmaids: 4 to 5

Average Number of Groomsmen: 4 to 5

Most Popular Month to Get Engaged: December (16%)

Average Length of Engagement: 14 months

Most Popular Month to Get Married: June (17%)

Popular Wedding Colors: Blue (33%), Purple (26%), Green (23%), Metallics (23%)

Percentage of Destination Weddings: 24%

[bigcitybride]

Endless Love, All Night Long - Lionel Richie Surprises Chicago Wedding

We did it! We surprised every guest at last weekend's Union Station wedding with Lionel Richie! That is not an easy secret to keep and not an easy surprise to pull off...but we are proud to declare the night an incredible success and share a few Chicago wedding photos from the event. It was a luxurious and romantic wedding planned at one of the most grand Chicago wedding venues available - The Great Hall at Union Station. It was the perfect place for a Chicago celebrity wedding planner to sneak in a music legend to start the party.

The bride says that before she met her groom she knew that Lionel Richie would perform her Chicago wedding and sing her first song...and Big City Bride took that dream and made it happen! It's a pretty incredible dream to get to bring to life and one we loved! Sending him on stage was an unbelievable feeling and the reaction from guests was unforgettable. Every jaw dropped and then every phone and camera came up. He sang "Endless Love" for the bride and groom's first dance and then continued through a few of his classics for an hour long performance.

Lionel Richie and his band were wonderful people and lit up on the stage - radiating a good time and sharing so much love with the crowd. They are wonderful performers and talented musicians. It was the most fun and celebratory event we've been apart of.

It was pure magic....ALL NIGHT LONG!

[seasidestyle]

[bigcitybride]

happy hump day to our followers! It is a windy and rainy summer day here in Chicago so we are dreaming of beautiful beach weddings!

[bigcitybride]

We found this great idea on The Knot and we can't wait to share it with you all!

"Imagine adding one of these to your wedding website? Cue photographers like New York-based wedding photographer Cynthia Chung who recently started making stop-motion moving images (aka animated gif files)  for her clients’ weddings and engagement shoots. To create the file, Cynthia takes several photos in the same spot and then strings them together in a loop using Photoshop to bring the images to life! Fun right?"

[bigcitybride]

Thank you pandora for reminding us of the very magical wedding ceremony when a gospel choir sang this song and guests tossed #glitterintheair

[bigcitybride]

Gorgeous #chicagowedding at the #drake (Taken with Instagram)

[bigcitybride]

We are animal lovers at Big City Bride and so we are very excited to share a great opportunity to support PAWS. Robyn Rachel photography is offering mini children's shoots this Sunday, June 10th for a $75 donation to PAWS.

Her talent with brides and grooms is incredible. She makes everyone look gorgeous! She also has a talent with children...capturing them so perfectly. This is an incredible opportunity for a quick and painless photo shoot of your precious little ones...for a cause we love!

[bigcitybride]

We sure feel LUCKY to share in the weddings of so many wonderful brides and grooms.  Every love starts with a little bit of luck...and every wedding starts with a proposal....but not all of them quite as cute as this. We think you'll agree this is a lovely way to start your Friday!

[bigcitybride]

Jordan and Charlie had a beautiful day at the Chicago Cultural Center and we're so excited their wedding photos were recently featured on The Knot's WeddingChannel website. Check it out... and all of the other great weddings they have to share! The Knot is a fabulous resource for wedding inspiration.