We worked with Carolyn and Sierra for our wedding in August, and they were simply the best! Their professionalism, thoughtfulness, and kindness throughout the whole process did not go unnoticed. Our day really came to life through their hard work, and my husband and I both feel strongly that AELO went above and beyond for us. They helped keep everyone on a schedule, remained positive and organized throughout the entire day, and always reminded us that there were no "stupid questions". Plus, they’re just really cool, down-to-earth people and we love that!

Carolyn and Sierra set up all of our decorations flawlessly, made sure we saw our venue setup prior to guests filing in, and Carolyn packed up our car at the end of the night! These were wonderful additions to our contract and simply above and beyond what we expected from AELO. Their team was an integral part of making our day truly memorable and we cannot thank them enough for being a part of it. Signing with AELO for our wedding coordination was one of the best decisions we made, and we'd recommend this company to anyone!

We worked with Carolyn through AELO's "Event Management" package, which meant Carolyn jumped in to help 6 weeks out. Starting at our final venue walkthrough, Carolyn immediately jumped in to take vendor communication off our plate, which was a huge sigh of relief. She was flexible, on top of everything, and great at answering even our tiniest questions. The weather was touch and go up to a few hours before our wedding, when we were hoping to have an outdoor ceremony and cocktail hour. Carolyn did an amazing job working with the venue to advocate for us and make the last minute changes to move everything outside when the rain cleared out. Carolyn was always confident whenever we were hesitant or unsure about issues that arose.

Linsey joined as her assistant during the event and was also super on top of everything!

Could not recommend AELO more!

Martha was communicative, friendly and very accommodating to my needs. I felt supported throughout the whole wedding planning process and that I was able to release control with the upmost confidence that everything would be handled successfully. I highly recommend An Event Less Ordinary for all your wedding coordinator needs.

There is probably too much to say about AELO, specifically Amy and Carolyn, to fit into this character count, but I'll do my best to keep it to the limit.

Amy was our planner, and we could not have asked for anyone better to guide us on an almost 2 year journey into the chaos and beauty that was wedding planning. She listened to our ideas, concerns, confusion, and worries, reassuring us the whole time, supporting all of our wishes, hopes, and dreams, recommending vendors who were amazing fits and beautiful people themselves, and kept everything organized and ahead of schedule. She is warm, funny, and so so so kind! When Carolyn took over for the final few months and day of, we missed Amy immediately - though that is not a dig on Carolyn at all (more soon), but rather a testament to how much joy we got from working with Amy.

And Carolyn is a hilarious force, perfectly suited to the task of coordination and final details; she got our vendors and families in line, kept everything running so smoothly, took care of things we didn't think of (and we're sure things we didn't know about on the day - thanks for sparing us some anxiety), and was the very best wedding boss for us. She has an easy authority that makes you want to listen to her, and then stick around to hang out with her - a hallmark of AELO, and definitely of Amy, Carolyn, and Madie (another amazing day-of coordinating assistant). Carolyn and Madie were somehow everywhere at once, wrangling people for photos, getting everything and everyone where they needed to be, and putting us at ease all day; and we were lucky enough to have Amy along for a bit during the day too, so naturally everything was PERFECT in their 6 capable hands.

Work with AELO for anything you can, you will be so much happier after working with them - not only because of how much heart and thought they put into making sure every detail is just right for every unique situation, but also just because they are amazing people to get to know and to spend time with. They were far and away the best decision we made for our wedding and we only wish we could marry again to do it all over!

Carolyn and team were incredibly helpful and made it so easy to turn over wedding planning details the month before. If you're planning a Chicago wedding, they've seen and done it all. They know the best vendors and best practices and truly made wedding planning a breeze for us! Highly recommend this powerhouse team 💪🏼

We truly could not have made our wedding happen without Carolyn and the incredible team at An Event Less Ordinary. They helped keep us and our event on track from start to finish. We can't recommend them enough!

I could not recommend AELO enough! My fiance and I were on the fence about hiring a day of coordinator and we even considered hiring someone who had worked a few weddings as a side gig but was not a professional. However once we spoke with AELO and they worked with our budget, vision, and timeline, we knew we couldn't go with anyone else. We worked with Lauren, who was just fantastic. She was extremely detail oriented, kept up with vendor communications, and really made sure we had nothing to worry about on our wedding day. My fiance and I agree that hiring AELO and having Lauren as our DOC was one of the best decisions we made throughout our entire planning process. Thank you Lauren!!!

Carolyn and her entire staff are a cut above.
They are professional, fun, efficient, experienced, and so much more!

We had such a great experience with AELO! We worked with Lauren, and I don't know what we would've done without her! We were planning our Chicago wedding remotely from Los Angeles, and doing so during a year when we were so busy with intense jobs and traveling for other peoples' weddings that often the planning of our own felt overwhelming. In the last few months leading up to our wedding, Lauren helped us stay organized, assisted with vendor communications, coordinated a venue walkthrough with our vendors that worked within our extremely limited availability, and ran our wedding day so beautifully that we never had to worry about a thing, and it was a perfect day. Even with the challenges of us having our ceremony and reception in two different locations, and one of those locations being a public outdoor space, it all came together seamlessly and everyone had a blast. Lauren is so on top of things, so experienced, so thoughtful, and a delight to work with! We're super grateful for all her help. We felt such relief in the knowledge that we were in great hands with AELO every step of the way.

Amy and Carolyn were just an unreal dream team. Neither my partner nor I grew up with feelings about what our wedding should look like, but Amy and Carolyn helped us build an event that could not have been more perfect and more us. They know all the best vendors in Chicago and are prompt communicators, sympathetic and charming, and super flexible. We ended up needing a monthly video call on top of routine emails to stay on track, and they were more than willing to accommodate us. In fact, we felt like both Amy and Carolyn were more like friends than folks we'd hired by the end of things. I couldn't recommend wedding planners in general enough, for sanity's sake, but Carolyn and Amy in particular are incredible. You won't regret hiring them.