Michelle Durpetti Events

There is seriously no better wedding planner than Michelle and her team. From the second I got engaged, I told my mom we need to work with her! I didn't even think about going to anyone else because Michelle is simply the best! Our wedding day wouldn't have been possible without all the help and ideas from Michelle. Throughout the entire planning process she kept us on track and provided us with the best advice to make our wedding day perfect. Her attention to detail, organization, and experience is what makes her so successful. She came into every meeting with such enthusiasm and excitement while still being extremely organized and professional. Her knowledge and expertise is unparalleled. She gives the best advise and I felt truly had our backs when it came to booking the vendors. In addition to helping us plan an over 500 person wedding, she and her team also made the day run so smoothly. They were there from morning till night making sure everything was getting done/happening when it was supposed to. My mom, my dad, and I could not have done this wedding without Michelle and her team. Thank you for everything you did to make our day run perfectly!!!!! Again, MDE you are the best!!!

I don’t even know where to begin to explain how thankful we are that we hired Michelle and Jill from MDE for our wedding! These girls went above and beyond to help make our wedding the most amazing day of our lives! I interviewed several other planning companies, but knew right away that I wanted to work with Michelle and her team. She was extremely professional, yet very personal and we connected right away. When Michelle first showed me an example of the timeline that they put together for their clients wedding days, I was very impressed but was not aware of how much time and energy it took to put together until we started on ours. These girls had the day planned out, down to every minute. I have great respect for people that pay that much attention to detail and are that organized. Michelle and Jill were always readily available to help me with any and all wedding tasks! Their well-informed opinions on vendors and many other things were extremely valuable in helping to plan our wedding. The experience the girls at MDE have gained over the years planning events in Chicago made me very confident in what they were suggesting to me. They know pretty much every vendor in the city and have worked with them one way or another so they knew exactly who I needed to hire to make our wedding day everything we imagined.

While we had a few issues arise the day of our wedding due to weather, Michelle and her team handled them very professionally and none of our guests even knew that anything happened, and neither did we, until after the reception! These girls put us completely at ease the entire day. This was a gift in itself because we were able to completely enjoy our wedding day from the minute we woke up to the minute we left the reception. They were hands down the best investment we made for our wedding! I wish we could do it all over again every weekend! =) Thank you so much for everything MDE! You girls are rockstars!

Michelle and herteam helped to organize our daughters wedding from start to finish! She has a dedicated team who are passionate about doing the best for their clients. We worked with Michelle and Jill and they were always available to answer questions we had. She has a special knack of matching the right vendor with your taste and personality. Saved us a ton of time searching for vendors. Michelle was also able to tell us what was important to make an impact and what was not. She is up to date on all the latest trends, as well as
traditional things we wanted. All in all, the day was perfectly orchestrated and organized down to the littlest detail. Money well spent for our peace of mind.

Michelle Durpetti Events is made up of an amazing team of people who are organizing and passionate about wedding planning! From the first meeting, MDE made me feel relaxed about wedding planning, something which extremely overwhelmed me in today’s age of Facebook and Pinterest. Right away, I knew I was in good hands. With many connections and relationships with other vendors in the wedding and entertaining world, they were able to support me through the process to find the best of the best vendors to be there on my special day! Michelle is easy to talk to and is truly looking out for your best interest and creating the exact vision you want for your wedding! She was fully prepared the day of my wedding with her emergency kit filled with anything and everything a bride (bridesmaid, groom, groomsmen or guest!) could ever need in a last minute situation! She made sure we were taken care of and my focus was on marrying the man of my dreams, not if the placecards made it to the reception space ok! Another member of MDE, Emily, is a the sweetest person to work with and her organizational and management skills are impeccable. Since my mom doesn’t live in the city, it was a breeze to get things done via email and telephone. Emails were detailed, but not too wordy where one would get lost. Emily was also extremely flexible when planning meetings to make sure it fit everyone’s schedule comfortably. She was on top of our timeline and constantly sending reminders on what should be done and what we should start thinking about – something easily forgotten in the hustle and bustle of everyday life! Our MDE staff the weekend of our wedding made sure everything went off without a glitch – and it did!! Because of these ladies fabulous talents of organization, decision making, and planning, my groom, my parents, and myself were able to fully enjoy the entire weekend!! I can’t thank them enough for giving me the best present of all, calmness on my wedding day!! Thank you MDE!

May 10, 2014
Once you’ve picked the date for your wedding and the planning begins, you realize there are a lot of decisions to be made and the process can easily become very overwhelming. Hiring MDE was hands down the best decision made. They kept us organized and on track not overlooking a single detail. A month before the wedding they contacted all of our vendors and made sure everyone was on the same page; completely taking ALL the worry away. The day of the wedding, everything was executed to perfection. They oversaw all of the vendors, made sure things were perfect at the church and made our visions a reality at the reception. Michelle Durpetti Events came highly recommended to us with a reputation for excellence and now we know why they are regarded as the best in their business. They are true professionals and the greatest group to work with.
Sterling, Emily and Michelle, thank you so very much; you girls are truly the best and we couldn’t have done it without you.
Mother of the bride,
Linda Sanzeri

I was initially introduced to MDE through my best friend who had used them for her wedding in May, 2012. I liked Michelle and her team so much that when we started wedding planning I knew exactly who I wanted to work with.
We worked with MDE for over a 1 1/2 years - during that time they always remained available for questions and always made us feel like a priority.
MDE excels at:
-Vendor recommendations. MDE is cool & hip and so are the vendors they work with.
-Customer service
-And most importantly, acting as a buffer for family dynamics (i.e. making your Mom or your future mother-in-law happy)

Their priority is the bride/groom and ensuring your vision becomes a reality.

MDE is amazing! They were with us every step of the way making sure that we were on track to have everything completed by our big day. Michelle, Sterling and Emily worked as a team and were included on everything from day one. From recommendations for vendors to emotional support when things were overwhelming, they were there. Our big day was so special and went off exactly as we had imagined it. Everything was absolutely perfect and we couldn't have asked for a better team to make it happen. We highly recommend MDE for your wedding or event planning!

We hired Michelle Durpetti Events for month-of coordination for our September 2013 wedding and consider it to be the single most important investment we made towards our beautiful wedding day.

While we decided to use MDE for month-of management, they were always available to us via email throughout our 11 month engagement. We worked primarily with Emily Weinstein, but both Michelle Durpetti and Sterling Berry were tremendously helpful as we planned our semi-destination wedding two hours away from Chicago.

Emily's attention to detail, prompt correspondence, expertise, and professionalism is unparalleled. There were also times where I thought I could take on too many DIY projects and Emily gently guided me out of ideas that she knew would take away from my vision for a stress-free, relaxed wedding day.

I was able to truly enjoy the morning and afternoon of my wedding day getting ready with my bridal party and family members, without ever once having to deal with the logistical details of the day (vendor load-ins, set up, etc.) MDE not only executed the creative details I spent the past 11 months planning, but also the entire course of the day which was captured in a precise 10-page timeline.

My husband, our families, and I are so grateful for the ladies of MDE and especially Emily for helping us to have such a beautiful, absolutely perfect wedding day. Hire these ladies now, you will not regret it!

I was referred to Michelle Durpetti Events by one of their former clients. I have to say, booking them was one of the best decisions I made for our wedding. My fiance (now husband!) Rob and I decided that the best package for us was the "six weeks out" package. Michelle and Emily were so helpful even before our package started, and never hesitated to once answer any questions, refer any vendors or give me their honest opinion. Emily Weinstein was our main point of contact and our planner on our wedding day.

Fast forwarding to six weeks out from our wedding, Emily fully took over. She was on every email, chiming in, and really became the point of contact for our vendors. She assembled a timeline that almost took my breath away! Emily thought of every single detail, from vendor load in's, to how long the wedding party was at every location, to when our guests get served a welcome drink, all down to the minute. I truly believe that little timeline is a part of how flawless our wedding went.

On the topic of flawless, our wedding was just that. To me, absolutely nothing seemed to go wrong, and that's how it should be! Emily truly made us feel like guests at our own wedding. I never had to worry about something not happening, because it had already been taken care of. I don't think I left the dance floor once!

Bottom line, Emily, Michelle and Sterling truly made our wedding. It was the best money we spent during the whole process. I am so excited to continue such a positive relationship with them and help other brides understand that if they hire MDE, they too will have the wedding of their dreams!

(P.S. - if I could give them TEN out of ten, I would!)

My husband and I agree -- MDE was the most important vendor we hired for our wedding.

My husband and I started the wedding planning process without a planner, but soon realized that we were in over our heads. MDE had us hooked after showing us a sample wedding day timeline prepared for one of their former clients. From that timeline alone, it was immediately apparent that MDE was thorough, organized, and possessed a wealth of knowledge about how to execute all of the wedding day details.

After hiring MDE, they exceeded our already-high expectations. MDE quickly responded to every e-mail (usually within minutes), provided amazing vendor recommendations, and kept us on track and up to date with all of the developments throughout the planning process. If we had a wedding related question or issue, all we had to do was send an e-mail to MDE, and we could rest assured that they would find us the answer or solution we needed. Finally, during the month before our wedding, MDE took over all vendor communications. This made the last month of wedding planning much, much easier to handle. We only needed to manage our e-mail exchanges with MDE, instead of with ten different wedding vendors. I can only imagine how much time and stress we saved by hiring MDE.

When the big day arrived, my husband and I truly felt like guests at our own wedding. Throughout the day, MDE demonstrated their amazing talent of being constantly available to us, yet discreet and behind-the-scenes. Every part of the day flowed smoothly, and I felt totally at ease with MDE behind the wheel. The wedding was beautiful and fun and better than we could have ever hoped. Their coordination and execution helped make the money spent on all the other vendors completely worth it.

To summarize, we can't say enough good things about MDE. We are eager to recommend them to anyone needing a planner for any type of event, wedding or otherwise.