Five Grain Events Reviews
Reviews
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![Charlotte]()
Charlotte Sent on 04/11/2025Thank you Five Grain Events!
Huge thank you to Colleen with Five Grain Events for making our wedding day go smoothly—everything was perfect and if it wasn’t, we didn’t know about it. We hired Five Grain for Day-of Coordination, and they were amazing to work with from the first meeting. Colleen handled all the little details so well and picked up the vendor communications about two months out. It was also helpful that I could reach out to them for general advice while I was planning the wedding—and I referenced their preferred vendor list frequently.
We LOVED the detailed timelines Colleen put together for us, vendors, and wedding party. I have never gotten that as a bridesmaid in friends’ weddings, so it was a pleasant surprise that made everyone more organized. She also collected many of our items for the day-of ahead of time, which was very helpful!
On wedding day, Colleen was so helpful and even placed my veil in the morning and bustled my dress before the reception. Because of all the prep work she put in, we had full confidence that the day would be smooth, and she exceeded our expectations. It was truly the best day of our lives and not having to worry about any coordinating was amazing!
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![Sinead]()
Sinead Sent on 02/19/2025We are so happy we went with Five Grain Events
We were so glad we hired Five Grain Events to coordinate our September wedding at the Chicago Athletic Club. Planning a wedding felt like the epitome of “you don’t know what you don’t know”, so having our coordinator’s guidance on considerations and decisions we needed to make leading up to our wedding day was incredibly helpful. Jennifer our coordinator was incredibly communicative with us, our vendors, and my mother who was hosting our wedding. When their was an issue getting in touch with our florist the week leading up to our wedding, Jennifer was there to help (and calm me down!). When planning our day of schedule, Jennifer suggested that hors d'oeuvres and champagne could be brought to the room I was having my dress bustled in so that my husband and I could have a moment together between our ceremony and reception. Leading up to the wedding we didn’t think we would need that, but Jennifer suggested we leave it on the schedule as an option that we could decide on the day of. I’m so glad she did because that is one of our favorite moments from our wedding day! We cannot recommend Five Grain Events, and specifically Jennifer, enough! -
![Kerry]()
Kerry Sent on 09/28/20235 Star Wedding Planners
We had a great experience working with Joan & Jesseca at Five Grain Events! They are very professional and knowledgeable - they thought of everything we didn't! Joan helped us with the initial budgeting planning/process and Jesseca was our coordinator. Our wedding with 175 guests was held at St. Giles Church, with reception at Chicago Athletic Association. Jesseca and the Five Grain team did an amazing job managing multiple vendors and making sure everything was organized, on time and running smoothly. Plus they are awesome people! Highly recommend the Five Grain team. -
![Alex]()
Alex Sent on 02/16/2023The most important vendor we hired!
Hiring Joan and her team was easily the best decision we made in the entire wedding planning process! We hired Five Grain for full service planning, just after setting a date and choosing a venue. Joan helped us to create a detailed budget based on our priorities and overall budget, while factoring in the planning fee to make sure we wouldn't go over our all-in budget number.
Joan brought so many fun and interesting ideas to our wedding, helped us achieve our wildest ideas and visions (we entered our reception on a boat!!), and will always let you know when something is or isn't worth the spend or effort. She'll also exchange as many emails or have as many calls as is needed to feel confident and comfortable. Five Grain also sourced and helped us contract the most amazing vendor team to execute our day. As someone who is pretty type A and organized and also works in the event industry myself, I could not have had more trust in Joan and her team throughout the entire process. Five Grain alleviated so much stress and really made planning a wedding to be an enjoyable activity.
I had a friend once ask if there was anything I regretted spending money on or wasn't worth the investment for our wedding, and I said that having Five Grain made that impossible because Joan helped us to be so intentional, logical, and efficient with our entire day. I always felt confident that nothing was going to be missed, forgotten, or overspent. My number one piece of wedding planning advice is to hire a planner, and make it Five Grain! -
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![Kate]()
Kate Sent on 02/26/2022Do yourself a favor and hire Five Grain!
Due to COVID our wedding was postponed 3 times. Joan and her team were absolutely amazing through all of it- re-organizing vendors, updating the venue, etc. Joan was so great during the rehearsal and day of! I honestly don't how we would have gotten through it without her. She ensured that every detail, down to even clipping tiny threads only she noticed sticking out of my dress, was perfect. Apparently there were a few snafus but we didn't even notice, nor did the guests, because she took care of them 100%! The catering vendors she organized for us to try were spot on and she thought of EVERY small detail for us to think about prior to the big day. I even had a horrible dress issue just 2 days before the wedding and she organized a meeting with a great tailor in the area (we came up from Dallas just the day before) who sorted it out. She really went above and beyond for us, and we can't thank her enough for a truly memorable event- we wouldn't have changed a thing. -
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![Bridget]()
Bridget Sent on 01/01/2022Give yourself the gift of Five Grain!
I was torn about hiring a planner, as I'm a relatively organized and type-A person who had already exceeded her wedding budget. Let me tell you - this was the best decision I made in the entire wedding planning process! Looking back now, I don't know what I would have done without Joan and her expertise! The selling point for me was the realization that it doesn't make sense to spend thousands of dollars for an event without hiring a professional to oversee and coordinate the many moving parts involved. I didn't have to be the point person for all the vendors and most importantly it limited my interaction with my challenging venue manager. I got to just enjoy the day and not worry about anything - our wedding truly went off without a hitch (or I didn't know about any issues, which is fine by me!). There was a huge benefit of having someone with extensive experience give me advice and tell me what works well in various situations. Planning a wedding is an intense process and it was made easy by Joan and her team. I was able to trust and outsource nearly all of the last minute coordination between vendors, which was a huge relief with my demanding work schedule. I've since been to a handful of weddings where there were minor snafus (couldn't hear the vows, DJ didn't have the first dance song (!) etc) and I couldn't help but feel grateful we avoided any similar glitches. I have nothing but amazing memories from that day and I am truly grateful to Five Grain Events for being there for me. -
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![Megan]()
Megan Sent on 12/27/2021Hire Five Grain immediately!
We hired Five Grain Events for our day-of-coordination and truly cannot recommend working with Joan and her team enough.
I was a very engaged and organized bride the entire wedding year (my husband was as well), and the idea of handing off the planning, details, and coordination after planning everything ourselves was both exciting and nerve wracking—we really wanted to be able to enjoy the day without “working” and wanted someone we could trust to handle things as they came up and just make sure everything went smoothly. Joan did WAYYYYYYY more than that.
She met with my husband Matt and I a few times leading up to the event, facilitated many of the last minute details, made us aware of details I would never have even thought about, and really helped take our wedding to a new level of polish and class that we wouldn’t have been able to achieve on our own. Joan even got cheers from our guests when the groomsmen forgot his champagne flute during his toast, and she was seamlessly ready to hand him a glass in the right moment—Joan was mentioned in my Dad’s toast, because he was so wowed at the final execution and orchestration of the big day.
Joan and her team were responsive, knowledgeable, professional, and truly just fun to work with. I can’t imagine our day going as perfectly as it did without them. Hire them immediately!
Literally my only regret is that we should have hired Five Grain for the entire wedding year and coordination experience—they are truly fantastic professionals and worth every penny spent. They will take your wedding from a “B” to an “A+” event.
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![Haley]()
Haley Sent on 01/06/2020Essential part of our day!
Kelly and her team at Five Grain Events were indispensable to us leading up to and through our wedding day. After seeing that they had worked with many couples at our venue, we reached out. After the initial consultation, I already had two or three pages of advice, suggestions and tips, and felt like a load had been lifted off my shoulders. Though we only got month-of planning, the team provided great recommendation lists and other tips as we needed them. I counted down the days until Kelly stepped in two months ahead of the wedding, and as soon as we'd had our official meeting, I was stress-free (or as stress-free as a bride could be!) Kelly and her team were a joy to be around on our wedding day, helped smooth out any small fiascos (like getting a tomato stain out of the front of my dress!), helped set up and tear our personal items beautifully (see the name plate table!) and went out of their way to not only take care of us, but our family and guests in ways both big and small. If you're questioning whether a coordinator is worth it, my husband and I would emphatically say yes - and all the more so with a professional, well-connected and well-experienced team like Five Grain Events! (Beautiful photos by Angela Renee Photography) -
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Erin Sent on 02/21/2019
Five Grain - Incredible Experience
I can say with confidence that the team at Five Grain was the best decision we made during our wedding process. From the initial consult to every single detail during the wedding day, the team was just soo amazing to work with. Kelly was the most organized person I've ever met and thought of 50+ things that I would have never thought about that helped the entire wedding weekend go smoothly! I was SO IMPRESSED with all of our meetings and the quick follow-up at all times of the day/night. During the day of, my mom, my fiance, and I were able to fully 100% enjoy every moment because we knew the team at Five Grain had everything handled. I can't imagine my wedding day without Kelly there and am soo appreciative of all the work they did to make it PERFECT! -
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![Kelly]()
Kelly Sent on 11/06/2012Joan (and the rest of the gals at Five Grain Events) are seriously the BEST. They are easy to work with, fun to be around and far more organized and efficient than even my type-A, list-making self could ever be. From the moment I woke up on my wedding day...to the moment I left the reception in our getaway...I didn't worry about a thing. They had every moment under control and orchestrated perfectly. I can't recommend FGE enough - best money you will spend on your wedding!! -
![Angela]()
Angela Sent on 10/21/2011Deciding to use a wedding coordinator for the day of our wedding was one of the best decisions we made during the planning process. I wasn't sure, at first, that we would need one since our venue had a coordinator assigned to our event, but after talking with Joan (a trusted friend) she was able to help us see all of the little details that you just don't think about when you first start planning. We had two meetings before the big day where we went through a 6-7 page list of all of the things she needed from us to make sure everything went off without a hitch. It seemed like a lot at the time, but being able to give her all of the info ahead of time left me free to enjoy the day instead of fretting over all of the little things that sneak up on you in the last couple of weeks. Joan was very prompt, organized, calm, and collected throughout the whole day and I literally didn't have to worry about a thing. At the end of the night she packed up everything and made sure it got sent home with me and my family so we were able to say goodbye to all of our guests instead of rushing around. I would hire her again in a heartbeat! -
![IShare2]()
Megan Sent on 08/10/2010If there was ONE thing I would suggest to any bride after my experience, it would be HIRE A COORDINATOR! It wasn't until about 3 months until our wedding when my florist suggest that we hire a Day-of-Event Coordinator and pointed me in the direction of Five Grain Events. Thank you, god, for this nugget of wisdom and irreplaceable help! My husband and I got married at a venue which was not connected to a hotel or banquet hall--we had to bring everything in--so this was even more absolutely necessary. But I had never been married before and could not have predicted that I would benefit greatly from the services of a polished, detail-oriented coordinator. So this is when Five Grain Events brought Sara Balsom into my life. She was incredible. She jumped right in. She handled EVERYTHING. She was available to me all the time. She took over when I couldn't, when I felt overwhelmed, she just picked up everything off of my shoulders and HANDLED it. I don't know what I would have done without her. She was very professional, detail-oriented, insightful, inquisitive, and did not miss a beat. If I could give her and Five Grain 10 stars, I would! The money for this service was very well-worth it. I am not kidding. The day of my wedding, I didn't have to worry about a thing.
What did she do specifically, you ask??? Well...
Coordinated communication with all vendors
Developed wedding weekend and day-of timelines for groomsmen, bridesmaids, me, and all vendors (individually)
Met with me in person to go over her and my questions
Emailed with me back and forth constantly
Attended walk-thru meetings at the venue
Facilitated the rehearsal
Handled questions I had for vendors
Coordinated and developed the Ceremony, Cocktail Hour, and Reception timeline with every detail covered (i.e. speeches, certain songs, special requests, when desserts would come out, and on and on)
Developed Plan B if it was raining and we couldn't do the ceremony outside
Set up all the decorations for the Reception (including gift table, favor table, candles, lights, etc.)
Took home the things we couldn't fit in my parents' car after the wedding and held it until after we got home from our honeymoon
And much more...I could be here for days writing it all...
I mean, Sara was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I consider myself extremely lucky to have found her and Five Grain Events. FANTASTIC SERVICE and EXTREMELY VALUABLE!!!
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