Illinois Brides! Let’s be friends!

Congrats I am a Colorado bride but there is a tab on wedding wire where you can connect with brides by state good luck

Heyyy, I’m planning a brunch wedding in Illinois just looking for venues right now. Our date is 9/4/2021

Hi! I’m just lost! Have no idea what to plan or think anymore! Mine 7/2/21

Illinois bride here! Totally agree - covid wedding planning is a bummer. Our date is 7/30/21 in Chicago. I am have no idea what's going to happen. I have a feeling Chicago will restrict us to having a 50 person wedding, but I'm trying to be hopeful. We are getting married either way! 7/30/21 or Bust!

Hey Jane I’m from Chicago and im planning my wedding for 8-28-21. And I definitely feel you. I have my venue dj and photographer and well he has his suit and I have my dress. And sadly I was telling my bridesmaids that the excitement is not there. It’s very stressful like do I plan for 100 ppl or do I plan for 50. Will people still come or not.

Hi! I am getting married 12/04/2021 in Champaign, IL. So far things have been smooth with planning and no restrictions 🤞🏼

Hey. We're having our wedding here in Illinois 6.18.21. We live in Chicago but will have our wedding in Skokie, IL

Luckily our wedding is already small (65 people) so hopefully there aren't any restrictions

We are originally June 4, 2021 and have a venue in Illinois (full-service, indoors) The ceremony IS outside, but majority of the reception takes place inside. We are teetering on the verge of reconfiguring the wedding day and changing to another venue we toured back in 2019 that is outdoors (tented) with some indoor space, but it is mostly outdoors. It would be a completely custom, not full-service venue which is not what we wanted, but we do not want to postpone. They also happened to have our date available, so we can just shift vendors to the new venue. We haven't felt TOO good about the restrictions lately, as well as safety concerns that might be an issue for guests. It's been hard and I've definitely talked my friends' and family's ears off over the pandemic planning, so I get it! We just feel like it might be time to make some adjustments now that we are 5 months out and haven't planned much at all.

I realize indoor can happen, but we know our guests MAY feel better outdoor and it's more certain. We have also hardly made a dent in the planning process due to the restrictions and uncertainty of having the event indoors, and feel we can probably at least plan something more certain at an open-air, outdoor venue. Are you thinking of postponing or have you thought about alternatives (if you'd want to/can go that route)?

Chicago bride here! 6/27/21 is our plan for now... honestly not feeling great. Our wedding is planned at an outdoor rooftop venue in the city. We're hoping at the very least we can have like... a 50 person wedding? Ugh, I totally understand what you mean by saying that wedding planning is depressing and lonely. It's actually the worst, and everyone has a hot take on what they think you should do, or how you should feel. It sucks because it's supposed to be one of the most fun times in our lives, and the only thing I feel pretty confident about is that it probably won't be the same as if it were pre-pandemic....

Hi I was thinking 2020 would have been the year to for us, but let’s face it too much anxiety and fear rolling around. I am currently looking at destination elopements or a small intimate wedding somewhere out of illinois

View Quoted Comment I believe you’ll be fine anywhere in Illinois outside. People are still gathering outdoors. Congratulations and hope your planning goes well keep me posted in which I haven’t even got a venue or date picked out yet

View Quoted Comment It’s so stressful, right?? I can just feel the stress coming through your post!!
I feel you, I can’t stop obsessively going over and over a million different scenarios in my head and thinking about what might happen. I have actually planned like 40 different alternate weddings in my head and on Pinterest since last March when this started.
Our venue is outdoors, so if May isn’t going to work, we’re just going to have to grab whatever our venue has left in August. Might have to be an early morning Sunday brunch wedding. I’m in grad school and next year is going to be busy so we really want to have our wedding before I go back to school in the fall!!

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Thank you!!

Illinois bride here! I live in the NW suburbs and we’re planning our wedding for 6/12/21. I have been so stressed lately and even more so as we entered the new year. You are not alone! My fiancé and I will be getting legally married this year no matter what. We have a guest list of over 200 and it would be incredibly difficult to cut down to 50 so we would postpone our reception. We’ve talked about postponing if there are tight restrictions and eloping in a small ceremony with our parents and bridal parties on our original date. We’re aiming to make that decision by March. We already contacted our venue to see what their postponement policy is and we’re lucky that there are no postponement fees. She also said that next summer’s dates are pretty open (for now). We have our save the dates but haven’t sent them out yet which makes me sad but that’s just kind of how it is right now. We’ve booked all of our vendors and I’ve bought my dress. If any other brides have any insight, I’d also love to hear it!

I’m having my wedding in Chicago on 4/25 and we have no restrictions as of yet for this date. However to be on the safe side, we’re only planning for 50 guests

View Quoted Comment I AM SO SICK OF THOSE HOT TAKES!!!
The hot takes were the worst last March/April/May. Two different people literally told me I should just get pregnant now because I’m getting older (29!) and it might be years before we can get married. UMMMMMM NO.
The pandemic is really bringing out the worst in a lot of people, and people are projecting their own fears onto others I think. I would honestly feel really good if our date was 6/27!! I think you’ll be fine!! I was up till like 3am reading the pandemic news last night (AGAIN), and Johnson and Johnson is probably going to be available in March. It’s a single dose, so I think that will make a huge difference! Novavax and AstraZeneca will be coming by early spring too.
I know planning a wedding during the pandemic is so sad/lonely/all the things, but I’m glad all of us Illinois brides are uniting on here now!! After this pandemic is over I wish I could just throw a giant party for all the Illinois COVID brides 😂

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Haha thank you! I can SO RELATE to staying up til 3am reading vaccine news.... omg, way too many hours spent doing that !!

Currently, our wedding date is set for 8/21/21. We were so afraid of booking our reception venue due to the pandemic. We currently are at around 175 for guest count with a big bridal party. Hopefully, by then the restrictions will be lifted up. We have the date on hold but havent put the deposit down but will do soon. If the date doesnt stick then we will just have to do our 50 on just get married and celebrate with everyone later.

We're in Wheeling, suburb in the Chicagoland area, and are now on our 3rd wedding date . We were originally 7/10/20, then 9/6/20, and now 5/28/21. Our guest list is roughly 150, but I'm nervous to start the planning process all over again. I don't want to postpone AGAIN, but also want to have the wedding we initially planned. I haven't talked to our venue since last fall, but I don't think they've had a wedding since Feb 2020. SO STRESSFUL!