Event Recap - Summer 2010 Series (3 of 3)

Steven Gross
Real Life Weddings

We know it's well into late winter and a whole new year, but we're still tickled to see these pictures! Thanks Nara and Raj :)

All photos by Steven Gross of Real Life Weddings







Steve Gross
Real Life Weddings





Steven Gross
Real Life Weddings





Steven Gross
Real Life Weddings





Event Recap - Summer 2010 Series (2 of 3)

Chelsey's and Pat's August Wedding!!!

All photography done by Bill and Karen Peary of Peary Photography 

SO CUTE!

Flowers were done by Joanne at FlowersFlowers

The wedding took place in Evanston, which made for a gorgeous backdrop for pictures!

Floor to ceiling windows on three of the four walls in the Monaco Ballroom of the DoubleTree Chicago North Shore provided a great backdrop with both sunset and city views.

Chelsey made her own favors from test tubes (Pat is a chemist) and M&M's! ADORABLE

I had such a great time helping to coordinate the day of Chelsey's and Pat's wedding, and wish them all the best in their new future together!!

Event Recap - 2010 Summer Series (1 of 3)

So our summer has been pretty busy here at WGIC and we've got a few Event Recaps that we owe you! 

First in our three-part series is a special Birthday Surprise: We LOVE outdoor events in the late summer. So, when we got a call about a 30th birthday party with a host that wanted a great outdoor space, we were thrilled.  We chose DuChamp on Damen just south of Webster in Bucktown.

The request was for a simple but elegant, 'summery' type of space.  The outdoor patio was perfect. Guests enjoyed their own private bar as well as passed hors d'oeuvre of mini hamburgers, east meets west chicken wings, and mini flatbreads with Maine lobster (among a few others).  There was even Birthday cake, in the form of bite sized passed ice cream sandwiches of course.

While the space was beautiful, it did need to be "glitz"-ed up just a bit.  Small, square vases (filled with one floating orchid and one floating candle each) were placed in the center of low cocktail tables and about a dozen mini lanterns (cordless, battery operated, amazing!) were hung throughout the cozy garden space.

The event turned out great with beautiful weather (78 degrees and a light breeze) and a blast had by all.  Very great, very rowdy crowd.   Happy 30th!!

**Highlight** The mini hamburgers, hands down. As the party was wrapping up those (not so mini) burgers were the perfect snack to wind everyone's night down.

Event Recap - Windy City's 1st Annual All-SEC Golf Scramble

As the Event Chair of the Windy City Gator Club, I had the great pleasure of putting together the 1st Annual All-SEC Golf Scramble which took place about a month ago.  And it was a huge success!  So here's the recap:

We had ALMOST every school represented (only one missing was Arkasas) on the big day which made for some great trash talking.  One of our amazing sponsors, Gnome Frenzy, provided us with a little guy from each SEC school that we were able to gave away to 11 lucky winners (sans Arkansas).  We also had a ton of other raffle prizes and give-aways from our gracious donors and sponsors.

Each player received 18 holes of golf and lunch (Backyard BBQ), along with two raffle tickets, a t-shirt, 2 drink tickets (good for two Sapporos, thanks Pat) and a goody bag with the cost of registration

The weather, well let's just say it couldn't have been any better. The morning started off quite early for the planners/organizers and around 5:00am the sky unleashed a mini hurricane on the city of Chicago!  By the time we got out to Tamarack in Naperville around 6:00am it had stopped raining, but was still pretty overcast.  At the shotgun start, 8:00am, it was blue skies and sunshine; and remained that way until all the players came in for lunch and awards!

There's plenty we can improve on next year, but I consider the inaugural event one for the record books! If you're an alumnus of any of the SEC Schools, or if you just really like to golf, we hope you join us for our 2nd Annual All-SEC Golf Scramble - (keep checking back as the date is still TBD).

Enjoy the photos, and Go Gators!!

                             

        The Chicago Rush brought out their Dancers                           The Georgia girls came out to play!

           These little guys all found a new homes                   Goody bags given to each golfer and non-golfer 

         Alabama celebrates a good shot                                          Tennessee showed up to win!

       

        Each golfer received a ticket for an event t-shirt                Non-golfers enjoyed a Bags Tournament

     Events Chair and President, WCGC                           Great representation from Auburn and Pat w/Sapporo

See more photos HERE

Event Recap - Naiyomi's 1st Birthday

Not too long ago we had the pleasure of working with a client on her daughter's first birthday party - so much fun!  Naiyomi, the birthday girl, had 100 guests to help celebrate her very first year.  Check out the pictures below.

Overall Space, Peggy Notebaert Nature Center

The party was held at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Center in the South Gallery, a very large room with floor to ceiling windows on two of the four walls (such great natural light!).  The large room was great for the 30 kids in attendance and all of the activities planned for them: face painters, arts & crafts stations, and an animal display.   The room also had enough space for the desert table and the buffet (food was by Blue Plate, we love them!)...not to mention all of the guest tables (centerpieces by Daffodils Flower Shop). To help guests find their seats, each of the ten tables were assigned the name of a bug or flower and displayed a corresponding picture in an 8x10 frame (picture above shows the 'Butterfly' table).

Backpack Bug Bags on the Favor/Gift Table

We chose to hang lanterns from the ceiling in beautiful Spring colors: yellow, pink, orange, and green. And, in honor of the Museum's Butterfly Exhibit we hung 100's of paper butterflies on all of the room's windows. Each child was given a Backpack Bug Bag (pictured above) filled with lots of goodies: a personalized letter to hang in their room (pictured below), a 'Build Your Own Garden' kit (pictured below), healthy snacks, pencils, and toys.

                                'Build Your Own Garden' Kit                            Personalized Letters

 

Spring events are great. We had so much fun planning Naiyomi's 1st Birthday Party, and wish her many, many more!

Event Recap: 2010 Windy City Gator Club Road Trip

As you know the Windy City Gator Club recently took a trip down to Lexington, Kentucky for the UF vs. UK game, and boy did we have a great time.  While the weather didn't always cooperate, we Gators didn't let that stand in the way of a crushing 41-7 win!

Bib's BBQ was on hand Saturday afternoon starting at 10:00AM cooking up all the fixin's of a great southern meal.  Pulled pork and chicken was roasted in the smoker (see below), cole slaw and home made (delicious and world famous) potato salad, baked beans, peach cobbler and bread pudding were also on hand! Pat, the owner, did a great job feeding the very hungry crowd of 100 by the scheduled serving time of 2:00PM, to nothing but great reviews!

By 5:45PM all the tents were down and packed away, all guests had their game tickets, and the crowd made it's way to Commonwealth Stadium amidst friendly taunting from the Wildcats! What a great way to spend a weekend!

Take a look at the pictures below...

BLT Pictures

They're in!

Check out WGIC planner, Katie Karakosta's pictures from the Boulevard Lakefront Tour below.

All of the WGIC planners look forward to participating next year!

Bespoke Cuisine

As you know, WGIC had the opportunity to celebrate the Fork yesterday at the Savor event held at Bespoke Cuisine - and what a great time we had.

We learned a few things about the fork (and it's somewhat tumultuous past), cooking, and Bespoke Cuisine's capabilities as an event venue/caterer. Bespoke sits on Randolph Street just east of Ashland (1358 W Randolph St.), very close to the Illinois Medical District.

The space we were in last night housed a full commercial kitchen complete with space for multiple 'cooking' stations (utilized during the cooking party). The remaining event space was not large by any means, but had room for a small bar area and seating for 28-30 people - now you could always remove the bar and seat about 8-10 more people (**NOTE: Bespoke is BYOB). There was also a 'closet' area with room for purses, bags, and jackets while we were cooking.

While this particular area of Bespoke's Randolph location was limited in event space, we found that the availability of a full kitchen would be well worth trimming down a guest list.

The co-owners, Kim Shambrook and Jeannie Lukow opened Bespoke 8 years ago solely as a catering company. Kim, the Executive Chef, received her culinary training from Kendall College in Evanston.

Check out Bespoke's Manifesto to get an idea of what they're about

Our favorite - We believe that eating local, seasonal produce will make you one with the universe.

We'd have to agree!

Cinco de Mayo - Event Recap

We’ve got it! Chicago had the great pleasure of planning a Cinco de Mayo party last weekend and WHAT A BLAST! From the Mexican flag and sombreros to the sangria and the piñata this was a fiesta tailored to our host.

Our Host, Tom, a 28 year old male living in Bucktown wanted to throw a Cinco de Mayo party that he could invite his boss and his buddies to. With a full time job, Tom, left it to We’ve Got It! Chicago to develop the final details for his classy fiesta!


Here are a few of the FUN and simple ideas that we used for Tom’s Cinco de Mayo Fiesta:

*We kept the food simple. We used a mixture of traditional Mexican favorites and a few new recipes that all fell under the appetizer category to ensure prep time was minimal. We also made sure to have plenty of red and white sangria on hand!

*We went Green – at least a little. One very easy way to go green is using eco-friendly invitations (we used Evite).

*We decorated, subtly. Using green, white, and red tissue paper we made “fresh” flowers (we hung them individually around the house but these flowers are also great to bunch together for a dramatic center piece).

*We got into it. Mexican Candles were placed throughout the house to add color and ambiance, a large Mexican flag was hung on a main wall of the house to catch the eyes of Tom’s guests and we also purchase 3 Sombreros that were offered to the first guests of the night!

*We took it outside. A Bags Tournament was set up outside complete with great Mexican prizes (we used a nice bottle of Tequila!). This helped to spread the crowd throughout the venue and gave Tom’s guests some options on activities.

*We had a Main Event. By far the highlight of the party was the PINATA!! Purchased from a local party store and stuffed with age appropriate goodies this seemingly innocent Mexican tradition really got the party going – and was our Host’s favorite part of the night!

We’ve Got It! Chicago had a great time with Tom and his guests and look forward to more great parties this summer.

CHEERS!

Do you have a great idea that you used for a Mexican Fiesta, let us know about it!

For the Dogs - Event Recap

In October one of our planners here at We've Got It! Chicago had the privilige of planning a local 2008 Pit Bull Awareness Day event on behalf of Phoenix Animal Rescue. Here is her EVENT RECAP.



Our pit-mix, Marley, is a Phoenix alumni, and we volunteer with the rescue as foster parents and helping out at the kennels. The rescue director caught wind of the fact that I was an event planner and asked me to step up to the plate. I happily obliged, as pit bulls and planning are two of my favorite things.

Pit Bull Awareness Day (PBAD) is an international event hosted locally by various rescues and pro-pit organizations. For more information on the day, please check out the official website at http://www.nationalpitbullawarenessday.com/

In 2007, Phoenix Animal Rescue hosted a very small test run of this even locally. We had about 10 volunteers with pamphlets, a couple of local journalists, a rehabilitated bait dog, and a pit bull being adopted. It was hosted at a local park with very little publicity. We had only a handful of visitors stop by (most of whom were just passing by at the park).

2008 was a drastic improvement. We had about 30 volunteers from the rescue and the local Vet School. We put together a huge day of festivities at a local veterinarian's office who is a strong advocate for the breed. The event included:

*Pit bull talent show
*Canine Good Citizen testing
*Weight-pull demo and try-outs
*Photo opps for pitties
*Microchipping booth
*AADR dog show
*Adoptable dogs
*Bake sale (for humans and dogs)
*Eight interactive booths with information and games

We spent months organizing volunteers and spreading the word. But we weren't sure what the turn-out would be. We had local journalists from two different newspapers, a news channel, and a local cable access TV show. The event was open to all ages and all well-mannered dogs (not just pits). Well, our event was a success. We estimate over 300 people and 100+ dogs visited our festivities througout the day, and we raised over $1100 for Phoenix Animal Rescue to continue doing ther part to help local pit bulls in need. We're currently seeking a larger venue for 2009, as we've seen the potential and we know that this year we'll have outgrown our space at the vet's office. We're in the early stages of planning for this year, and I'll be sure to keep you posted on our progress.

To see the local news article on the event click here.