Ali was the best decision for wedding planning! We hired her to be the day of coordinator for our wedding and she made the day seamless. She had everything organized and was highly engaging 2 months leading up to our wedding to help finalize all the details. From getting ready in the morning to helping ensure the venue was ready, the day went off without a hitch due to Ali and her team.

Ali was the best decision we made during this entire wedding process! My wedding was 4 days long with 200 guests, so you can imagine it was not easy to plan. I was told multiple times that I was the calmest bride my guests have ever seen, and I owe that to Ali and her team. She was with me for a 10-month planning process, but really stepped up the week of the wedding. Every detail was taken care of, and more. She was more knowledgeable of Indian/Bengali weddings than I was and managed everything (and everyone) with the stern-but-very-polite attitude you need from your planner. My wedding was exactly as I wished it. All of my vendors were amazing (~90% of which were recommended by Ali) and I am so very thankful to my planner, and now friend!

Ali is absolutely amazing, and my husband and I can't give her enough praise!

We hired Ali for full-service planning about a year out. She planned our multi-day, multi-cultural, fusion wedding, and everything went so smoothly, especially given the complexity of our wedding.

In addition to being very personable, kind, and full of positive energy, here are a few highlights that set her above and beyond:

- Her cultural competency / knowledge of Indian and Chinese culture: We needed the most help planning 3 days of Indian events, and she was very well versed in all the traditions, down to the details. We were so impressed. For the evening of Chinese events, she brought up cultural considerations that we hadn't even thought of ourselves! Her thoroughness and knowledge was so helpful in making sure the events flowed well down to the details, and maybe even more importantly, making sure both sets of parents were happy, haha.

- Her vendor picks: Phenomenal! She helped us find vendors that really fit our personalities well, and in retrospect, we wouldn't change anything! She was able to help us find a Priest (one of the areas where we needed most help), and we are still getting compliments about how thoroughly the Pandit (Indian Priest) explained everything for our guests who were not familiar with Indian ceremonies, among other things.

- Her ability to work with all our family members/wedding party seamlessly: We have a lot of big personalities (without throwing anyone under the bus, haha), and from various cultures nonetheless, and she was able to get along and work well with everyone.

- Aisle Planner tool: It was a great online tool for making sure everyone was on the same page between my husband, her, and me. It also had a task list and a timeline, which we found really helpful in making sure everything was done and we could track our expenses.

- Her attention to detail: I was so impressed that she thought of little things, like coordinating breakfast/brunch/coffee with my bridesmaids while we were getting hair and makeup done to make sure everyone was well fed.

- How "us" our wedding felt: When we were interviewing planners, I loved how she said that you wouldn't be able to look at our wedding and say, "That's an 'Ali wedding'" because each wedding she does is personalized to the couple. I can look back on our wedding and say that is absolutely true! I loved and am truly appreciative of how much our wedding reflected my husband's and my personalities and values, and we never felt like we were put into a "standard Indian wedding template."

- She was great at planning with us REMOTELY: We lived in Boston at the time we were planning, but were married in Chicago. She was very reliable at communicating through text/phone/email. What really stood out though was when we flew in town, she booked all our appointments for us in such a manner that we could get everything done very efficiently. We were very grateful for that!

So I will say, she was pricier than a bulk of the planners we interviewed. HOWEVER, I will be the first to say that she was COMPLETELY worth it. If I had to do it all over again (don't worry, we won't, haha - very hypothetically speaking), we would still hire Ali especially knowing the time and headache we saved.

Also, all our vendors loved working with Ali so it made everything pretty seamless. There were a few minor hiccups that I found out about after the fact, but Ali handled them so well that we didn't even notice during the wedding.

Overall, we were able to enjoy our wedding weekend without worrying about all the logistics thanks to Ali and her wonderful team! More than 1+ month out, we are still getting many compliments from our guests on how well organized the wedding was. Thank you, Ali!!

If you're looking for a reliable planner that executes well AND has a great personality, I would not hesitate to recommend Ali in a heartbeat!

THE BEST wedding planner in Chicago. Ali is super personable and works with what the bride/groom WANT! She is creative and brilliant. You will not be disappointed!