The site was put together by some extremely talented Chicago wedding photographers to showcase different wedding venues around the Chicago area and they have done a fantastic job.

Finding the perfect venue to host your wedding can be a daunting task however this website has made that job a lot easier. Instead of spending countless hours driving from venue to venue in Chicago traffic you can now sit at the comfort of your desk and narrow your search down to a few venues that best match the atmosphere you are looking for.

In order to make your venue search as simple as possible the site has the venues broken down by area and type of venue and has some fantastic photos of each one of the venues.

They have not been able to post every single one of the thousands of wedding venues around the Chicago area yet but they are hard at work and updating it frequently.

On October 1, 2010, Wish Upon a Wedding will begin auctioning off hundreds of products and services, in 46 cities throughout the country, to help couples create the perfect wedding or event, all at incredible prices! All proceeds raised will help grant wedding wishes for terminally ill individuals.

MDM Entertainment is a strong supporter of this great cause and has donated a Premium Wedding Uplighting Package to Wish Upon a Wedding.

Any Chicago brides looking for uplighting for their wedding can bid on the package and support an incredible cause at the same time.

The auctions will be open for bidding during October and November, in conjunction with our Blissful Wishes Ball.

The Blissful Wishes Ball is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC and will be taking place in several large cities during November of 2010. Many of the items which will be available AT the actual GALAS are also available to be previewed right here on our Auction site!

Please visit the Wish Upon a Wedding website for details and information on how to purchase Gala tickets, which go on sale August 15, 2010.

The following locations will be hosting a Blissful Wishes Ball, all of which are open to the PUBLIC: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Houston, The Carolinas, Denver, Portland, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Orlando.  Additional locations may be announced soon.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire, the nation’s leading technology company serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 100,000 local wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives local businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. Businesses that join the WeddingWire Network appear on WeddingWire.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com, ProjectWedding.com and Weddingbee.com (both part of eHarmony), and Celebrations.com (part of the 1-800-Flowers family of brands).

Here is a clip from the article:

“I can’t stress enough how important lighting is to any event – especially a wedding.

You can spend countless dollars minor details like disposable cameras, bathrooms baskets, ice carvings, etc… but nothing will ever compare to what lighting can do for an event. Lighting can transform a dull, bland room into a warm, inviting and exciting space. It has a big impact your guest’s mood. Have you ever gone into a ceremony space that was dimly lit, with candles everywhere and soft amber lighting surrounding the space. How do you think that makes you feel? Did you feel the romance? Lighting brings feelings to life.”

Read the entire wedding lighting post here.

Both the ceremony and the reception were held at the Hyatt. Edward, who is the music connoisseur of the couple, had picked out some very unique and cool ceremony music and had timed out all of the pieces and coordinated everything flawlessly. Edward even provided us with a detailed outline of the ceremony. This is something we normally do as part of our planning process so we were happy that we had the bride and groom’s exact wishes already laid out for us. The ceremony went flawlessly and Edward was glowing as he thanked us as soon as the ceremony was over and said it was perfect and went just as they had planned.

As soon as the ceremony was over the guests were ushered to the atrium for cocktail hour and the ballroom was changed over for the reception. It always amazes me how a true team at a venue can totally remake a room in under an hour. I have to give credit to the staff at the Hyatt not only for the smooth room change but also on the overall evening. Christina, the wedding coordinator there, the room captain and the entire staff at the Hyatt executed the entire evening perfectly, as always. It is really a joy to work with top-notch professionals who are always on their game and strive to make every event perfect! While the room was being turned we brought in extra sound equipment and lighting for the reception to create more of a nightclub feel for dancing.

The reception dinner was a pleasant surprise. The father of the bride had alluded to it in his speech during the ceremony saying that it “wouldn’t be your typical wedding fare” and it represented “the beginning of a new day for the bride and groom”. This got me and everyone else in the audience wondering what dinner was going to be. The buffet turned out to be a brunch type buffet including many traditional breakfast items. The father’s words all made sense then. Elisa made sure that the photographers and DJ went through the food stations to get something to eat as well and I have to say it was some of the best eggs benedict that I have ever had and I am quite fond of eggs benedict. Later that night I asked Edward about the dinner assuming that it was a Korean wedding tradition to serve breakfast items at a wedding celebration to symbolize something like the father of the bride alluded to in his speech. Edward said it wasn’t a tradition and they just thought it would be something cool and unique that people would get a kick out of. The guests certainly did and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Ed also added that the father was just winging it on the speech. The speech was so well worded it made me thin that the inclusion of breakfast items was some time honored Korean tradition!

In addition to the traditional wedding cake Elisa had a specially made grooms cake, a Ninja Accountant! It turns out that Ed is a big fan of martial arts and Ninjas so it was the perfect grooms cake. The couple was even provided a sword by one of the groomsmen to cut the cake and the crowd loved it! We had “Go Ninja Go” playing in the background. We sampled that from a song by Vanilla Ice from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Normally something I wouldn’t play but that sample looped in the background during the cake cutting worked great!

Once dinner was over and the dancing got started you could tell that the crowd really came to party. Usually we try to play a pretty good mix of music for all age ranges, however in this case, Edward and Elisa wanted newer dance music for most of the night as the majority of the crowd was in their mid 20s to 30s. We did sneak a few Korean ballads and pop songs in for the older guests but the soundtrack for most of the night was contemporary dance music. It was a really refreshing change to throw down a great dance set of new music and create more of a club feel for this wedding. The crowd was eating it up and we had a packed dance floor all night. Okay, except for about 10 minutes when we announced last call….

The wedding photographer was Brian Kinyon and the videographer was Matt Jacobsen. I have worked with both on many occasions and am always impressed by them. Brian always seems to be in the right spot at the right time capturing some great shots of the action. I have seen his work after the wedding and he always captures some really beautiful shots of the night.

The party was rocking all the way to the very end at 1 am. At the end of the night we slipped in a few sing along songs and just about every guest was on the dance floor singing and dancing their hearts out. For the last song everyone joined in a big circle around the bride and groom and were singing at the top of their lungs. As soon as the song was over Ed came up and asked to use the microphone to thank his guests for coming. After he thanked his guests he got the whole crowd cheering and applauding for us. We usually get tons of compliments from our brides and grooms but it was really nice of Ed to publicly recognize the part we played in making the evening such a great party. We are by no means egotistical and require that kind of attention but it was nice. After many thanks, hugs and handshakes from Ed and Elisa we left them to continue on at the after party!

Ed and Elisa really took some time and thought and put together a fantastic party! I am glad MDM Entertainment could be a part of it.

Here is an excerpt from it:

Caroline Wolfe Papocchia, expert event planner and student advisor for the Sheffield School’sWedding and Event Planning course, dishes on the essential ingredient for perfect wedding reception ambiance. The Sheffield School is based in New York City and offers a comprehensive home study program that has successfully trained event planners across the United States and around the world.

After years of planning weddings and events, I have learned that nothing can make or break an event like lighting – yet many don’t give it a second thought. In my opinion, illumination is the single most transformative element in any space, and professional planners often encourage clients to set aside part of their budget for a lighting package. These days there are so many options, from the most basic to the most extravagant. One thing that we stress in the Wedding and Event Planning Course is that you don’t need a big budget to create a fabulous wedding – and lighting is a perfect example of how that idea comes into play……  [read more]

There was a harpist who played for cocktail hour and dinner so I got a chance to relax for once, which was nice. I forgot to get her name but she was excellent. If anyone is interested let me know and I can get her contact info from the mother of the bride (who was super cool).

It was a younger crowd so after a little bit of music for the older folks I got to play a lot of newer music and throw down some mixes. We had a PACKED dance floor all night! A lot of the older folks were out their jamming to Lady GaGa, LMFAO, Pitbull and the likes – which was great to see!

Jonathon and Sarah were such a wonderful couple to work for and it was a really great reception. At the end of the night Sarah  told me that she and everyone had a blast, I know I did DJ’ing!

I was able to work closely with David Turner from George Street Photography, Jeff Manibo from Shoot the Bride Films, and Jeff from Photo Booth Express.

Alison and Dan were a fun couple to work with that had a vision of an elegant wedding reception without losing any of the fun. Together with 140 of their closest friends and family they were able to achieve just that. Alison and Dan were graduates of Illinois State University where they studied theater, and it was very obvious on the dance floor. Along with their friends from school they showed their pre-planned dances to songs such as Tunak Tunak Tun, an Illinois State tradition.

The night ended on a perfect note with a circle around the Bride and Groom as they were sent off on their life journey together to “Two Step” by Dave Matthews Band.

Alison and Dan were an absolute pleasure to work with, and I hope our lives cross paths again in the future.

Despite the chill in the air and a little rain the reception was a great party. A few things were different from a typical MDM wedding reception though. The first thing was that when the bride and groom were introduced there was very little cheering and hand clapping. This wasn’t because the couple’s friends and family weren’t enthusiastic, quite the contrary actually, but because the couple was deaf. Instead of clapping your hands together for applause, deaf people throw their hands up in the air and shake them. There were definitely a lot of hands up in the air shaking vigorously as Kristin and Donald entered the room!

At first having a DJ for a deaf wedding may seem a bit of a contradiction. I can assure you that is far from the case. I have had the pleasure of entertaining for several weddings in the Chicago area where the bride and groom have been deaf and they have always turned out to be great parties with packed dance floors.

For the most part the reception follows the same format with all of the standard wedding traditions. Organizing and coordinating a normal wedding reception can be challenging to say the least, it becomes even more so when many of the guests and wedding party cannot hear. It is nothing an experienced wedding DJ can’t handle though.

The major addition to a deaf wedding would be the incorporation of sign language interpreters to aid the DJ in making announcements and introductions and to assist those guests who do not know sign language.

Another addition is the use of lighting to make the wedding visually stunning. The lighting for Kristin and Donald’s reception included fuscia uplighting around the tent and a custom monogram of the bride and groom’s name on the dance floor. To get everyone’s attention we had our intelligent lights programmed to flash on the dance floor to draw attention to the interpreter who we would then spotlight.

The interpreters were stationed around the room so that they could see the people speaking and most of the crowd. They would then interpret both ways so that everyone understood the toasts, prayer and any announcements.

During dinner when the crowd wanted to see the bride and groom kiss instead of clinking their glasses they would twirl their napkins in the air. This was a lot of fun and I caught myself doing it several times. I hate clinking glasses at a reception!

When it came time for the Bride and Groom’s first dance the interpreter was standing by to sign the lyrics of the song to the Kristin and Donald. This was a really nice gesture and you could see it meant a lot to them. The interpreters did the same for the parent’s dances. It was really touching to see how the lyrics meant so much to the parents as well.

Then we got everyone out on the dance floor and started the party. It was incredible to see such a packed dance floor all night. It is a common misconception that deaf people don’t dance! For the dancing portion of the reception the only thing different we did was to bring out extra subwoofers so there was more bass to feel.

It was a wonderful evening and I have to thank the interpreters Rita and Gail and the wonderful staff at the Eaglewood Resort (especially Maureen the Catering Manager and Alan the Banquet Captain) for helping make such a great event for Donald and Kristin.

I also have to mention how great the photographers Bobbi and Mike were to work with. I am not sure how Kristin and Donald found them but they drove all the way from Indianapolis for the wedding.