An Event Less Ordinary
About An Event Less Ordinary
As theater nerds, teachers, and former secretaries, we just have the wedding coordinator brains. We’re a bunch of Chicago gals who love making lists and definitely have a flair for the dramatic. As your Event Coordinators, we’ll take the stress of the wedding off of your hands, help you plan a fabulous day, and manage your event to perfection.
We offer several packages: Full Planning, Event Management (much more than Day of Coordination!), and a some great a la carte options. We can recommend great vendors, help you stick to a budget, put together your DIY projects…generally act as your wedding sorcerers.
On your wedding day, we’ll tailor our time to what you need us to do, whatever it may be; from setting up your decor to tearing it down, cuing the first dances, and keeping unruly ring bearers happy before they walk down the aisle. We’ll handle all of your vendors, put out fires, and make sure all of your guests are comfortable.
Our priority is making sure you have a stress-free day full of community, love, and connection.
Services Offered
From fully planning your day, to a little extra help, to event coordination, we offer something that will fit your needs and your budget.
Service Area
We are in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, sometimes going as far as Wisconsin and Indiana. We will certainly travel for a fee!
Pricing & Packages
EVENT MANAGEMENT
We used to call this Day of Coordination, but it is so much more than that. You’ve booked all your vendors, and now it’s time for each of the details you’ve carefully selected to come together flawlessly, executed by professionals. Our experienced team jumps in during the months before your event to handle everything, giving you peace of mind, allowing you to relax and enjoy the experience of your vision coming to life. Beginning at $2600.
FULL SERVICE PLANNING
Our customized and comprehensive event production services are unparalleled. You’ll collaborate with Founders and Senior Consultants Amy + Carolyn to put together each detail, large and small; you will benefit from their years of experience and wealth of great relationships with area vendors. AELO plans weddings, family parties, festivals, corporate fundraisers, murder mysteries, mitzvahs, and more! Beginning at $8,900, includes Event Management.
VIRTUAL CONSULTATION
Schedule a virtual meeting with owners of AELO, Amy Nolan and Carolyn Johnson, and get expert advice for your event in under two hours! After talking through all of your ideas, you will receive notes from your meeting with Amy and Carolyn so you don’t forget a thing. Get a head start on your planning process and feel calmer as soon as you hang up.$900 flat fee.
A LA CARTE PLANNING
This truly flexible, customizable package can be applied to any number of services related to event planning and design. You’ll work closely with a Senior Event Consultant to choose the combination of services which best fits your needs, at a cost that fits your budget. Beginning at $500. Does not include Event Management.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ninja cake toppers? Definitely. Quirky venues? Absolutely. Dr. Seuss ceremony readings? Walking your dog down the aisle? Ridiculous photo booth pictures? All our jam. We want you to have a wedding experience that is uniquely yours. We’ll make sure your day is relaxed, epic, and full of laughs and love.
While each package has a base price, our contract is tailored to your specific event. Once we land on a contract, it will never change, unless you decide to add services (i.e. adding vendor recommendations to a Day of Coordination contract). Shoot us an inquiry for package details!
Absolutely not! Our team puts in a lot of hours preparing for your event to ensure you have a perfect day. We are preparing your timeline and all supporting documents months in advance, communicating with your vendors, leading your venue walk through and other meetings, keeping you on track, and tying together all the loose ends. We care deeply about giving you the best day ever, and that means being prepared for everything!
Any time between 2 years and 2 months before your event! We’ve always said we can plan a wedding in a week if all your vendors are available and we’d happily accept that challenge.
After your initial inquiry, we will reach out with our packages and schedule a date for you to speak with one of the owners. After our chat, we will send you a proposal based on the needs of your event. Ask us any questions you have, then sign it!
We love Venue Coordinators! They are invaluable to us. Ultimately, their job is the space. They are overseeing the use of the venue, the safety of the guests, etc. Our job is you. An AELO Coordinator will be focused on the plan you’ve made together and the moments that matter to you, and we coordinate the whole day, not just when you get to the venue.
Absolutely not, and we never will. Our Recommended Vendor list is built from many years of working with great people, and wanting to recommend them to our clients. That’s all there is to it!
We loved planning the Define American Film Festival, highlighting the stories of undocumented immigrants. We loved planning a Traitors/Swiftie 40th birthday weekend, our first poly wedding, a Renaissance birthday party, and hundreds of other unique events for our amazing clients.
We have honed our process for seventeen years and our prices reflect that–they are economical for you and best for our team.
Absolutely. We respect all identities and never assume a pronoun.
Additional Information
For 16 years, AELO has been part of hundreds of incredible events celebrating all cultures, creeds, and identities. Our team takes pride in respecting everyone we come across.
We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion–these are not just words to us. We have actively worked to reach out to, and celebrate, marginalized groups. We welcome all people as clients and industry partners. Your identity will be respected and celebrated. We are committed to being a safe vendor for all who want to plan a special event.
Check Availability
Reach out to An Event Less Ordinary about working together:
★ Offbeat Member
This vendor is an active Offbeat Wed member and has committed to inclusive practices. For more, read our disclaimer or join us.
Gallery
Describe your aesthetic in three words that aren't related to weddings.
What's one thing conventional wedding vendors often get wrong, and how do you do it differently?
What wedding tradition or trend do you wish would die and never come back?
What's the weirdest or most nontraditional wedding element you've helped pull off?
What do you wish couples knew about you before they reached out?
Get to Know
Carolyn Johnson + Amy Nolan, Owners of AELO
No, we are not married. But we do love each other a lot.
We met in spring of 2008, when we performed together as Marty and Rizzo in a Chicago production of the musical Grease. We quickly discovered a shared love for books, animals, and alphabetizing color-coded lists of lists. A friendship was solidified over sushi and the perfect Chicago summer, when we realized that with our powers combined, the spark of an idea could become something real.
(photo by Ingrid Bonne Photography)
