A Perfect Event

09/08/09

A company with a great spirit

by mike3050 at Citysearch

A Perfect Event strives to do a great job and make every event as perfect as possible. The staff has tremendous experience, unrivaled style, and has received numerous compliments and words of gratitude over the years. Whenever a challenge does present itself, A Perfect Event always tries turn it into the best possibility for everyone.

The negative reviews on this site are from one person that we tried to accommodate when they wanted to break their contract due to budgetary issues. We regret that the client did not accept our offer to utilize the balance of their deposit towards invitations (as A Perfect Event has a very large selection of invitations in its retail boutique).

Because City Search does not have the same algorithms as Yelp that remove posts from assumed names, the negative reviews have stayed on the site. Please see the comments attached to these reviews for more details.

A Perfect Event values all of its clients and many of its clients have turned into personal friends.

• Pros: 15 years of experience and great references
• Cons: we have made mistakes but do learn from them

04/17/09

The 5-Star Reviews on here are all from Shills

by ShillPosts at Citysearch

CitySearch (or any discerning consumer of this service), please take a hard look at the 5-star reviews for this service A Perfect Event. They all read like the are from shills. Its not right that the legitimate reviews are being drowned out by those.

• Pros: I can't think of anything
• Cons: A Perfect Event leaves shill posts on Citysearch

03/09/09

Do not use Debi Lilly's services!

by jlynnelaz at Citysearch

I would never recommend Debi Lilly and this company. I have used her services and was completely ripped off. She did a couple weeks worth of services for my wedding and then stole our deposit of $3,500! When I tried to get our deposit balance back, she completely ignored me and will not return my multiple emails. She even hung up on my mother-in-law when she called her to get our money back.

Please do not be fooled by Ms. Lilly's bubbly personality. She comes across so sweet and charming,but it's all an act. I agree with the previous review on how she has staff members write bogus reviews on various sites. They are so easy to spot and are total lies. She posts many of them on yelp. When I found a bogus review, I called her out on yelp and the review was removed within days.

Please do not use her services. There are plenty of other wonderful bridal consultants within Chicago.

• Pros: none
• Cons: ridiculously overpriced

02/23/09

what a fraudulent company

by chicagoooing at Citysearch

I've had Debi Lilly from A Perfect Event do a party for me and was very disappointed. I should have noticed right from the start: every time I got an email from her, the "signature" was updated with some new "award" or something. The woman is just too vain and celebrity-obsessed to provide the rest of us with good service. She ended up cheating me out of some materials and money. It was astonishly petty for someone with her "reputation."

A daughter of a friend of mine once worked for her and said that her paid staffers routinely leave fake reviews at online sites. Allow me to venture a guess that the "Debi now feels like a part of the family" is not from someone who actually used her services! :)

• Cons: she took advantage of me and she's terribly rude

01/13/09

Beautiful Wedding

by CherylK18 at Citysearch

Debi, thanks once again to you and your whole team for creating the wedding of the century! I have never heard such amazing comments and compliments on each and every detail. Our phone has not stopped ringing with praises from people who you'd never think would even notice. Please send my thanks to everyone at A Perfect Event. There isn't a single thing I'd change or do differently. I can't wait to see the pictures and video!

C.K.

01/04/09

My Perfect Wedding

by susananderson12 at Citysearch

I just had A Perfect Event! My wedding was the ultimate experience thanks to Debi Lilly, Jonathan Ryan, Katie Lewis and the whole team at A Perfect Event. From the minute I hired them I was able to enjoy planning and my engagement instead of being stressed with all of the work. Debi worked closely with my entire family, and really now feels like part of our family. From my custom idea for pink and apple green save the dates, invitations, flowers, linens, favors, they made every single idea that I had come true. It was flawless. I really can?t think of words to thank them enough. I will forever recommend A Perfect Event and use them for every reason that I can for my future parties. THANK YOU Debi, Jonathan and Katie!

• Pros: boutique, professionalism, enthusiasm, energy
• Cons: honestly, none that i experienced

12/10/08

Great Event/Wedding, Invitation, and Floral Company

by ChicagoSarah at Citysearch

I know this company and staff very well and they are all great. Many of their clients probably don't use CitySearch for wedding reviews otherwise the rating on this site would be very very high. I would check out their record on the BetterBusinessBureau as they do 75 to 100 events/weddings a year and have a flawless record record. They also have a lot of their rave reviews posted on thei website. There really has to be a reason why Oprah loves Debi Lilly, why she is the ABC7 Chicago entertaining expert, why the Pampered Chef asked her to be their National Spokesperson to build out their entertaining brand, and why Crains named Debi Lilly as one of the 100 most influential women in Chicago. They do all their florals and invitations in house as well (with the exception of high end lines like Cranes and William Arthur. The head florist had tremendous experience with Marks Garden in LA (10 years) and has done a ton of celebrity weddings. They really do strive to make all their clients feel special and important and try to make every event spectacular in their clients eyes. I copied the following awards from one of their email footers and here is a list:

2009, 2008, 2007, 2005 Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Platinum List

2007, 2006 Best of Citysearch - Editorial and Audience Winner - Party/Wedding Planner

2006 Elite Traveler Magazine - Global Black Book - Chicago?s Most Accomplished Luxury Event Planner

2006 Fall Daily Candy Wedding Guide ? Wedding and Event Planner

• Pros: Creativity, Experience, Staff

11/19/08

Debi Lilly appearing on Oprah!!!

by BrookeB08 at Citysearch

I am so excited that Debi Lilly is going to be on Oprah - she was my wedding planner and treated me like I was Oprah and our wedding was pretty much perfect. I was in A Perfect Event today (love their boutique) and I just had to share this. It sounds like the show will air next Wednesday.

• Pros: Attention to Detail, Creativity, Staff

11/18/08

debi is very unethical

by carolinec79 at Citysearch

this woman should be avoided at all costs (they will be great either way).

i agree with the "fake" comments. i'm not sure how oprah got duped! granted, you never hear the end of debi dropping the "oprah" name so it sure worked out well for her...

it was just such a let down for somehow who "supposedly" came so highly recommended. as others have mentioned, she made some important mistakes. that, combined with her lack of quality as a person, made us decide to opt-out of our contract and get someone with more integrity and follow-through to complete our wedding.

• Cons: unethical, made mistakes

10/31/08

would recommend A Perfect Event - especially Jonathan Ryan

by alexisowens at Citysearch

I can not recommend this company highly enough. I worked with almost the entire staff since they pretty much did everything for my wedding. I really love love love Jonathan Ryan and we were so lucky he was available (apparently he worked at Marks Garden in LA for 10 years and is a huge celbrity florist - which we did not know when we signed him). We almost didn't hire A Perfect Event because of our initial meeting with a planner named Stacy but she is no longer with the company and we were so glad we did sign with them. Kelsey, Daniella, and Debi were all great to work with. Reading a couple of the other reviews, we did not have any issues at all anf I feel like we were treated like we were really special and I think my husband would agree - our reception was better than I expected. We had talked with a couple of references before we hired them and a couple of the caterers that the work with also really recommended them.

• Pros: Great talent and experience
• Cons: Initial meeting with Stacy who is gone