A Year In Review - 2019
WOW - it’s already 2020! How we got here seems like a dream. I distinctly remember getting excited before our first 2019 wedding and here we are getting the team ready for our first 2020 wedding! Some goals were crushed, some tossed aside because we had moved on from that dream, and of course many weddings around Chicago were celebrated. 2020 will bring weddings all over Chicago but also in Minnesota and at Notre Dame!
2019 by the Numbers
The most important goal was to enjoy the wedding planning process with all of our couples! Happy to report that all of our 16 couples made it down the aisle and said ‘I Do!’ From weddings at St. Alphonsus to Saint James Chapel, Union League Club, Chicago Illuminating Company, and the Lytle House in Edgewater. Our smallest wedding had 51 people and our largest had over 250! 2 brunch weddings, one silly string surprise, and one wedding that ended with All I Want For Christmas Is You…in August!
Favorite Moment
My favorite moment of the 2019 wedding season is biased. This year our team had the honor of helping two family friends. They are people we have known since we were little - heck one of them was my old babysitter. To watch them beam with joy all day is one of the biggest honors that I never imagined I would have when I started my business. A lot of our couples meet us as we start their wedding planning process and I already had a vow not to work my best friends’ weddings. However, that middle ground was never something I thought about. To help these families and be included in a moment I would not have experienced otherwise was the most unexpected blessing of 2019.
Workshops
This year, Your Day by MK planned and coordinated workshops for various groups in Chicago. Notably, we helped Eric Floberg execute and organize his first two-day workshop in Chicago - complete with sponsorships, Budlong Chicken, real feels, branded mugs, and more. He will now be hosting another workshop in March that we’re honored to be a part of. We’re now expanding to work with more creatives and groups in Chicago to provide planning and logistics services. A workshop in April on the horizon and a couple in the fall.
Features & Awards
Your Day by MK was featured, awarded, and invited to various events in 2019! We were awarded The Knot’s Best of Weddings for 2020! Only the top 5% of wedding professionals are awarded this award and we could not be more thankful!
But even more exciting is when fellow ND grads and pals want to collaborate. I (MK) was featured on a hilarious podcast hosted by 2 Notre Dame grads called Top Ten* with Kyle and Mike where we went over the Top 10 tips for planning a wedding that we will stand by until we die. I was also the inaugural young-alum feature for Notre Dame Magazine’s Questionnaire series! This is just a snippet of the love we’ve received from various wedding pals and we can’t wait for more in 2020!
2020
Look out for some amazing announcements and goals for 2020! We have one announcement coming January 15 and one in early March. We’ve already booked out September and October and might be closing our doors to new 2020 inquiries soon! That’s definitely something I never thought I would say, but we might reach capacity soon. We are going to have the honor to work at amazing Chicago venues like Cafe Brauer, Chicago History Museum, various churches around the city and even heading back to our Alma Mater - Notre Dame. Really a dream.
Thank you!
Whether you are on our newsletter, follow along on Instagram, are one of our couples or single and thriving, know that I have the utmost gratitude for each of you. Working for yourself and working alone can be lonely and overwhelming. To have different folks to chat with about silly things, to bounce ideas off of, and couples to laugh with make every single moment a dream. Thank you all and can’t wait to report back a year from now!
Cheers,
MK
