Divine Designs & Events

Hopefully a wedding is a once-​in-​a-​lifetime event. Having said that, there is absolutely no room for error. Divine designs and events is a very good company for those precious events. It seems that Maha always goes A step above expectations. You will always get a great value for your money. Most of the work that I have seen done is absolutely stunning. And for my brother’s wedding, absolutely took it too another planet. I absolutely recommend them 4 any wedding big or small. The options are amazing. I wish you the best of luck.

They were very prompt and they decorated a beautiful stage for my wedding. Would definitely recommend them and they are at an excellent price. They also cater very well for Middle Eastern weddings. Maha is great!

Maha was the decorator for my two wedding events (shaadi and walima) and a recent graduation party. She did a fantastic job decorating at Ashyana Banquets, but the only minor issue was a miscommunication with the sofa rentals. Other than that, everyone loved my stage for both events.
She recently decorated Lazaat Banquets for a formal graduation party my parents hosted and she did a wonderful job. Her husband came by and put everything up and made sure we were satisfied. He arrived a little late though, but being a Pakistani event, no one showed up on time anyway! Thank you Maha for doing a wonderful job with all of my events!
PS.
As with any event decorator/​wedding vendor, you need to stay on top of them. You have to remind them of things via email and call them often to make sure they remember what you requested. I would recommend doing this with Maha as well.

I’ve been wanting to make this review for a long time. Maha did the decorations and flowers for my wedding about 2 and a half years ago. She knows that my mother had just passed away 3 weeks before my wedding so I thought that this lady would’ve understand not to put me on anymore stress since I’ve been going through a lot. Wedding day came, we were supposed to pick up the flowers at 8 am. Flowers was not ready until 12 noon. My brother has to wait for about 4 hours for the bridesmaids flowers. Mind you, she’s located at Franklin park and my wedding was at Joliet. My brother has to drive over an hour to get to the church due to traffic and weather. (It was December and was snowing). When the flowers was picked up, my brother called me to inform it wasn’t white roses like I was expecting and what I paid for. She uses a cheap white gerbera flowers and I was disappointed! All I want was white roses but she fooled me. I still have the contract with me. Just an advice to those brides who are considering her to do their wedding, RUN AWAY! Contract doesn’t mean nothing to her. Im pretty sure you don’t want to go through that stress and dismay. Look somewhere else.

BRIDES BEWARE!!! If you are looking for an average run of the mill centerpiece then Maha is capable of that. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary and unique, you might want to keep looking. Do not sacrifice quality to save a few bucks. It is supposed to be the most amazing day of your life, why jeopardize that.
Maha was recommended to me by a friend. She did warn me that communication was difficult but she was pleased with the end result. That wedding was a few years ago and now I think that Maha is taking on more than she can handle.
My first appointment with Maha was supposedly double booked therefore I did not have her undivided attention. I had to go back for a second consultation. That went well other than one interruption because she had to step away for 10 minutes because she thought there was a sheriff there to serve one of her employee. I thought it was a bit shady but whatever. We looked at pictures and she took lots of notes as to what I wanted and what I didn’t want. She wrote down about six different flowers that I agreed would be nice in my centerpieces. I felt very confident at that second appointment, I put a 25% deposit. I then scheduled a trial appointment for a mock up centerpiece in June for my August wedding. I was so excited for that appointment because it was going to be a small preview of what my wedding day was going to look like. I expected to walk in and see this beautiful centerpiece. Instead, I walked in seeing a centerpiece that looked exactly like what I described I DIDN’T WANT. A big ball of flowers (roses and hydrangeas) sitting on top of a vase. That typical «Dime A Dozen» centerpiece. The look on my face said enough and Maha looked shocked that I wasn’t doing cartwheels. I expressed that I was at a loss for words and wondering if she even looked at her notes. She looked at me as if she had amnesia. She then opened my folder to discover that piece of paper that had the six «DIFFERENT» flowers on it. She had now realized that she really messed up and admitted it. She said she didn’t know how this happened and that she wanted me to give her a second chance to make this right. I was skeptical but agreed to give her a week to produce what we discussed. The day before that 2^nd chance appointment, I receive an email (NOT A PHONE CALL) from Maha stating that she hasn’t been able to locate the flowers I requested and that she needed more time. At this point I knew I needed to seek other options. After all this, If you do not even have the decency to pick up the phone to break the news to me, I really cannot trust you to come thru at all. I simply responded «keep me posted». I then began consulting with quite a few designers and decided to sign a contract one. Another week went by and I never heard back from Maha. Her idea of «a few more days» is different than the general population. I finally emailed her that I decided to hire someone else as I did not trust her and could not risk her ruining my wedding day. Her response was «I am sorry our visions did not meet». WHAT… this had nothing to do with our visions not meeting, it had to do with you completely dropping the ball. I requested a refund and after 3 emails and 3 voice messages (over a week) she finally sent her husband to my house with a check.
Like I said before, it is my wedding day and I will not sacrifice quality and sanity to save a few dollars. I am spending $ 2000 more with the new designer but to me it is well worth it just for the peace of mind. Also, reviews from real people do hold an impact. I should have taken this serious when I considered using Divine Designs. I have researched my new designer and have found nothing less than 5 stars on several websites.
In closing, I feel like Maha blew smoke up my butt and then was disinterested once she saw I was disappointed. I am the furthest thing from a bridezilla and I remained calm the entire time. I just think that I was a challenge for Maha as she is so used to doing the same thing over and over. The «snow cone» looking centerpiece takes zero creativity and can be done by any robot. What I was requesting was something that stood out from all other centerpieces and Maha did not prove to have the ability to produce.

When I signed a contract with Maha, I knew I will have some problem with commutating with her since I have read all her reviews, but the price was so much lower than others and also she has worked with the meadows club before I decided to go with her. She was great with commutating via E-​mail and we set up few meeting decide on flower and other decorating details for the wedding.
I will start with the positive things, I loved the how center pieces turned out, we used the center pieces for the ceremony and reused for center places and it turned out great. Back drop was great. Even though few of my friends did not think the bridal flowers and bridesmaids flowers were fresh, but I got what I have asked for and it looked better than I could imagine.
Okay Negatives, I ordered 15 up lighting for the room only 10 or 11 up lighting was place unevenly at the hall, my wedding planner had to changed the wiring to make it more even throughout the hall.
The boutonnieres for family was so small, we have talked about have two or three spray roses on each boutonnieres but she only had one spray roses on each, which was size of my thumb.
I have requested for flowers for mothers but did not get that on my wedding day, my wedding planner had to go to nearest flower shop to obtain this an hour before our wedding.
The worst of all, I could not get in touch with her on my wedding date. I understand that she was hard to commutate with but I wish she would have answered her phone on the day of my wedding.
After talking to her she did refund me some part of boutonnieres and lighting.
I have to say her work is great, the flowers, Back drop, lighting and price cannot be better, but make sure you are willing to deal with commutation issues.

Pros-​Recently married Sept 7, 2012– I’ll start with this Maha a very pretty and soft spoken young lady was/​is awesome in her craft, she presented my dream wedding without a mishap. Everything I asked of Maha was definitely created and then some. My wedding and reception was great the decorations were awesome totally 100% satisfied with the decorations! All of my guest are still in awe and talking about how great the wedding/​reception was a week later. I received tons of compliments on how beautiful everything was and how I raised the bar for future weddings. She created my fairytale ambiance of love and romance. I knew what i wanted and i had a specific vision and she brought it to the light.
After attending countless wedding expo’s and negotiating prices for my wedding, I just wasn’t satisfied with other vendors. i somehow ran across a flyer from Divine Designs and Events. After making the phone call and setting up the appointment with her assistant Carmen, i just knew this was going to be my one stop shop. Maha did the dressings of the table linens, chair covers, lighting, canopy/​chuppa, backdrop, monogram, and columns for a very reasonable price. I was very pleased and overly excited! Just thrilled I now found the person to make it all happen for me she created my dramatic love theme wedding.
She also refunded some of my money back once I had a final headcount, with no problems.
Now with all the positive feedback i mentioned prior, you would think there wouldn’t be anything other to say. I wanted to give all the great feedback prior to giving the less wanted agony of a stressed bride to be, because at the end of the day I’d definitely use her again.
Here are my cons to Maha– Divine Design and Events.
While her craft is awesome! Her Customer Service skills are almost non-​existent, Initially i was able to contact her and get a quick response either she or Carmen would return my calls either the same day or at least the next day. After she relocated her office whenever i called i basically would get her voicemail with no return call for days to weeks. I did get upset with Maha quite a few times, due to the stress of wanting that oh so perfect wedding when a bride to be wants to make sure all the vendors are in order it’s very difficult to relax when you haven’t heard from the one person that holds the key to making it all fantastic. Eventually Maha and I did speak via email (which later turned out to be the best way of communication) and sometimes verbally and she tried to calm my nerves reassuring me that i had no worries. After all the heavy breathing and stressing i will say on Sept 6, 2012 she was absolutely right and i had no worries. Her husband Yehia (which by the way found out he was related to a stylist that used to do my hair) was fantastic! They were able to decorate the banquet hall to perfection without a hitch.
She’s great in what she does but she really needs to work on turn around time with corresponding to her customers. I know she will definitely stay in business and become even more successful once she’s able to have that under control. I would have given her all 5 stars but the turn around time simply drove me nuts.
Thank you Maha, I do look forward to working with you in the future for whatever event– now i know not to worry and just sit back and allow you to work your magic.

I’m finally breathing a sigh of relief. Do you have any idea how complicated and stressful it is to design and choose centerpieces for your wedding? How about the bridesmaids bouquets, the corsages, boutonnieres, your bouquet? And don’t even get me started on the ceremony décor. It’s exhausting. And how am I supposed to know what flowers are in season and what will cost me $ 15 a stem? Oh you didn’t know such a ridiculous thing existed? Well it does, kids. And not just in nightmares. There are actual flowers, flowers that die might I add, that can cost as much as $ 30. Can I go home and cry now?
But God, Allah and Santa Claus put Divine Designs on this green Earth to save us from the killer $ 30 blooms. Maha, owner and designer of DD, is saving my sanity and wedding by creating gorgeous displays and bouquets for my wedding. And I don’t have to lift a finger if I don’t want to! I met with her this week to discuss my vision for my wedding and she combined my ideas with her creativity and showed me displays of what my centerpieces could look like. I’m going to have the most talked-​about wedding of the year is what it will come down to. And it won’t be because Uncle Jerry hit the sauce a little hard! Okay it might be a little because of that…
Here’s a breakdown of what DD offers:
–Custom or already created designs, with fresh or silk flowers, lanterns, branches, crystals, vases, and a myriad of other décor for rent or purchase
–Ceremony décor
–Linens for tables, chairs, and draping
–Lighting, including gobos with initials
–Fresh floral arrangements
–Bouquets, Boutonnieres, corsages
–Candy table scapes
And best of all, Maha will work with you to create your whole designs, or meet you ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ so that you can add your own personal touch.
My wits and wedding will be in check and amazing (and on a budget!) thanks to Maha and the DD team!