82 vendors catalogued · North Shore, Illinois · verified 25 July 2026
6 of the 82 companies who will work your child’s bar mitzvah will tell you what they charge.
We catalogued every one of them — 12 categories across Highland Park, Deerfield, Northbrook, Glenview, Winnetka, Wilmette, Skokie and Lake Forest. Then we checked who publishes a price. Six do. The other seventy-six get a phone call, and everything they tell us gets published here. As of 30 September 2026, those calls have not started.
Free to your family. Always. We are paid by vendors, at one flat rate, and none of them can pay to rank higher.
What is published today · scraped 25 July 2026
The whole market’s price transparency, in one table.
This is not a summary of what things cost. It is everything the North Shore currently admits in public. The blanks are the point.
| Category | Vendors | Publish a price | What they say |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo booth | 11 | 1 | $99 –$700 |
| Entertainment & DJ | 15 | 1 | $1,850 and up |
| Rentals & decor | 6 | 1 | $295 –$1,595 |
| Photographers | 8 | 1 | $150 and up |
| Favors & sign-in | 6 | 1 | $1,000 –$15,000 |
| Catering | 6 | 1 | packages only, no per-head rate |
| Venues | 9 | 0 | nothing at all |
| Video, AV, planners, dessert | 21 | 0 | nothing at all |
Source: MitzvahBay vendor census, 82 companies, scraped from vendor websites 25 July 2026. Ranges are the figures those vendors publish themselves, aggregated by category. No vendor is quoted by name and none of these companies is a partner.
The order that matters
Book in this order or pay for it later.
The single most expensive mistake is booking out of sequence — falling for a venue that can’t hold your date, or leaving entertainment until the good crews are gone.
- 01
Your date
12–18 months out
The synagogue sets it, and everything downstream is hostage to it. Nothing else can be booked until this is fixed.
- 02
The venue
as soon as the date is fixed
The scarcest thing you will book. Some venues also lock you to one caterer, which quietly decides a second vendor for you.
- 03
Entertainment
9–12 months out
The best crews hold Saturdays a year ahead. This is the line families most regret leaving late.
- 04
Everything else
6–9 months out
Photo, video, booth, dessert, rentals, favors. Flexible, and cheaper once the big three are locked.
Why you can trust the recommendation
Every partner pays 10%. The same 10%.
There is no premium listing, no sponsored slot, and no advertising to buy — so there is no ranking to purchase. A vendor pays only when you actually book them, and only after you have paid. You pay their normal rate; we never mark it up.
The three guides most families here land on — PartySlate, MitzvahMarket and The Mitzvah Guide — sell listings to vendors, as of our check on 25 July 2026. Where a listing can be bought, you cannot tell which order was earned. Here there is nothing to buy.
This site is run by one person, Ari Klopfer, who has existing ties to two vendors in this market. Both are named here, along with what a flat rate does not fix.
- $0 what this costs your family
- 10% flat, identical in every category
- 0 vendors who can pay for placement
Where this actually stands, 30 September 2026
What isn’t here yet.
We have signed no partners and booked no events. There are no reviews on this site because we haven’t earned any, and no testimonials because we would have to invent them. What exists today is the census above, checked on 25 July 2026 and not re-checked since. The calls to vendors have not started. When a vendor signs, they appear here — not before.
If that means you would rather wait, wait. Tell us your date anyway and we will tell you honestly whether we can help yet.
No cost, no obligation
Tell us your date.
We will tell you what is realistic for your budget, which venues are still open, and what to book first. If we can’t help, we will say so and point you somewhere that can.