Planning a Chicago wedding

My sis got engaged over the holidays and is trying to plan a reception. I'm not in Chicago but am trying to help by doing some long distance research for her. I'm hoping y'all can suggest some places that can handle 150-200 for a reception with great food (or someplace that allows you to bring in a caterer, and recs for a great caterer). It'd be 150-200 people, in late September or early November, 5pm on a Saturday (prime time, I know!)

If there are any websites I should point her towards for this sort of info, or other Chicago wedding planning resources she should know about, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks!

Joy's Sis,

Ms. EC and I are in the process of planning our Chicago wedding right now. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of places that meet your criteria.

Ms. EC made liberal use of TheKnot.com's message boards during our location and catering search.

Good luck,
EC

Hi,

Just to get the ball rolling, if you go to CH, then look for posts by Food Nut who was looking for wedding locations earlier this year.

On this board, we have had several wedding threads, which offer food for thought:

Wedding without a full meal?

Chicago themed gift basket

Wedding etiquette question (lots of ideas for gifts)

You may also want to consult e-Bay because they have everything for a wedding on auction. My cousin is just engaged and already complaining about the cost of invitations. I sent him links for invitations at decent prices.

Congratulations to your sister and her fiance.

Regards,

eatchicago wrote:Joy's Sis,

Ms. EC and I are in the process of planning our Chicago wedding right now. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of places that meet your criteria.

Ms. EC made liberal use of TheKnot.com's message boards during our location and catering search.

Good luck,
EC

Thanks EC, read some of your posts and passed the recommendations on to her to start with. I've been meaning to point her towards The Knot, I'm also running out to get her a Bridal Bargains Guide (Denise and Alan Fields)- not sure if it's still as relevant as it was when I planned my wedding but there was some invaluable advice in there so I'll get it anyway.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Just to get the ball rolling, if you go to CH, then look for posts by Food Nut who was looking for wedding locations earlier this year.

On this board, we have had several wedding threads, which offer food for thought:

Wedding without a full meal?

Chicago themed gift basket

Wedding etiquette question (lots of ideas for gifts)

You may also want to consult e-Bay because they have everything for a wedding on auction. My cousin is just engaged and already complaining about the cost of invitations. I sent him links for invitations at decent prices.

Cathy- I culled through those threads and got a few recommendations to pass along to her.

Thanks for the suggestion, although my experience both as an ebay buyer and seller is that there aren't a ton of bargains on there these days. People get a bit wacky with the auction mentality... I've sold used things at about the same price the buyer could have bought it new. But retail wedding prices are so inflated, ebay might actually make sense for that stuff!

I planned our wedding in 3 months and cooked the meal myself for 150 people.

I highly recommend the Irish American Heritage Center pub as a venue. The bar is top notch for the $$ (real glassware, martinis, and nice beers on tap)

For servers : I had great luck w/ Service is Us

Linens: I don't remember the name, but they were around 73rd and Cottage Grove (they deliver) much cheaper than bj's

Rentals: Hall's has the best prices - bar none

Florist: We used Ashland-Addison - did all Calla Lilies - really gorgeous

Caterers: Marie's has great service. if $ is no object, greg christian does nice work

Kafein wrote:cooked the meal myself for 150 people

Maybe you could outline the menu and steps it took to pull it altogether. Especially, how you could enjoy your occasion and let the servers take over ... what type of interaction did you have with them before-during-after? I think everyone can benefit from how to do large events sans caterer.

Thanks in advance ... and if you have pictures and need help hosting them, then let me know.

Regards,

This is a popular question

I'm a foodie myself - I've always cooked - started with big dinners in college - expanded to a pre-Thanksgiving feast with our friends where at our largest we did 8 turkeys and many many side dishes. So the thought of making my own dinner didn't scare me. I didn't want a rubber chicken and wedding beef affair. I was also in the process of opening a restaurant, so I had access to some good contacts and was able to purchase some things wholesale.

Menu - It had to be a menu where everything could be made ahead.

I decided to honor 1/2 of my heritage and go Italian.

Passed Hors d'Ouvres -

These were all catering quality frozen things
Maple Leaf Farms Duck Quesadillas
Four Cheese Puff Pastries
Mini-spinach Quiches

Sit Down Dinner Served Family Style

Cold Haricots Verts w/ Balsamic Vinegar, Kalamata Olives, and Roasted Red Peppers (The Service is Us chef put this together)

Gnocchi w/ Marinara - I used a mix of frozen/asceptic packed ghocchis i cooked the day before and tossed w/ oil and parmesean. Topped w/ homemade marinara and parm. (I made about 60 qts of marinara)

Brasciole - I got 23 lbs of thin sliced round steak from Caputo's - I had the men of the wedding party the day before stuffing and rolling whilst i browned and baked w/ marinara.

Garlic Bread - D'Amato's Crusty italian - sliced part way and spread w/ Garlic Butter, Wrapped in Foil and ready to bake. Done the night before.


Dessert was a gorgeous cake from Lutz and cannoli and plastries from Lutz and Domino.

Chilling it all would have been tough, but I had the walk-in at the restaurant. The kitchen was still under construction, everything else was cooked at my apartment. (Very unfancy, Chicago 2-flat kitchen)

The day of, I had family that brought all the food to the hall and another person handle the staff.

I had met with the staffing company and the banquet lead and did a facility walk through the week before. The center had a full kitchen available including a warming cabinet.

Having family to help out was key, I tried to go light on the staff - it was a mistake - they really needed an extra hand in the kitchen, my aunt chipped in. It would have been tough w/o them. All things considered though, service was good - the food was hot, and definitely a step above rubber chicken.

I only paid for when the bar was open - and paid a fee for our wine and champagne which was a great deal.

Everyone had a good time and I was so happy I had no problem relaxing. (and it wasn't the champagne, I was 4 months preg at the time

I'm looking through the pics - the don't do the food justice (B&W) but the room looks great.

Head Table


Dining Room


Bar


Pub Area (Lovely Fireplace - The bar and fireplace were brought over from Ireland)


Cake Topper

Hi,

I very much admire your DIY wedding dinner. I took the liberty of linking to your post to another board, where someone was planning to do the same. I've been in the Fifth Province many times, it never occured to me it would be such a lovely and suitable place for wedding reception.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

Regards,

Dear Joy's Sis: My lifelong friend Eva Niewiadomski has a great venue for weddings called Catalyst Ranch at Randolph/Kennedy in the west Loop. All details are at www.catalystranch.com, including all the particulars regarding wedding planning. She even has couples coming in from NYC to hold their receptions there. Good luck! Anna

Joy's Sis wrote:I'm hoping y'all can suggest some places that can handle 150-200 for a reception with great food

LTH,

Adler Planetarium made an incredible setting for a nieces wedding this weekend. Terrific view of the city, two sets of fireworks, Navy Pier* and the Gay Games at Soldier Field, and exhibit galleries were open for our perusal.

Cocktails and hors d'oeuvre in the Sky Theater dinner then dancing in the Galileo, adjacent to the North Terrace. Food for Thought, the Adler's exclusive caterer, did a very nice job.

Adler Planetarium



Navy Pier Fireworks

Gay Games Fireworks


Enjoy,
Gary

* Navy Pier has fireworks every Wednesday @ 9:30pm and Saturday @ 10:15pm at 10pm.

Gary,

Very nice pics. Petit pois' brother was married at the Adler this Spring. It was a fantastic venue and I was very impressed with Food For Thought's food and service.

Bumping this thread up gives me an opportunity to follow up on my original post.

Joy's Sis wrote:

eatchicago wrote:Joy's Sis,

Ms. EC and I are in the process of planning our Chicago wedding right now. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of places that meet your criteria.

Ms. EC made liberal use of TheKnot.com's message boards during our location and catering search.

Good luck,
EC

Thanks EC, read some of your posts and passed the recommendations on to her to start with. I've been meaning to point her towards The Knot....

We were married last November at The Newberry Library. We had about 140 guests, and it was catered by Elegant Edge.

We were impressed with the food, and our guests seemed very pleased. The highlight of the passed hors d' oeuvres was smoked trout and creme fraiche served on a beet chip. Our dinner service included butternut squash soup and a wild rice and cherry stuffed chicken breast. Simple, but seasonal, tasty and effective. Elegant Edge provided "sweep" table service, that is, where each table is served by a line of servers that come out in unison and surround the table, serving everyone at once (a very nice touch).

The big benefit of the Newberry was the ability to choose any caterer we wanted, as well as bringing our own alcohol (paying the caterer a nominal fee to tend bar and provide ice and mixers). We purchased all of our alcohol from Sam's, who were very helpful in planning, and took returns with a 10% re-stocking fee. This saved us plenty of money.

Also, the Newberry's room is well decorated and very attractive, saving us money on flowers and decorating. The alcohol and flower savings practically paid the Newberry's fee.

Best,
Michael

I had a friend highly recommend the website indiebride.com - she said "Those Indies look out for each other in a big way. It's like the Knot for grownups."

I actually haven't checked out the site myself - I've been married for 4 years - but she told me about it because I did her wedding invitations and she wanted to let me know that she'd posted her raves about them on various websites & message boards. But, to get back to the point, having used the knot's website when planning my own wedding, it's got some great info, but definitely a lot of v. young people who seem to have a different set of priorities than someone who's a little older.

--gtgirl

I had my wedding reception last September at Spiaggia and it was spectacular and suprisingly affordable compared to having it at a non-restaurant venue and bringing in a caterer. If you go to the Spiaggia website there is a private dining link and you'll see all of the details there. The various packages include food, liquor, wedding cake (you work with Spiaggia's outside cake vendor), and standard linens (but you can upgrade). You even get a one year anniversary dinner at Spiaggia with the price. Basically, everything except the flowers so we used Stems for flowers and linens. I also loved Spiaggia's chairs (they are different than the restaurant chairs) in terms of both design and comfort and didn't have to rent chairs separately which can be extremely expensive.