Cathy2 wrote:A friend went to an impromptu small wedding in the spring. Her contribution was to organize the wedding cake. I advised her to avoid the word "wedding" in her order. Just tell them you want a fancy cake for a special occasion. She mentioned this advice to a bakery, who hesitated then affirmed they do upcharge for weddings.

This is excellent advice for everything, not just cakes. I found that the word "wedding" almost immediately doubled the price of venue rentals, food, flowers, photographers, etc. It's pretty annoying.

Eva Luna wrote:So far I've gotten a reply from the Highland Park Community House, which looks promising - expensive, but beautiful (when I saw the photos I remembered I'd attended a wedding there maybe 15 years ago), you can bring in any caterer and your own booze, and tables and chairs are included. It's also a couple of blocks from Metra, which would be handy for people with no cars or people coming from out of town who don't want to have to rent a car. I've got e-mails in to a few other places, too (Michelle's Ballroom, the Irish-American Heritage Center, and the Glencoe Community House). I really want to see just how multicultural we can make this - so far it's the wedding of an Ashkenazi agnostic and a WASP atheist son of 150 years of Christian missionaries in the Middle East and India, who met while co-authoring a blog on the Middle East and Islam, and we plan to have Persian food, Balkan music, a few horas, maybe some Motown, and I'm thinking of ordering my dress online from Thailand.

What other layers of insanity can we add? I think I have to top my sister's shotgun East Coast Jewish/Iowa Baptist wedding.

Wow - I think the IAHC would be a great addition to the mix. It does include tables and chairs. You can use any caterer and they have a full kitchen on site. I did use their bar, but the pricing is very good ( Guinness on nitrous in a pub glass!) and I did negotiate to bring my own wine.

I don’t know if this has been mentioned but the The Kenilworth Club
Is a pretty nice place, you can bring in whatever you like. The lawn is nice and they have tables, chairs, plates, glasses. Also it is located very close to the train
Located at 410 Kenilworth Avenue in Kenilworth
Contact: Lisa Lauren 847-251-1227

kafein wrote:
Wow - I think the IAHC would be a great addition to the mix. It does include tables and chairs. You can use any caterer and they have a full kitchen on site. I did use their bar, but the pricing is very good ( Guinness on nitrous in a pub glass!) and I did negotiate to bring my own wine.

That's good to know (about the wine) - I might want to see if I can negotiate to bring in some rakija (Balkan culture has figured strongly in our relationship, as the event that convinced him to come visit me in Chicago for the first time was a Serbian friend's pig roast). How did you negotiate it? I don't mind if they mark up (it's only reasonable after all), but it would be nice to have more choices than whatever they have on standard offer.

Do you remember what the hall rental cost, even ballpark? I have an e-mail to them, but I'm getting a little obsessive about the planning.

I paid 100% mark up for wine and champagne. Which is less than they would have charged and a bargain at $5/bottle for Cristalino. I want to say the hall was only $400? But we had it for a Sunday. And this was 6 years ago. We used the 5th Province (the pub) which I liked because you have the dining room side and the pub side with the fireplace. And used the Hall in between for a Sweet Table, DJ, etc. It worked well, IMO.

Actually it might have been $500, but they reduced it because we had to come in a couple hours late, because the President of Ireland was visiting. This limited our access. That said, they spruced up the place - fresh paint everywhere and new annuals planted. The later arrival wasn't an issue for us. It caused minor confusion with our cake delivery, but was not a big deal. (Also - cake from Lutz - very good, not terribly expensive and I can pick up slices every year just like our wedding cake - chocolate cream and strawberry mousse. In fact, I'm due next week.)

I think someone else mentioned them earlier and it isn't in the Evanston area but West Loop Studio is a great space. Its approximately 4000 square feet of loft space - the brick is painted white to give it a blank canvas look. There are also white holiday lights decorating the ceiling.

The owner and manager of the space are photographers and could do your wedding as well.

West Loop studio allows caterers and you can provide your own liquor. Binny's and Sam's can deliver the liquor and anything that is not opened they will pick up and you get the refund.

Congratulations and Happy Wedding planning! We're getting married there this fall.

www.westloopstudio.com

kafein wrote:I paid 100% mark up for wine and champagne. Which is less than they would have charged and a bargain at $5/bottle for Cristalino. I want to say the hall was only $400? But we had it for a Sunday. And this was 6 years ago. We used the 5th Province (the pub) which I liked because you have the dining room side and the pub side with the fireplace. And used the Hall in between for a Sweet Table, DJ, etc. It worked well, IMO.

Actually it might have been $500, but they reduced it because we had to come in a couple hours late, because the President of Ireland was visiting. This limited our access. That said, they spruced up the place - fresh paint everywhere and new annuals planted. The later arrival wasn't an issue for us. It caused minor confusion with our cake delivery, but was not a big deal. (Also - cake from Lutz - very good, not terribly expensive and I can pick up slices every year just like our wedding cake - chocolate cream and strawberry mousse. In fact, I'm due next week.)

Update re: the Irish-American Heritage Center: the room shown on their website is actually the reception room of the Fifth Province (the bar); she said that's the room people normally rent for weddings. Photo: http://irish-american.org/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=58

Rental of that room is now up to $1500 (which is still about the cheapest of the options, more or less), and includes tables and chairs. Whoever does catering must have a liquor license. The lady who does the event planning is only in on Tues. & Wed. afternoons and Fri. & Saturday evenings, and she can discuss bar packages, etc. Sept. 5th (Saturday) is booked for that room, but Sunday the 6th is available. The office is only open from 9 - 5, but there is a security guard there in the evenings, and he can let us in to see the room(s). I didn't want to grill the receptionist too much; she was manning the office alone and was totally swamped. She said the other rooms that are the right size are "not the kind of room people use for weddings," but we can always take a peek anyway. If the IAHC doesn't end up working out for whatever reason, I think we will tour the Highland Park Community House; it's more expensive, but we don't need to use their booze, so it might not be THAT much more expensive, plus it's really beautiful. (When I looked at the photos, I remembered I went to a wedding there maybe 15 years ago, for which the bride and groom had super-specific catering requirements; they were vegan because he had some weird genetic issue that makes his body make cholesterol out of EVERYTHING.) I guess when it comes to distance from Evanston, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other as far as places that let you bring in outside caterers.

We will probably go check out the IAHC in the next few days - wish us luck! But if you have suggestions, please keep them coming.

My brother had his wedding at the Logan Square Auditorium, catered by Noon-o-kabab. I think the rental was $1100, but this was a few years ago. They provided tables, chairs, a sound system, and allowed outside caterers and booze. They also supplied warming ovens that the trays from NOK slid right into and kept warm. They hired a bartender from a bartending school who came licensed, and charged $10/hour plus tips. I believe their food costs were 8$/person. The food was great!

http://www.logansquareauditorium.com/photos.htm

When I was looking for my own wedding, I came across this place-- I remember it being super cheap and allowing outside catering...

http://www.laddarboretum.org/multipurpo ... htm#rental

good luck! and congrats!

Eva Luna wrote:

kafein wrote:I paid 100% mark up for wine and champagne. Which is less than they would have charged and a bargain at $5/bottle for Cristalino. I want to say the hall was only $400? But we had it for a Sunday. And this was 6 years ago. We used the 5th Province (the pub) which I liked because you have the dining room side and the pub side with the fireplace. And used the Hall in between for a Sweet Table, DJ, etc. It worked well, IMO.

Actually it might have been $500, but they reduced it because we had to come in a couple hours late, because the President of Ireland was visiting. This limited our access. That said, they spruced up the place - fresh paint everywhere and new annuals planted. The later arrival wasn't an issue for us. It caused minor confusion with our cake delivery, but was not a big deal. (Also - cake from Lutz - very good, not terribly expensive and I can pick up slices every year just like our wedding cake - chocolate cream and strawberry mousse. In fact, I'm due next week.)

Update re: the Irish-American Heritage Center: the room shown on their website is actually the reception room of the Fifth Province (the bar); she said that's the room people normally rent for weddings. Photo: http://irish-american.org/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=58

Rental of that room is now up to $1500 (which is still about the cheapest of the options, more or less), and includes tables and chairs. Whoever does catering must have a liquor license. The lady who does the event planning is only in on Tues. & Wed. afternoons and Fri. & Saturday evenings, and she can discuss bar packages, etc. Sept. 5th (Saturday) is booked for that room, but Sunday the 6th is available. The office is only open from 9 - 5, but there is a security guard there in the evenings, and he can let us in to see the room(s). I didn't want to grill the receptionist too much; she was manning the office alone and was totally swamped. She said the other rooms that are the right size are "not the kind of room people use for weddings," but we can always take a peek anyway. If the IAHC doesn't end up working out for whatever reason, I think we will tour the Highland Park Community House; it's more expensive, but we don't need to use their booze, so it might not be THAT much more expensive, plus it's really beautiful. (When I looked at the photos, I remembered I went to a wedding there maybe 15 years ago, for which the bride and groom had super-specific catering requirements; they were vegan because he had some weird genetic issue that makes his body make cholesterol out of EVERYTHING.) I guess when it comes to distance from Evanston, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other as far as places that let you bring in outside caterers.

We will probably go check out the IAHC in the next few days - wish us luck! But if you have suggestions, please keep them coming.

You can grab a drink in the pub on most weekend evenings to get a feel for the space.

I got married at the Women's Club of Evanston three years ago. They provided a list of pre-approved caterers but were open to considering ones not on the list. Probably would have cost me more but we chose one from the list.

We only served wine, sparkling wine and soft drinks which I ordered from Binny's in Skokie. Binny's took back unopened bottles as long as the labels were intact. Our caterer would have provided a bartender if we'd wanted a full bar.

The venue is lovely and they only book one wedding per day, meaning you have the whole place to yourself. However that means dates can be more difficult to get so you might have to book way in advance. They were wonderful to work with.

We did our own flowers and were able to bring them in the day before the wedding, making set up on the wedding day much easier.

The address and contact info is in a previous post.

I work at Heritage Prairie Farm & Market - just 40 miles west of Chicago. Beautiful farm! While we do have in-house catering available (couldn't be closer to your food source then here!), we do rent out the farmhouse and farm for weddings, events - you name it! You can bring in your own food and alochol. Check out our site at www.hpmfarm.com

kafein wrote:You can grab a drink in the pub on most weekend evenings to get a feel for the space.

I did once, but it was years ago, and I had other things on my mind at the time - I have a very vague memory of the pub proper, and none whatsoever of the bigger space in the photo.

Any feedback on what the other rooms of that size look like? The receptionist said "oh, they aren't the kind of rooms you would want to have a wedding in," but is this true?

We also just booked an appointment to tour the Highland Park Community House on Thursday. I reaaaaally want to square away the date, at a bare minimum - people will be coming from all over the place on a holiday weekend, and I want to give them the max time to make travel arrangements. We may go take a peek tomorrow night - they say the security guard can let us in. I'll give them another call in a bit; things in the office sounded a little crazy yesterday.

ETA: woohoo - looks like they have live music this Friday! Maybe we will check it out.

http://irish-american.org/index.php?opt ... &extid=181

Thanks, all - we ended up going with the Highland Park Community House. We also looked at the Irish-American Heritage Center, but Highland Park was a much nicer space, with a garden, and would let us bring in any food/booze we wanted. The rental is a bit more expensive ($2,500), but when you factored in the cost of the bar packages at the IAHC (which, I think, contemplate heavier drinking than is likely to happen, plus $5/hour for nonalcoholic drinks for the under-21s seemed a bit steep, and there should be a bunch of kids), I think Highland Park will actually be cheaper. And there were maybe 3 places that never even called me back, which I found a bit disturbing. But thanks for the advice, all!

Just got engaged and am looking for a venue around Naperville, il that can hold 225 and allows outside catering. We are on a TIGHT budget.... Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Have you tried asking this on The Knot? They can be a little snooty, but they're the best resource for local wedding info.

Just got engaged last week and trying to get a venue that will allow outside food and alcohol for about 300 guests.

My Fiancee and I love foods and would like to showcase our favorite foods in a buffet style from some of our favorite restaurants (about 5 of them). So far I've found places that would allow this but aren't big enough. And while we're at it, would like to bring in our own alcohol so would like that as an option as well.

Any suggestions would be oh so wonderful! We would like to get married May 26th or 27th of 2012 and are running out of time. Yikes! Hopefully someone knows of the perfect place to recommend. THANKS ALL!

jandk12 wrote:
My Fiancee and I love foods and would like to showcase our favorite foods in a buffet style from some of our favorite restaurants (about 5 of them).

Wow, that's ambitious. I got married last year with half as many guests and our caterer, Smoque BBQ, though they were completely competent and did a fabulous job, was all I'd want to deal with. Have you looked into one caterer that can do a few different styles, set up like stations? There's just so many details to keep track of, I would think you're multiplying the issues exponentially. Sorry, not trying to rain on your parade (congrats, btw!) but that just seems like a lot.

jandk12 wrote:Just got engaged last week and trying to get a venue that will allow outside food and alcohol for about 300 guests.

My Fiancee and I love foods and would like to showcase our favorite foods in a buffet style from some of our favorite restaurants (about 5 of them). So far I've found places that would allow this but aren't big enough. And while we're at it, would like to bring in our own alcohol so would like that as an option as well.

Any suggestions would be oh so wonderful! We would like to get married May 26th or 27th of 2012 and are running out of time. Yikes! Hopefully someone knows of the perfect place to recommend. THANKS ALL!

The other thing you might consider is having one company cater the wedding, but have them serve food from all five places. That is, the other four places would just drop off the food. This wouldn't work if you want all five companies cooking on site.

Also, check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32392