Weddingbee boards

Hello!

We are down to two venues for both our ceremony and reception - the Irish American Heritage Center and Ravenswood Event Center.  Has anyone had any experience with either of these places?  Good, bad or otherwise??

@bigfatgrace:  Congrats on narrowing down your venue choices!  My fiance and I are getting married at Ravenswood Event Center next August and they have been a dream to work with!  They've been very quick to reply with any questions I've had, no matter how small or trivial.  I also love the location - easily accessible by train, plenty of cabs, and not too far from the downtown hotels.  

While our wedding hasn't happened yet, I will say that I've been to a number of events there and each one has taken my breath away.  It's such a unique venue and for people who haven't been there before, it's an amazing surprise.  The entranceway looks like that of an office building, but you're suddenly transported into a fun and elegant event space.  I think it has that wow-factor.

If you haven't made your decision yet, I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you might have about our experience working with the team at Ravenswood Event Center.  

@SeptBride81 - We decided on IAHC.  After meeting with Andy at Ravenswood Event Center, I was pretty annoyed.  He double booked our date with barely an apology and when we were trying to find another that would work, he was very tight-lipped about telling us what was available.  (I get that you don't want to broadcast that your venue is wide open but geez - you think you could be a little flexible since you screwed up your calendar!)  We settled on a new date, discussed options for our budget and Andy agreed to send us a proposal which he never did - even after follow up requests.  So in the end I'm not sure who dumped who but we felt we didn't love the space that much to deal with someone we were uncomfortable with and we just didn't think we could write all those checks to someone so jerky.  I know others have had great experiences there - it just didn't feel right for us.

Kevin at IAHC however is the nicest man ever.  He is very busy though and I find the best way to get in touch with him is via email.  He's usually pretty quick to respond but his emails tend to be very short and just answer your questions directly without any fluff.  His office hours are from 2-10pm Tues -Sat which works great if you have 9-5 type job.  Because there are lots of events and a bar on the first floor that are open to the public, you can pretty much go in there to look around whenever you want.  There have been a few occasions when we dropped by with family from out of town and there was always a volunteer available to show us the Erin Ballroon upstairs as long as no one else was using it.

We are having our ceremony in the Fifth Province Hall on the first floor and the reception in the Erin Ballroom on the fourth.  We're expecting about 200 people.

PROS
 - you can use any vendor you want for anything
 - huge free parking lot
 - 1/2 block off the highway
 - piano on site - they can recommend pianists if you want that for yoru ceremony
 - Erin Room is huge and beautiful - 9 or 12 (can't remember) Waterford Crystal chandaliers, huge bar, wood floors, sconces, stage, retractable screens for slide show, strobe lights in ceiling above dance floor etc.  It's painted a pretty neutral green so you can use any colors in there that would look great. 
 - Bar package, though pricey, is pretty cool - 4 beers on tap (you can bring in personal favorites) plus a whole lot more bottled options.  They will bring in whatever wine and spirits brands you want as well.
 - Currently repaving the front of the building with one of those brick fundraisers so you can get a brick with your names and wedding date or whatever.

CONS
 - closest decent hotel is the Holiday Inn on Touhy - about 3.5 miles up 94
 - pricey bar package
 - guests will have to go downstairs and outside to smoke 
 - Fifth Province area is a little small would need some dressing up for the ceremony

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of right now.  Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. 

Congrats!

-G

@SeptBride81

We are going with the premium bar package because we are insane.  :)  We have a big family and they all like a good drink so we decided early on that was one area we had to splurge on.  Good idea about going the tab route though - I am going to ask about that as well.  

We are using C-Catering Boutique which is actually the high-end catering arm of Biaggio's.  At first I did not really think we would go with them because I was only familiar with their casual "pasta over a sterno" type catering but we went for the tasting anyway and it was great!  We're having stations - some of the items include bbq pulled pork, short ribs, mac and cheese, toasted orza salad, etc, etc.  Since we're getting married on Cinco de Mayo (not on purpose!) we're having a Mexican Food themed station too.  Their plate cost includes a colored silk linen but I'm fuzzy on the rest of those details - we're supposed to go over that sometime next week.  The caterer is bringing all the linens, dishes for the table, water glasses and coffee cups.  The rest of  the glassware is provided by the bar.

I don't think we are going to bother with chair covers.  I don't love them either but they we figured they are netural enough so that was one area we were going to cut.

Yay!  Awesome to find someone using the same venue.  I'll keep ya posted!