Wedding Planning Wednesdays Part 1

So, remember a while back when I had "big news"?  Well, Bri and I are so excited to be engaged and at the time it felt like we had forever to plan our wedding.  I know we still have tons of time, but we are slowing checking things off our wedding planning list in the hopes that we can be somewhat stress free about all of this and just have so much fun!

Today, I wanted to tell you about choosing a venue.  We live in Chicago so we basically have approximately a billion places to decide between.  Our ceremony and reception will take place at the same location and we set the date for August of 2016!  This means we have to go with a Sunday wedding because Jewish weddings can't take place until after sundown on a Saturday, which is pretty late for a starting time during August.  After our date was picked out, we got to work looking at venues.

Ceremony Room at Ravenswood Event Center

We traveled to six very different locations: The Women's Club of Evanston, The Metropolitan Club, The Ravenswood Event Center, The Renaissance Hotel, Salvage One, and The Bridgeport Art Center.  All of the venues were pretty amazing, but it became clear that we liked the places that were a little less traditional.  Women's Club had an amazing ballroom space with beautiful windows, but the only men's bathroom was in the basement.  The Metropolitan Club, in the Willis (it is still Sears to me) Tower, had phenomenal views, but parking was pretty pricy.  The Ravenswood Events Center had three really cool spaces on each floor with a gorgeous space for a ceremony, but they warned us it could get pretty warm in there during August.  The Renaissance Hotel had a huge ballroom and great deals on rooms, but was a little out of our budget.  Salvage One was the most funky as it is also an antiques store and we were unsure if it was too funky.   And finally, the Bridgeport Art Center had an amazing space with a great view of the Chicago Skyline.  Of these 6, Ravenswood Events Center, Salvage One, and Bridgeport became our top three.  And, after careful consideration, we decided on the Skyline Loft at the Bridgeport Art Center!

Skyline Loft - Our Venue! 

All of this venue shopping took place over two days.  This means I felt a little overwhelmed.  However, it was nice to compare such different spaces.  For example, I realized that I liked rooms with tall ceilings and windows.  This helped narrow down choices and start to figure out my wedding style.  Does anyone have any other suggestions for wedding planning in/around Chicago?