Chicago Illuminating Company

Ed Bohrer

Attended a wedding there about 3 weeks ago. Aesthetically it is pretty venue. Additionally the food and attention by staff was very good. My issues were with the logistics. 1) The ceremony is held in the courtyard portion, which is also where the tables for dinner would be set up after the ceremony. We were herded into the bar area for cocktails while the conversation was being made - this took just about 2 hours!. Secondly, there was at least one sewer grate between our tables and others and the smell it had was not pleasant to say the least. Lastly, the parking situation in this area is terrible, no valet service offered and only street (metered) parking. This is a very busy area on Saturday nights so it took quite awhile of driving around to find one a few blocks away. (not the venues issue, but the wedding invite made no mention of parking, lack thereof, so if you plan, let your guests know in advance.)

Serod Abdennabi

What an amazing venue! We got married here and throughout the entire process Marta was helping us and our biggest advocate. She made sure this wedding happened exactly the way it needed to and it was a great and smooth time. Our original venue (the stockhouse) cancelled on us 6 weeks before the wedding and having Marta help us through it all was such a blessing. The patio was spectacular and the inside set the perfect scene for our big day.

Emma Vodick

The Chicago Illuminating Company is AMAZING. Our venue cancelled on us 6 weeks before our wedding, and Marta (the owner) took us in and helped us out in immense ways. Not only is the venue beautiful, but she is so knowledgeable and really made us feel at ease during such a stressful time. Our wedding guests were blown away by the indoor/outdoor venue and I could not recommend it more.

A.J. DelPrince

Pros: The venue is perfect. It’s indoor/outdoor with plenty to work with in terms of creativity. It’s super convenient to the Marriott Marquee which is also fabulous. Marta does a great job of recommending and coordinating vendors. She has a lot of experience and has connections that are helpful. Collette at Flower Firm was a fantastic vendor. Her suggestions were spot-on, her follow-up was timely and she was able to adapt when changes needed to be made on the day of the wedding. I cannot recommend her enough. Her company is top notch. Boka catering group was a really fun experience. We got to suggest what type of food we wanted and they brought it to life. We ended up going with a family recipe! It was really cool. Cons: The exclusive lighting vendor for the venue is Frost. We did not have a good experience with this company unfortunately: - Costs seemed a bit outrageous overall. For example, hanging drapes cost $6,000 and they say they can’t re-use drapes so they have to be purchased new for each event, even though they work with CIC every weekend. - We asked Frost to include a quote for drapes in the contract. They did, sent it back to us for review and asked us to confirm receipt. We replied “confirming receipt” and then after some discussion, my wife and I determined it was too much for our budget. We asked them to remove it, to which they replied they had already ordered the fabric and we had to pay for it. It was frustrating trying to get them to remove that cost. - Daniella was condescending in emails and did not provide good customer service. - The “beautiful mood lights for the dance floor” were spotlights that were too bright and looked ridiculous. We ended up having them turned off. - All other vendors met with us at some point. Frost never did. Marta got upset with our wedding party because we were being too loud during our rehearsal, which was going on while she was giving a tour to another couple. She also didn’t like that our speeches at the wedding went too long because that affected the timeline of the night. These are just some notes from my experience so keep in mind that some of these things could’ve been one-off. All in all it was such a beautiful wedding and a day to remember. I would recommend this venue to others looking for a convenient and beautiful venue.