When my then-fiance and I left Cheney after visiting and touring it for the first time, we said that the other venues we visited would have to be over-the-top amazing to beat out C...heney as our reception venue. Needless to say, they did not, and we held our reception at this gorgeous mansion in Oak Park.
Kakie was our contact from day one, giving us the tour initially and running the event day-of. She is warm, personable, extremely knowledgeable, and has so many cool stories about the house's history.
One of the main reasons we picked Cheney is because we had to do little to no decorating. Kakie told us that she likes to say the house is a "gorgeous old lady who dresses up well too" - you can put as much or as little effort into decorating as you'd like. We had a couple little things here and there, but mostly we relied on the charm of the house.
And the gardens. The gardens are gorgeous. I can't wait to see the pictures we took all over the grounds. And if your weather is nice, like ours was, your guests can play yard games- bocce ball, bags, croquet. (The mansion has a croquet set, but you can bring the others to play with).
Another plus- all tables and chairs are included, unless you end up needing more than what they have on property. The ones they had were plenty for us, a reception of 100 people. We needed one extra highboy, I think.
The only wrinkle in having a wedding over 80 people here is that only 8 tables of 10 will fit in the main space for dining. However, the other 2 we had were just off to the side in a room that connects and opens up to the big room. Where we placed our sweetheart table, that room could see us clearly. No one's feelings were hurt, and everyone had a great time.
This really was the perfect place to have our wedding reception. And if we weren't getting married in the Catholic Church, I would have had the ceremony at the mansion as well. Overall, I can't say enough about the look of the venue, but more than anything, the people running the show there are fantastic beyond words!