Chicago Botanic Garden

tars all around. We are endlessly grateful for the love and care they put into our day! CBG on the other hand was pretty terrible to work with. We are giving two stars rather than 1 because the venue is absolutely gorgeous and the food was delicious (though that is Culinary Landscapes and not CBG, technically). The problem is that CBG was horrifically unresponsive and unaccommodating. Being the reception venue, all of our other vendors depended on communication with them to be able to do their jobs properly. We had 5 different vendors complain about not being able to get a response from CBG, even in the days before the reception. Two vendors said something along the lines of "not believing how inattentive CBG was" and "CBG being the worst experience they've ever had trying to get in touch with the venue." We could hardly get a response on an email, even after escalating. We started the journey after booking in Sep 2020 with Kelsey, who was extremely helpful and as responsive as she could be. When the pandemic hit it seems the events team came under new management and in the final months leading up to our big day, they were simply a nightmare to work with. Nobody would respond to emails, calls, even when we were trying to reach them to pay an invoice at a deadline (we ended up paying a week or two late because no one would answer). After Kelsey, we kept reaching out for a new contact to work with and they couldn't point us to anyone. You can imagine the stress this would induce for a couple as the big day approaches - not able to coordinate or make adjustments with the largest vendor that they are paying the most money to! The day of, the train of my dress was stolen and I reached out to CBG afterward and they made no effort to recover it or look at security footage. I had to follow up maybe 3 times over the course of a week to even get a response. Never found the train. We also asked that they package up the remaining cake (we had estimated ~70 extra servings) & the remainder of the late night snack spread to take home. We even confirmed this with them during the reception and they agreed. At the end there was "nothing left" - so either they were helping themselves in the back or threw it out in lieu of packaging things up with the boxes provided by the cake vendor. Finally, during the food tasting they messed up our request and served us the incorrect dish - (fish, which my husband is allergic to). When we requested to try a different one in its place, not feeling comfortable serving our guests a dish we hadn't tasted ourselves, they told us there was no possible way to schedule that. Overall, it was just the kind of inattentive, poor service that rubs you the wrong way, and that's NOT what you want on your wedding day. CBG was the source of 98% of our stress in the two months leading up to the big day. I wish we couldn't relaxed and enjoyed our engagement a bit more in those final days instead of worrying about getting a response from them. The gardens are absolutely gorgeous - wow what a venue! But just proceed with caution knowing they will be difficult to work with :/ Again, we considered not posting this - but on your wedding day of all days, we want other couples to be aware and hopefully have a smoother experience!

l beauty and how well kept it is. I was able to take a tour and discuss the different areas available to host a wedding. We ended up having the ceremony and cocktail hour in the Rose Garden with reception in the McGinley Pavilion overlooking the lake. The Rose Garden had a natural isle with a tall wall of trees on each side which was gorgeous. The team did a great job setting up and blew my expectations out of the water. They have an on-site catering team which is top notch. During our tasting, the chef came out and personally introduced himself and was open to customizations but honestly the food tasted like a 5 star restaurant we didn't change a thing!!! I really wanted to create a magical experience for our guests and this was the perfect venue to do that. Lots of parking available, they create custom signs pointing your guests in the right direction, have on site security to ensure the safety of your guests, and don't even get me started on the AMAZING catering team. They came out like an army, so in sync to serve the food. Never interrupted speeches, and the nobody's glass was ever empty. They even assigned one staff member to the bride and groom who did an excellent job and made sure we were taken care of. I worked directly with Michelle from events planning and she is a rock star. I gave her a huge hug after the ceremony and will forever be grateful for all she did. Plus a huge perk of having your wedding at CBG is you don't need much florals... you are submerged in a work of art!! No need to add much at all, let the beauty of the venue speak for itself. All in all, this is a high end venue that I highly recommend for any couple looking for an out of this world experience on their wedding day. All of our out of town guests are still talking about how it was the best wedding they have ever been too. Ditch the boring banquet halls and host your wedding at the CBG!!

We had a beautiful outdoor ceremony and cocktail hour on the Rose Terrace, followed by a reception at the McGinley Pavilion. The space is simply breathtaking, to say the least. Despite being an outdoor venue, our DJ had no problem getting adequate power for the music set up. The space was not buggy at all, and we had several backup plans for inclement weather in place in advance of the big day. In addition to the beauty of the venue, the Gardens' exclusive caterer, Culinary Landscape, was exceptional. The food was beyond delicious, and my husband and I are big foodies! Our guests raved about everything, many of whom said this was the first wedding food they actually enjoyed. The service staff were superb. They even surprised my husband and me with some private appetizers and wine by the pond immediately following our ceremony, which ended up being one of our most treasured moments of the day. In the interest of full transparency, there were some snafus leading up to the big day. In the two years that we worked on planning our wedding with CBG, we went through three venue coordinators due to high turnover. The transition between coordinators was less than ideal, with uncertainty for several weeks regarding who we'd be working with. Our first coordinator was not responsive at all, and the second coordinator was rigid and lacked flexibility. The final coordinator was assigned to us just a few months before the wedding, after pushing management to assign us a new coordinator. The second coordinator arranged our tasting for only 4 individuals when she offered "4 individuals + your wedding planner," and was not accommodating when we arrived with 4 individuals plus our wedding planner. The coordinators led us to believe that lighting and draping was included in our package -- it was not, leaving us to arrange for lighting and draping with one of CBG's exclusive vendors at the last minute. I would feel uncomfortable recommending CBG without sharing these issues, despite being overall extremely pleased with the ultimate execution on the day of. (Granted, we had an incredible wedding planner who I'm sure was responsible for making sure it was an amazing day. Shout out to Blair from BW Studio.) Overall, we had a great experience with CBG, and would absolutely recommend it. (In fact, my husband's cousin is getting married there in August!)