City Winery Chicago

I had my wedding on 4/22/2023 with 165 people, and I, unfortunately, have to report that I can only rate City Winery West Loop as a 2 star and cannot recommend to other couples. I typically do not write reviews like this, but in good conscience I need to inform other couples (so at least you can try to ensure this doesn't happen to you). Long story short, the beauty of the Concert Venue and the delicious food were up to expectations. However, the event execution was not. While my wedding planner (3rd party) was able to help mitigate the issues we had with the venue during the night, it felt as if we were the first large wedding ever held at the site. During the reception, when myself and my father spoke with the event staff about the issues that were happening, we were met with denial and dismissive/condescending responses. After the fact, when I spoke with the GM and Event Director, while they apologized, it felt cold and they barely compensated me for the services we did not receive and their wrongdoings. (For example, they weren't even going to compensate me for #2 below, and when they agreed to the amount was minimal). The event coordinator left our reception knowing the entrees were late (see #1 below), and then there was nobody from the venue administrative staff at the reception. As mentioned, after-the-fact, they did refund us for 10% of our total bill, but to be honest, when I'm spending $45K on a venue which includes the space, dinner, wine, alcohol and all of the service that goes with it...I would expect more than that (note $8K of this $45K is an "administrative fee" which we had no administrative employees there that night after 8pm when the event was going south). High level issues: 1. The entrees were served an hour late. (and our comments during the night were met with excuses and blaming myself for the way the dinner was organized). When guests asked for extra bread, they were denied. 2. No wine service during dinner (we picked out specific wines for this service) 3. The ambiance of the room when I walked in to do my first dance felt as if we were at a brunch wedding (note the reception started at 7:15PM). All of the lights in the concert venue were on for the first 45 minutes of the reception. (I had to find the staff to get the lights turned down). 4. There were other miscellaneous items that were missed from our contract/discussions -- no heat lamps over our late-night snack (which we paid an additional $5/person for service here, and not refunded for), the bourbon ran out quickly, etc. Just disappointed overall, which is really a shame. Hoping this was just an “off” night for the venue, and other customers are treated with more respect and dignity.

City Winery is the place to be when you want to get married in Chicago! Their team, all coordinated to perfection by Melissa Autullo, was with us every step of the way and Melissa truly provided concierge service throughout our journey. As a well-established venue with included staff and catering, the whole planning process was painless. They have great relationships with all of the major wedding vendors in the area, from florists to DJs to photographers, all of whom have worked in City Winery’s space before and know how to make a memorable wedding there. The dining room was completely transformed and is ideal for a ~100 person wedding. The windowed space by the street served as a perfect ceremony spot—while it was too cold in April to use their beautiful outdoor space with vine-covered brick wall, they were able to effortlessly move to the cold-weather option and gave us zero day-of stress in figuring out a rain plan. Their upstairs mezzanine did great not only for our rehearsal dinner but as a convenient staging area for us and the bridal party. The feeling running up there after the ceremony for a moment alone with champagne waiting for us was a moment we’ll never forget. I’ll also mention that because City Winery is a large establishment, they have live music in the music space while weddings occur in the dining room—they worked this out to a tee so we never noticed the music attendees or the music itself. I also want to give a massive shout-out to the kitchen, wait, and bartending team for a phenomenal dining experience. In particular, the bartending team accommodated our rather complex signature cocktails with an uncanny level of quality and was even able to source rare liqueurs for them--we really tested the bar team and they passed with flying colors. A huge thanks to the whole team for a job very well done; we wholeheartedly endorse future couples to go to City Winery!

We had our wedding at City Winery with ~105 people. Our ceremony was outdoors and our reception was in the restaurant. We thought it was so special to be able to get married in the city and we absolutely loved this wedding venue, the food/drinks, and the staff! The entire venue is gorgeous and it is in such a cool area with plenty of things to do for everyone coming in from out of town. The outdoor area was my favorite part - such a gem compared to other venues we looked at in the city! We are so appreciative of the staff at City Winery. They truly went above and beyond to make sure everything was organized and ran smoothly on our wedding day. We also got so many compliments on both the wine and the food. My parents have been talking about it ever since we had our tasting nine months ago :) My husband and I were so happy we had our wedding at City Winery and would recommend it to anyone else!

We loved this venue so much! While the space, food, ambiance, outdoor patio, and location were amazing, one of our favorite parts was working with Emily! She approached things in such an intuitive yet human way that helped us gain clarity to our vision of our day, and she was so much fun! We feel lucky to have chosen CW as our wedding venue, and recommend Emily specifically to anyone who has their wedding here. One thing we will say, if we are to share any negative feedback, is that the food staff was very disorganized and delayed on the day of our wedding. All of our guests had selected meals when they RSVP’d, yet day of, the staff was taking everyone’s orders, as though they had somehow gotten lost. Apart from this delaying our timeline a bit, everything was fantastic!