Weddingbee Blog

Since I was first having wedding thoughts months ago, I fell in love with two phenomenal and iconic Chicago locations: Cafe Brauer in Lincoln Park and the Chicago Room at the Chicago History Museum. Our wedding is pretty much a destination wedding…well, for everyone other than us. So finding a place that was uniquely Chicago was at the top of our list. Unfortunately, Cafe Brauer and the Chicago History Museum were both at the top of our budget, but check them out—they’re kinda worth it.

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I love everything about Cafe Brauer: the beams, the stained glass windows, the majestic location smack dab in the center of Lincoln Park…oh, swoon. So it’s amazing and one of my favorite buildings on the north side of town, but is it us?

So on to the Chicago History Museum. I love the idea of this place. It’s perfect: 100% focused on Chicago, Frank Lloyd Wright windows hanging on the walls, a great location in the city, and we could even be married out in the park with the festivities inside. To top it off, when I went to check out the space, Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson were participating in a wedding rehearsal! What could be better?

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But are either of these options us? More importantly, is a fabulous location worth skimping in other areas, like food or decor? Ultimately, no. So we kept looking. In under a month I called 14 venues, only to find that eight of them were already booked on our wedding date (15 months away!) and most of them were at the top of our budget or simply not us. We checked out hotel after hotel and even considered a dinner cruise before stumbling on The One.

The Ravenswood Billboard Factory is The One; it’s a billboard factory that was restored a few years back to be an open event space for everything from weddings to benefits.

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The top floor is airy and modern with exposed brick walls and huge picture windows that look out over the El and the neighborhood, while the second floor is more intimate with the same loft feel and plenty of character. Not to mention, the main floor is a garage-turned-event-space where the owner keeps his personal collection of vintage cars (talk about a photo op!) and a smattering of restored neon signs. We pretty much walked in, saw the space, and fell in love. We left beaming and excited to meet with the in-house caterer to talk food the next week. It took us just over a month and meetings with 14 venues, but it was all worth it to find the perfect space for us.

How long did it take to find your venue?