Weddingbee Blog

(I promise I will explain that title. Really, there is a point to it. I swear.)

When I last left you, I was feeling pretty anxious about finding a place for our ceremony and reception. My anxiety only increased as we went from appointment to appointment, touring each prospective venue. Nothing seemed to fit quite right. Prairie Productions and Ravenswood Event Center ended up being too small, Architectural Artifacts had no AC (risky for an early September wedding), and River East Art Center was waaay expensive. It eventually came down to Gallery 1028 and Chicago Illuminating Company (CIC).

Gallery 1028:

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Chicago Illuminating Company:

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I was very impressed with Gallery 1028. The space was unique and the ladies who work there were ridiculously nice. But I could tell Sparks wasn’t feeling it. When I asked him what he thought, he only responded with a noise that sounded sort of like, “Meh.” So we crossed that one off and moved on to CIC.

With only one place left on our list, I was starting to feel anxious and on the verge of tears. My mind was going a million miles a minute trying to come up with other options and different places we could look at. What would we do if everything booked up? I felt as if I was in a race against all the other Chicago brides. When we pulled up to CIC, I had basically given up all hope…until we walked in the door.

You guys, it was perfect.

It was so perfect, in fact, that I was unable to hold back my tears any longer. I was starting to go a little nutso. As we ventured farther inside, I managed to compose myself and act like a normal human being. Sparks and I exchanged excited glances as the event coordinator showed us around the building. We knew this was it. But I didn’t get my hopes up. I knew the chances of our date being open were slim to none. I braced myself as Sparks asked the coordinator about availability.

“Oh sure,” she said, “We have that date available. I’ll put a hold on it for you.”

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Whaaaaa??? Did you just make my wedding dreams come true, event coordinator? I was so excited I could have hugged her. Or barfed. Thankfully I did neither, and two weeks later we paid our deposit and CIC was ours. I still can’t believe we booked it. I could sit and daydream about that space all day. Sigh.

Oh sorry, do you wanna see? IN. LOVE.

Entrance from the courtyard

An indoor ceremony (We’ll be outside!)

Oh hello, welcome to our club/lounge/wedding/awesomeness.

Bar near the dance area

Where we’ll be grubbin’

(All photos from CIC’s website)

In the interest of full disclosure, I call them sometimes just to confirm that they really have us scheduled for our date. I’m psychotic. And excited. Bah! Wedding chore numero uno = finished!!!

When did you find your venue? Did you have a big list like we did? Or did you always know where you wanted to be?

Right, right…Chick-fil-A. I’m gonna explain that…in the next post!