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Weddings

School of the Art Institute of Chicago Reviews

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, IL
4.7 out of 5 rating, 7 Reviews
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Reviews

4.7 out of 5 rating
7 Reviews
  • Quality of service
    4.9 out of 5 rating
  • Average response time
    4.9 out of 5 rating
  • Professionalism
    4.8 out of 5 rating
  • Value
    4.6 out of 5 rating
  • Flexibility
    4.4 out of 5 rating
85% Recommended by couples

Awards

7
  • A
    Amannda Sent on 07/21/2019
    5 out of 5 rating
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    SAIC reception

    Just had our reception at the SAIC ballroom 7/13/19 and everything was absolutely perfect. From the beginning of the planning process a year ago, Dana has been super helpful and available with all the questions/modifications we needed. No to mention, SAIC is a gorgeous historic venue with TONS of space. I felt that FFT was more than just a catering company, at our specific venue, Dana and Malik took special care to organize the table arrangements/seating charts/decorations as we wanted. Everything flowed smoothly, from the cocktail hour to seated dinner, everyone was RAVING about the food! We also got late night food which was such a good idea, and delicious! The bar options were awesome too, and they give you tons of options to customize however you want. We even had a personal waiter who made sure my husband and I ate our dinner and served us drinks (which was AMAZING). We were allowed to keep all of our decorations in a secured office room and picked up everything a few days later without an issue. I truly enjoyed everything about our wedding at SAIC and didn’t want it to end! Thank you guys so much!
  • C
    Cheryl Sent on 09/08/2015
    5 out of 5 rating
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    We were so fortunate to have found this space; it is truly stunning and we loved that we were able to hold the cocktail hour in the balcony while they flipped the room for dinner. The exclusive caterer for this venue is Food For Thought and we were SO happy with them. They provided more than the "standard" wedding fare and our on-site contact (Lisa) was great to work with. She was very patient with all my questions and provided the detail that every bride needs! The day of the ceremony, she coordinated all the vendors and made sure things ran smoothly. One area where Lisa/FFT went above and beyond was the day of our tasting. We arrived to a personalized countdown clock with a picture of our venue. They described every dish in detail, showed us how it would be plated the day of the wedding and were happy to take our suggestions into account. The also let us try a few specialty cocktails (including champagne with different bitters), which we were able to incorporate into our cocktail hour/dinner. Lisa knew I was really nervous about the wine selection and went out of her way to be sure I found something I was comfortable with. We could not more highly recommend SAIC/FFT!
  • B
    Brooke Sent on 01/27/2018
    4.9 out of 5 rating
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      4.5 out of 5 rating
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    We were ecstatic when we found the ballroom at SAIC for our wedding reception, it was the perfect setting for our classic Chicago/1920's themed wedding. The venue is located in the loop, which was ideal for out of town guests, allowing them to sight see the previous and following day. Due to our smaller wedding guest count (75), the venue and exclusive catering through Food for Thought, was surprisingly cheaper (and so much more impressive) than almost every other venue in Chicago. Dana was the coordinator for both the venue and catering which made the whole process streamlined when only have to work with 1 person for almost everything. She was amazing throughout the whole planning process with promptly responding to questions and requests. She was very organized and did an amazing job of setting up our decor, making our vision come to life and surprised us with extra little details. The exclusive caterer, Food for Thought did a fantastic job from our tasting to the end of our reception. They were very open to customization of the menu to fit our desire and all of the food was cooked fresh, in-house which tasted great. We received multiple compliments from wedding guests on how attentive and wonderful the waiters/waitresses/bartenders were. They also had a waitress specifically catering to us (the bride and groom) which made sure everything was perfect for us. The only slight downside was the price of the catering, but it is understandable since everything is more expensive in the city. Overall, we were very satisfied and our guests were very impressed!
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  • User2041028 Sent on 02/16/2015
    4.9 out of 5 rating
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    This venue is stunning, and the people in charge are very helpful and competent. For our reception, we had a number of very unusual and unique ideas which we were able to put in motion thanks to the creative help and cooperation of the vendor. The best part about the venue is that the building interior and the ballroom are so beautiful that hardly any extra decor is needed. The audio in the ballroom is great - good quality speakers - which made the musical part of the evening fantastic! The A/V personnel is great, the catering was wonderful (catering company is linked with the venue) and our main SAIC contact for organizing the whole evening was very helpful and in control. For us, arranging all the details of the evening (decor, tables, catering, bar, changing rooms, ballroom details, ...etc.) with *one* key SAIC-linked individual in charge was amazing, as it made everything run smoother and easier. In summary, our guests were very pleased and we had one of the best nights of our lives in the heart of beautiful Chicago.
  • L
    Liz Sent on 04/29/2017
    4.8 out of 5 rating
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    SAIC was a great venue for our wedding. The space is beautiful Art Deco and our guests were really impressed. Food for Thought caterers run the ballroom for the school and our contact, Dana, was fantastic to work with. They handled everything, including rentals and linens, and the food was wonderful. They are the only group you can use for the space, so that is important to note, but they were really easy to work with. We had the ceremony in the main ballroom and cocktails in the mezzanine while they flipped the room for dinner and dancing. The staff was very professional and friendly and I would recommend them!
  • K
    Kathryn Sent on 05/12/2017
    4.7 out of 5 rating
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    We had our wedding ceremony and reception here on April 15, 2017, and I could not have asked for a more perfect wedding. I'd recommend them to anyone throwing an event in Chicago. We used the School of the Art Institute Ballroom on Michigan Avenue, across the street from the museum itself.

    The good:
    - Beautiful venue
    - responsive staff (Jes was fantastic at answering my questions)
    - flexible space for cocktail hour/ceremony/reception
    - furniture included (saves a good bit of money)
    - built in sound system to make life easy for the dj
    - built in pretty lighting (didn't need to use uplighting or any of that stuff)
    - right downtown, surrounded by hotels and stuff to do, for easy logistics

    The bad
    - this wasn't an issue for me - I loved working with them - but they're contracted with Food for Thought, so if you want a different caterer, you're SOL
    - Because the venue is pretty well-used, hard to schedule a rehearsal, but with a little flexibility, we figured it out.
    - Storing anything overnight? The storage rooms get warm, so chocolate melts and flowers may wilt a little - not the end of the world, and not like blazing hot.
    - may be hard for out-of-towner guests to find, since it's not SUPER obvious from the street.
    - parking's not the easiest, or the cheapest
  • D
    Donna Sent on 08/27/2018
    3.6 out of 5 rating
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    Absolutely stunning place for a wedding. We hosted our daughter’s wedding at SAIC on 8/18/18 and it was everything she imagined her wedding ceremony and reception venue to be.

    The only issue we had was air temperature. We visited the venue many times during the planning process and asked why it was so hot in the facility. Staff told us that they do not turn on the air unless there is an event scheduled, makes sense. However, the day of our event, the lobby area where guests wait to enter the venue and the bridal room where the bridal party gets ready before the ceremony had no air conditioning making it very uncomfortable for all. The ceremony and reception space was cooler however not enough to keep guests from commenting on the air temperature.

    We totally understand that SAIC is an old space however if the staff would have told us about the inability to cool the space comfortably, we could have brought in additional cooling options like fans or portable air conditioning units.