The Ivy Room

Our choice to have our wedding and reception at the Ivy Room was the best decision we have made other than choosing each other :) Michael and I did not want to get married at a hotel and we wanted to find a special place that was in the city of Chicago. I came across their website while researching venue's in Chicago. We both recently moved from Los Angeles and did not know too much about the city. The Ivy Room was the first and last place we visited. As soon as we saw the beautiful courtyard we knew this is where we wanted to share our special day with our friends and family. From beginning to end, Christy and Donna were with us through all details of our special day. We were planning this wedding on our own and since our family does not live in Chicago, we needed guidance and help with the do's and don't's of weddings. They were very understanding and answered all 100 million questions that I had :) Its refreshing to have people really take a vested interest in you and provide top notch customer service. Our wedding was October 26th and although it was a bit chilly outside we had the wedding outside. Throughout the whole night, Donna and Christy both would come to Michael and myself asking if everything was ok. The best thing they could have done was after the wedding was over and right before we went out to see our guests for cocktail hour, they brought hors d'ourves from our wedding 2 of each. From what I know now, I didn't get a moments rest during the cocktail hour let alone be able to eat or enjoy any of the food. Alot of bride/grooms say they never eat anything at their wedding and I really thought it was thoughtful of them to think of us. The whole night we felt catered to, they made sure we were content all night. Also, they worked great with all of our vendors and were so organized throughout the whole night. We were both extremely pleased with their help and many of our family members stated how attentive they were to our needs. We have been to many w

I had July wedding at the Ivy Room, and I could not have had a better experience! The space speaks for itself (hardwood, balcony doors, gorgeous courtyard filled with flowers and twinkling lights in the trees). Just two weeks after getting engaged, my then-fiance and I were looking for alternative spaces for our wedding (we just weren’t into the idea of a hotel), and we came across the Ivy Room. After having seen The Peggy Noteabart, The Newberry Library, West Loop Studio, and A New Leaf, we came to the Ivy Room. As soon as I walked into the space, I knew it was exactly what we were looking for. The ballroom and courtyard are truly elegant, but it still has an urban feel with store fronts facing the courtyard and high rises highlighting the sky view and peering over the building.

In addition to planning the wedding, Christy and Donna were an absolute pleasure to work with. They worked closely with my wedding planner (reviewed Katie Kozlowski of Bliss Weddings) to ensure every detail the day of the wedding was taken care of. During my walk-through, Donna and Christy provided invaluable insight as to what floor plan looks best in the space, how to best hang lanterns in the ceiling from the hidden rafters, where to put the DJ table, etc.

The Ivy Room is a bit pricey as compared to some other venues, but the space and service you will receive from these ladies in unparalleled! I highly recommend the Ivy Room if you are looking if you are looking for an alternative space or urban venue for your Chicago wedding!

I just got married at The Ivy Room a couple weeks ago and cannot stop smiling. Everything about the venue exceeded my expectations!! The setting is so beautiful. We got married in the courtyard and it is like a hidden garden in the middle of the city. The brick aisle, the luscious ivy covering the buildings, the little nook to exchange vows, and the picturesque surrounding landscape is something you won’t find elsewhere. I looked at a lot of Chicago venues and once I saw The Ivy Room I knew this is where I wanted to have my wedding. I wanted an urban setting, but with a twist, and that’s exactly what The Ivy Room offers. After the ceremony and cocktail hour outside the reception was inside. The room is so elegant. It’s classic in many ways and gives you the opportunity to make it what you want. Beautiful French doors offer guests a peek at the courtyard. We strung paper lanterns and brought in centerpieces and décor to create a vintage look. Everything about the room and lobby area is very well taken care of.

But what I most want people to know about The Ivy Room is how wonderful it is to work with its staff. It’s so important to really enjoy working with your vendors. Christy and Donna are so easy to work with and made planning my wedding and the wedding day so special. They really care about making your day perfect, easy and seamless. They have every single detail covered and make sure that you know this. I walked into my wedding day knowing that I didn’t need to worry about anything because they gave me that confidence. They brought up suggestions, offered recommendations on vendors or décor ideas and were very responsive to any of my questions. They went the extra step to make sure I was happy on the wedding day, constantly checking in with me. But even more, they are so encouraging and excited for you about your wedding. You’re not just another number to them, or another event to check off. Your wedding will be treated like something special, which it is.

From the moment we met with Matt, he sold us on the Ivy Room. It's like a ball of clay that can be turned into whatever your heart desires. He showed us pictures of how the main room had been transformed into a variety of different event spaces. We were sold after meeting with him. Unfortunately he moved on to other endeavors, but lucky for us Donna has been with the Ivy Room for a while and jumped right in and made sure my wedding was everything I had imagined. From organizing my vendors and making sure that they knew when to arrive for setup and break down to helping with getting the wedding party organized to begin their processional. She was there for us from the beginning of the evening to the end. Our wedding was so memorable and all of our guests are still talking about how great the Ivy Room is. I highly recommend holding your event here if you have the opportunity!

If you like bullet points, here is why the Ivy Room is so awesome:

- Donna, Christy, and Matt (who has since left) are AWESOME to work with
- The venue is equally beautiful on the inside as it is in the courtyard.
- The location is perfect. It is right in the heart of the city; if you want a city wedding, it really doesn’t get better than this.
- The venue is well-established, and vendors will have worked there before. When planning a wedding you will want the various vendors to enjoy harmonious synergy. This is all but assured at the Ivy Room, and it makes planning for your wedding far less stressful and far more enjoyable.
- Prices are mid-range, but there are NO hidden costs. There is a flat fee to use the space, and the contract is very straightforward and easy to understand. You can pay with a credit card.

Here is our story:
We looked for the perfect venue for a long time. We had decided on one that we loved, only to have a terrible experience with the venue manager. I happened upon The Ivy Room on Yelp, and based on the outstanding reviews, gorgeous online pictures, and chatting with Diana B., we decided to check it out.

We immediately fell in love with the courtyard (you will, too) and Donna. She was awesome, and made us feel right at home, quite unlike several of the other places we considered. Donna and Matt guided us through all of the ins and outs of what we needed to do to pull our wedding together. They also provided great recommendations. For example, Donna recommended our caterer, Ted Grady at J&L, a consummate professional that shares a great working relationship with the folks at the Ivy Room.

Sadly, a month before our wedding, Matt left The Ivy Room, and we were informed that the newly hired Christy would run our wedding. We were a little apprehensive at first, but she was fantastic, making the transition seamless. She was on top of the entire evening, and Donna and Christy took excellent care of everything (including me) all night. I cannot say enough wonderful things about The Ivy Room – especially Donna and Christy – and would HIGHLY recommend this venue to anyone looking to have their wedding (or other special event) in Chicago.

This is the most amazing space in the city. In the middle of a large busy city, you have a outdoor courtyard that has the feel of being in the suburbs.


Working with the Ivy Room from the first meeting to the day of the wedding, we were made to feel like our event was the most important of the year. They were a great group to work with, they were helpful from everything from the cater, event company and even the ceremony officiant.


If I had to do everything all over I would still pick the Ivy Room.

Amazing, beautiful, unique, elegant...I can't use enough words to describe The Ivy Room! We had our wedding here recently and it was just perfect. From the beginning, Matt made us feel so welcomed and important and although the place sold itself, he really made us want to have our wedding here! Their whole team (Donna, Matt & Christy) was amazing and very accommodating to our needs. They recommended superb vendors as well as offered their opinions on specifics. They took care of everything on the day of, and Matt was there throughout the whole reception for anything we needed (i.e. safety pins for a broken bustle). The space is so exquisite from the courtyard to the indoor main room. We had our cocktail hour in the courtyard and it was perfectly shaded with lights on the trees and plenty of room for our guests to mingle. You really do forget that you are in the middle of Downtown Chicago! With help from our wonderful caterer & florist, Food for Thought & GNG Designs, they set up everything from the place card table to the dinner tables perfectly! We also has FROST lighting illuminate the walls with one of their many patterns, and that really made the room pop! The main room is so beautiful with the mother of pearl above the glass windows and doors and hardwood floor throughout, and is the perfect canvas for any theme you would desire. Just look at their blog! Every wedding and party brings a new and different look to the room and that was what I loved most about the space! I was truly overwhelmed with how beautiful everything turned out and it was a dream wedding for us! This place is absolutely amazing, worth every penny, and I am really going to miss it! Hopefully someone I know will have their wedding/reception here as well because I am already dying to go back!

MAGICAL. There is no other way to describe the Ivy Room. After pouring over dozens and dozens of venues in Chicago and the burbs online, this was only place I was interested in getting married. Visiting and seeing the place in person, and meeting Donna and Matt sealed the deal. This venue is class, class, class all the way. From the breathtaking courtyard and ballroom with french doors overlooking the courtyard, to the their outstanding vendor list, to Matt, Donna and Christy's invaluable guidance, this place is PERFECTION for the discriminating city bride who can't bear to get married in a generic banquet hall or hotel. And it's worth every penny. People can't stop talking about our wedding, and we owe a lot of that to the Ivy Room and the fantastic vendors Matt and Donna personally recommended -- Toast and Jam DJ Laura, I Do Films, Emily Johnston Anderson Photography (albeit indirectly through David Wittig --also amazing!), Cornelia McNamara Flowers, Berghoff, BCR events and Bruce Otto. Since our wedding, I actually miss this place--and am seriously hoping someone we know gets married there so I have an excuse to go back :).

P.S. -- for all you Ivy Room Brides dying to get married in the gorgeous courtyard, don't be devastated if it rains. I was so looking forward to my courtyard ceremony, but it rained and we had to go to plan B -- and I couldn't be happier. Everyone bent over backwards to make the ballroom look gorgeous and the lighting by Chicago Lighting Design really made everything look great. We opened the french doors to let a little twilight light in and provide a view of the dewy courtyard, and in the end, the indoor ceremony was very intimate and special. Inside or out, the Ivy Room is unbeatable!!

Donna and Matt were an absolute delight to work with for our wedding. Having found the Ivy Room almost 15 months before our actual wedding, we could have been "just another couple" renting the space. Instead, Donna and Matt kept engaged in our planning and even welcomed our crazy family members who would drop by the venue unannounced - numerous times! The professionalism and event expertise are beyond expectation and the space is simply gorgeous.

Okay, so by now, anyone reading this has learned that it is difficult to find a venue that ?fits? when you are looking for a place to get married. I found it to be really frustrating, visiting places that didn?t look the way we wanted, or that had food you couldn?t try beforehand, or finding a great place that is booked YEARS out?. I spent weeks driving downtown to go to several places in a day, and every day but one was a huge exercise in frustration and felt like a waste of time?..

Until I visited the Ivy Room at Tree Studios and met Donna. I wasn?t sure we could afford to have our wedding there, but figured that for the sake of looking into everything and gauging the value of the wedding venues I had seen, it was worth a try. I fell in love as soon as I walked in the door. The space is pretty big and can hold many more people than we had for our wedding, but it doesn?t feel impersonal or overly grand. It is simple and beautiful. The wood floors are extremely pretty and refined. The ceiling is really high, and there is already a great lighting scheme in the room. The French doors to the courtyard are timeless and lovely, and let in the most gorgeous natural light during the day. There are sections of mother of pearl tiles that are luminous and delicate?. And the courtyard is a dream of brick, ivy, cool light posts. It brings together a delicate garden and the beautiful city of Chicago, with the urban feel touch of cool fire escapes and building views overhead?. There?s a downstairs that is elegantly appointed and even the bathrooms are a great blend of style and comfort?.It was everything I wanted, but I was pretty sure that we couldn?t afford it?.so I was a little sad.

But then I started talking with Donna, and everything turned around. She didn?t shun me due to my small budget! She actually (gasp!) helped me! Although many of the weddings that take place at the Ivy Room are larger budget operations, my limitations were absolutely not a deterrent at all. As it turns out, Sundays are a little cheaper. And Donna helped me to find truly excellent vendors that made our wedding a HUGE and beautiful success. I could not have done nearly as well planning our wedding had it not been for Donna?s keen insights about vendors, layout, timing?. She really was the first person who was genuinely kind to me, and who completely intended to help us make our wedding what we wanted it to be. After my now-husband saw it and liked it, too, we committed to having our wedding at the Ivy Room and were sooooo excited about it. Planning a wedding is trying and I was, to be perfectly honest, surprised that Donna continued to be available to me and helpful to me throughout the 10 or so months that I had to put the day together. Her professionalism and, I think, her genuine pleasure in helping others through her experience and resources, made her an invaluable asset both to me and to the Ivy Room?her kindness and helpfulness made me LOVE this place even more than I already did.

On the day of our wedding, Donna and Matt outdid even my optimistic expectations about their ability to coordinate the vendors and take care of the details, bringing together all of the things I had worked on and making our wedding stress-free and lovely. They are so incredibly competent, helpful, and detail oriented. Everyone loved our party and our wedding and it was, in large part, due to Donna (and Matt! I can?t forget him! He?s super, too!). I wouldn?t have found the incredible vendors that I found without her help. I wouldn?t have rethought the layout I?d planned if it weren?t for her. I wouldn?t have had the help of two kind, caring people on the day of our wedding?. And I wouldn?t have such great memories of the experience, and of the place and of working with them, if it weren?t for their magnanimous attitudes and kindness of heart.

I recommend the Ivy Room at Tree Studios with enthusiasm and fondness.

I cannot say enough good things about the Ivy Room. It was perfect--beautiful, open, convenient. All my guests were happy, especially with the unique courtyard. Donna was such a lovely person and very helpful.
I added that this was a good value, but that is because we had a Sunday wedding--much less expensive. It's definitely on the high end for Saturdays.

The Ivy Room has been open for functions for just a couple of years now, so it was a little bit a treasure to find. We were floored what the space looked like when we stepped off of the busy streets of Chicago into the serene courtyard, with brick walls covered with blooming Ivy. The room itself is plain - it the most elegant, simple, chic way possible. It's a blank canvass. We opted to not decorate with anything other than our table settings because the space spoke for itself, but others have done the room up.

The stafff is amazing. I can't say enough about how well the handled everything. They kept everything simple, straight forward, organized. They were there when needed them and not when you didn't. They know how to read their audiences.

Our guests asked about the space from the moment the ceremony finished until the last dance. "Where did you find this place?" "This is amazing!" blah blah blah.

The night pulled together perfectly with the space and the staff.

I couldn't of asked for a better venue, it was unique and classy, my guests loved it. Donna was great at setting everything up and helping with the layout so I felt very confident with her. If you are looking for a great outside venue this should be a strong consideration.

The Ivy Room is for the bride that wants it all for her Chicago wedding, location, ambiance, outdoor space and a blank canvas to create her own vision! Donna and her team are so attentive. You can't ask for more.