The Woman's Club of Evanston

riendly and quick to respond when you have questions. The venue itself is beautiful, and it is a huge perk that they give you the entire building for your event. This meant that guests who needed a quiet moment during dinner and dancing could retreat downstairs. The venue even offered rooms that nursing mothers could use for privacy. The Woman's Club worked with our DJ to make sure the audio and lighting was all set up, so we did not have to worry about anything. It is also a huge perk that you do not have to rent any chairs or tables--these all come included in the price of the venue. Many of our guests complimented the beauty of the space, and everyone had a great time. All of that being said, there are a couple of things that future couples who are interested in booking the Woman's Club should consider: 1. They only work with certain catering teams. The list includes around 6 caterers, and even though we were booking a year in advance, several of the companies on the list were already booked, so our options were very limited. To their credit, the Woman's Club makes this very clear from the beginning of the process before you book with them, but it is worth considering if you have a strict budget or a specific caterer that you want to work with. We happened to really like ours (The Caterist), but they definitely don't come cheap. 2. The Woman's Club's hours created some complications for us. They only opened to vendors at 2:00 pm on our wedding day, and our bakery that we had hired to make our wedding cake only does deliveries in the morning. There is no flexibility in terms of when they open, and this could have turned into a really frustrating situation if the head of our catering team had not offered to pick up our cakes on her way to the venue. This is definitely something to be aware of and something I do not believe was communicated clearly to us in advance. 3. If you are hoping to do a send-off with sparklers or bubbles, this is not your venue. Understandably, due to the age of the venue, they are very strict with materials that they will allow, even outside of the building. We had to use glow sticks. Just another thing to be aware of that I discovered only after I had already bought hundreds of bubble wands! Hopefully I will save someone else from an Amazon return. 4. Be aware that you cannot store anything in the venue overnight, so have a plan for your leftover cake and any additional items you want to bring home with you. TLDR: This venue is beautiful and historic, and the staff is friendly and fast to respond to emails. Just make sure you are fully aware of the restrictions and have a plan to work around them!

hed our vision. Working with Gretchen throughout the process was a very positive aspect of the process as well. She truly cared about our wedding experience, which was not a sentiment we received from many other venues we toured. Our guests all loved the space, and there was plenty of room for 18 tables and a large area for dancing. I would highly recommend The Woman’s Club of Evanston for any couple looking to have a beautiful custom wedding experience, all while receiving expert guidance along the way.