My husband and I got married at the Walden on August 15, 2026. We wish we could get married here…read moreall over again! First off, our planning team led by Briscel and Katie Rose were THE BEST! They kept us on track throughout our year of planning and the day-of Briscel made everything run extremely smooth. We got to just focus on each other and our loved ones! The all-inclusive venue, planning, food, and beverage package is well worth the cost! The planning team made it easy to get ideas around theme, decor, and extra surprises, as well as providing a list of reliable and trustworthy vendors. Matt and the food and beverage team were excellent to work with and were able to easily incorporate our custom named signature cocktails into the package. There was a variety of drink choices for all ages and preferences (including N/A cocktails!). It's been a few weeks since our wedding and I still have guests telling me they loved our food and drinks. I've also had several guests be extremely impressed with how the day-of staff handled dietary restrictions. Everyone that indicated via their RSVP that they had allergies or special diets were given appropriate meals without having to ask or remind the team of their allergies. The space itself is extremely flexible and can be dramatically changed or used as is. Truly a blank canvas for any wild ideas. The space is accessible with ramps, elevators, and bathrooms on every floor. Even better, there is free and secure onsite parking in the attached lot with plenty of space for anyone driving to the event. Another game changer is the on-site bridal suite which you have access to all day! The morning of my wedding, I was not feeling well and had to arrive a little later than scheduled to start getting ready. If we had planned for the bridal party to get ready in my hotel room there would have been no way we could have started on time! Just one way the Walden helps with unexpected hurdles. Unique to this venue is the Tasting Party. All couples plus 4 guests are invited to the Walden in the Winter where you're able to meet a variety of vendors, see the space with creative decor, and of course select your food from a wide variety of delicious and thoughtfully crafted dishes. Additionally, it rained on our wedding day, so our initial plans to take photos downtown and having our first look on the rooftop were not able to happen. However, things turned out much better than I could have hoped! The Walden reception space is beautiful during the day and created a gorgeous space and light for our first look photos. The venue is a very close drive to Garfield Park Conservatory which made for excellent photos. We also got to take second look photos on the rooftop after sunset which turned out to be some of our favorite pictures! The team is really flexible and able to make great suggestions when weather gets in the way! All of our guests said the whole wedding day felt extremely personalized and true to myself and my husband. It would not have been possible without the Walden team! Thank you to the Walden team and we are keeping our fingers crossed we get invited to someone else's wedding here in the future! Photography: Emma Varley Videography: OakHouse Floral: flowerchild Decor: MDM

My wife and I were married here on April 12th 2026 and it was the best day of our lives. Walden was…read morean absolutely major contributor to the best day of our lives. Oh and by the way, it was the 2nd wedding we planned. Our original plan was having a wedding in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in April, but due to unforeseen circumstances we had to cancel ~50 days out and plan a whole new wedding. Walden saved us, especially our wedding planners, Sydni and Katie-Rose. The venue was empathetic to our situation and they were so prepared to take on the challenge and help us get a new wedding planned from scratch. From the start, we felt so comfortable and knew that we were going to pull it off and still throw the wedding of our dreams despite our circumstance. The communication was open, and regular. Walden put us in touch with all sorts of vendors. They allowed my wife and I to consider our options, while keeping us on a tight schedule. All of our vendors expressed positive notes and experiences with Walden. Both spaces, the ceremony area, and the reception/cocktail area are beautiful spaces that give any couple an open canvas to design their dream wedding. That's exactly what we got. Our guests loved the ceremony, they loved the space, they loved the giant bar, they loved the incredible drinks, and they ESPECIALLY loved the food. I will recommend any engaged couple or a couple interested in renewing their vows to host their event at Walden. Ask for Sydni and/or Katie-Rose and your visions will come true!

As a wedding photographer I am directly affected by how good or bad the wedding planner is... and…read moreKristina is terrific! She is incredibly professional, organized and positive. Getting everything in order before the big day is one part of her work, she gathered vendors months in advance and made sure we were all on the same page. But the day of is critical, there is so much going on behind the scenes and keeping the couple happy and calm PLUS maintaining a friendly and helpful demeanor isn't easy. Kristina does it with ease! She is a pleasure to work with, not just a great planner but also a lovely person. I have had the pleasure of working alongside her at two weddings now, both days were a success from start to finish and I am sure the photos were also better because of how smooth things went. Thank you Kristina, I look forward to teaming up again soon! -Bethany Fritz; Maypole Studios Photography

Kristina is awesome!! She was our wedding planner and we loved her! First she has great vendors…read moreto recommend. She has been in the business for a long time and knows what a wedding entails. From the save the date to saying goodbye to all the guests after it is all over. Before the wedding she is creative, organized, accommodating, on top of everything, gives good advice, tells you how it really works, gives you lots of options to consider and such an educator in the wedding world, and again has great references of vendors. The day of she becomes the personal assistant for whatever you need and makes sure everything runs smoothly by taking care of all issues behind the scene. We loved working with her and she made our outdoor ceremony and tented wedding reception run completely smooth. Not an easy job!

We used to think that mood boards were just a way to capture general inspiration and vibes for an…read moreevent. Life in Bloom proved us wrong as they managed to bring our mood board pictures into reality. We don't just mean getting an approximation, we mean a fully accurate interpretation that honestly enhanced those stunning images. We used Life in Bloom for décor for our Indian wedding with four events across four separate venues all around Chicago. We are still receiving praise for how amazing each event looked, with guests specifically highlighting the attention to detail as well as the gorgeous floral arrangements. One guest told us that she had been taking pictures of every single floral arrangement because they all looked perfect. Another guest sent us a message that said, "the Wedding Mandap and the bridal walkway were the most beautiful I have ever seen. The floral arrangements at every event were mind blowing." From our very first meeting, Rachel, Tim, and Sara spent a lot of time understanding our wishes. They then crafted color palettes and mood boards for each event, giving each one a completely unique identity while making everything feel cohesive with consistent motifs throughout. One of our worries with so many events was that it might end up feeling repetitive, but every single event felt completely different to the one that came before. In this process, we loved seeing how excited the Life in Bloom team was, working off each other and continuously suggesting new ideas. They worked well together while never losing sight of what we wanted or what made sense logistically. When we arrived at our first décor sample, we knew we had made the right choice. Everything looked stunning, and their initial placements of linens, napkins, and tablescapes were already so well thought out. The actual events were no different, looking jaw-dropping at every single venue. We loved that we got to see each room first, and there are plenty of pictures of us literally on the floor in awe. We wish we got to see guests' reactions for the room reveals because we know every single one left people speechless. We also wanted to highlight how easy it was to work with the Life in Bloom team. We never felt any friction or resistance. We loved seeing them at every venue, watching our reactions from afar but never interrupting us. We later learned that one of the installers from one of our venues never showed up, and apparently Tim himself jumped in for an emergency complex installation of the large centerpiece item. On our wedding ceremony day, there was a lot of unpredictable weather. Instead of forcing us into the much easier rain plan, Life in Bloom worked with us through a lot of fluid decisions and installation that let us have our dream wedding outdoors, something we appreciate so much. We really hope people look through the Life in Bloom portfolio and see their impressive work, especially their florals. They did so many custom things for us that were all very intricate, and they had to work on a ton of different line items in many different locations, day after day. We can't recommend them enough.

You will not regret working with Rachel and the Life in Bloom team! I started the design process…read morewith a color scheme and a few ideas, but LIB was able to elevate those ideas in ways I could not have never come up with. My husband and I worked with LIB for our November 2021 wedding at The Langham. I wanted to fully embrace the season and all of the colors, but make it modern and something that guests would talk about long after the wedding day. We had our ceremony set up in a round with a suspended floral statement piece over it. When I walked into the ceremony space I started tearing up! It was everything I had envisioned and more. We then had a room flip for the reception with the dance floor under the statement piece and a mix of long and round guest tables. They were instrumental in piecing together all of the rental items as well like flatware, chargers, linen etc. Their professionalism is outstanding and they go above and beyond to make your wedding feel like the most important event they have ever worked on. From the initial renderings and proposal to the sample and the wedding day, there is no one I would have rather worked with to make my perfect day come to life! Thank you to everyone on the Life in Bloom team for your exceptional work!

Candlelight quartet for Taylor Swift was such an amazing surprise for my anniversary. It was so…read morelovely and the staff were awesome and accommodating. The drinks were good and the venue was stunning and right out of evermore.

We attended the Adele cover of the candlelight show. Pricey but enjoyable. The dim lighting added a…read moredifferent element to the concert. Twas more intimate, made your sense of hearing appreciate & concentrate on the music better. Show was about an hour. A complaint I would make is don't allow aluminum can beverages because they were noisy throughout the performance. Slightly interested in the other venues.

What a fantastic venue tucked away on a residential street in Lincoln Park - perfect little outdoor…read morecourtyard area for the wedding ceremony and the inside has nice separate spaces for cocktails and reception. The food was truly the star here - hors doeuvre's perfect little bites but must be careful not to overdo it because the family style portions were huge! Delicious beef and amazing pasta with some sort of ricotta/spinach concoction - definitely had no room for dessert! The tiramisu was sampled and super divine. Most importantly their mimosas were the best ratio - smidge of OJ and lots of bubbles lol Really intimate unique space

The owner is excellent. Her waitstaff, also, excellent…read more However, her event coordinator Erin lacked tact when issues arose. Not classy. Further, I recommend a cap of 150 guests maximum. I'd like to give a good review because the owner and staff worked so hard.

What a gem this place is - my daughter got married there in December and it was absolutely perfect…read more Chris, Stefan, their planner Mina and the whole staff could not have been more helpful and accommodating. My other 3 children all want to have there weddings there as well! The setting was super fun, clean and well organized. I loved all the plants they had throughout which added a cozy personal feeling to the space, the chandeliers, champagne wall, fabulous area for the bridal party to get ready, the roof top for great pics. We absolutely LOVED every part of it. Thank you to all of the wonderful people at The Carter who made this the best day ever. At the end of the night, my daughter turned to me and told me this was the best day of her whole life. That says it all!

I had my wedding here a few weeks back and it was everything I dreamed of and more. Chris and his…read moreentire staff was such a delight to work with. They really made sure the day went perfectly.

Alyssa and her team at Northwest Weddings were absolutely flawless from the day I hired them to the…read moreday of the wedding! Whenever I needed assistance or someone to bounce ideas off of, Alyssa would respond so quickly and give her expertise. There were so many little things that I did not have to worry about at all because Alyssa had it covered. She had a running list of all of our day-of items, and timeline. She created the timeline for us and even our venue said that it was perfect! Our florist and officiant raved about her also! The wedding day went absolutely perfectly because of Alyssa and her team. We even had a shuttle issue, where a shuttle and driver did not show and she handled it so well. She did not want to stress me out so I had no idea until the last minute and at that point, Alyssa had already figured out a solution and it was perfect. Our guests and vendors were happy during all of this and my parents were so grateful for Alyssa's handling of the situation. I would recommend Alyssa at Northwest Weddings to ANYONE getting married!

Oh my goodness!!! I thought I was being pranked! I have used this company twice and NEVER AGAIN…read more First time was in 2025, when I needed help with my sons graduation party. Plus was that the booking process was easy, pricing was fair, received a confirmation, etc. The day of the event the helper was a no show. And I did not get notified until she was 20 mins for arrival. They did find someone else (Thankfully) that showed up 1 1/2 hrs later but she was a great help. Now for this year, I decided to use them again because the ease of booking and availability. This time I booked almost 45 days in advance, got a confirmation, etc. The week of the event I received noticed that the helper has changed but the new person confirmed. Day of event, I get a call (shortly after the start time) that the helper is running late due to traffic. 20 minutes later the helper herself called that she is on her way but running late. I was fine with this, I was not upset, just told her to get to my house safely and I will see her when she gets there.... this is now over an hour of start time. The helper finally showed up, she was dropped of by someone and started heading towards the house, I immediately noticed something was off... she was dressed innappropriately, had a large sun heat and was wearing glasses with ONE LENSE. I knew something was off with her and when I approached her, she forgot my name and was pretty incoherent as to what is going on or what she was there for. I was not comfortable with her in front of my house, let alone inside my house around my guests. She was in very bad shape, sadly. After a conversation that was very difficult because she was unable to give me straight answer on what was going on with her. I decided to order and pay for her uber to get her home safely. She had no money, no working credit cards, no car, etc. She asked for food and water before leaving. I contacted Party Host Helpers right away, no one called me directly all we did is message. Now its monday and still no call back, no refund not reimbursment for the Uber. I have sympathy for the young lady. Really unreiable and the last thing a customer needs to deal with when hosting a party.

My cousin hired this company for her son's graduation party…read more The company sent 2 ladies, Nikki and Demi, and they were fabulous! Here's the oddest part, many of us thought they were friends because they worked so effortlessly together. Shocked to find out they only met today. I was able to talk to them, they were both very personable and focused on the party and the guests. Thanks, Demi & Nikki, great work.