We held our 200-person wedding at Lehmann Mansion in July, 2015. During the planning phase, Doreen was most helpful and always responded quickly, which helped us because we live out East away from our families in the Midwest.
Besides the obvious beauty and elegance of the property, as well as the size, there were a number of reasons why Lehmann worked so well for us:
- Flexibility: my fiancee and I wanted to extend the wedding until the wee hours of the morning, so we could have karaoke after dancing ended. Not only did the staff accommodate this request, but they were incredibly gracious - in fact, they joined us as the late crowd all sang "Piano Man" together as our last karaoke song at 2:30am!
- Value: although we also looked at options closer to/in Chicago, we certainly got more for our money at Lehmann. Our guests were very complimentary of Eddie's dinner, both the flavor/quality and portion size.
- Facilities: we really enjoyed having the whole property to ourselves, including the variety of having cocktails throughout the mansion and outside. The tent itself is very classy, and the air-conditioning worked perfectly.
Couples planning a wedding here should consider the following:
- Location: the tradeoff for renting a lovely, exclusive estate is that you'll most likely need to provide buses. We highly recommend Olson Transportation. We also found the hotel options in the area to be challenging; there's a hotel nearby in Antioch but its pricing seemed high. We wound up booking blocks at a few hotels near I-94 in Gurnee.
- Rain plan: the one thing we weren't thrilled with about this venue was the rain plan. Go figure, we were "lucky" enough to have steady rain just before the ceremony. I commend Doreen and the staff (plus our other vendors), because they seamlessly pulled off Plan B in the tent. We were so happy that day that it didn't bother us; luckily it stopped before cocktails so we could return outside then. However, be prepared - it could happen to you. read more