I rarely leave negative reviews, but after spending thousands of dollars to host my baby shower at Lincoln Park Zoo, I feel other families deserve to know what our experience was like. We chose Lincoln Park Zoo because we believed we were investing in a professional venue for one of the most important celebrations of our lives before welcoming our son. Unfortunately, from the planning process through the day of the event, the experience was filled with unnecessary stress and disappointment. The planning process was frustrating from the start. We communicated our budget, discussed exactly what we wanted, and were assured everything would work within those expectations. As planning continued, however, pricing kept changing and new charges were added that had never been discussed initially. The contract was vague in several areas, making it difficult to understand what was actually included. Instead of feeling excited about our first baby shower, we felt like we were constantly trying to keep up with changing expectations and costs. The day of the event was even more disappointing. Our décor company was delayed because they could not get into the venue. They were unable to reach anyone by phone, and my sister and I also tried calling without success. As a result, our decorators lost valuable setup time, and guests arrived while they were still decorating.
On top of that:
-We were given the wrong chairs despite confirming wooden chairs beforehand.
-A table was missing.
-The room was not set up according to the floor plan we had submitted, forcing my sister to move tables and chairs herself before guests arrived.
-The caricature artist my sister hired started late because no one communicated the scheduled start time, even though it had been provided in advance.
-My custom $400 cake was left sitting outside despite confirming ahead of time that refrigeration would be available.
-The projector we planned to use couldn't be used because no one on site knew how to operate the ClickShare system or provide the required password, despite this also being discussed in advance.
Perhaps the most frustrating part was being told we needed to pay for servers. Throughout the event, they were difficult to find and often appeared to be standing around talking instead of assisting guests.
-The bartender, however, was fantastic. He was attentive, professional, and the only staff member who consistently exceeded expectations.
After the event, I reached out to leadership hoping they would genuinely address our concerns. While they acknowledged that our experience "fell short," the response largely focused on accommodations they had made before the event, such as allowing us to store items early and bring in outside food even though we were told early on we could do that it wasn't our idea to do so, they said everyone does this, rather than addressing many of the specific issues we raised, including the wrong chairs, the unanswered phone calls, the projector issues, my cake being left outside, and the overall lack of coordination. We spent a significant amount of money expecting a seamless experience. Instead, we spent much of our baby shower solving problems that should have been handled by the venue. For a once-in-a-lifetime event, that was incredibly disappointing. The food was very good, and the bartender was excellent. Unfortunately, those positives were overshadowed by poor communication, disorganization, and an event execution that simply did not reflect the level of service we expected from a venue with Lincoln Park Zoo's reputation.
I want to be clear that my issues were not with Lincoln Park Zoo itself. The zoo is beautiful, and that's exactly why we chose it for our baby shower. Unfortunately, our experience with the catering/events team that manages private events at the zoo was incredibly disappointing from the planning process through the day of our event. I truly hope Lincoln Park Zoo reevaluates this partnership because the service we received did not reflect the reputation of the zoo itself.
I sincerely hope future families have a better experience than we did. read more
