The Ivanhoe Club is a Lake County, IL "hidden gem" as a wedding venue. It was a perfect "backdrop" for our daughter's wedding reception with its large ballroom and extended indoor and outdoor areas. Photo opportunities inside and out are amazing. The staff is accommodating and a pleasure to work with. Highly recommended.

Highly recommended! We just got married there this past weekend and it was absolutely perfect. Keith answered all our questions related to the contract and venue. Morgan was amazing making our venue look fabulous. Her recommendations and suggestions were perfect to make the day run smoothly. She was able to make my vision come to life and answer all my questions. When our guests arrived Morgan and Keith were both attentive and helping make the night run smoothly. Not only is the staff amazing but the scenery is beautiful. Nothing but good things to say about Ivanhoe club. Please check out this club if looking for a wedding venue it won't disappoint.

Julie and her Staff at Ivanhoe are truly amazing. They made our dream wedding become a reality. It is the most beautiful view around with the sun-setting. The food- as our guest's commented was the best they have had at a wedding. This a must book location for your wedding. Thank you Ivanhoe for the best memories ever!

Julie, the event director at Ivanhoe Club is a very professional individual who pays attention to details. She's the first "director" I encountered who really deserves the title "director". Our wedding was end of September and everything went as planned. In other words, everything was GREAT!

I have waited months to write this review and now that my wedding has passed, I wanted to post this for any couple who might be considering Ivanhoe Club as their venue. It's fairly long so there's a TLDR at the bottom.

The venue is pretty, and had a lot of the features that I wanted in a venue: large windows, high ceilings, decent photo spots. I had signed my contract fairly early as my fiance and I got engaged early during covid and at the time didn't know when things would open up. Keith is the event coordinator there and there were some red flags from the beginning that nagged at me, but ultimately chose to ignore. I should not have.
There were MULTIPLE instances where I would be verbally or by email quoted a price, that when push comes to shove Keith would change or at least try to when it came down to paying.
The first time it happened was for the chiavari chairs, where through email he quoted us one price and put that price in the email, but when we went in to sign the contract and pay the deposit, he increased the price.
The second time was for the cost of the meal. Since we had signed our contract early, we had locked in a price, which also was agreed upon, but they increased the price anyways and told us during our tasting, but Keith had shared that they would meet in the middle for the price that was quoted when we signed the contract and the current prices.
When we received the estimates for the horsdoeuvres we chose, we found out that one of the ones we had picked that was not supposed to have an upcharge did in fact now suddenly have one. The response we got was "Just another food item that has increased in price so much that we have to charge extra for it", even though it was not mentioned in the brochure of items we could choose from that it would be an upcharge nor did he mention it during our tasting.
We went back and forth in email (which he would either respond very slowly or not at all) to make some changes. A couple months later when we went to pay half of the estimated costs, not only did he not make any of the changes we talked about over email, he also increased the price of the meals per person on our invoice and DID NOT mention it to us. I noticed it when I was reviewing the numbers later and it didn't match up with our previous invoice. I couldn't do anything about it because cost of food was subject to change up to 30 days before the wedding. He changed it on us on the 30th day.
When we went to pay the remaining balance 2 weeks prior to the wedding, he then tells us that the cost of the chiavari chair rental might have to go up because of their vendor increasing prices. We had anticipated this possibility so we had it written into our contract for an exact amount. When I reminded him that it was in our contract that the chairs would be rented to us at a specific cost, he pretty much just said unfortunately they can't eat the cost and would not be able to give it to us at that cost. What is the point of a contract if you're just going to turn around and say you're not going to abide by it, which legally you are required to? When I reiterated that I am standing my ground and sticking to our contract on this when he brought it up again THREE days out from our wedding, he tried making me feel bad for not agreeing to pay an extra almost 6 dollars a chair by repeatedly saying "I thought you would be understanding". Thankfully we at least got the chairs for our contracted price, but not without a lot of attitude and snark. I wasn't even sure if we were getting the chairs until the day before.
When we talked to Keith about potentially having the rehearsal dinner at the venue directly after our rehearsal, he verbally told us a price, then emailed me a menu with the cost per person. Day of the rehearsal, we walk in and Keith shares with our family and wedding party that it's a open bar (which was not discussed and was actually an ON CONSUMPTION bar) which made a huge difference in how much my group chose to drink. Now, there's not much that could be done there as we were already there and my group was already drinking by the time I saw what was happening, my husband and I just decided that we're just going to accept that for what it was DESPITE the venue being very underhanded and not discussing any of this with us prior because we would NOT have had the bar open like that otherwise and just gotten a couple bottles of wine for each table. When we received the final invoice for the dinner we were FLOORED and to top it off they added a room reservation fee that (surprise surprise) was NEVER discussed. We didn't even know what room we would be in until we got there. Thankfully we were able to get that taken off after we voiced our frustration.
Day of our wedding, Keith's attitude was horrific. Things that we had discussed prior were not done, the most important one being that we needed a space for my husband's father to rest and have privacy for medical reasons, which he said that he would make the space available and when we asked about it the day of he acted like he was so incredibly inconvenienced and came into the dressing room after the room was readied pretty much rolling his eyes and saying they cleared out just enough of it but he doesn't know why we'd want to use it because it's not that clean, but at least it's there. All of my bridesmaids and even my hair artist commented on how incredibly rude and unprofessional he was. And throughout the reception, his presence was not subtle. I had a couple guests ask me about who he was because he was making them uncomfortable. I get that he has to oversee, but staring down my guests and making them feel uncomfortable is not it.
Morgan, who is the Event Operations Manager, was around and she was far more pleasant and easy to work with. Unfortunately, we had no interactions with her until the night of our rehearsal and day of I only saw her a handful of times. Perhaps my overall experience would have been far different if she was more involved, but I'll never know now.

TLDR: Venue coordinator Keith is either deceptive or conveniently forgetful about prices, little hidden costs will just appear and add up, and overall just a lot of promises made that ultimately were not kept or only done because we had to repeatedly push for it even after we were told it would happen. The venue is pretty but ran by people who have a better-than-you attitude because it's a private country club that will try to find ways to nickel and dime you even trying to breach contract and guilt trip you into either allowing them to not uphold their end or make you pay more. Very poor communication throughout the process and honestly would not wish for any couple to go through the headaches we went through trying to work with him. You should not have to repeatedly try to advocate for prices you've been quoted and signed a contract for to begin with, and be snuck hidden costs that were never discussed, nor should you deal with an absolutely horrific attitude throughout the entire day of your wedding.