Loyola was absolutely wonderful to work with. My mom is a paralegal and so she never lets me sign contracts without reviewing them and striking through 10% of them. I was nervous going back to Loyola with all the requested changes, but they were so flexible and appeased my demanding mother! They also were extremely gracious with letting us bring in our own groom cake and homemade mead, after we signed a waiver of liability (that they also changed the wording of because we were uncomfortable with the original contract). I've never had such a pleasurable experience working with a vendor, and Loyola was by far the best vendor I worked with. Wonderfully flexible and very responsive.

We used Piper Hall/Mansion for our reception, and it could not have gone any better. We chose the venue because we wanted a reception in the city that overlooked Lake Michigan, that was not a boring ballroom and that gave us the option to be outside.

The weather was beautiful for the reception, and we were able to take advantage of the wrap-around porch and the back patio for dancing. It was beautiful set against Lake Michigan, and the service was excellent.

One thing to note: If you have your heart set on a seated, plated meal, you'll be limited to a lower guest count. This was fine for us. We saw many benefits to a cocktail reception and made food stations part of the experience. We had 4 hors oeuvres, an antipasta platter, cheeses for the cocktail hour. And then for the main meal had a sushi station - with the chef there making the sushi, a carving station w/ beef tenderloin, a risotto station w/ 2 kinds of risotto, and a children's buffet.

When we booked the venue, we thought the food would be OK because catering is handled by Aramark. We were surprised at how un-mediocre it was. During and after the reception, our guests RAVED about the food. And the sushi station was a crowd pleaser. (They also have a ton of choices to ensure you can select the menu that's just right for you. Brian was very good working w/ us, finessing everything.)
As far as pricing, they are among the most reasonably priced venues in the city. While they charge an 18% admin fee, that beat the 22-25% gratuity/service fees other venues quoted.

The only critique is we had to book the space through the events department and catering through a 2nd department. It wasn’t a seamless process, and sometimes there was confusion about who we were receiving communications from. If they could give you one point person to work with, it would be ideal.

Finally, they were the one place that promised us it would not rain on our wedding day, and they came through!

We had our ceremony in the Palm Court and reception in Mundelein Auditorium. Brian was a pleasure to work with, and we were very happy with the service provided. We also received numerous compliments about how beautiful the space was!