I could not have chosen a more beautiful place to get married. Honestly, the catering was only ok, but who cares when I was RIGHT next to the lake on the gorgeous campus that I live right next to. Walking out of Madonna della Strada Chapel with my new husband to see the lake shimmering at me was one of the great joys of my life! You can see pictures at http://www.rootsoflifephotography.com/?p=2344

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!

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!

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.

Food was excellent with an exquisite presentation. Atmosphere using the outdoor patio for appetizers and drinks was very inviting and beautifully put together with high top tables and cabaret tables/ Julia Payne our wedding coordinator did a fantastic job! Her suggestions and follow through were tops. You felt like you were at a destination wedding. The staff of servers were plentiful and always greeting the guest with a glass of wine or an appetizer. Many of our guests said it was the best wedding atmosphere they enjoyed.

We had our 80-person wedding at Palm Court on June 27th. It was absolutely beautiful! Everyone was blown away by the gorgeous venue. Palm Court is a glass atrium over looking the lake with a wrap-around terrace outside. From the moment we saw this venue, we knew this was where our dream wedding would be. My husband attended Loyola and my dad was a professor there so we also got a discount on the venue rental. We worked closely with Sachiko, our wedding coordinator from Aramark and she was wonderful...always very professional and responsive. The food at the wedding was delicious and the service was great. I really can't say enough. Our wedding was absolutely perfect and we couldn't have asked for anything more. I highly recommend Loyola Lakeshore Campus for your wedding reception, and especially if you're having a smaller wedding like we did, Palm Court. It will wow your guests and help make your wedding unforgettable!

The locations available are absolutely beautiful. All of the staff was super helpful, flexible, and professional. The food was great!

We just did our wedding mass at the Madonna della Strada chapel. I went to undergrad and med school at Loyola, so my attachment to the school was deep! The chapel was amazingly beautiful. They were fairly strict about how many floral arrangements, and where they were allowed to be placed, as well as with the photographer, but everything turned out beautifully! It's hard to get a date and time you want, and weddings are fairly close together, so you only have about 30 minutes for pictures in the chapel after the ceremony. We also had a string quartet, which was amazing!!

We chose this venue, as this is where me and my husband met. The venue was gorgeous and made for some beautiful pictures. We just had some issues with timing during our event (delay in food etc), but Loyola/Aramark compensated this issue for us.