The Drake Hotel

Our December 2019 wedding at The Drake was above and beyond anything we could have imagined. While the beauty of this iconic Chicago hotel speaks for itself, the staff is what sealed our decision to book our wedding reception here – we cannot thank or recommend them enough!

Our coordinator, Antoinette Cahill, is truly the best of the best. From the very beginning of the planning process, she helped to ensure that our entire wedding weekend was as special and flawless as possible. From the food, to the décor, hotel accommodations, logistics, and everything in between, her attention to detail and expertise made our planning process easy and enjoyable. Not to mention the actual wedding reception was perfect – we could not have been happier with how the night turned out, and are still receiving compliments from our friends and family on how beautiful the ballroom was; how incredible the staff was; how delicious the food was; how well run the event was; how fun the party was…all thanks to Antoinette and her team! I also want to mention that Antoinette is very connected to other reliable and talented wedding vendors in the Chicago area, and was instrumental in helping us put together an amazing vendor team (super helpful to us since we did not have an outside wedding planner)!

Antoinette and her team (Bryce, Jose, Mark, and the banquet captains) are kind, patient, and easy to work with. They were also incredibly accommodating – they provided complimentary suites to my husband and I, as well as our parents; helped us stay within our wedding budget; and customized an incredible wedding menu for the cocktail hour, reception, and farewell brunch that fit all of our (many) detailed requests. One of the things that was most important to us was the food, and The Drake did not disappoint! Mark, the head chef, did an amazing job creating a menu that was primarily gluten free since myself and 20 other of our guests have severe food allergies. We were completely blown away with what he prepared at the food tasting, and were of course thrilled with what was served the night of our wedding. Everything was perfect! Gluten free (and even some dairy free options) were created for almost all of the hors d'oeuvres, soup, salad, main courses, dessert, and late night snacks.

It sounds cheesy, but our entire wedding weekend was a dream thanks to The Drake. From the minute we checked into the hotel until the end of our post-wedding brunch, we felt so special and cared for. We didn’t have to stress or worry about a thing! We would recommend Antoinette and The Drake without hesitation to any newly engaged couple looking at Chicago wedding venues :)