Amazing experience!
I will truly never be able to say enough amazing things about the service we received for my wedding 3/19/22 at the W Chicago City Center!! From our first tour they clearly were the best option and showed the best service- Our tour was so much better than everywhere else that I was nervous it could just be a show that one time, but the W continued to go beyond my expectations throughout. The price point was great for what we wanted and they were so flexible. When we had last minute COVID drop outs, they came up with the idea to send those plates upstairs to our babysitters which was so sweet (made us look quite thoughtful but was actually their idea!!) I also felt I could be really transparent about money and where we wanted to spend/save which I think is really important for planning such a big and expensive day like this.
Jill Natale is an example of incredible customer service!! She kept me calm through the whole process and made so many things we asked for happen- anything we asked for she immediately tried to make happen for us. I don’t think I ever heard a no from her. She wanted the day to look like our vision and we got that and more. Her vendor suggestions were great and aligned with the price/quality we were looking for. To be honest I don’t think I even needed an outside wedding planner because Jill was so great. Close to the wedding I would just defer family members to Jill, which I don’t even think was actually her responsibility, and she would help with their reservations and other requests and they would always end up texting me telling me how amazing jill is !! My whole family literally just kept going on about how great Jill is. I currently a physician in training so it was very hard for me to balance planning, and Jill made the planning process seamless for me even with how busy I was!! I don’t think I ever had to follow up on a thing, she was always on top of everything.
Fatima at the front desk was always willing to help with anything I needed even when I didn’t ask!! I was trying to do something last minute the morning of the wedding and without even asking her, she handled it for me. Our families loved Fatima and wanted us to make sure we shouted her out for how great she treated everyone. She seemed to know not only me and zack but so many names of our friends and family which was so nice!
Juan at the restaurant/ room service kept everyone smiling and happy! Everyone remembered him and would mention him to me because he made all of our meals so nice and brought such joy to every setting. It was so fun to come down and eat with different members of my family and have him serving us, we all loved him!
The night of the wedding and morning after the wedding there we had help from another member of the team (I am soo sorry I forget her name- I don’t think I met her until the after party so I was all over the place by then- she had longer dark hair)!! She was also great and kept everything organized and smooth so I didn’t have to worry about it. If we had any questions she sorted it out right away and helped us end the wedding night on a great note.
Israel was the first point of contact at the door and provided a great first impression. Reynaldo was also wonderful! Everyone just kept commenting how overall everyone at the W was so great to them (not just the bride and groom which is so nice to know how well our guests were treated). My family all commented that the doorman were great all weekend.
The FOOD was incredible and everyone also raved about that- from the restaurant to room service to our entrees.
The hotel overall is so beautiful. I can not wait to see the pictures from getting ready in the EWOW suite. There was so much room and it was such a great background for photos the morning of. I loved our cocktail area in the plateau. One of the reasons I picked this hotel was because it still had these beautiful accents of chicago history being an old hotel, but the ballroom and hotel rooms were sleek and modern- it was hard to find that combo in chicago. I am kind of picky and i honestly never thought that the ballroom would end up looking like the idea I had in my head, but it was truly even better and walking into the ballroom for the first time is one of the best memories I have from the wedding. I still can’t believe how incredible it looked.
Overall besides the beauty, price and location, I mostly picked W city center because of the great service and I finished up the weekend the most happy with how wonderful the service was. It truly made the weekend. I was a very nervous bride and it was great to be surrounded by support and people who wanted me to be happy! There were two small instances of things that we weren’t thrilled with (one before the wedding and one after the wedding, nothing the day of), and they immediately adjusted both of them for us and were willing to work with us with those two things - they weren’t major problems but of course things wil come up that we will question and it was really lovely that instead of just telling us that’s how things were, they looked into it and ended up adjusting things for us very quickly. Even through they weren’t big issues, things will come up and so I think it’s a really positive thing that when something did come up they handled it so well and in such a way that was not stressful for us.
Especially in the time of COVID, you never would have known the likely chaos going on behind the scenes amongst the service industry- it was fantastic. When we toured venues everyone seemed to be a little shaky after COVID and short staffed. I am sure these issues were everywhere, but the W seemed organized and on top of everything. Other places seemed to be explaining why service was different than pre-pandemic, but at the W things seemed to somehow be running perfectly.
My whole family also knows all of the names of everyone because they also provided such great assistance to them. It was so important for me to share the city I love with the people I love and the W staff was a huge part of giving everyone a great chicago experience. Everyone keeps talking about how amazing the service at the hotel was- it really put the final touch on a perfect weekend for us. Sorry this is so long but like I said, I will never be able to say enough good things and could keep going…!!!
Thank you so much for a perfect wedding weekend!!