Carnivale Reviews

The venue is simply beautiful! The staff were very professional and helpful. The location is away from the busy Chicago streets and the parking lot just behind the building was very convenient. The guests loved the colorful, fun environment! Let’s not forget the food is delicious!

Carnivale delivered better than I ever could have imagined! The event staff were amazing and I am beyond grateful for them! The food was AMAZING, our guests are still talking about the food!! Not only was Carnivale the coolest place to get married but they also made the planning process a breeze!!

I had my wedding at Carnivale this past weekend and it was incredible. Our guests had a great time and can’t stop taking about the food, decor, and the service, everything was top notch. Doug was wonderful to work with and he took care of every request I had and made it a great experience!

At our Carnivale wedding, everything was perfect. The setting is incredible - very festive with no additional decorations needed, Numerous guests proclaimed the food was the best they ever had at a wedding. Everyone at Carnivale was gracious and helpful
And, if you can get Tiffany to help with planning you will be very happy. I can't recommend Carnivale more for setting, food, and service.

So it will be the best wedding day every

If you are having a 200+ person wedding in Chicago, look no further. Carnivale is the best decision you will ever make. We are SO happy with our wedding. As a professional Event Manager, I can tell you that Carnivale is the best in the business. The service, the venue, the food, the joy! Don't waste your money on flowers or decor because you don't need to here!!! We did a buyout for 275 guests and every person has told us that it was the best wedding they've ever been to. We agree!!! If you work with Erica (she is amazing!) please feel free to ask her for more details on our site plans, etc. The work is all done already. You and your guests will have the BEST time ever! Happy wedding day :) ENJOY!

Choosing Carnivale will be the best decision you make all year, next to getting engaged to the love of your life. If I sound like I’m gushing, it’s because Carnivale really pulls out all of the stops to make sure you have a fantastic day. Not only is the venue bonkers breathtaking (warning: Must Love Color), the food, drinks, and service are top-notch. Plus, considering the amazing quality of service you receive, it’s reasonably priced for downtown Chicago.

After first working with Doug and then Serena, we were given over to the very experienced hands of Erica, and I could not be more grateful to have her helping us through every step of the way. She answered my many questions in an incredibly timely manner and even dressed our presentation cake with flowers on our wedding day.

Here are the details for our Saturday summer wedding, and I wouldn’t change a thing:
-Ceremony at 3:15pm in the main dining room (our friend played classical guitar)
-Cocktail hour in the main bar from 4-5pm
-Reception upstairs in the Samba room for 165 gusts from 5-9pm with music by DJ-Chicago; we did family style dinner (everything was amazing, but the stars were the corn empanadas, seafood paella, short rib, Catalan spinach, and passionfruit cheesecake bites for dessert); we chose a 4-hour bar package with beer, wine and signature cocktails (mojitos, margaritas, and sangria) and added a cava toast for the speeches
-After party at Jefferson Tap (a 5-minute walk away) from 9-midnight

Multiple people said this was the best food they'd ever had at a wedding, which is exactly what we were hoping to hear. You will not regret picking Carnivale!

I just loved that I did not have to worry about a thing. Molly was so great and did most things. The reception was perfect. Venue is so beautiful and food oh my god the best! So delicious! Not the typical wedding food. Everyone loved it so much and it was so much food! Everyone at Carnivale took great care of us. Thank you for making our wedding the best! And stress free :) everything came out so perfect, way better than expected .

What a beautiful, wonderful and exciting place to have a wedding. The service, the venue, food and the coordinator Erica Ferreri was exceptional!!

My dream venue. Everything was perfect! The food, drinks, service- just everything was memorable. My guests have not been able to stop talking about it! We worked with Serena and she was such a delight to work with. I highly recommend this venue for those who want to put a colorful twist on their traditional (or not) wedding!

Chicago brides-this is the place for you. Working with Tiffany Junta made planning our wedding so easy. She is responsive and goes out of her way to make sure that you are comfortable through the entire process. She is great at answering questions, working with outside vendors, and calming anxious brides. Be sure to ask for her by name. The food and drinks at Carnivale are still being raved about by our guests. The space is beautifully decorated and is easy to compliment with simple flowers and decorations. This is not your cookie cutter banquet hall. The eclectic artwork and colors of the main dining hall are carried up through the Samba room creating a truly unique wedding experience. This is complimented further by the amazing staff, food, drinks, and Tiffany. Do yourself a favor and host your wedding here. You won’t regret it.

First let me say that our wedding ceremony and reception at Carnivale ultimately turned out beautifully! The food was amazing as were the drinks. The floor manager was awesome and took great care of us. Our guests kept commenting on how much they loved the ambiance and food/drinks. In the end, it was everything we wanted.

However, we experienced some issues- one significant and on our wedding day. We booked the main dining area for our ceremony and samba room for reception, approximately 14 months in advance, with a sales manager who left Carnivale a few months later. The sales manger we had after that was very friendly and fun, but we ran into communication and timeliness issues with her. I’d sometimes have to email a couple of times, over the course of a week to get a response to a question. Though, that wasn’t a huge deal, just a little annoying. However, she was over 45 minutes late to our scheduled tasting! After we waited for 30 minutes in the bar for her, the chef finally said that we should just get started. When she finally arrived, it was without a. reason for being late. Still we had a good time at the tasting and afterwards, discussed the timeline and plan for the day, including the location of both the ceremony and reception.
Fast forward to the day our our wedding. Our ceremony was scheduled to start at 3:15pm, so I arrived at 2pm to get ready in the bridal suite. (the bridal suite is little more than a glorified bathroom with room for barely two people to fit in). When I got to Carnivale, the hostess directed me and my bridal group upstairs to the samba room. To my unpleasant surprise, we discovered that the samba room was set up for our ceremony, NOT the main dining room as planned. In the samba room, the reception tables were shoved against the wall to make room for ceremony seating. I couldn’t even access the bridal suite because the door was blocked by the tables. In addition, our deejay and photographer were there, very frustrated with the change in ceremony location. No one was very happy and our sales manager was nowhere to be found. I went down to the host stand to get everything straightened out but guests were arriving and I was still in my street clothes. Instead, I asked a friend to find the sales manager, which took her awhile to do. When I finally spoke with the sales manager, she told me that she was completely unaware that we were supposed to have the ceremony downstairs. This categorically untrue. Not only had we signed a contract with the locations specified, we’d also discussed it with her a few times. Plus, I’d rented an extra speaker for the main dining room, through her, so that our deejay could play our ceremonial music there. Why would we rent a speaker for a room we weren’t going to be in?! It was ridiculous and frustrating. I’m not sure why they switched locations but it felt like shady. Ultimately, I kept my calm but refused to budge on the location of the ceremony.
The staff managed to set up the main floor and samba room amazingly fast. The photographer plus crew and deejay were also able to break down everything and get set up without too much issue- though the deejay told us that the rented speaker cord didn’t even work. Thankfully he had a back up.
Overall, it turned out beautiful. But there really was no excuse for the tardiness with our tasting nor the unnecessary stress I had on our wedding day with the incorrect set up.

Carnivale was the only choice for our wedding. We wanted a party that just so happened to have a wedding ceremony in the beginning! lol. We wanted to reflect the energetic, colorful and fun relationship that we have. We worked with Serena P., and she knows her stuff, is super responsive, helpful and worked with whatever crazy idea that we threw at her! Food and drinks were high on our priority list, and we knew that everyone would leave raving about them at Carnivale! Our guests are still talking about our big day. We plan to return for our anniversaries!

We got married at Carnivale on October 20, 2018, and had the most perfect wedding. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that we selected Carnivale as our venue. The space is beautiful, fun and lively. I don't like to decorate and Carnivale is already decorated, so adding decor to the space is really not even necessary. The food was delicious and the service was top-notch. Throughout the planning process, we worked with Serena, who was wonderful, delightful and extremely competent! She promptly answered my questions and emails, helped us make important decisions and went above and beyond to take the lead on the bridal party & ceremony logistics during the rehearsal and on the day of the wedding. She accommodated our unique requests and was attentive to detail. Serena remembered my husband's favorite drink (Pisco Sour from Peru--not an easy cocktail to make) and handed it to him as soon as the ceremony ended. During the reception, Serena and Luis, the banquet manager, made sure everything ran smoothly. Luis and his staff were attentive to all the guests.

Carnivale had a chuppah that someone had left behind from a previous wedding and kindly stored the big structure in their office for months so that we could use it at our wedding. Serena measured it for me and even had it assembled prior to the ceremony.

We had guests from Chicago, all over the United States and Peru; everyone had a blast and can't stop talking about it, saying that it was the best wedding and venue (with the best food & drinks). This is a huge compliment coming from people who have been to weddings at the most high-end places. We wouldn't have changed a thing.

The staff at Carnivale were very professional and helpful in every way. The staff was always on hand. They checked in with us multiple times throughout the night. The food was delicious and we couldn't have created a better ambiance. Our guests had a great time and we highly recommend hosting a wedding here.

Carnivale was the most amazing venue to hold our wedding. Doug was so helpful throughout the entire wedding process, taking the time to answer our MANY questions, providing his own expertise and ideas, and working to adapt the venue to our ideas and requests. The space itself is amazing- so colorful and exciting without even having to worry about bringing our own decorations. Our guests could not stop raving about the colorful atmosphere and of course the amazing food. Although our wedding is over, we will definitely be back at Carnivale soon!

I had my daughter's bridal shower! Everyone loved it and the food was incredible and the staff was awesome.
LOVED IT!

Our daughter Stephanie and new son-in-law Tyler's wedding was a dream come true. Doug and his staff at Carnivale went above and beyond to make our event fantastic. Doug was so accommodating and helpful with all aspects from planning to the final moments of our celebration. Fantastic food, beautiful and colorful room, and an amazing staff. Thank You Carnivale for making Stephanie & Tyler's wedding a modern day Fairy Tale!!

Doug and the entire crew at Carnivale were so accomidating. If you are having your wedding at Carnivale, you are obviously looking to throw a bright, fun, lively event, but Doug just takes it above and beyond! It is clear he loves his job and made me feel so excited each step of the way. He also worked with us to maximize our budget and make sure no money was wasted. Couldn’t be happier with the service we recieved from Carnivale :))))

I can’t express enough how fantastic working with the wedding planner Doug was! He was very thorough, professional, and exceptional! My husband and I had the wedding of our dreams and all our friends and family enjoyed themselves!

I honestly cannot say enough good things about Carnivale, and specifically, the event coordinator, Doug. My husband and I ended up having a change of plans and had to plan our wedding with only about 6 weeks notice. We were very stressed out about this and worried about finding a venue. Form the very beginning Doug and the Carnivale staff made the process so much. They were able to be so flexible with what we wanted to do and the budget we were working with, and basically said they could make everything we wanted happen on short notice and within budget. Doug was such a dream to work with and made what was a stressful process so much fun. He took care of literally everything. We stayed within budget, Doug thought of literally everything that we needed. The venue was amazing and beautiful and the food was unbelievable. Almost every guest said it was by far the best wedding food they had ever had. We had so much fun on our wedding night and it was honestly better than I could have ever expected even if I had a year to plan (and we only used 4 of the 6 weeks to plan this one!). I would highly recommend this venue to anyone in Chicago. I wouldn't have changed a thing and am so grateful to Doug and his staff for making our wedding the best day ever.

I came to Carnivale with what I thought was a pretty tall order-- Indian/American fusion, with multiple dietary restrictions, in a cocktail style reception-- they handled it better than I could have ever imagined. The event team was so easy to work with, and thought of logistics and details I never would have imagined. They were very mindful of our budget, and did a great job of suggesting options to keep us on track.

The atmosphere at Carnivale is beautiful, and really fit in with the fun, celebratory vibe we were going for. The food was delicious, and we managed to please the wide array of preferences our guests had.

My husband and I got married on 4/7/18, and we could not have been happier with our wedding at Carnivale! We worked with Doug as our wedding coordinator and cannot say enough good things about him! He was extremely helpful and always responded quickly and answered all of my questions (and trust me, there were a lot!) thoroughly. He was a dream to work with, and made my life as a bride that much easier. He took care of setting up all of our decorations on the day of the wedding, and he did a fantastic job! Everything looked beautiful and exactly the way I wanted it. Doug was attentive to detail and came through on all of my requests.

Our wedding was held in the Samba room for around 160 guests. It was a unique, fun, and gorgeous space! It made for the perfect environment for a party!

The food was excellent! We did a family style meal, which allowed us to give our guests a taste of everything. We had so many options, and we really loved everything! Our tasting was great, and it was hard to pick what to serve for the wedding since everything was so delicious! We've heard from many guests about how great the food was!

The signature drinks (sangria, margaritas, and mojitos) were the perfect addition to our bar package. It was fun to give guests a different option to kick off the cocktail hour.

My one, and only, complaint was that the servers removed the floral centerpieces when dinner was served to make space for all of the family style dishes that were served. Which that is totally fine and I completely understand the need for table space for the meal. However, the centerpieces were never returned to the tables after dinner. We spent a significant amount of money on the flowers for the reception, only to have them all moved to the gift/card table for the majority of the night.

Overall, our wedding experience with Carnivale was absolutely wonderful! From the moment we first looked at the venue to the end of our reception, Carnivale was amazing!!

My husband and I wanted a small (although Carnivale can accommodate large weddings), intimate, unique wedding venue that our guests would never forget - that's exactly what Carnivale delivered!! Working with our event coordinator was incredibly convenient, especially with my crazy work schedule which I thought would have been difficult. It was literally as simple as telling them our visions/likes/dislikes and they made it happen! We also got engaged, found a venue, and planned the entire wedding (~90 people) within 5 months start to finish, all with minimal to no wedding planning anxiety like everyone says you'll have! The night of the wedding was glitch free and they made us feel like royalty - butler passed drinks and apps, fun funky furniture for our guests, VERY fast room change from dinner to dancing, and of course the amazing drinks! We would highly recommend Carnivale as an event location - wedding or not! The pictures speak a thousand words for years to come with the atmosphere, too!