The Pavilion at Orchard Ridge Farms — Attraction in Shirland Township

The atmosphere is magical. The catering was better than we had expected. The organization by the Pavilion staff itself was not very good. When we booked the event we asked a lot of questions of which we were told "no problem" a lot. When it came to the actual event, everything was a problem. Be prepared to do everything yourself that night. The person we booked with left the event in the hands of another person who left the event to be ran by another person. One didn't know what the other agreed to making my daughter an emotional wreck which in turn made myself and her fiancé a wreck. We had to check and double check everything. And yet it still was done wrong. This venue has to have an event planner to take the pressure off or it totally ruins your moment. We had specific instructions on what part of the music to send my daughter down the aisle for the ceremony. She was pushed out by the two ladies handling the evening before the moment which broke my daughters heart. She will never have that moment again. The dessert was to be displayed a certain way. It was all wrong. We asked to have the special bread brought in for the event to be cut and put on the tables. They put the loaves out as one solid piece even though I saw a note written for the bread to be sliced the night before. Our guests were not sure what to do with it. Total waste of food. I totally appreciated the caterer. The food was always hot and filled in. But there was no lighting in the area therefore it was dark where the buffet was. This event location is as expensive as a downtown Chicago hotel. Even doing a lot of DYI things for the wedding was not a cost saving. I had a lot higher expectations from what we received. My advice is to get everything in writing. Don't trust the "sure, no problem" response. We asked if we could bring in items for the dessert table. We were given the "sure, no problem" until we wanted to bring in a fruit platter for those that can't have pastries. Then it was $5.00 per person and they have to do it. We compromised on a flat fee per platter. One question I have always had is with what they charge for an evening, can they not afford to pave the parking lot so the guests and bridal party doesn't have to walk in mud and stones? To sum up, the atmosphere is magical. The food was very good. The service and communication is not on par for what it costs. I personally didn't appreciate working so hard on a day of celebration. I too will never get that...

I just got married at the Pavilion a week and a half ago and it was absolutely beautiful!

Everything was absolutely stunning and the aesthetic inside is just incredible. It worked perfectly for our romantic winter theme. We had a wonderful experience touring, booking, and planning with them and we even rented the Copperstone Inn for our wedding party to stay at as well. (The Copperstone is 10s across the board by the way) Since we got married in January we moved the ceremony time earlier to allow us to have more daylight and I really appreciated how flexible they were with our schedule.

The reasons I am giving 4 stars instead if 5 is because You have to use their caterer which we felt was rather expensive. However, we did get a lot of compliments on the food though so that was great. Also I am a very picky eater and they made a more plain chicken dish for me which was very kind. Hors d’oeuvres and late night snacks- we couldn’t just choose one plated hors d’oeuvres to save some money it, was two or nothing. Also we wanted pizza for late night bites, but they wanted 14$ per person for gourmet pizza. They were generous enough to come up with a pizza option because it wasn’t on their menu for late night bites, but to be frank, no one is concerned about gourmet food at 10 at night with an open bar, they want cheap greasy food and I could have bought each guest their own pizza for 14$ each. They didn’t provide any transportation from the Copperstone to the venue - they only do so in the warmer months -which was a bummer because my wedding planner had to shuttle the entire wedding party using one of our guest’s SUV.

Overall we had a wonderful experience and everyone working there was very helpful. (Shout outs to Lexi, Stacie, Jill & and one gentleman who’s name I did not get!) We were able to set up and decorate the day before the wedding which was a huge, huge help. My main wish was that they allowed some flexibility for late night snacks from other vendors. But that is a small sacrifice we made for such a beautiful and unforgettable wedding. Thank you for providing the venue for the wedding...

The Pavilion was an amazing location for our April wedding. The location is beautiful and being able to use the whole grounds for photographs made it possible to get some memorable photographs. We had our wedding outdoors by the pond and the chairs were setup for us to accommodate all of our guests. The Pavilion really made it easy to plan this wedding and took the stress away from the small things. The payment for the Pavillion and ceremony was divided to make the payments manageable and they were really accommodating with the dates and the payment types. We initially met with them to go over our estimated guest count and main wedding details and then constantly kept in contact. The staff was very happy to answer all questions that we had and responded quickly to our emails. They even helped suggest possible rehearsal dinner locations and hair and makeup salons. They sent us a layout of the tables and placement of all items that we could alter to our liking set up exactly how many chairs per table there would be. Also, they allowed us to come in the day before and decorate the pavilion prior to the rehearsal. We had two different food tastings from Henrici’s for the main course and appetizers. The food was delicious (even the children’s meals looked amazing) and we received many compliments from our guests. Henrici’s was very accommodating with our wedding cake and dessert table and stored both until it was time to set them up. I was extremely pleased with the fact that they had set up the dessert table for us and we did not have to worry about anything ourselves. At the end of the night the staff was extremely helpful with cleanup and help to gather any decorations that we were keeping or tossing. The whole night the staff was at the top of the game making sure the children had movies to watch and that the guest had everything they needed. They really made our wedding amazing and all of our guests were amazed with the location...