Columbus Park Refectory — Attraction in West Chicago Township

To give you the short version - I would recommend Columbus for your wedding! I will say there were some hiccups that were because of COVID and the CPD in general. I fell in love with this venue and wanted to have our reception here from the start. We had our ceremony at our church, otherwise I would have probably had that here too. The park is absolutely stunning. Our pictures so far have turned out amazing because of the architecture of the building and the nature right outside all in one place! They also had all of the tables that we needed, so we didn’t need to rent those. However, we had a lot of trouble knowing what was going to happen until about a month before the wedding. If you’re not having any problems with COVID when you read this, then I would say our only issue was that the response time was a little slow at times. Overall, I got all of my thousands of questions answered whether it was over the phone, email, or in person. Merril was very pleasant to work with and I am very thankful for how kind she was through all of the craziness. None of the issues we had were really her fault so I don’t blame her. I did worry that I was bugging her over email, but over the phone and in person she was so pleasant and sweet to us. Covid stuff: CPD had stricter policies than Chicago at times, and it was looking bad when the guest list was only allowed to have 50 people for the majority of the time I was wedding planning. We had planned for 180 people so I was very nervous throughout the year hoping that things wouldn’t open up in time and we might have to postpone. I had a lot of guests from out of town so I wasn’t thrilled to have to wait until June 17 to find out that we were able to have all of our guests for our July 9 wedding. They did still have a policy that if there were children present when indoors under the vaccination age (currently age 12) that everyone in attendance would have to wear masks. This meant I basically had to kick out about 10 children including my nieces that were flower girls because I knew the guests wouldn’t enjoy themselves otherwise. That was a bummer, but it wasn’t the end of the world in the grand scheme of things. Overall though, I LOVED having our cocktail hour on the pavilion, having the room for eating, and then having the room for dancing. The layout was weird at first but honestly it was so fun. I would still recommend this venue - but just be prepared if you’re planning during COVID for a little more stress than you may have had outside of Chicago. For us, Chicago was a top priority so I was willing to go through that and I would do it all over again because our wedding was perfect. (photographer...

Ideal Wedding Venue!

When my wife and I got married in 2012 we wanted a venue that was classy, romantic and special. As soon as we visited Columbus Park Refectory we knew we had hit gold.

The Refectory is a beautiful classic piece of old Chicago architecture. Our ceremony in the outdoor pavilion was wonderful, with a beautiful view of the lagoon. And the reception was inside - dinner in the large hall flanked by beautiful French doors and dancing in the ballroom. The whole location was as classy as they come - photos help capture how special the Refectory is, but when you're there you really see what a great venue it is.

And to top it off, the on-site staff were wonderful and really helped make the day special.

We cannot recommend the Refectory...

I love the size, view and architecture of Columbus Park, but the the Chicago Park District should definitely do some upgrades to this historic site to make it a five star park because it is such a community gem in the making. They have a golf, swimming and the refectory for meeting. Expanding the basketball and meeting area for events would be perfect and upgrading the golf course and Lake are for fishing would do wonders. It has a great location and definitely has the space for expansion. Still a great place to BBQ and have fun and festivals with family...