Ida Noyes Hall

Beautiful historical building at the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park. High ceilings, nice wood work, appropriate forum for meetings and conferences.

We held our wedding this past weekend in the 3^rd Floor Theater in Ida Noyes Hall and it was a wonderful space for us for many reasons. First of all, my fiancé and I met in undergrad at the UofC, so we certainly had fond memories of our time there and the many events we attended as well as almost all of our friends also being UofC grads.
Secondly, it is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. There really are no more beautiful event venues in Chicago and certainly none that can be had for a steal of $ 1500 which includes tables and plastic chairs. Especially the third floor theater with the beautiful stage, parapets and mural on the walls. We had a live band at our event, and having a stage made it even better! (Not to mention the acoustics are awesome.) Third, they let us bring in our own beer and wine, which saved us a ton of money with our caterer.
The downsides? Well, we had to pay extra to rent nicer chairs since we didn’t want plastic chairs or chair covers. However, it was exceedingly reasonable to rent them from our rep at Ida Noyes Hall. ($ 3 per chair + $ 65 delivery fee) It didn’t have air conditioning and the room was warm despite having all of the (again, gorgeous hardwood) French doors open.
Also, they told us we could only have beer and wine and we had to be out by 11:30, non-​negotiable. Well, the much higher budget wedding in the Cloister Club (the first floor space) the same night as mine was able to serve hard liquor and were able to be there until 1:30 a.m. So I guess, don’t take them at their word when they say things are non-​negotiable.

This is a review of Ida Noyes as a Wedding venue.
Ida Noyes is gorgeous. A vintage looking, tall-​ceiling, enormous hall, awesome location, nearby parks and of course the UChicago campus. I think you may need to be affiliated with UChicago to rent it, but I’m not sure.
As a wedding venue, we found it to be difficult for our needs for a few reasons. You get the hall, and the chairs. You bring in the rest. There are some limitations on liquor being served, you may need to rent chair covers (depending on how picky you are about how the chairs look) and there are no refrigeration or heating facilities there for the caterers to use.
At the time we were venue shopping, there was no hotel (although there is one ½ a mile away, now), and there was no plausible way to get over 100 people from Hyde Park to one at midnight.
Overall, we weren’t able to pick this beautiful space. Someone with a wedding planner and a bit more imagination could probably hold a really fantastic event here.