Winnetka Community House

If you’re looking for a beautiful place for an outdoor wedding in the North Shore, Winnetka Community House might be the place for you.
Some of my dear friends married here last summer and it was lovely! Depending on where you enter, the large, brick building kind of looks like a regular community house (with some child-​sized buildings in one yard) or a castle of some sort. Inside is a gym, a couple banquet rooms, several rooms that can be used for grooms and brides, and more designated spaces. Outside the house, nearly hidden among the shrubbery, is a splendid garden area that is perfect for an outdoor wedding.
The day of the wedding (I was standing up), it started pouring outside and we were all making preparations for an indoor wedding. The coordinator and staff seemed to have a good handle on the quick change of plans, which was great for my friend (the bride). However, right when they were about to call for an indoor wedding and start the ceremony, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful July afternoon! Amazing! The staff ran outside to wipe off the chairs and get everything ready to be outside again. The ceremony went smoothly. Afterwards, all were gathered in the banquet hall adjacent to the garden, which fit the hundred-​plus guests comfortably with tables, a dance floor, and a bar off to the side. The garden was still open to the guests for wandering around, smoking, whatever. It was a great day in a great place.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

This is probably one of the most lovely, architecturally compelling public buildings on the North Shore. It almost feels like a castle and — despite the fact that I don’t live in Winnetka, there’s something delightful enough about this building that I often wander over to look at it if I happen to be in Winnetka. I’m really bummed to learn that the bowling alley that used to be in the building has been taken out in order to make room for the fitness area, but for the people who live in the community, that’s a nice option and I’m sure they are pleased.
Overall, Winnetka offers a lot of programs at their community house and they certainly are in a wonderful setting. As other reviewers have noted, this is a fantastic location for an event.

My husband and I got married in May of 2013 at the Winnetka Community House. The garden was beautiful and the perfect setting for our ceremony and cocktail hour. Nikee from Catered By Design was wonderful to work with. She was extremely responsive throughout the planning process and made sure our day went well. The staff was accommodating as well. Overall, the venue was beautiful for a wedding and much more affordable than places in Chicago. We would do it all over again!

We had our wedding at WCH in June 2013. Our experience with the place was wonderful.
The Arches Garden is literally breathtaking, and there hasn’t been a single guest at our wedding who did not mention how lovely the venue was. The reception area is not memorable, but it was set up so beautifully and tastefully that it didn’t matter. Beyond that, the staff at the place was extremely accommodating and pleasant to work with. The price was also very reasonable for the Chicago area — $ 2000 total (we got a discount since we got married on Sunday; it is a bit more expensive if you are getting married on Saturday).
Note that the place works better for smallish weddings. Our guest count was 95, and the size was perfect. Over 120 guests, I believe, it would get quite crowded. Also, there are no designated rooms in which the bride and the groom can get dressed separately — you are allocated one room at the top floor, and that is it. It didn’t matter to us at all, but other couples might want to take that into consideration.
The only disadvantage to the place is that you can rent it for a relatively limited time — total of 5 hours, and then every additional hour jacks the price up considerably. We would have been happy to have the place for two more hours, but truly this was a small concession considering how lovely everything was.

I attended a wedding here a week ago and just received a child’s birthday party invitation for the same place in the same week!
The wedding was stunning and the garden was the perfect place for an early fall wedding — the wedding itself was simply gorgeous. However, I do have to admit that two bars right next to each other for 175 guests wasn’t that great and it would have been better to have one bar on one side of the garden and another bar on the other side. The food was pretty good and each course was thoroughly enjoyable — my favorite part was dessert was not only the wedding cake but also a palate cleansing sorbet. Parking wasn’t too bad considering that they had a free parking lot which filled up pretty quickly and street parking was decent.
We’ll see how the five year old’s birthday party goes in comparison to the beautiful wedding.