Impossible

Try a restaurant buy out! We're in Denver and got food/drinks/venue for under that.

Plenty of people hear doing weddings for half that. Perhaps a wedding coordinator is what you need to be able to find what you want.

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Sure, and plenty of people don't live in a high COL area like Chicago...

OP, how many people are you trying to host for that amount?

View Quoted Comment That is probably a great idea

View Quoted Comment 80-100 people

We had a similar budget for a similar amount of people. I'm assuming you are looking for a certain level of formality. I would look at smaller higher end hotels that host weddings. In DC Kimpton is known for doing great weddings. Have you looked at them at all?

https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/content/us/en/weddings/find-a-venue/chicago

Are you okay going about an hour outside of Chicago? Wedgewood Weddings is a great, affordable, and all inclusive option.

https://www.wedgewoodweddings.com/venues/illinois/north-shore

Try looking a little bit outside Chicago. It seems crazy that you can't find somewhere for that much but I don't live near a huge city like Chicago. Good luck.

View Quoted Comment I have but I’m waiting to hear back from them

View Quoted Comment Thanks u I’m going to look into it

This place seems to have a decent price and is beautiful!

https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/pazzos-at-311-chicago-il-450189

or this one starts at $6700 for 50 guests

https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/congress-plaza-hotel-chicago-il-443364

Good luck!

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We were in the same boat as you!! ($35K budget for 150 people.. which is now 42K)

I was SO FRUSTRATED I looked into hiring a planner and lost my ... over that as well when that cost was exorbitant. So, take a breath, calm down, and you can do it!

That said, in my process of looking for a venue I created a spreadsheet of about 60 places I checked into in and outside of the city; hotels and non-traditional places.

I can totally agree with you that most Chicago places have a $25-50K food and beverage minimum. Once you go outside the city proper you get $15-25K minimum food and beverage. (Godfrey $70K minimum; Ambassador Chicago minimum $150 per person x 150 people; Trump $425 min pp; Hyatt McDonalds $25K minimum; Oak Brook Hills Resort $25K minimum; Hotel Felix, River Hotel, Silversmith Hotel don't do weddings....)

So, all that aside, I have a note that the following didn't have crazy minimums/ would fit into the budget and so you might look into:
Bridgeport Art Center (books super far in advance, but even with $11,500 rental fee you can do $40K! We had to move on from this b/c they were booked for dates we wanted)
Room 1520
Galleria Marchetti
Morton Arboretum

Bull Valley Golf Club
Makray Golf Course
Biltmore Country Club

Bridges of Poplar Creek

Oak Brook Resort

If you have an off-peak (September/ October to March/ April) wedding date you can often negotiate down the F&B minimum (I was able to have ours dropped from $25K to $15K) and get a discount (usually around 10%). I'm happy to send you my spreadsheet if I can figure out how best to do that!

What about the Revel? I think it starts at 10k. I’m not sure if that includes food tho.

Try Venuti's in Addison if you are willing to go a bit outside of the city. Beautiful white marble, grand staircase... the works. we have 200 people and for the bigger of the 2 rooms its an 18k min that includes a day of coordinator, AMAZING food, 6 hour premium open bar, and the cake plus they have a bunch of add on's you could do to hit that min. I think for the smaller room (which is what you would need for 80-100 people) the min. was 12 or 15k. We booked almost a year ago so the other price options are a little fuzzy. They hold a max of 2 events per night and something I thought was nice is that there is a massive mens and womens bathroom for each banquet room so you dont have to worry about sharing with the other group, sounds weird, but its one of the things that sold us on it lol

We are using the Chicago Sports Museum, Min is $20K but its about $150 / person depending on the food selection. (we have 180-200 guests) They include all the food, tables, charis, place settings, bar, bartenders, servers etc and includes a custom wedding cake as well. Their website details their wedding package.

Most planners will tell you that is typically around 40% of your budget. So I think you’re right for the area. Our venue is all inclusive and is about 50% of the entire budget as well, but ours comes with the cake, linens, upgraded chairs, upgraded bar, ceremony space and all food. I thought it seemed ridiculous too but we shopped around a lot and that was the case everywhere