Black Tie Optional. Remember it will be November in Chicago so dress warm :)
Shuttles will depart at 2PM from the Hoxton and JW Marriott to take guests to the church. Shuttles will depart the church at 4:30PM and take guests to cocktail hour.
There will be shuttles for those staying at the hotel blocks to transport guests from the hotel to the church and then to the reception. We recommend using Rideshare apps like Lyft or Uber at the end of the night. If you are staying at The Hoxton, the hotel is a block away from the venue. St. Michael in Old Town has free parking available for guests attending the ceremony. The parking lot is located on the corner of Cleveland and Eugenie. We will also be offering valet parking at the reception.
Please reach out to Cara Laskowski at carlaskowski@gmail.com with any food allergies or dietary restrictions.
On October 9, 1871, mid-morning, the great bells in St. Michael’s tower began to toll a warning, slowly, sonorously. It was a bright and dry day, a little more than two years since the dedication of the imposing new church. St. Michael’s history went back to 1848 when Michael Diversey donated the land. His family’s name is perpetuated in Diversey Boulevard, and his Christian name in the church dedicated to his patron, Saint Michael. The first church was built in 1852 on the corner of Hudson Avenue and North Avenue, and now in 1871 as the firestorm moved northward, the new church and neighborhood was threatened. Called by the tolling of St. Michael’s church bells, the German parishioners filled the wood-cobbled streets and planked sidewalks, hoping the massive walls of St. Michaels would resist the fire. When the crowd saw the Alexian Brothers Hospital going up in flames, they knew that their parish church would burn. Pastor Peter Zimmer and volunteers dashed about the church, scooping up what they could, hurrying to the monastery garden to bury some of the salvaged treasures. The large wooden crucifix that hung in the monastery’s lower corridor was dismantled and buried along with other treasures and many volumes from the library. Father Charles Hahn returned from a northern suburb with a team and wagon, which they loaded with vestments and sacred items, the hand carved stations of the cross, and as much clothing as they could gather. By nine o’clock on the evening of the 9th, the fire had gotten as far as the city’s outskirts at Fullerton Avenue. Miraculously the shell of St. Michael’s stood. The solid brick and stone walls and the soaring Corinthian columns had survived the fire; they stood then as they would stand when the church was restored. On October 12, 1873, the parishioners celebrated the resurrection of their church.