Travel
Flight
Flying? MSP to O'HARE.
Most guests who are traveling will likely be traveling from Minnesota to Illinois. If you chose to fly rather than drive, MSP to O'HARE are the airports you will want to use for travel. MSP is of course located in Minneapolis and the O'Hare airport is located in the Chicagoland area. The O'Hare airport is approximately 1 hour from the wedding location and surrounding hotels. Guests flying from another state are still encouraged to utilize your preferred departing airport, and utilizing the arriving airport as O'Hare. You are welcome to book flights and lodging however you wish with whichever website you choose. Expedia has just been linked for ease of use, as you can book your flight, hotel, and a car right from their website with very reasonable prices. This website is our recommendation, but we'd like to stress AGAIN to use whichever booking tools or services you'd like. We recommend reserving flights, lodging, and cars in advance to ensure availability. The first week of December isn't necessarily a holiday but December is a busy time of year for airports, hotels, and AirBNBs. Please keep this in mind when determining when to book.
Travel Note
Driving Down & Don't need Flight Info? Need a hotel?
Most out of state guests will be coming from Minnesota, If you chose to travel from wherever you're coming from in MN by car, the drive from southern Minnesota to Richmond, Illinois takes approximately 5 hours. If you live more north it may take longer, of course. If you're a guest in Wisconsin, lucky you, it should only take approximately 2-3 hours or less to arrive! Live in Illinois? Even luckier! It should only take *most* guests 40-60 minutes to arrive at the venue. We've linked the Expedia website to utilize booking hotels if needed. Of course, you may book a hotel however you wish from a hotels direct website or through another service. AirBNB is always an option as well or adjacent websites such as Vrbo. We recommend booking in advance as we will be reserving a block at a designated hotel (information to come soon) for a certain number of rooms, and of course there are other hotels in the area, but we can not guarantee room availability at every hotel in the area as the time grows closer. This is just an FYI, we want to keep you out of the cold by keeping you most informed. When booking or looking for hotels on Expedia or other sites, we recommend booking with the hotels we've listed below- so take a look at the names!
Travel Note
Weather and Travel
Our wedding is in December and therefore weather has the potential to be a little unpredictable. In our experience, storms often roll through the midwest from late December through March (especially in Minnesota). We recommend taking some careful consideration in terms of how you're traveling, when you're traveling, when taking (if any) time off, when you're booking, and coming prepared for the weather. Luckily, the Illinois/Chicago area is more forgiving in terms of the weather than Minnesota. With this date, we don't predict any major storms or blizzards but please stay diligent. We SO want you to be there with us for our special day.
Travel Note
Important Note For Driving In Illinois
For guests traveling from MN who have never been to Illinois/the Chicago area: tolls! Yes it was crazy to the Bride the first time she went there to visit as well. If you're utilizing a rental car we would recommend speaking to the rental agency about passes/tolls. If you're using your personal vehicle, you can expect a bill in the mail from the State of Illinois, or, we would recommend downloading the "Illinois Tollway" app to avoid fees. You download the app, make an account, and register your license plate on there. It's a simple process. By doing this, your bill will show up on your phone usually within 14 days of your trip. You can easily pay your toll bill there in the app once it becomes available. For reference, one trip there and back is typically $7 (not including extra excursions).
Hotel
Comfort Suites Lake Geneva East
Hotel