NIU Naperville

My association holds many seminars and conferences here and we couldn’t be happier! The facility is beautiful and well maintained, the food is wonderful, the people are knowledgeable and friendly, and it is very competitively priced. Terrific all around!

Gina, Barb, Alex, and Mike were easy to work with and made our wedding day absolutely perfect! The attention to details and coordinating this NIU team did made everything easy for us both leading up to the big day and our wedding day. I would highly recommend the NIU conference center for any type of event!

Gina and her team were fabulous to work with for a March wedding. Their flexibility and event knowledge made the event extremely easy — including setting up and breaking down hanging lanterns, setting up a photo backdrop, a Giant Jenga, a Bags Toss and a S’mores bar. Having the space to ourselves was great, the parking is easy. Everyone had a great time!

On our hunt for a venue to use for our wedding reception, my future MIL suggested NIU Naperville. It’s easy to find, has plenty of parking, and a security guard on site (to keep the wedding crashers at bay?), so we went to check it out. It was the first and only place we visited, but that’s pretty much how selecting everything with our wedding went. No fuss– keep it simple.
We met with Gina in February to take a tour and learn more about the space. Due to our wedding being in December, we were given a discount on the pricing as it’s «off season.» We were able to secure all three rooms for the price of two, and were also given the option to downgrade to the two rooms for the price of the single room and we could make that change whenever we wanted. It was decided to keep all three rooms to give our guests plenty of room to mingle, dance, or shy away to a corner to avoid someone’s creepy relative.
As time went on, we learned that Barb would be our coordinator. We were slightly bummed, as we had been dealing with Gina for most of the time and had grown accustomed to dealing with her. Nonetheless, Barb was very helpful. She was quick to answer our emails along the wedding planning journey and quickly addressed any issues we had.
If you decide to have your reception at NIU Naperville, be advised that you must use one of their approved caterers for the food. We had four to choose from, and we ended up selecting Sodexo, as what they offered best met our needs and budget.
In October, my MIL, M, and I went to meet with Barb to fine tune all the small details. Months earlier we were emailed a very detailed list which covered everything from the wedding theme to table linens, ceremony details to the small items and who were to provide them. It was a bit overwhelming, but I found that by filling it out a little at a time, it wasn’t so difficult to complete.
On our wedding day, my husband and I arrived to a beautifully decorated venue. Everything was set up perfectly, both in the main room as well as the atrium. The entire evening was wonderful and everything ran smoothly. If there were any problems that came up, they were so minor that I didn’t notice them.
Both Barb and Gina are wonderful coordinators and the rest of their staff are very professional, especially during the «tear down». All of our items were boxed up and securely stored until we were able to retrieve them a few days later.
I highly recommend NIU Naperville for anyone looking for a wedding reception venue.

Wow! This building is much nicer than some of the buildings at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, well except for Barcema.
I only have to come here for an online class mandatory meetings. I wish I spent more time here than in some of the gross buildings on main campus. Maybe administrators should take notes!
Building is clean, and easy to navigate, staff is friendly, and that’s all I can really say about it from me limited experience here.

We recently booked our wedding at NIU-​Naperville and we couldn’t be happier with that decision. Right from the start they were friendly, professional and organized about all of our wedding details. We had the pleasure of working with Gina, who did a great job at making sure everything was done correctly and we were well taken care of during the actual wedding day. The venue looked beautiful and every single staff person we interacted with was kind and helpful. We would highly recommend them for a wedding!

NIU Naperville is a perfect location for a wedding or corporate event in Naperville. The meeting space is state of the art and very functional. The staff has is extremely friendly, experienced, and helpful.
Every interaction I have had with NIU Naperville’s catering and event staff has been an excellent one. They have flexible options to meet any need and work closely with the Courtyard Naperville across the street to host any guests that need hotel rooms.

This review is for their catering/​room rental department.
If I could give 0 stars I would.
We looked into this facility for our wedding reception. There were problems from the get-​go. When the conference service manager emailed me with more information (room rental, menus, etc) I was quoted one price for room rental. I decided to go view the space, but she couldn’t be bothered to meet with me so she sent someone else, who quoted me different pricing than what I had originally been told for linens, ceremony fees, etc. When I asked for a contract, the room rental price was $ 700 higher than what I had been quoted, and there were even more discrepancies, and she wouldn’t line item all the items she promised we would receive. We asked about it and were told sorry, but that’s the way it is.
My fiancé is a graduate of NIU, so he was doubly disappointed by the poor service and runaround we received here. As a former meeting and event planner myself, I’m not sure how these people do any business. At the end of the whole debacle, my fiancé told them we wouldn’t be booking and we got an email back that essentially said «good.»
Stay away, and plan your event elsewhere. It will save you a load of frustration and disappointment.