Summer Cocktails

Grab some summer shade and try one of our new and exciting summer cocktails at the Chicago Marriott Naperville.  Our creative bartenders have crafted three specialty cocktails: a thirst quenching Minty Mojito, an exotic Fresh Raspberry Caipiroska, and a Spiked Arnold Palmer made with Organic Blue Agave.

What can be better than a nice refreshing cocktail on hot summer day?

Can't Join Us for a cocktail? Try making our Spiked Arnold Palmer at home!

Ingredients:

2 oz. Absolute Citron

1/2 oz. Triple Sec

2 ½ oz. Homebrewed Iced Tea

2 Lemons (juiced)

½ oz. Blue Agave Nectar

Sliced lemon (for garnish)

Pour the Absolute Citron, Triple Sec, Homebrewed Iced Tea, Lemons (juiced), and blue agave Nectar into a shaker.  Shake Vigorously.  Pour into a martini glass and garnish with a sliced lemon.

Wedding Options 2013

Most women dream of what they want their wedding day to be like for their entire life, so it’s only right that your day is perfect!

There are many different attributes that go into planning a wedding day, which means it’s important to have a plan and various options.

At the Chicago Marriott Naperville, we’ve got everything you need to make your wedding day special.

From our beautifully landscaped grounds to our various private ballrooms, we transform our space to meet your vision for your special day!

In fact, we pride ourselves in the fact that we have a wide variety, since our spaces can accommodate virtually any size wedding and includes:

-          A Grand Ballroom that embodies over 7,108 square feet with 18-foot ceilings and the ability to host up to 500 guests for a delicious dinner and fun night of dancing. Additionally, The Grand Ballroom Foyer provides up to 3,000 square feet, so you can easily have enough room for a cocktail hour or space to hold all your wedding gifts!

-          If you’re looking for a more intimate space, we have our Naper Ballroom that features over 4,100 square feet with floor-to-ceiling length windows and can host up to 225 guests.

-          We offer customized menu planning, and will work with your caterer or wedding planner to make sure you have a nutritious and stress free meal for you and your guests.

-          If you would like assistance in picking out the details, we also have our lovely Marriott Certified Wedding Planner Kyra Poulous on hand to help you design and execute your perfect day.

-          We have recommendations on vendors that you can use for your big day, from flowers, to décor, to photography to transportation, to the finishing touches on this momentous occasion.

-          A variety of additional event options to host your rehearsal dinner, bridal shower, engagement party, farewell breakfast or brunch, and signature tea service.

-          And of course – we’ve got enough space for all your guests to stay in our beautifully renovated hotel, with room block rates and special assistance!

We at the Chicago Marriott Naperville understand that this day is all about you, so we want to help you make the perfect decisions.

If you’re looking for options, give us a jingle at 630.505.4900 or send an email to our Marriott Certified Wedding Planner Kyra at kpoulos@chicagomarriottnaperville.com today!

Photos from: http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/chicago-marriott-naperville-naperville/d8549de154515e29.html

Signature Honey House Wedding Cake

Ask any bride-to-be what she wants her wedding day to be like, and she is bound to say that her big day needs to be unique and special.

That is why we have a one of a kind wedding feature that no other Marriott hotel around the world can offer: our Signature House Honey Wedding Cake!

              

Pastry Chef Erica Tomei’s Signature House Honey Wedding Cake is made with honey from our rooftop bees. These bees work hard all year long to produce the sweetest and finest honey, which Chef Erica Tomei then crafts into a honey cake soaked in the Marriott’s house honey syrup. The cake is then filled with a creamy honey mousse, and is topped off with vanilla buttercream icing.

We strive on the importance of making each wedding at our hotel unique to the bride and grooms’ request, so we custom design the cake to fit the style and ambiance of your wedding. Brides- and grooms-to-be work with Chef Tomei to choose a design, and get to sample the Signature House Honey Wedding Cake at their tasting session with our Marriott Certified Wedding Planner.

Our Signature Honey House Wedding Cake fits perfectly with our distinctive 7,108-square-feet Grand Ballroom that can accommodate up to 500 guests for dinner and dancing, or our more intimate space of our 4,100-square-foot Naper ballroom for up to 225 guests.

To learn more about how you can get the Signature House Honey Wedding Cake at your wedding, comment below or contact our Marriott Certified Wedding Planner at kpoulos@chicagomarriottnaperville.com .

Chicago Marriott Naperville “Honey Bees”

Spring is in the air, which means our honeybees are getting ready to go to work!

We’ve been hosting hundreds of honeybees all winter long in our 4 beehives on the hotel rooftop, and now they are able to start mating and producing their sweet nectar for us to serve in our Artisan Table restaurant. Our Signature Honey House Wedding Cake, lemonade, various pastries and desserts are all items that use this delicious ingredient.

Our Executive Chef Sean Curry has taken this hyper-local food sourcing initiative very seriously, and before he starts extracting the honey from the hives, he has to check to make sure that none of the bees have developed any diseases over the winter.

After that, Chef Curry checks how many eggs the Queen has laid, which allows for him to build the proper size nest. This can be a tricky task, because if the nest is too small and the bees swarm, a new Queen bee emerges (for a total of two) and the colony is split in half. If the nest is too large, the bees are not efficient and will often make wax instead of honey. Therefore, one of the most important jobs in the next few weeks will be to learn how many eggs the Queen has laid, and figure out just how large to make the new nest.

This amazing occurrence all happens after the Queen bee has made a trip to the drone yard, where all of the male bees are kept to mate. Mating is the only job that male honeybees are used for. Once the Queen leaves the drone field, she comes back and lays thousands of eggs!

Chef Curry’s final task in this phase is to ensure that the bees have a food and vitamin source until the flowers have fully bloomed. Chef Curry supplements the bee’s food source with sugar water and Honey Bee Healthy. The sugar water helps tide the bees over until pollen is plentiful, and the Honey Bee Healthy acts like vitamins to keep them happy and healthy.

When all is said and done in preparing the bees to do their work, we sit back and wait for the magic to happen.

Now, we sit back and hope to see the flowers and pollen grow so we can start producing honey and serving up delicious treats in our Artisan Table Restaurant.

We’ll keep you updated here on our blog, so stay tuned with more from the honeybees!

4 Hot Trends in Wedding Food By: Kyra Poulos; Catering Sales Manager

When you’re planning your wedding, so many items are factored into your budget – the dress, the place, the flowers, and so much more. The meal is often planned to please a large crowd and defaults to chicken to “play it safe.”

Give your guests a little more credit and check out some of the hottest trends in wedding food, including seasonality, retro favorites, and your own family history. All of these trends will translate into any setting if you have a little creativity on how to present them.

1. Seasonality

Wedding foods are drawing so much inspiration from the seasons – don’t be afraid to expand beyond the mashed potatoes and give your guests a meal to remember. Bring the tropics to a Midwest ballroom wedding with beach-inspired Signature Cocktails for summer. Enjoy comforting root vegetable-laden fall side dishes (Pumpkin and Sage Risotto for a cool November wedding? Yes, please.) Consider the bright flavors from a chilled asparagus soup to highlight warming weather for a spring wedding. A winter wonderland is completed with a hot chocolate bar with creative toppings like Bailey’s whipped cream and peppermint sticks.

2. Farm-to-Fork

The farm-to-fork movement is so prevalent; chefs have the welcomed task of guiding you toward the freshest local products to emphasize your wedding meal selections.

3. Retro Favorites

Retro favorites are showing their sweet side with eclectic candy buffets where guests can build their own wedding favor with their favorite candies. Instead of sticking with color-coordinated candies, bring back the ones everyone loves – lemon drops, rock candy, jelly beans, and mix in locally made treats from a nearby chocolatier or popcorn (visitors to the Midwest would love Garrett’s cheddar caramel corn – a Chicago classic).

Another retro touch that is gaining in popularity is to serve comforting pastries, like our Baked Sweet Potato Donuts, as the dessert after the wedding meal. Drizzled with local honey and dusted with a cinnamon powdered sugar, they are served on a spindle for guests to enjoy family-style at their tables.

4. Family History

Give a nod to family traditions and ethnic backgrounds with an after-dinner pastry station. Imagine a cascade of mini cannoli’s and tiramisu bites to honor the bride’s Italian heritage intertwined with traditional Greek custards and baklava inspired by the groom’s Greek background. Set them atop elegant lace linens decorated with piles of vintage luggage to set an old-world backdrop.

If the bride is an award-winning pie maker, have a variety of assorted mini pies as the last night snack during the wedding reception. Acknowledge the New Orleans backdrop where the groom proposed with mini cup of gumbo served as a passed hors d’oeurve during cocktail hour.  Give your guests a taste of the South with peach jam from Georgia where the couple met in college.

All of these little touches are just that – unexpected strokes that add up in a big way to keep your guests talking about your creative and tasty wedding edibles for years to come.