Name: YAM Speed Dating
Start: 2026-04-25T18:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-04-25T21:45:00-05:00
Location: 1429 W Wellington Ave, Chicago, IL

The biggest social event for Young Adult Catholics in Chicago is back! We are happy to announce that signups are officially open for St. Alphonsus YAM Speed Dating! This is our biggest event of the year and we're excited to host everyone for another edition of this amazing, fun-filled night. This year's edition will be held on Saturday, April 25th. Cost per individual ticket will be $50. You must pre-register for the event! Sign-ups at the door will NOT be allowed. This is a necessity to ensure we can properly plan everyone's conversations. The final day to register will be Wednesday, April 22nd at NOON, no exceptions. Cost of entry includes light refreshments, two drink tickets for the beginning of the event, a drink ticket for afterwards, and access to the official afterparty. Wait...an official afterparty? That's right! We're thrilled to announce that this year, we are partnering with Pony Inn to host the first-ever, official Speed Dating afterparty.
To complete your registration, follow these two steps:
1. Pay through the GiveCentral Link
2. Create an Account in our database.
Link for Female Signup: https://www.givecentral.org/customizable-online-giving/39/event/46092
Link for Male Signups: https://www.givecentral.org/customizable-online-giving/39/event/46091
Account Setup: https://www.stalphonsuschicago.org/yam-speed-dating-form
Please note there are separate signups for men and women as this event is capped at 80 people for each gender. Upon creating your account, you will be asked to fill in your age, the minimum age, and the maximum age for people you would like to meet. After the event ends, you will be able to select the individuals you wish to connect with via the Account Setup link above.
As in years past, this event is only for the young adult community, defined as those aged 21 to 39. To that end, we are introducing an ID check at the door this year to ensure all participants meet the advertised age range. If you do not complete BOTH steps of the registration process or are found to be outside the advertised age range you will NOT receive a refund.
Schedule of the evening:
6pm-7pm - Checkin
7pm-9pm - Speed dating
9pm-9:45pm - Post speed dating mingle
9:45pm and onward - Official Afterparty at Pony Inn
Please note, we will NOT be serving a full dinner so we strongly recommend eating beforehand as this is a longer event. Upon arrival, you will receive a list of the people you will talk with. Each "date" will last 3 minutes and then guys will move to their next table. We will have an intermission halfway through the event for people to grab food and drinks as well. The structured dating portion of the night will end around 9 pm, and Festival Hall will remain open until 9:45pm. After that, the party will continue at Pony Inn where we will have the event space reserved for everyone to continue getting to know each other.
In terms of dress code, it is typically "smart casual," but we recommend everyone dresses up in a way that they are comfortable and typically would on a first date. Put your best foot forward! Festival Hall gets warm when it's crowded, so please dress accordingly for that as well.
One final piece of advice: When planning for this event, our goal is to provide the best possible matches for all attendees. To help us do so, we recommend that each person sets a dating age range of at least 4 years above and below their own. While we realize this may be a greater age range than a person might like, this does help provide people with dates closer to their own age rather than those farther away. The way our program creates dates, it fits as many dates as possible within someone's age range and then automatically fills any open spots with others who are free at that time, regardless of age. For instance, if someone has an age range of 22- 26, the program would match them with as many people as possible in that range, then fill it with people who are either 21 or 26+. In other words, if two 25-year-olds participate—one with an age range set from 23-27 while the other has a range set from 22–28—the person with the larger age range is less likely to be set up with someone much older or younger because the program has a larger pool of candidates to select from to fill the schedule. Ultimately, this is an imperfect system dependent to some extent on who signs up to participate each year. While we always try our best, we cannot guarantee that you will not talk to someone outside your designated range. The minimum age that can be entered for the age range is 21 and the maximum age is 39.