For those of you just starting to follow The Red Couch, we should probably re-introduce ourselves. My wife and I have been married for 13 years. We are your typical neighbor next door couple, family jobs etc. No one would suspect we are in the swinger lifestyle and have an open marriage. Around 5ish years ago we decided to try some new things that we had been fantasizing about that included others into our bedroom time. Of course, we had our first taste, loved it and didn’t look back. After a few ups and downs, we decided that we wanted to document our journey to help other couples navigate the sometimes shady world of adult entertainment. While I had prior experience in the lifestyle as a single male, this would be the first time we would jump into this journey together.

We didn’t know where to turn, where to go or what our expectations should be, so in some instances we had to learn the hard way. We wanted to share with other like minded couples our thoughts, experiences, reviews and tips about the swinger lifestyle so they could have the best experience possible.

– The Red Couch

This is how The Red Couch started for us, as an online blog. However, over the years our following started to grow and we wanted to host some meetups in the Chicagoland area. We felt couples in our area needed options besides the same familiar groups throwing parties. We had been to most all of them and sometimes left unimpressed. The first few bar meetups we hosted were a great success and well attended! We were often surprised at the 50-60 couples that would turn out, being much larger than expected. The downside for us was that these meetups did not provide the privacy we wanted to just “be ourselves” and they also didn’t provide any onsite play for couples that wanted to take things a step further. In Feb of 2020 we threw our first onsite play party called “Fire and Ice.” Most parties we’d been to consisted of a DJ and lots of booze. If people were paying money, we wanted to give them a full on experience and raise the bar for play parties in Chicago. The “Fire and Ice” event boasted a 4,000 sqft luxury loft on the Northside Chicago with 4 onsite playrooms, BYOB [no expensive bar tabs] and live entertainment to tantalize your senses. Needless to say, the event was a great success, so much so that the bed broke in one of our playrooms!

Shortly after, at the beginning of Covid, we squeezed in another event called “Vesper.” This time the venue was bigger, more luxurious w/ 5,000 sqft, lit only by candles. This was a sexy, seductive environment for all that attended. Red Couch events keep our guest list to only 30 select couples. Large enough to have enough energy, but small enough to actually get to know a few couples. Once again, our guests were raving about the exceptional atmosphere and the warm group of people they had been meeting at Red Couch events.

Eventually with Covid, things took a turn for the worst. In 2020, the city of Chicago went to complete lock downs which would not allow events with more than 10 people in a gathering. This caused issues for our 3rd event “Bound,” which was a fetish themed event the included a 4 piece dungeon equipment set, rope tying demo and suspension rig. Ultimately, the event had to be cancelled because the owners of the venue were forced to shut down any events with more than 10 people or risk fines and problems from the city. This put us in a last minute predicament for attendees that were traveling, so we rescheduled the event and hosted a small hotel suite party to accommodate our traveling guests. We attempted a 2nd time to reschedule the “Bound” event, but unfortunately I got Covid the week of and had to again cancel the event for good. We refunded everyone their money, which we learned the hard way that throwing these events are risky as fuck. Between problems with venues, registrations and fees, often we were coming up out of pocket for expenses.

In 2021, much of the Covid smoke had settled. We had since relocated from Chicago to Phoenix, but still desired to provide our Chicago friends with mind blowing event experiences from afar so we decided to give it another shot and secured our next venue for our “Red” party. This venue was a 3 story, luxury loft with 4 playrooms, pool table, hot tub and was supposed to have live entertainment. Once again, giving our guests a full blown experience beyond just a DJ and booze. We spent the next 2 months promoting the event and unfortunately the day of, we received a text from the property owner that they had to pull our booking last minute. The guests that were staying there wanted to stay an extra 4 days and had made an offer the owner couldn’t refuse, putting us out on the street. We tried to scramble to find last minute accommodations that would work, but our time ran out. We pulled the cord to once again, sadly, cancel the event and refund everyone. We regretted having to do this as our guests were so looking forward to this gathering, however it was beyond our control, at the mercy of venue owners and managers.

The Red Couch continues to provide sexy content for our readers and followers about the lifestyle, relationships and sex for 2022. It will be still up in the air if, when and where we decide to throw another event, but rest assure our lessons have been learned from these experiences.

We’re curious. What do you want out of lifestyle events? Are you a party person that loves the DJ and bar scene, or do you prefer the smaller limited guest lists of select couples? Would you pay a bit more for a full blown experience? Tell us your thoughts, we’d love to hear where you see the lifestyle party scene going in 2022.