I have been in the wedding industry since 2006. Most of my experience came from managing Latrobe’s on Royal, a premier wedding venue in the New Orleans French Quarter. I am now currently a Special Event Sales Manager at the House of Blues and my main market is booking, coordinating, and running weddings and other social events here at HOB. I have done some offsite and independent wedding work as well. My husband and I got engaged while I was working at Latrobe’s in 2009; check out our website to hear how we met! http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/pwp2/view/MemberPage.aspx?coupleId=7937874901894738
He has a daughter full time, I have weddings for other brides every weekend, and we were always working so hard to save our money, get our finances and priorities in order that we kept extending our engagement until we felt we were in everyway ready to host a wedding. We moved in together and started sharing a bank account within the first 6-months of meeting when we got engaged – it just worked for us! So we felt very connected as a family already, the wedding was more of hosting a big get together so that our friends and family could support us making it official and to include his little girl, our daughter.
We decided on the May 7th 2011 date in January 2011 so the actual planning part came upon us (me and my mom!) very fast, but I will say, I rather liked the quick approach of the wedding because once everything is done it is a brutal waiting game and the longer you have to wait the more things can fall through the cracks and possibly go wrong. The one downside of a short-term wedding is the financial strain. When spread out over a year, it gives everyone paying for something from the guests, to my parents, to us more time to make payments and spread things out. Planning a shower, bachelor/bachelorette parties, buying suits, dresses, getting hair done all those little things really add up!
VENUE: The Lake House, 2025 Lake Shore Drive Mandeville LA, 504.236.5341
A Once we picked a date, we started brainstorming venues. We knew we wanted to do both the ceremony and reception in the same place and having a church wedding was not that important to us. We would have loved to get married where met and fell in love - at Latrobe’s – the building has special meaning to us and is one of the most beautiful venues in the Quarter. And even though my husband who still manages the owner’s French Quarter properties may have given us a substantial deal, it was still out of our price range for just the venue portion of the wedding.
I also considered location. Being that my husband and I work in the French Quarter everyday and every weekend, we ruled that out pretty quickly as we did not want to do or see the same old thing – no second-lining from the Cathedral for us!
We both grew up and have a lot of family on the Northshore (Mandeville, Covington, and Abita Springs). The north side of lake has very little in terms of selection for wedding venues. Everyone gets married at Benedict’s, Quail Farm, or Vintage Court (and now the Fleur di Lis Event Center, but the name itself turned me off! Eww! And I had interviewed with the owner when they first opened so knew all about the venue and it just wasn’t for me.)
I wanted a Latrobe’s-like feel, an old authentic “New Orleansy” building on the beautiful Sunset painted Lake Front with and inside and outside space. I found the ultimate setting at the Lake House which is the old Bechac’s. I had done catering for Caymen Sinclair, the owner and previous owner of LA Grill and honestly, I was a little hesitant to book with them because of their past reputation for being a little flighty. When my parents and I first went for a site visit, we met with Caymen and Jamie Duhe, his Event Coordinator, and they immediately eased all my initial worries! Can I just say that they really went above and beyond to get us exactly what we wanted and work within budget restrictions. The building is the best spot in all of Mandeville. It by far has the most ideal views from inside or outside of the gorgeous Lake Front. The building showcases old exposed brick walls, beautiful wooden-framed French doors and windows, immaculate landscaping, and a towering Gone-with-the Wind-style balcony. Caymen really emphasizes the mixing of old and new. The furniture and décor have a modern vibe and really combines well with the old building. Caymen has creative local art splattered on all the walls. Everywhere you look, you see something beautiful or interesting.
As the months narrowed down, I had heard great reviews about the food, but one thing I was not offered was a tasting so I was not sure. I think this may be something they could provide even if it is just a standard tasting menu that they also offer in the restaurant would be nice just to give an idea of the quality and presentation. I make sure to offer this to all of my brides even if I can’t allow them to taste specific items – it gives us a chance to really sit down go over the menu and for me to help guide them with their menu selections and to also go over other event details and get to know one another. I also noticed that their pricing, menu and bar options, and contract details are not as clear as I am used to working with, but I think this is just something they will fine tune as they do more and more weddings which I am sure they will. I heard really positive reviews from my guests about the food. Jamie packed us up a to-go box so what we did eat was really awesome – the shrimp and grits YUM! I even had late night items passed - mini burgers and truffle fries which I did have and were exactly what I needed at 11PM to keep my stamina up! We also had an outside fajita grill area which was really fun because the weather was so perfect! I did hear that the grill items were a little limited, so maybe more peppers, salsas, etc would liven it up a bit. There are so many places to sit and hang out both inside and outside, upstairs and downstairs, on the porch, on the balcony, in the yard next door at Ziggy's on festively painted picnic tables! Perfect for a great day or night of beautiful weather. Most of the food is served upstairs which is a little awkward anytime you have combined space like that, but I think overall it worked nice. People went up to eat and came down to party. They did have an additional bar upstairs which helped bring everything together and stay fluid. The bars are beautiful REAL bars - no table on riser with linen here! Even their chaffing dishes were awesome and interesting, hammered copper! Maybe that is a detail only a person in the special events industry would actually appreciate - but I really did love them!
Jamie was really great especially day of! She took care of lots of little details and worked with us to set up the venue exactly how we envisioned it. The day before she met with us so we could walk-thru one more time and let us drop off lots of boxes full of candles and décor items. I thought I would need to send people over to help her, but she pretty much had everything taken care of before they even got there. My helpers got to write on their chalkboards "Welcome JD and Chloe May 7th 2011!" It was a special little detail that I loved!
We had our ceremony outside the building and requested to do it in a spot that they normally did not use for ceremonies. She was very open-minded to the idea and made it happen flawlessly. I ordered chairs from Cole’s Party Rental in Covington. They were helpful but a little vague - but because Jamie was familiar with them she organized and ran the whole set-up perfectly and I did not have to worry about one thing. She even had chair covers from another event and put them on my chairs herself to make it look a little nicer and it did!!! That extra effort means so much to me, because that is definitely what I try to do for my brides. She even got me the hook up with Boogie Booth Photobooth, which was such a fabulous last minute addition that turned out to be the hit of the party! I cannot thank her enough for that especially after the DJ disaster… you will hear more on this!
The ceremony was gorgeous and definitely my favorite part of the whole wedding. We got married under their white arbor with the lake and big oak trees in the background. I could not have asked for a more beautiful setting.
Overall, I was so happy with the Lake House and could not have made a more perfect choice in venue!!!
I want to post this portion of my review now while it is still fresh, but I have lots more to come:
Bridal Manor – dress
Brook’s Brother - suit
Kristen and Heather Photography
Sweet Ideas by Wendy – cake
Nonna Randazzo's - groom's cake
Get Polished – hair and make up
Fat Cat - flowers
Annadelle’s Plantation – wedding night
Hard Rock Biloxi – mini honeymoonU
ptown Aron – DJ
Judge Lacoste
Covington Courthouse – marriage license
Jeanie Perkins – pianist
The Boiling Pot – rehearsal dinner
Boogie Booth - photo booth
Henkel - invitations
I will also be posting pictures and will go into the cute details that my mom and I came up with. Some DIY projects that were time consuming but so much fun and really brought us together!
For video of pictures:
www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fkristinandheatherllc.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F05%2Fmr-and-mrs-henderson.html&h=a6476" target="_blank">http://kristinandheatherllc.blogspot.com/2011/05/mr-and-mrs-henderson.html