Lofty Spaces is a great venue space. It is essentially a blank canvas with a really unique look that you can dress up to your style. It allows for a lot of DIY if that is what you would like. However, it is also very easy to make it an upscale event. I think our wedding was a good combination of both. We thought the space looked absolutely beautiful on our wedding day. Sure the neighborhood is a little sketch, but for this kind of space, it is worth it. All of your guests can be in one room, which was very important to us. We did not want people to feel divided or like they were not included. The crew at LS also is able to do a lot of the work for you for a reasonable price. And cost of adding extra hours is superb compared to other venues in Fair Park, Uptown, etc. Bruce's team is friendly, although they don't have a very formal system. Professional no, but they get the majority of the job done. There were a few things we paid for as "extras" for the reception that didn't happen and we weren't refunded for, but in the end, the event was still lovely.

Now... the food. Please, please, please, if you focus on any of my review, focus your attention here. DO NOT, under any circumstances, use the in-house chef.

Absolutely, no matter how appealing the price is and how great they make it sound, do not use the food service provided by Chef John and his family. I can't emphasize this enough. Yes, they are very friendly and nice. Yes, they will promise you the world. Yes, it is very easy to believe them. This is where I went wrong. I believed Chef John when he said they would have extra food and more than enough to feed 200 people. I believed him when he said the service would be outstanding because it was done by his family. I believed he actually knew how to cook risotto.

I was very, very wrong. Our sit-down dinner was served under-cooked, the risotto was absolutely not cooked (it crunched...come on!), and the amount of time it took to actually get food on the tables was appalling. There was no water or tea on the tables for people to drink (and this was promised). Also, his family is the wait-staff and the bartenders. We payed extra for "bartenders." I (me, the bride) had to actually search out several of his staff a few times to man the bars. Then, about two hours into the reception (6 hour reception), we were told we were nearly out of liquor and beer and that we better send someone to re-stock. While we thought that seemed odd, we believed his crew. We sent out one of our good friends to buy two more kegs, about 20 more bottles of wine, and various other liquor. None of this was used. We had to empty out two full kegs the next day. I hate to say they lied, but they did. We had more than enough alcohol and should have questioned them more when they told us this. And one of our groomsmen saw some of the crew drinking our beer in the back. I actually wish they would have drank more of it now so that we wouldn't have had to waste so much of it.

Please do yourself a favor if you are using Lofty Spaces or Off the Grid for your event and use an outside caterer. We had the money in our budget to do this, but we opted to use the in-house caterer because of everything he promised and how easy they made it sound. It is not true. Save yourself the frustration and stress. It is not worth it on your wedding day. It is the one thing about our wedding day I would go back and change.

But, the physical event space is great. I would gladly have another event there. I just learned my lesson the hard way about their in-house "chef."