The Larimore Wedding Venue — Attraction in Spanish Lake

Let me start off by saying the property is beautiful both inside and out. The main issues are the lack of communication and over promising. My partner and I booked about a year and a half in advance. Every meeting/email we sent up until the last 2 or so months was with a different person. We constantly had to repeat and re-explain our vision. We were told all decor was free to use, then told it was an extra $500. We were told they would run the music for the ceremony then a month before I decided to randomly follow up and they told us they no longer do that my Dj would have to do that so we had to pay our dj extra last minute for that. We expressed concern over never meeting the same people twice at one of our last meetings and was reassured that day of we would only be working with these 2 people and they would act as the day of coordinator. I understanding they were going through management change but we signed I think the month of the change and met with at least 8 different people. Day of gets here and the one person who is suppose to assist sits in the office all day, aside from when they were giving tours of the venue while we were actively getting ready for the wedding in our pjs. One of my friends commented that they felt like we were animals at the zoo lol. Being in the office out of our way is fine, but would have been nice if they would have rounded because we were always having to search for someone. The ceremony goes great. It is time for the reception to start and this is where problems arise. The venue consultant who promised they would be there informs us she is leaving and some random man is going to be left with us instead. We were confused and a little annoyed but this was okay. We were told they would release people table by table for dinner due to only 1 door for the buffet. We even have our DJ announce that the tables would be released 1 by 1. The man who was left in charge is no where to be found and no one is releasing tables. We have someone run inside to have him come do this as we were told would happen. He tells us almost verbatim this is not his job we need to have the caterer do this. This was extremely frustrating. We ask the caterer and he also informs us this isn't his job. We had to ask several times he finally agreed to do it. Is this the end of the world no, but was very frustrating and made dinner have a very awkward start having to run and find someone. This man is no where all night till about 9:30pm when he comes and sits crossed armed waiting for us to leave so he can clean up. At the end of the reception we finish cleaning send him with food and cake despite him being MIA all night. We stay at the venue that night the next day we pack up and leave. We get to a gas station down the road and realize the money ($300) my husband put in his wallet that was wedding gift is missing. His wallet was in the house (that was suppose to be locked) all reception and night. Multiple people saw him put it in his wallet. We turn around and tell the venue they apologize and say they will look for it and inform us there are no cameras to see who went upstairs. We are frustrated but are trying to not point fingers. The next day few of the guest say they were able to in the house during the reception. We inform the venue they tell us it was locked and they haven't found the money. There has been no follow up besides the email I sent about this which is also disheartening. When it came to getting the deposit back we had to wait a month and half because they sent it to the wrong address, despite us providing the correct one. Overall, communication his hit and miss at best. In person at the meetings they are great and promise they will help and be involved. In reality they will help if you send them multiple emails reminding them and can get them out of the office. Going forward more presence and communication is needed. The in-house caterer food is really...

I had my wedding this Fall at the Larimore. If I wasn’t trying to plan for an accessible wedding for my out-of-town guests, I would have chosen another venue. It was nice that it was close to the airport, as we were out of town and trying to plan the wedding from another state. One other nice feature was the pure convenience of having our wedding and reception all at the same place. The plantation house is beautiful from outside—which made for nice pictures. However, it is in need of a serious face-lift inside. There were outdated furnishings, dolls and old fake floral arrangements inside which made for awkward backgrounds. The temperature was also pretty warm (80 degrees) in both the house and the reception hall. Dena acted put out when my now Mother In Law asked if we could turn it down for our guests’ comfort. As far as a wedding coordinator, Dena was very stand-off and not very personable in her overall demeanor. I primarily reached out as questions arose and found Dena to work with me on things, but only if I would pay extra. On the day of my wedding, she really didn’t approach us (except to say when we were cutting the cake) and never congratulated me during the entire event. My wedding party kept asking if she was ok or mad. I guess I’d just expect someone a bit more approachable and bubbly to work in the wedding industry. Even though there were no events before my Saturday evening wedding, she was unwilling to move the time for the rehearsal from noon on Friday to something later in the day. This posed a bit of a problem for some of the wedding party. Also, we asked to arrive an hour early and paid $200 extra for that time. As for the decoration packet, words of warning- don’t do this. At first, I thought it would make the planning easier, and once I looked at what was involved I asked to take this off our contract—primarily for the tulle backed chairs that really didn’t go with my theme at all. She charged me $150 extra dollars to take these off the chairs, even though they were included in the decorations I specifically didn’t want. These are already on the chairs, but they make you think you’re getting all of these “extra” decorations for the $600. They also recommend using their preferred vendors. I would warn against this as well. Dena gave me a floral arrangement price list, but Jenny at Stems wanted the extra amount in another check written out to her. So, instead of getting any savings, it ends up being more of a hassle by writing two checks to Dena and the florist with no real “deal”. We also were told at the beginning of our wedding venue search that, if we had less than the 155 guests for the minimum per plate pricing, they’d offer an extra entrée option. This was another empty promise- we didn’t receive any extra selections and ended up paying more than $600 extra due to the smaller guest count yet still paying for the minimum 155 headcount. For all of the extra nickel’ing and diming the Larimore did, we really should have looked elsewhere for someone who would be willing to work with me and make my day as stress-free as possible without all...

We just finished hosting my daughter’s wedding at the Larimore this past weekend and Dena was simply wonderful, she does work to bring a level of professional services to your event. I found her very accommodating. All of the wedding elements went incredible well and the outdoor settings were wonderful. I would recommend the carriage as it does provide a spectacular element to the wedding! When I did a site inspection of the Larimore, I had a discussion with Allen who boasted about the quality of service at his facility as I asked questions about service in the room which had a mixture of 70 inch rounds and 8 ft., 60 inch tables. He assured me that their service was on the same level as sit-down dinner service at the Ritz Carlton. Having prior experience as a banquet manager at the Frontenac Hilton, Doubletree, La Chateau and the Omni hotels in St. Louis, I took his word while excusing my doubts.

The Dinner elements, while the salad was average, the main course was really good with an 8 oz. Parmesan crusted breast of chicken served with Russell potatoes and assorted vegetables. Sesame crusted sliced bread was placed on the table cold with a glob of margarine available for spreading. The room itself was served in waves, head table sections first, and followed by the main floor, saving the tiered section for last. As we were cutting the cake, which we elected to do to produce savings, we told to keep to an aisle open by Allen who seemed to serve as the enforcer rather than a service professional. I had two vegans in attendance and had to have a hard discussion with Allen about getting their two (2) plates as he stated that getting those two (2) vegan plates would slow down the dinner service. Normally I would not have made an issue about it if they had not been waiting for over 30 minutes to eat while others had already finished eating. Perhaps times have changed but I do remember the days when the customer was always right! Allen seemed rather defensive about everything!

The average service standards are 1 per 20, The Larimore standards are 1 per 40. Due to the plating and service, dinner took over an hour. In an average service situation you have 2 servers working 4 table with 1 server serving while the other server is transporting items such as water, tea, bread, salad and dinners back and forth. The other server is also clearing items from the tables and maintaining service. This did not happen at the Larimore where the servers carried trays with two hands and six (6) people worked a room set for 240 people.

As a meeting planner I would recommend this facility for smaller groups or make sure that the facility guarantees 1 server per 2 tables of ten people, this would ensure that the quality of service is provided. Overall every one of our guests enjoyed the event along with all of the elements of the facility.

Euclid C....