Here’s the first of a few wedding vendor shout-out / review posts. We loved working with all our vendors (it helped that a lot were friends!). Our reception venue, The Loft at Studio J, went above and beyond our expectations.
Why we chose The Loft at Studio J
Photogenic Architectural Details
While on the hunt for a wedding venue, we searched for something that was wholly photogenic. That is, a place with many backgrounds and good lighting. We hated the idea of having our event in a room that could also be used for a business conference. Although we looked at a few places that hit this style mark for us, no other venue was able to fulfill the rest of our needs.
The Loft was originally built in 1895 and was used as many storefronts since then. In 2014 they underwent a huge renovation and kept a lot of the architectural details and a lot of the salvaged items (newspaper clippings, old wood, etc.) from the original storefront.
This backdrop is made from an old piano found during renovation. Originally, they had created a speakeasy-type groom’s room here, but opened it up for larger events in 2015. We were a little bummed they didn’t have the speakeasy when our event happeend, but it worked out because our caterer set up the buffet here and we were able to save space in the main room.
The backdrop behind us in this photo is made from a bunch of salvaged wood and other pieces found during renovation.
The only thing that I did not like — and subsequently covered — was a vintage Coca-Cola sign. It didn’t go with our event, so we created a giant mural to cover it. The Loft made it easy to cover.
Price, Event Customization, and All-Inclusive Setup
Before I move on, let’s talk about price. When we booked, the price was about half of what it currently is — but their price for this venue is still extremely reasonable (especially for what you get!). Venues we looked at with similar feels, such as Aria, started at $9000 for the venue rental and beverage minimum for a Saturday. Yikes!
We paid around $3000 to The Loft for our event. We booked in 2014, right after they opened, and were grandfathered into those original prices. Their current rate for what we got is $5200. Still a reasonable price for what’s included.
Included in that price is:
- Venue for 12 hours on a Friday.
- Bartenders for an open bar. We did the BYOB option, otherwise it’s a cash bar.
- Option to bring your own photographer. They want you to use their photography service (it’s owned by a photographer) but I wanted to have Joe shoot our wedding.
- Photo booth and printed photos.
- Personal event planning assistant. Seriously … they sit down with you and help you plan everything — and help fix things when they go wrong.
- Exceptionally designed bride room.
- Catering setup area.
- AV equipment. We did our own music via Spotify playlists.
- Event security.
- Chairs and tables setup for the day in a configuration of choice.
- Sweetheart table + chair.
- Farmhouse tables. Most people use these for the head table, but we chose a sweetheart table instead and used these for gifts and the buffets.
- NO MINIMUMS. Most event venues required you to purchase so much of their catering or beverage services. The Loft has a list of preferred caterers they work with, and we happened to want to work with one of them.
Our caterer brought in the table linens* and tableware. But all the chairs and tables were setup by The Loft when we got there on Friday.
*actually, technically my MIL did that so she could set them up before the caterers got there — thanks Mary!
Gorgeous Bride Room
Topping the list of things we didn’t know we needed: this amazingly designed bride room. Clearly a photographer designed this with all the great little nooks, backgrounds, and natural lighting.
The only thing I’d wished that they had in the bride room is cute storage bins of some sort. When our photographers showed up we had stuff everywhere, and there wasn’t a great place to stash it all. We did our best to hide things behind chairs and under tables, but there’s a lot of stuff in these getting-ready photos that I wish wasn’t there. I’m probably more picky since I’m a designer who’s art directed a lot of photo shoots (i.e. I’ve been trained to look for this stuff). But — Joe and Libby were great about trying to get most of the stuff out of the frame.
Otherwise? This bride room was a dream!
They even have a padlock on the door with a secret code so only certain people can be in the room. This was helpful because I had a lot of people asking questions and I could just hide out in the bride room and get ready and let other people handle the questions.
The bride room was also a nice hideout for Mark and I between the ceremony and reception. We just needed a few minutes of quiet to ourselves.
And I was able to use the space to do a makeup and hair change, which couldn’t have happened if there wasn’t somewhere private to do so. They have a back entrance to the bride room so you can sneak in without alerting your guests of your presence.
Access to AV Equipment
Mark and I always joked that we would spin our own vinyl collection at our wedding. Although we didn’t do that, we came as close as we could by creating our own playlists. My MOH ran our playlists from the AV room. The only snafu we had was when my computer’s power source broke (because it was Friday the 13th, duh) and we had to duct tape it together so my laptop could have power to keep playing the music.
Photobooth + Prints
The photobooth was not a thing we would have paid extra for, but we were really happy that it was included. It was a huge hit! They had a printer next to it that made two copies of your strip — one to keep and one to give to us. The Loft also gave us all the original photos, and photos in strip form.
Helpful Staff
Finally, above all else, the best part about renting from The Loft at Studio J was their helpful staff. I was a little worried because the staff had a bit of turnover between when we booked (2014) and our event (2016). Our timeline was long, and I anticipated some changeover in staff. Although the staff changed, the helpfulness didn’t. Each event planner was an expert at helping us plan our event — asking appropriate questions at the right time in the planning phase. And the day of they were helpful with last-minute things that went awry. Weddings are big events and a lot of coordination happens between caterers, flowers, bartenders, and people — they were able to help us with all these details.
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Overall?
I would do our reception at The Loft 100x over. It was perfect for our event. Now I’m just trying to think of another time to plan a party so we can work with them again …
