The Lake House Reviews

We had the pleasure of having our wedding last August at The Lake House, and it was an incredible experience for both us as the bride & groom and for our guests. The space fit our 105 guests comfortably, and the food was PHENOMENAL.

Tess and Paul made the day go seamlessly for us, and were in consistent contact with us from months before the wedding and throughout the day of.

The venue is also beautiful whether you are having an outdoor ceremony or need to move it indoors (or onto the patio). The attention to detail is unmatched for everything from the decor to the food presentation and flavors, and even the bridal suite.

We HIGHLY recommend The Lake House and hope we can attend a wedding there as guests soon!

Since our wedding, we occasionally discuss what, if anything, we would do differently if we were to do it again. One thing that never gets questioned, is if we would use the Lake House again. The whole team there was fantastic from start to finish. They allowed us to customize down to the smallest detail on whatever we wanted, while also offering spectacular pre-built packages that we could take and adapt into our reception. This flexibility, and the stress relief it offered, cannot be understated. Not only was the planning easy and fun with them, but their execution of our wedding day was exceptional. From the moment we arrived, we were taken care of like royalty. The food was exquisite, the views were breathtaking, we really could not have asked for more. We wholeheartedly recommend the Lake House, and hope your event with them is as magical as ours was.

If you are considering having your wedding (or other event) at The Lake House, my sincere recommendation is do it!! I had my wedding here a few weeks ago and Paul and his team were phenomenal! The attention they gave to us was simply like no other. Paul himself was present for every meeting and super easy to get ahold of by email or phone. He gave us TONS of options of how we wanted to lay out the ceremony and reception. When we originally wanted everything outdoors with a tent, that was no problem. When we changed our minds and wanted to move the reception inside a week before, that was no problem. When we then saw snow in the forecast and needed to move the ceremony inside the day before, that again was no problem. Paul and his team worked with all my vendors to be sure our day was perfect. Paul is so genuine and cared deeply about us as people and about how he could make our covid wedding, the wedding we dreamed of. The venue is beautiful (especially on a fall day with foliage and snow) and offers so may options for photos. We had the whole venue to ourselves the day of the wedding, so the attention of the staff was solely on us. The food was incredible and presented in such a beautiful way! All our guests had such a great time, felt perfectly comfortable even in covid times and still cannot stop saying how great the wedding was and how much fun they had. I could go on and on about how much we loved our wedding at The Lake House and how incredible the staff was. Thank you to Paul and your team for everything you did for us and being so patient and accommodating!! Every part of our wedding day was perfect!!

Photo Credit: Nick Cinea Photography

The Lake House was the best choice we made when planning our wedding! I cannot say enough good things about Paul, Carole, and the rest of their staff. The venue is beautiful and the food was delicious! They never once tried to control or dictate how my wedding should be. They took my vision and brought it to life and it was even better than I ever imagined. They went above and beyond all expectations to make everything perfect. From installing an outdoor hand washing station to making sure chairs and tables were in compliance with social distancing guidelines - you’d never have even known there was a global pandemic happening with how our wedding went off without even a single hiccup. I even forgot to bring our cake serving set but they had a backup for us to use. Their attention to detail is impeccable - they even put our crab Rangoon and rice appetizer in mini Chinese food take our containers! Everything was beyond perfect and I wish I could go back and do it all over again!

My recent wedding at The Lake House went off without a hitch! Kelly, Paul, Rusty, and the rest of the staff members could not have been more accommodating and helped the day run smoothly, even going above and beyond by baking a special cake for my grandmothers 101 birthday, which we celebrated together at the wedding! The beautiful, rustic building with lake view and the menu was superb with many of our guests saying it was the best food they have ever had at a wedding. Kelly and Paul worked closely with us throughout the entire planning process and they certainly delivered! A beautiful venue with an amazing lake view and gourmet food- there is no doubt in my mind that The Lake House is destined to become one of the premier wedding venues in CT. Our wedding day was absolutely perfect. Thank you so much Kelly and Paul for all of your help in making our wedding day stress-free and memorable!

Kelli was the first vendor I spoke with at the CT Bridal Expo in January 2018. Immediately, I was impressed with the layout of the venue (the blueprints were displayed), array of options, and beautiful scenic photos of the property. I went through the entire expo and decided to go back to speak with her again. Although my now husband wasn't there I knew he would love it just as much as I did. When I got home I couldn't stop talking about how much I wanted to go visit. Within the week we had an appointment to visit The Lake House. Needless to say we chose to host our wedding, on May 26, at TLH. Everything was supurb! From the wine in the bridal suites when we arrived, to the stunning outdoor ceremony, and of course the outstanding food (which was all the rave amongst guests). The owners of TLH made the entire process simple and enjoyable. Our wedding day was flawless. We couldn't have asked for anything more. We truly hope to attend future events there and highly recommend TLH. Lastly, ignore all of the negative comments and reviews. TLH is prepared and ready to help you make once in a lifetime memories.

My son's wedding was here a few weeks ago. The facility is gorgeous! The decor was just perfect and everything was impeccably clean. Paul and Kelly were extremely helpful, especially in navigating my special dietary needs. The waitstaff was very attentive. I would have no hesitation in recommending this venue!

The service was excellent and the food was delicious!!!

We got married at The Lake House on Saturday, June 10, 2023 and were VERY happy with our choice of venue! Our guests did not stop talking about how pretty the lake and foliage surrounding it were, plus the fountain in the lake (which was newly added just before our wedding). We held our ceremony outdoors in front of the willow tree and our cocktail hour split between the parlor room and the lakefront, and all our outdoor photos were stunning. One of the main reasons we picked The Lake House was because we didn’t have to decide until day-of where on the property we wanted our ceremony to be, so we were able to make a last minute call based on the weather. We lucked out on getting to go with the outdoor option, but unfortunately the way our ceremony was set up, all the photos of us walking down the aisle have cars in the parking lot in the background (there were no cars in the parking lot when we did our tour, so we didn’t even think about this in advance). This is just a note for your photographer, or possibly a reason to angle the chairs differently than we did. A solvable issue!

The Lake House’s team was very easy to work with leading up to our event and really helped us get excited about the day. They were prompt in responding to our questions, flexible with requests (such as signature drinks, adjusting the start time of our ceremony after booking, and allowing us to bring in almost any decor we wanted), and clearly experienced in wedding planning/execution. Two additional things that made The Lake House stand out to us were the fact that they had 2 bridal suites, which is hard to find but important for us as an LGTBQ+ couple with 2 brides, and a really high-quality speaker system that our DJ was able to plug into (for a fee).

One challenge we had was that despite providing an extremely detailed map of where we wanted our decor set up and going over it during an in-person meeting with the coordinators just 2 days before our wedding when we dropped it all off, the decor was not set up as we asked it to be when we arrived day-of. We were only allowed to arrive 1.5 hours in advance of our ceremony, so this was stressful, since we and our immediate family members had to run around adjusting things before guests arrived. At the end of the night, the staff did not provide much help packing things up either. We would recommend hiring a day-of coordinator rather than just relying on their staff, specifically for setup and breakdown.

The only other complaint we had was that dinner service was incredibly slow. Everyone at a given table was served at the same time, but half of the room was finished with their meals before the other half was served. This caused our post-dinner activities to be extremely delayed, and we ended up paying our photographer, videographer, and DJ extra cash on the spot to stay longer than they had signed up for. The food was good, though, and dessert was even better! We added the adult ice cream sundae bar as a second dessert option, and it was a big hit.

One last thing of note is that the venue is entirely handicap accessible and has plenty of parking, two things that were important to us and not true of all the other venues we considered. Overall, we would highly recommend The Lake House as a wedding venue with some proactive planning around the concerns we listed above. We had an incredible day!

Great service, friendly staff and good food.

Do not waste your money at this venue. Like so many others we had a HORRIBLE experience booking with The Lake House. We fell in love with the sketches and Kelli's words and quickly signed a contract for July 2018. We were told they would be done in March 2017 and the first wedding would be in May. When my fiance and I arrived in May it was not even close to being done and they made no mention of the weddings being cancelled or postponed. We NEVER received any updates or were told there were delays in building. We based everything off of the one picture we were shown and when we arrived I pointed out to Kelli that already there were elements from the pictures missing on the actual building. She pretended she didn't notice and gave us a shrugged response of "oh I guess they changed their minds." This was not acceptable especially since we were again, not notified! When a month later no more progress had been made we realized we had to move on. The majority of our guests were coming from overseas and had started to book flights for our date and we couldn't risk them coming over for a wedding where the venue was not completed. When we asked for our money back (since we consider it breaking contract when you lie about timelines, aesthetics, and don't update your customers) they were incredibly rude. Kelli responded with more lies about how my parents had been over an hour late to their initial appointment (even though they have TIME STAMPED pictures on their phones from that appointment that clearly show they were on time), about how she had to go out of her way to accommodate my handicapped mother, and how if we continued to pursue getting our deposit back in other ways they would use legal force against us. It was by far the most HORRIFIC experience, especially when your wedding is supposed to be the happiest time of your life and they made the start stressful and miserable. Even though it is finally completed, I would not book with them. Wish I could give 0 stars.

Another year, another set of canceled weddings. I would like to think they genuinely cared, that things were beyond their control this time around. But it is so hard to believe. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The Lake House has some potential, but buyer beware. One day the venue may be good. The grand ballroom, the ceremony in front of the willow tree, the covered patio. It is all there, but all nowhere. For once again, none of it yet exists. We heard from multiple vendors that many unfortunate couples were strung along, each getting their own special excuse of how unforeseen events caused an unescapable issue. Did the Lake House not get tired of these lies?

To book weddings two years in a row and come up empty to me shows a true failure to manage a business and an even worse failure to care about your clients. I can somewhat get over the many delays and headaches we went through trying to understand what was going on with the venue. But I can’t get over the “stories” we were told and the fabricated timeline. Too many items simply proved to be not true, forcing us to cancel our plans there less than 2 months in advance of our wedding day. God knows how long we would have been strung along until they actually canceled, for the venue was not ready when our big day came.

I wish the Lake House the best of luck and for those choosing the venue, a great celebration. But keep in mind what we were sold to what was actually delivered. And keep in mind that we were far from the only ones they did this to. There need be no better proof than this.

What a nightmare!
We booked based on the renovation blueprints in February of 2015 for our June 2016 wedding. The renovation was to be completed by the end of July 2015. In August, after not hearing anything from them, I called Kelli and asked her when the open house was going to be held as I couldn't wait to see the new facility and meet the chef. I was told that there was a delay because they had to get a new construction company, but that the were getting started right away and the building would be done by the end of October. In October I was in the area so I swung by. NOTHING had been done and when I asked Kelli what was going on she told me there was a problem with the abatement from the city and everything was delayed, but not to worry. That had just been cleared up and the construction was to being the next week. It would be finished by March. I was skeptical at this point and asked what the plan was if the construction wasn't done. Kelli told me - it will be done. I said, what's the plan if it's not? She said - it will be done, not finishing by March is not an option. Again, I pressed her for an answer - what's the plan? Well we can always put up a tent. A tent? Next to a construction site? How romantic. But ever the optimist, I said okay. In December I went by to pay my first installment. Not only was the renovation not underway, the BUILDING WAS GONE. There was one all, a slab, and a hole in the ground. I immediately called Kelli who was not in the construction trailer on the site, and asked what was going on. I was told this was much better because they were building the building off site and would be working inside by January. There was no construction equipment, no framing for the foundation, nothing. We found another venue - thank God. I have since visited the site a couple of times. Now, in March, the site hasn't changed at all. It is still a wall, a slab and a hole in the ground. But I understand they are still selling.