We chose The Lakeside Inn in Historic Mount Dora for our wedding in November 2018 and we couldn’t be happier with our choice.
The Lakeside Inn handled our Ceremony, Reception, Rehe...arsal, Morning-After Brunch, and accommodations for ourselves and our guests. The facilities and grounds are beautiful and the staff is top notch. On top of all of this, the Lakeside Inn is blessed with an incredible Special Events coordinator in Jessica Crochet. I’ll discuss the tangible aspects in a moment but I wanted to start by recognizing Jessica.
Jessica Crochet was there for us literally every step of the way from our initial visit to the Lakeside Inn while selecting venues, until cleanup from our Morning-After Brunch. She was willing to make herself available for meetings and to answer the myriad questions we had leading up to our event. She was capable, giving great recommendations for vendors within our price range, advising us of day of logistics, and setting/exceeding our expectations for what the venue could offer. She was understanding and flexible, keeping us informed of changes and working with us on adjustments that we felt were needed leading up to the big day. Jessica rocks!
The Facilities
The Lakeside Inn is a very historic hotel. When it comes to accommodations, are the rooms huge? No, they are not but they are comfortable, clean and so so charming. We had a total of 12 rooms booked between both sides of our family and everyone enjoyed their stay.
Our Ceremony was held at The Oaks, a grassy, tree shaded lawn with a gazebo next to Lake Dora. Your guests will face west so keep sunset in mind when timing out your events. The staff did a great job of setting up for our ceremony, and the walk down the “aisle” from the hotel building is a very unique way to enter.
Our Reception was held in the Beauclaire Room, which is a flexible space with a beautiful bowed window wall overlooking a charming garden. It held our party very well, we had plenty of room to move around. Again the staff did an excellent job with their service. We had a fully plated dinner and champagne toast.
The Food/Catering
The meal we served at our reception was truly incredible. Several of our guests told us that it was the best meal they had ever had at a wedding. A tasting is offered, which is a good idea because it allowed us to make an informed choice on our offered menu. We elected to serve Chicken with a Brandy Cream Sauce, Grilled Pacific Salmon with a Lobster and Crab Sauce, Slow Roasted 10 oz. Prime Rib of Beef Au Jus with Mild Horseradish Sauce, and Pasta Primavera, all of which were great.
Things to Consider
The Lakeside Inn is the longest operating Inn in Florida, which is part of what gives it its charm, but it is also an operating Inn. What this means, is that there are very strict guidelines that must be followed for set up and clean up. Luckily, we have really amazing friends, family, and vendors that were willing to help with set up and break down. Essentially, some of the guidelines required a little more planning/coordination on our part, but overall well worth it. Everything worked out perfectly and again, Jessica was very reassuring. She has done this a hundred times. Trust her.
Overall we highly recommend the Lakeside Inn as a wedding venue. We visited again a few weeks ago and were overcome by feelings of happiness knowing that we had chosen such a lovely, iconic location for our wedding.