The Oaks Lakeside Restaurant and Event Center

The crew over at the Oaks was very helpful from day one. They responded right away to our inquiry for the venue and were very accommodating to our wants and needs. We visited the venue several times before our wedding (09/08) and Kristi was always willing to schedule our visits and show us around. Although there were several small hiccups throughout the process and before the wedding, Kristi and Johnny were always willing to work with us. We were very happy with our venue choice and the day of the wedding was a dream come true.

Our wedding at The Oaks was perfect: beautiful location by the lake, where our guest were able to walk around outside and enjoy the gorgeous landscaping and views; historical building with a lot of charm; excellent food; and a very helpful wedding coordinator who was responsive, friendly, and even accommodated our special requests to have an outdoor bar and games set up! Our family and friends had a blast at our wedding- we got a ton of compliments on the location and food! Would highly recommend!

I've been waiting over a month for the banquet manager to even respond to my email.....

We book the Oaks for our wedding reception in May 2015 and could not have been happier with the experience! The location: The banquet area is just gorgeous and we got some really unique photos from the balcony. The dance floor is small, but we had a smaller wedding (about 100 guests) and didn't have tons of people dancing, so it worked fine for us. Our guests loved having the outdoor space on the patio and lawn to spread out (and in some cases get away from the music). Plus, the view of the lake is just fantastic. We got some amazing photos at sunset! The people: Glenda, the event coordinator, and Jan, the in-house florist/decorator, do a fantastic job and were hands-down my favorite vendors to work with. They were responsive, friendly and professional, and their tips and questions really helped me think through and plan various parts of the event. The planning process was thorough, the event went smoothly, and all our decorations and flowers looked great. (We even had Jan do our ceremony flowers, which she delivered off-site.) Anyone else I talked or worked with was courteous and helpful as well. The food: Delicious, as it has been every time I've eaten at the Oaks. They have a very large banquet menu to choose from which can be a little overwhelming, so we did the "tasting" dinner (they give you a gift card to use on dinner). The only catch is that the banquet options you want to try may or may not be on the menu since it changes so often, but they can sort of approximate things if they have the ingredients or point to a similar alternative. For example, chicken piccata is on the banquet menu, but the night we went to taste they were offering veal piccata. We ended up gong with peppercorn-crusted filet medallions, chicken piccata and a vegetarian pasta dish--our guests loved it! Overall, you may pay a little more per head at the Oaks versus other places but for the view and ambiance, excellent staff, and high-quality food it's totally worth it. I would highly recommend this venue to future brides!

The oaks was a gorgeous place to get married. Their grounds are beautiful and filled with greenery and flowers. They also have the best food around. Everyone from my wedding raved about how great the food was Sandy the catering manager was always there to help out and great to work with.Their in-house florist Jan is by far the most amazing women. She had great ideas and really listened to what you want your wedding to look like. Her prices were very reasonable. I would definitely recommend the oaks.. they made my wedding day look perfect.

Sandy and Christy work so well together! They took care of absolutely everything so my husband and I could actually enjoy our whole wedding day! They have a beautiful venue outside for the ceremony and inside the restaurant for the reception. We had a lot of out of town guests and they loved only having to drive to one location for everything. Our pictures there turned out gorgeous on the grounds. Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

The oaks lakeside was the perfect venue for our wedding. Being able to have our ceremony and reception in one location was very important for us. The venue is tucked back away from the street and provides an intimate setting with beautiful views. Sandy, the event manager, is great! She is prompt and clearly answered all of our questions. I highly recommend their venue for any event

We wanted a small simple wedding but my one goal was to have my guest leave saying that was the nicest wedding they had ever been to. I got all I could ask for. The place was beautiful. We got married outside in front of the lake. When we got to the venue to set up that morning, Sandy, my coordinator/event manager at The Oaks, met me and we both ran through the final check list. Because it was so nice out we made some last minute changes and moved the appetizers to the out door patio. They never rushed me as I was running 20 mins late getting into my dress and they were very helpful with directing guest where to go. The food was amazing and scenery was to die for. They helped us to stay within our budget and when we had last minute RSVPs come in they were more then happy to help us move things around to accommodate. They made everything so easy and helped to keep the stress of planning a wedding to a minimum. I would recommend this place to any couple looking to get married on a budget. (Even my husband loved the place and he is usually so indifferent.)

This venue is beautiful. If you are looking for something that is unique and not a typical banquet room then this is the place for you. I was looking for a place where I could be married outside on the lake, but didn't have a stuffy banquet room for the reception. This did exactly that. There is the perfect spot to get married on the lake and the banquet room has lots of hardwood and is warm and inviting. My ceremony got rained out and we quickly changed the venue to be inside. The staff was also very friendly and helpful. Also, the food is fantastic!

This venue is so beautiful and was perfect for our outdoor wedding. The only thing that was frustrating was the woman that I dealt with was very scatter brained and was always changing her mind on things. Luckily she was not there the day of my wedding and another very nice woman was. The banquet room was just the right size for our number of guest (80-100) and the food was excellent. We also had out rehearsal dinner here in the restaurant and the food was also excellent!!

Overall, I was very happy with our venue. Unfortunatly, the weather was not cooperative and we had to have the ceremony inside rather than lakeside so be sure to understand the backup plan if the weather doesn't hold out. I will say that while I did not want to have the ceremony inside, it actually was very intimate and pretty. The food was very good, and the venue is rustic with beautiful grounds for pictures. One thing I was disappointed with was that we paid for a bar package (one price person for 5 hours of open bar) and they ran out of most types of liquor by around 10pm. Other than that, they were very accomodating and we were very happy with the way everything turned out. Do know that this is a restaurant as well, so their will be other people dining in the restaurant. We had one wedding crasher, but he was spotted fairly quickly and escorted out.

I held my wedding and reception at the Oaks. Several things went wrong: the wedding was cancelled 14 months in advance, and the coordinator said she would return our $1000 deposit, the check never came. The coordinator accused me of being "suspicious," as if I were trying to steal money from her. She also had her husband chew out my mom the day before the wedding for how many decorations we had put up. They said they thought we were a "budget wedding," but accused us of spending all this money on decorations (they were ALL borrowed). The funny thing is, we spent nearly HALF of our budget on the Oaks ALONE. They messed up our rehearsal time, lied directly to my face(they couldn’t keep their lie straight), refused to cut my wedding cake the night of the reception (even though it was in the contract), told us the night before the wedding that we needed to provide our own cups (even though the contract said THEY would), and several other pieces of our evening were missing such as making sure our glasses were filled before we made our speeches (they assured us before they would take care of it), and bowls of ice on our tables for our sparkling grape juice. They also removed our cutting utensils from the cake table when we went up to cut our first piece of the cake. It was so bad that our DJ's offered to pick up most of the slack from the Oaks. Our DJ offered to cut our cake for us since the Oaks refused, and the Oaks said that if they cut it, then the Oaks would not provide any plates or silverware for it. The Oaks is a business out for money. Nothing about that night was done because they care about making the event a special day. Every conversation I held with the coordinator was dreaded because she constantly tried to twist the contract, or add more money on to our already expensive wedding and reception. I would never recommend them for a wedding or reception.

My husband and I were looking to do an afernoon wedding and found this fabulous place in a local paper article. They were very accommodating to our wishes and created a fabulous brunch for our family and friends. Our ceremony was outside by the lake and the grounds are just breathtaking, pleanty of photo opportunities!!

Absolutely love The Oaks! Everyone was friendly, helpful, and wonderful to deal with. Audrey, the owner and event planner, is so great. She's very nice and very accommodating. We chose this location because of the cozy atmosphere and great food, and because my parents had their reception here almost 27 years ago! Would suggest them to anyone!

The Oaks is the perfect place for an outdoor wedding and intimate reception. Everything about the facility is superb. Audrey, the banquet manager, is awesome!! She helped with the details and was so helpful in selecting the perfect vendors. The staff was awesome as well. We had our rehearsal dinner at the location and it was perfect. Guests and family commented on how beautiful venue was... Thank you!!!

The Oaks is right on Chippewa Lake with a wonderful view. You could have the ceremony outside or inside. The staff was absolutely wonderful. Our reception was held inside and was perfect.

The location! We had a great view of Chippewa Lake and the staff was absolutely fantastic. My guests raved about the bartender!;The fish was perfect, but some of the guests complained about the chicken. There was a lot of fat to pick through and the taste was bland.