Metropolitan Weddings Podcast
Metropolitan Weddings Podcast
Meet The Wedding Pro - with Rob from Lodge of Four Seasons
Join us for an enchanting conversation with Rob Schaefer, the charismatic wedding and special event manager at the Lodge of Four Seasons, nestled in the picturesque Lake Ozark. Rob takes us on a vibrant virtual tour of this stunning venue, with its extraordinary event spaces, breathtaking lake views, and diverse accommodations ranging from cozy hotel rooms to expansive condos. Whether you're planning an intimate ceremony or a grand celebration, the Lodge has everything you need, from elegant dining options and recreational activities like golf and boat rentals to the enchanting Japanese garden, perfect for unforgettable photo ops. Rob also shares the magic of winter weddings at the Lodge, where the beautiful architecture and cozy lodge vibe create a charming backdrop for your special day.
But that’s not all—prepare to be entertained by Rob’s humorous stories of guests who are delightfully surprised by the sophistication and beauty of Lake Ozark, shattering their preconceived notions. He offers valuable insights into the wedding planning process at this popular resort destination, emphasizing the importance of early booking. From the initial contact to securing your venue and accommodations, Rob guides you through each step with ease. With a perfect blend of upscale and rustic charm, the Lake of the Ozarks might just be the hidden gem you’re searching for to make your wedding dreams come true. Don’t miss out on Rob’s expert advice and charming anecdotes that could make your special day one for the books.
Welcome to Metropolitan Weddings. I'm Meg, I'm Dawn, and we are here to educate couples with information from wedding professionals in the industry.
Speaker 2:Our goal is to make the wedding planning process as seamless as possible by providing you with insight from industry professionals.
Speaker 1:Okay, couples, let's get this party started. Good morning listeners. We are here with our good friend, rob. Rob, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us what venue you are with?
Speaker 3:Well, I am Rob Schaefer, wedding and special event manager at the Lodge of Four Seasons in beautiful Lake, ozark.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is beautiful. You guys have a magnificent property. It's got just a little bit of everything. Where do we even start? Do you want to talk about the property weddings?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm excited for this because I'm basically like a listener. I haven't seen it, I've never been there, I mean they've got indoor outdoor, Take me on a ride.
Speaker 2:Pools and lakes. It's gorgeous.
Speaker 3:Well, there's a lot to talk about. Certainly. We've got really 60,000 square feet of event space to use for all types of events. Generally, weddings are a bit less than that. We have incredible property and campus about 365 hotel rooms on property Really the most beautiful lake views here, looking out over the main channel and then some beautiful outdoor spaces for ceremony, outdoor receptions, as well as ballrooms and then smaller meeting rooms, some with lake views and others without.
Speaker 1:Plus you have lodging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, beautiful hotel rooms and beautiful, actually, condos as well that have a full kitchen.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know about the condos.
Speaker 2:Bonus. You have some that are like three bedrooms, don't you?
Speaker 3:Well, we've got two bedroom condos. The condos have a full king room and then the lockout has two queen beds.
Speaker 2:Nice, that is nice Wow. Yeah, I knew it could sleep a lot of people.
Speaker 1:And then the restaurants and all the different entertaining things you guys have on property.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. We have the incredible rooftop which has stellar lake views, fantastic outdoor bar. Generally we have music playing on the weekends up there and that's certainly open to the public. It can be a buyout for a wedding reception, certainly. We've got our beautiful lake view patio with pavilion that's frequently used for weddings, and then numerous other places on the grounds where we could even put up a tent if needed. So just many, many options for clients. There's the marina, of course, all of these things. I have clients that actually drive their boat over for reception.
Speaker 1:Nice, so a lot of options. Yeah, the best thing about it is it's so perfect for inviting family in from you know, if they're not here and they're coming in from wherever everybody gets to have all of that great family time. They get hotel rooms, they're all there on property, there's so much to do and they get to spend the whole weekend together and then have this joyous ceremony in one of so many different, just gorgeous, beautiful spots.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and you know, as you touched upon, there are so many things for families to do. Many of my families don't even have to get back in the car and drive anywhere because we have multiple outlets for them to have dinner, breakfast, lunch or dinner in, and then, of course, all of the venue spaces. We've got walking trails, we've got Bombay boat rentals so you can rent a pontoon and go out on the water. We have two stunning golf courses that we can shuttle you to, and just family-friendly movies play daily in the movie theater. So there's just something for everyone here during their stay, for everyone here during their stay.
Speaker 3:And also, I think one of the great benefits of Lodge of Four Seasons is that we're such a stunning property. The photo ops are incredible. So wherever you go on property, you can easily walk to some place and have photos, take a sunset photo here or being in the beautiful Japanese garden, which is an incredible feature of the lodge. Many, many, I should say most, other than in wintertime, couples go out into the garden and have incredible photos. It looks like you're in some exotic botanical garden.
Speaker 1:Honestly, everywhere we walked, when we went on tour of the property with you, I could see pictures being taken. The architecture is just beautiful. Everything has, like I don't know a quality about everything, just this kind of high end and has a beautiful art quality about it. So the photo ops are endless, honestly, indoor and out.
Speaker 3:Yeah absolutely, and we're true to our name. We are four seasons, so as beautiful as the summer months are and being outside, the winters are incredible too for bride and grooms. You know the lodge lens itself to, you know that that holiday or our winter theme, you know, with with a beautiful upholstery and the tile work and the, the beams in the in the space, so it really is very versatile. Uh, for clients, I I have, you know, some incredible winter weddings and christmas weddings that that I don't think you could duplicate those any other place.
Speaker 1:You know I totally agree with that. I hadn't really thought about it, but it does have like kind of that cool lodge vibe when you walk in the front doors and it's got that big round seating area with the fire. You don't have something like that around here all that much, and so it's very unique and beautiful. You guys have an award-winning bridal photo just from, like your hallway.
Speaker 3:Absolutely For sure, you know I would, I would, I love to see a bride, you know, setting by the open air fireplace, you know it. It it's very, you know very, white Christmas, so to speak. Yeah, taking the old smoothie in consideration, you know. And she can have a, you know, beautiful faux fur wrap and, you know, and you can use all these wonderful fabrics and textures that you really don't use, like velvet and heavier damas, that you don't see the rest of the year, you know. So those photo ops are stunning and you know we have incredible spa, chicke downstairs, so my brides can get ready, have their hair and makeup done there and bridal party, have a couple's massage, maybe Thursday or Friday when you check in. So there's just a little something for everyone.
Speaker 1:I'm just daydreaming about it right now a little bit.
Speaker 4:Kind of want to get married again babe.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know where you want to go. Now the couple just shows up.
Speaker 4:You're most welcome, I mean we show up on Wednesday or Thursday.
Speaker 3:We get a boat.
Speaker 4:Go out on the water, come back have dinner. Listen to music. Go play golf on Thursday. Come back Friday. Have rehearsal and dinner.
Speaker 1:When was your massage massage? You missed your massage, my massage friday night before the wedding saturday get up, have breakfast.
Speaker 4:I mean, this sounds like it does if if I'm a guest at a wedding, I want to go to a wedding here. Yeah, you know, and we make this our little summer getaway while we go to the wedding.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Pretty amazing.
Speaker 3:That works for many, many people and there's such a variety of lodging here. The Mirai Suite is such a very unique. It's a little home that was built for Buffy Mirai, who designed the Japanese garden. He loved the Lake Ozark so much that he wanted to live here, so a little home was built and now we rent it out. It's ideal for the honeymoon cottage. It has a kitchen and a dining room and two bedrooms. From your front porch you can sit out on the front porch and just look at the lake and the boats going by, so that's a really fun feature that we have here as well.
Speaker 1:I love it. I do too.
Speaker 2:It's just so beautiful there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is and you have. Yeah, like the opportunities for where to even host your wedding, there's several you can have, like the rooftop option, the indoor option, the lakeside sunset option.
Speaker 2:I know I can tell you, being a photographer, that place is amazing when we went through it. I mean the photography you can do on the rooftop and then go down into the gardens and then go down by the lake. I mean every photographer has to love shooting at that property yeah, it's so many different places that are just stunning and completely different too, I think that's certainly true.
Speaker 3:I think that one other really wonderful feature about the lodges you don't need to transform. The lodge is beautiful, as is. My brides just add a little bit of their personality. But you're not talking extensive decorating as needed, certainly, I always love those. I love my big bougie wedding. You don't have to do that. You save on budget. You've got extensive and free parking. You have your photo ops just a short walk away. So overall the savings are considerable simply because, like many metropolitan city venues you're going into you know a blank slate and you have to really add quite a bit in rentals and decor to put your stamp on them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point. It is a good point, okay, we can do our vow renewal there.
Speaker 4:Sounds good, I'm in. Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 3:It is a good point. Okay, we can do. We can do our vow renewal.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, I'm in Absolutely the golf course is calling oh my gosh, rob, okay, so what? How? I? I feel like I just keep talking because I'm so in love with this. But why don't you like?
Speaker 4:well, I have some questions. So 60,000 square feet, so what? What logistically are we talking about? Can you guys do multiple weddings per day? Like, what's the max capacity, minimum capacity?
Speaker 3:Well, I will do. I've, you know, I've gotten some weddings. We call them micro weddings. So we're looking at small party destination clients coming in with just immediate family and friends. So we'll do those. Those are to full package and certainly they're paying the same rental. But for the smaller, very unique, beautiful spaces that often you want to get into, such as HK's Club Room with the original Spanish chandeliers and the huge stone fireplace that looks out over the garden, that's a really unique space and ideal for a micro wedding. But then I've got huge weddings that they're destination weddings where everyone's maybe flying in or driving in from Chicago and you, you know, you can get up to 400 or 500 people at those, you know. So I've got just a huge variety of spaces. With our large staff and spaces we can have multiple events going on. Now there's only one, rob, so I can only be at one.
Speaker 3:But I try to stagger the time periods of the multiple clients so that I'm there getting you down the aisle, maybe one at four, one at five, you know, maybe a later one at six or something like that. So I'll be moving around and then I have, of course, the assistance of Stefan and assist as well.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So there's only one, rob, but he is a superhero.
Speaker 4:Sounds like Rob's got this.
Speaker 1:I try. I love it.
Speaker 4:So do you guys do the catering as well, Like is it all in-house? We do.
Speaker 3:We are the exclusive catering company for the watch. You know all catering goes through us. We do allow a dry item like your cupcakes or cookies or wedding cakes brought in, as I don't have a chef that produces those, so you can bring those in. But otherwise food and beverage all go through us.
Speaker 1:Okay, very cool those, so you can bring those in, but otherwise food and beverage all go through us. Okay, very cool. But like you guys have alcohol, but alcohol is allowed, um, you have an extensive like menu. What, what's? What am I trying to say? Like a?
Speaker 3:wide menu range a diverse menu to choose from absolutely. And many, many options, uh, many tiers and many options to both bar packages and culinary options, and certainly we can accommodate, you know, different food allergies. Children's meals I'm often asked about. And yes, we certainly. We don't charge, you know, a full price for the children's meal. They have a special meal and the staff loves them as well. He does a breaded chicken tender fries or mac and cheese fruit plate with strawberries. The kids love it, you know. So we can.
Speaker 2:We definitely accommodate the little ones if they're there that's awesome, because they do tend to be at weddings. They.
Speaker 3:They do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. They're a family too.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to. What have we missed?
Speaker 4:Well, Adam, do you have more questions? I just sign me up, I'm ready.
Speaker 3:I think you know also many people ask me about you know what can I do to customize my wedding experience to the lodge or to Lake Ozark?
Speaker 3:You know, we've all watched the show, which really put us on the map, and so there's many, many I always say many many local resources to tap into. Certainly, you know, through our amazing gift shop we can customize and order gifts for you Logo gifts about from you know the lodge, but you know everything from our local candy and fudge purveyors to you know moonshine. You know things that we are known I call it upscale hillbilly. You know all the things that we're known for in this region that make an amazing, you know gift bag that make an amazing maybe wedding, bridal party gift or something fun to do. We can arrange that for your bridal party if you want to do something, and we can customize a really Ozark-themed menu for you. So embrace all of those wonderful local vendors. There's local honey, there's local scents made from local flowers and there's a lot about the Ozark to embrace and love and that really makes your experience very, very personal.
Speaker 1:So you can either go to the lodge and pretend like you're not in the Ozarks at all, because you can just immerse yourself in this own new spot, or you can lean into it and just go full local, that's true For sure, yeah, no, when you say full local, not like the show full local. You guys don't think that it's really like no one actually watches the show and thinks it's like that there, right.
Speaker 4:Oh, they do. People from other parts. They think like there's drugs and hillbilly opium everywhere.
Speaker 1:They think that just everybody's there laundering money.
Speaker 3:I know I get asked that question a lot and I'm like well, I haven't had to bury a body this week and I don't have a trunk load of cash. But, I said there are some aspects that yes that this regional aspect said yes, you will see reflected in the show itself, but we just try to have fun with it for sure oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so funny and I like what you're saying. Little do they know that it's like kind of the bougie lake for like the metropolitan, like kansas city and people to come to it is. It's not quite what everyone thinks it is Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I will walk out at any time and look across the lake and we're looking at eight to $20 million homes on the lake shore across from us. You know, I think that one of the funniest reactions is when we have guests that say maybe are from the East Coast or West Coast, and they come and they have the wedding experience as a guest and they'll walk up to me and go. Are you the gentleman that does the wedding?
Speaker 3:And I'm like yes, I am and they're like we didn't expect anything like this, and I'm thinking, yeah, I didn't have my corncob pipe and overalls on. You know I gave you, you know, certainly a sophisticated, well-rounded wedding experience. You know I'm a planner, so it's always funny to see their reaction. I just I have to wonder what they thought mentally they were going to see when they walked in the front door.
Speaker 2:It's so funny because, yeah, lake of the Ozarks is kind kind of bougie, quite honestly, but and it's a great place, it is kind of bougie I think this is the first podcast where I've had literal tears from laughing leave it to rob, yeah, we need to have them like.
Speaker 1:Write their expectations like prior and then be like, and then here's what really happened.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Well, the good thing is, you always know that you're going to be able to deliver way above and beyond expectations.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, that is for sure.
Speaker 1:I feel like you were going to say something while I go. Rob, did you have a thought?
Speaker 2:No, Okay, just, just just for sure, you know we, we, I, I under promise and over deliver we love that about you.
Speaker 3:We've experienced that ourselves. That's right well, we love having you here.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you yay, so where would be? What would be the best way to kind of start the potential process with you? Call you, message you come to a site, visit, like what's the best plan of attack to start?
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. Normally it's to reach out via phone or email and allow me to send you a letter of introduction and really get the wedding guide in your hands. Look at the offerings, look at kind of where our pricing structure is and form kind of more of a game plan. I always say, you know it's setting down, really making some hard decisions early on of, realistically, how many guests are we going to have at this wedding? You know, is it going to be 100 or is it going to be 300 or is it going to be 50? And then that's going to tell you what size room we need. You know the size space. It's going to tell you how many rooms we're going to need and it's going to tell you, with budget wise, what food package or tier we can afford.
Speaker 3:So, getting some rough ideas first, and that goes for any venue that you approach here at Lake Ozark, Just remember with us we have a huge leisure season and that goes from spring well, really with holiday parties into December. For me, During that time, all facilities are going to get booked up. Your rooms are going to get booked up, as any spaces are. So booking early, securing your spaces and what you need early, is really critical in a community like ours, you know, in a community like ours. So what I always hate is someone telling me a guest did not secure their room, did not call in, and then they're calling the week of the wedding and we are sold out. There is no room for them. So that is just really looking at Lake Ozark and how busy we are with so many water activities and shows etc. You're going to need to. I don't want to create a false sense of urgency, but there's a sense of urgency in getting everything secured in this resort destination area.
Speaker 1:And you want to.
Speaker 3:For sure, for sure and you want to, for sure, for sure, absolutely so, getting that wedding guide in your hands and then we can do a site visit and I, you know really I can narrow down what the ideal choices will be for you. So if you've got 50 people, I know what size space is to show you and um, and show you what really kind of what your room block will be. If you've got three to 400, certainly that's going to be looking at a whole nother set of spaces. So just getting that information first and then coming down for a side visit.
Speaker 1:I just love it that you're so welcoming to a micro wedding and then a 500 person wedding.
Speaker 3:It's like oh, you guys are just welcoming all around, I love. I love small events.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. Well, I recommend you guys give Rob a call so he can see in what way you guys fit together for your wedding. Rob, it's been amazing talking to you today. We've had a lot of fun, thank you.
Speaker 3:I will always enjoy talking with you guys.
Speaker 1:Your upscale hillbilly humor has cracked me up.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, you're welcome.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Rob.
Speaker 3:Bye, take care.
Speaker 4:Bye-bye, hold on, hold on. Oh wait, rob, you still there. Yeah, do we ever talk about how to get in touch with him?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you said call.
Speaker 4:Call where.
Speaker 1:Oh, did you not give the phone number? No, all right, I did not give the phone number, rob, we need to give the phone number and the website we need website, phone number, social media deals.
Speaker 4:So if somebody's trying to find you, we need the actual digits. So how do they get in touch with you? What number would they call?
Speaker 3:Do you have a website. Really going to our website is going to show you all the outlets and all the opportunities going on here at the lodge. But you can call my office directly at 573-365-8052. Again, that's 573-365-8052. Or you can reach out via email to rschafer that's S-C-H-A-E-F-E-R at the number four seasonsresortcom. Perfect.
Speaker 2:That's good yeah.
Speaker 4:All right, I like Rob.
Speaker 2:We all like Rob. Oh my gosh, I'm glad.
Speaker 1:All right, did we get it all this time? I?
Speaker 4:think we're good yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, enjoy your day, rob.
Speaker 3:All right, did we get it all this time?
Speaker 2:I think we're good, yeah, enjoy your day.
Speaker 3:Rob All right Take care.
Speaker 1:Thank you, bye, bye-bye. Thank you for joining us for Metropolitan Weddings Engaged Podcast.
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Speaker 1:For more information and to get connected with merchants for your wedding, visit metropolitanweddingscom. You'll find information on upcoming wedding shows, access to our blog, facebook and IG.
Speaker 2:Also look for the latest issue of Metropolitan Weddings on newsstands near you.
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