Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Upton
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The Lake Erie Building has quite a unique history to it. The wedding venue and multi purpose site known today was originally built as Templar Motors Factory in the early 1900s, where just over a few thousand vehicles were produced before the plant shut down its operations in 1924. Templar was a luxury car brand, and a few of the cars along with other memorabilia are available to see on the third floor of the building. After Templar closed its doors, the factory became Bramley Moving, and eventually was taken over by Wasmer Fasteners in 1927, where they operated as Lake Erie Screw (where our nickname, The Screw Factory, comes from!) until 2004. In 2004, a group of local investors bought the building and created it into what it is today and how the event space came to be! In 2024, Lake Erie Building Events, LLC took over running the event hall that can be found on the second floor of the Lake Erie Building once the building was acquired by a new ownership group. The event hall, the Lake Erie Room, allows for couples, corporations, or anyone looking for an event to have a blank slate to create an event that is one of a kind. Lake Erie Building Events, LLC is rooted in family values and ran by three sisters (Laura, Allie and Amanda) as well as an amazing event coordinator (Melissa). The ties to the Lake Erie Building run very deep for Laura, Allie and Amanda because they as most of their childhood up at the building running around on Saturdays sorting nuts and bolts for their father who was an engineer for the Lake Erie Screw Corporation and still to this day works within the Lake Erie Building. Each event held within the Lake Erie Room is treated like an event that we would host for our own family. We want our clients to love the event space and enjoy the experience as much as we do.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
2024 was the first year that Lake Erie Building Events, LLC was in operation. In previous years, the event space was ran by the ownership group of the building, but this changed when the building was sold in January of 2024. Although, the work done by the previous owners allowed for Lake Erie Building Events, LLC to keep events that were booked prior to the sale of the building on the calendar and to continue booking events in the Lake Erie Room. 2024 was a year of learning as we had never ran an event center prior and our predecessor had a great reputation to uphold! We made some mistakes along the way, but nothing that could not be fixed quickly and was not used as a learning moment to fix for the next event. It was a bit of a bumpy road at first, but about half way through the year we got everything smooth sailing and quite the rhythm to our event weeks.
As you know, we’re big fans of Lake Erie Building Events LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Lake Erie Building Events, LLC is small business ran out of the second floor of the Lake Erie Building. We host weddings and events that allows our clients to have a blank slate to create an event of their dreams. We only host one event per week- allowing our clients access from Wednesday to Monday. We almost never tell our clients “No” when they ask if something can be done in the space for their event. We are most proud of our family values and how we treat each of our clients like one of our family members. We love seeing how different each event that happens in our space is and how no two events are the same. Most importantly, we love the LOVE that we see each week when our couples tie the knot and that our space got to be a part of their most important day of their lives!
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
You’ll never regret if you try something and fail at it because at least you gave it a try. You will regret if one day you think “man I should have taken that opportunity X many years ago when I had it.” Everything can be an opportunity to learn and get better,
Pricing:
- 7500
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lakeeriebuildingevents.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lakeeriebuilding/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakeeriebuilding/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lake-erie-building-events-lakewood
