OUR 5,000 square foot private event space located above Cecelia Creole Bistro. We offer a variety of food selections from buffet style to seated dinners. With features, such as exposed brick, hard-wood floors and a stunning view, we offer a one-of-a-kind experience for your special day.
Tours
Showings & walk-throughs of our venue can be done so by appointment only. If interested & would like to schedule a tour of the venue, please reach out using our contact form below. In addition to future events, this also applies to events already booked with us.
Pricing & Booking
Regardless the day of the week, it is available on an hourly basis. We require a $1,000 deposit to reserve the date. This is applied to the event balance & is non-refundable. We accept cash, Venmo (@LoftatCecelia & our code is 1631), in-person & over-phone credit cards, and checks made out “421 Creole”. We require a debit and/or credit card be held on file using an Authorization Form provided by us. The remaining balance is due 3-5 days before the day of the event. We request all food & bar selections be finalized a week prior to the event. Any food choices & bar options would be an additional charge, all food & bar items have 20% gratuity and 9.95% state tax. Every event is different, so we cannot give exact pricing until the hourly-venue rental and the specific food & bar items have been chosen and calculated by the anticipated number of guests. Any available date is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Venue Information
The Loft at Cecelia is 5,000 square feet, including an outdoor balcony. We are located at 421 3rd Street on the second floor above our restaurant dining room, Cecelia Creole Bistro. Our venue is open for private events only & closed to the public. The venue is not handicap accessible nor does it have an elevator on-site. We do not allow Greek life events. We do not have food or bar minimum. We do not provide wedding/party coordination. We do not assist in transporting and/or handling decorations. We do not own any parking lots.
What’s Included?
We strictly provide venue, catering & bar services. The rental includes tables, chairs, glassware, napkins, soft drinks & water. We have 120 banquet chairs. Therefore, we can seat 120 guests or we can hold 300 standing without tables & chairs; in addition to lounging furniture and bar stools. We have 12 barstools, 11 round 60 inch. tables, 7 tall pub tables, 3 square tables, 1 5ft. rectangle, 1 4ft. rectangle, 7 6ft. rectangle tables & 3 8ft. rectangle tables available. We have black linens available for $100 flat fee to cover all of the tables. If you do not rent our linens, only the buffet tables will come dressed in black. We can refrain from dressing them with prior notice.
Layout for Your Event
We require an official floor plan for the event. There is no right or wrong layout. Our staff will set up the requested layout prior to the event. We can accommodate a live band and/or DJ, vendors must provide their own speakers & sound system. We have a TV with cable, USB & HDMI capabilities (located behind bar) and music system that plays inside & outside on the balcony. We also have a wired-microphone with stand with a speaker for speeches.
Restrictions on Decorations
No animals, fireworks, cold sparks, confetti, glitter and/or feathers are allowed in the venue or on the balcony. Open-flame candles are allowed, as long as the wax is contained & not freely-dripping. We do not have many restrictions, as long as decorations can be immediately removed after the event. Any damages left to our event space are the host’s responsibility. If you’re curious if we allow it, please ask us ahead of time.
Day Before Your Event
If available, we cannot guarantee the day before will remain so and/or accessible. This includes to set up, rehearse and/or walk-through the event. If you want to ensure the day before remains available, a $750 holding-day fee is placed for that day. We will reach out at least a week prior to ensure it is available or not.
Day Of Your Event
Itineraries and/or schedule of events for the day are strongly encouraged & specifically what time any vendor plans on arriving (DJ/band, decor/florist, cake, photobooth, etc.). The downstairs restaurant area, Cecelia Creole Bistro, opens at 11AM on Tuesdays through Fridays & 4PM on Saturdays. The event space, The Loft, is accessible from the restaurant (first door immediately to the left). We can unlock the front door to the event space at the first drop-off with prior notice. For any cake delivery: We do not have extra refrigeration space; any cake should be dropped off & assembled closer to the event start time. We do not provide and/or assist in distributing and/or handling of cake. We do not assist cutting and/or provide any cake cutting supplies, such as cake knives. We can provide plates, eating utensils & napkins for the cake table with prior notice.
Food for Your Event
Buffet menu, here: https://www.ceceliabr.com/catering
These are priced per half and full pans. We have a large selection of items to choose from. It is self-serve. We request a finalized buffet menu a week prior to the event. The serving & eating plateware and utensils are silver-toned plastic & disposable. Supplies for the buffet & any pans of food items ordered will be replenished as needed. The buffet items will be self-serve & labeled. We will actively monitor the food items & supplies, such as refilling food pans, utensils & plates. Timing: All of the food items will be hot & ready at the start time of the event. Roughly, half pans feed 15-20 guests and full pans feeds 25-30 guests. When deciding quantities, we can only help make suggestions; it is strongly contingent on the other requested food items. We do not pass appetizers and/or hors d’oeuvres.
Seated dinners, here: https://www.ceceliabr.com/seateddinner
These are priced per head. There are three menus to choose from. The largest party we allow for our seated options is 65-70 guests. Guests served by our staff course by course. We provide name tags for the guests & their food selections to either grab on the way into the space or you can assign seating & tables. Guests will pre-select their course options. A spreadsheet would be most applicable listing each guest’s selections for each course. If the third menu is chosen, selections are not needed because there is one choice for each course. The serving & eating plateware and utensils are pre-set and ceramic. Timing: First course rolls outs once everyone has arrived & taken their seat.
Outside Catering
It is an additional $100 per hour. The outside-caterer must provide their own heating equipment, serving utensils, plateware & staff to tend to it. Items must come already prepared and/or cooked. No access will be given to a wash-room and/or kitchen. We will not manage, maintain, supervise nor provide anything for outside catering/food, this also includes cake. We do not cut, serve and/or store cake.
Bar for Your Event
We have three options to choose from:
1. Pay per head with a bar package; this is added onto the invoice. You pre-pay for each guest (ages 21+); known as open bar. If guests do not show, you are unable to change the bar package count once the remaining balance is ran. The bar package is available at the start time of the event & will end at the scheduled end time. Soft drinks are included. Bar packages (for three-hour events), here: https://www.ceceliabr.com/barpackages
2. Pay per drink with a tab based on consumption paid by the host of the event. Payment for this tab will be taken the day of using the card on file; this is an open bar (to an extent). If the host wanted to pay for a certain dollar amount, such as $500. Once the tab is close to $500 before 20% gratuity, the host can decide to keep it open or close it, and then guests can pay for their own drinks. As the host, they can limit what the guests can & cannot order on their tab.
3. Have guests pay for themselves; known as cash bar.
For the first option, your bar package count should only include guest ages 21 & up. Note: The online pricing states it is for 3-hour events; if your event is less than 3 hours, we can send over the appropriate pricing. For the second & third option, we use our house liquors. Singles are $8 and doubles are $12. Our house liquors are Absolut Vodka, Tin Cup Whiskey, Jack Daniels Whiskey, Tanqueray Gin, Jose Quervo Tequila & Dewars Scotch. We will have cocktails available, such as Old-Fashioned, Cosmo, Lemon Drop, Moscow Mules, Margarita, Manhattan & Rum Punches, those are $12. Wine is $5, Domestic Beer is $5, Craft Beer is $6 & Champagne is $5. If you’d like a different liquor, please let know us ahead of time & we can let you know the pricing. We will have a water pitcher & cups available for self-serve. The juices that we will have available are: cranberry, orange, pineapple, ginger beer, tonic, soda water & soft drinks, such as Coke, Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper & Sprite. We can have coffee & unsweet tea available upon request. We will have menus set on the bar with what is available. Last call is 10-15 minutes before the scheduled end time of the event.
Breakdown of Event
We kindly ask that all guests vacate the venue shortly after the scheduled end time of your event. Any remaining guests must be actively apart of the breakdown crew. Breakdown should take place within a hour to hour & half after the scheduled end time of your event. All decor must come down and any outside-vendors must return for their items after the event has ended. No personal items and/or decor should be left following the event that night. Our staff will assist in gathering your items & disposing of any trash. We will have to-go boxes available for you and/or guests to take any of your remaining food items. Any damages left to our event space are the renter’s responsibility.
Cancellation Policy
Refunds for deposits can be applied as in-house credit only, such as gift cards. The deposit can be applied to any of our future available dates at The Loft if the event can be rescheduled. We do not offer any refund after the event balance has been paid.
