‘In the business of love’ | La Bella Luna wedding venue lies at the ‘heart’ of romance

Valentine’s Day is the one holiday a year that’s centered around romance and the celebration of love — but at La Bella Luna, love is always in the air.

For two and a half years, owners Cleo and Mark Brown have hosted more than 200 events at La Bella Luna, and about 175 have been weddings.

“It’s been utterly amazing,” Cleo said.

To add just a touch more of romanticism to their venue, the husband-and-wife duo decided to open La Bella Luna at 7700 Glen Rose Highway on June 19, 2020 — their 11th wedding anniversary.

“We had pushed it three times,” Cleo said. “It was December 2019, then it was April 1, ‘we’re a fool for love,’ and then when that didn’t happen, we pushed it to June and I was like, ‘We’re gonna open June 19th. Come hell or high water, we’re doing this.’”

Since then, Cleo and Mark have witnessed the joining of several families, and have both felt the love firsthand between several different couples, as they learned about each unique love story.

LIA AND DOUG

Lia and Doug Queen have known each other since they were five years old when they both attended the same elementary school in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1959.

As the years went by, Lia and Doug continued to attend the same schools, and always lived in the same neighborhood less than a mile away from each other.

The couple eventually married other people, but tragically lost both of their spouses.

But one chance encounter at a high school reunion changed this couple’s life forever.

“When I walked up to him at the reunion and said ‘Hi’ to him, my heart just skipped a beat and I thought, ‘What was that?’ and it scared me,” Lia said. “I said, ‘OK, nice to see you, bye’ and I turned and ran off and sat down at a table. He came and sat down next to me. He swears I said to him ‘I'd like to see you again some time.’ I remember thinking that, but I don't remember saying it.”

For the next six months, Doug started emailing Lia and eventually asked her if he could start calling her on Fridays.

"I have no clue why it was Fridays,” she said, with a chuckle. “But we started talking and it just really went on from there. There was never any question for me at all. It was wonderful. I thought I would never feel like that again.”

A few years later, Doug and Lia got married on Nov. 6, 2022. They were both 68 at the time.

“I think what our friends really like is the fact that when you're in a time of life where you experience a lot of loss, it's the greatest thing to find people who can find each other,” Lia said. “It just kind of gives hope for everybody that good things and love are possible at this time of life.”

During their wedding, Doug was fortunate to have every single one of his original seven groomsmen from his first wedding in 1975 be his groomsmen for his wedding to Lia.

“That was very special for me,” he said. “When I got married in 1975, I had seven groomsmen and 47 years later, they were all there for me at this wedding; it was pretty special.”

Lia described La Bella Luna as a “magical kingdom.”

“You walk into that door, and the thing that everybody said was that it was like being in an Italian villa,” she said. “It just transports everybody into another place, and it was magnificent.”

Lia and Doug are now starting their life together as newlyweds. Together, they have six children and five grandchildren.

“It was wonderful,” Lia added. “And I always wanted to be a queen."

JASMINE AND NICO

Cleo also spoke about another couple, Jasmine and Nico Salcedo, who had been together since junior high.

“She's from India and he's Mexican-American,” she said. “They got married last summer, and she did a Hindi wedding. It was the most beautiful thing when the groom came out with his entire beautiful Hindi attire, even the sword in his side, and then he had metal chains that hung down in front of his face. We kind of named the moon mural in our bridal quarters after her because she was the first bride to take a picture in front of it, so it's Jasmine's moon. Mark loved Jasmine because he said he never saw a bride so happy to be at our venue, like everything was joy with her.”

“She was always smiling and happy, and she never got down about anything,” Mark said.

Cleo added, “She’s just as beautiful on the inside as the outside.”

MONICA AND STEPHEN

Some brides and couples have also moved away from the old traditions and have started making their own — like Stephen and Monica Coughlin.

Cleo said Monica chose to wear an emerald green dress instead of white during her wedding and also came up with her own “Pride and Prejudice” wedding theme.

"She had gifted all her bridesmaids with these really neat moon earrings, and it was just the greatest vibe,” Cleo said. “She didn't want anything white in here. She had the black candles and hunter green. Right now, black is a huge trend with brides, and it's very elegant. Her bridesmaids had black dresses, but then the groomsmen had the same moon-type celestial pin, so it was really cool. On her table numbers, she did pages from the book ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ It was just so cool to see somebody being able to get married using their own style and making their wedding a reflection of them and their love.”

“A lot of the old traditions are going away and younger generations are starting their own,” Mark added. “They're just basically doing their own thing.”

BAILIE AND PAYTON

Bailie and Payton Tranum are another La Bella Luna couple who also fell in love at a young age.

“We met at church camp. It was the summer of our eighth-grade year going into ninth grade, so we were only 14,” Bailie said. “It was love at first sight as you’d call it. We hung out the week that we were there and kind of grew a friendship and became best friends and then a month later he asked me to be his girlfriend. The rest is history.”

The two got married on April 23, 2022, at La Bella Luna.

“It started out raining that day and right when the ceremony started, the wind stopped, the sunshine was out and it was beautiful,” she said. “We've been planning this day since we were 14, and to have it be everything we’ve been dreaming of, it was amazing, beautiful, and just a miracle in itself.”

"When they walked down the aisle, she came out from upstairs and one of the most priceless photos is him looking at her and just holding back his emotion, and when I posted it on social media, it got a lot of attention,” Cleo said.

Bailie and Peyton are expecting boy/girl twins on April 1.

“I love that he loves me hard, along with his family and his friends and the way he puts others first,” Bailie said, on Peyton. “We’re complete opposite people so the whole ‘opposites attract’ thing is really true. We’ll have been together 10 years (dating) in July, so I love our fight to keep going because relationships aren’t easy.”

“They're gonna come back after their twins are born on their anniversary with the babies to do pictures,” Cleo added.

THE DESTINIE TRADITION

Cleo said if they have the date available, they will allow couples to come back on their anniversaries to have maternity pictures and family photos taken.

She said several couples have started leaving their cake topper in the freezer at La Bella Luna with the intention of coming back to eat it on their first anniversary as husband and wife.

"There have been really amazing precious couples, and it's cool to see them come back with their babies and do pictures or we've had two brides come and do their maternity photos," she said. "Any time any bride wants to return to do photos or celebrate their first anniversary, and they ask me how much we charge for that, I'm like, ‘Are you kidding? It's like our kids are coming home.’ We don't charge.”

She said the tradition of leaving the cake topper started with former bride Destinie Kindle-Palmer.

“Destinie started that; she’s the one who left her cake (topper) here,” Cleo said. “For the first six months she kept saying, ‘I’m gonna get it,’ but then eventually she goes, ‘Can we maybe just eat it there on our one-year anniversary?’ So, Destinie’s the one who started that tradition, and maybe we should name it after her — The Destinie Tradition.”

WHERE LOVE LIVES

It’s not always sunshine and roses working with their spouse, but Cleo and Mark always make sure to dance together at the end of every wedding.

“She's amazing in every way and very loving,” Mark said. “I always say she's the yin to my yang. It's a labor of love here and we do invest in our guests. We want everything to be as perfect as it can be, because it's your perfect day, and it's the rest of your life, so we go all out, just to make sure everything is perfect as it can be. We work hard and we love each other. We just try our best.”

“We've been really blessed on this journey, because we've met people that I think will be lifelong friends,” Cleo said. “Our big holiday is going to be St. Valentine's Day — the day of lovers — because we're in the business of love and we know where love lives.”

Mark added, “When we pull the rope together, we are unbeatable.”

For more information about La Bella Luna, visit labellalunatx.com online, or call 817-964-4073.