To be fully transparent, we took a risk booking Revel Run — a brand new venue that wasn’t even all the way completed when we toured. And wow, did our risk pay off! We got not onl...y a fully completed, gorgeous venue (yes, it was completed before our wedding!) and grounds, but also an entire staff dedicated to making our day the best it could be. The owners, Jim and Darlyn, actually got to know us — something we wouldn’t have gotten at any other venue. They were always available for walkthroughs or questions prior to the event. On the day of our wedding, we arrived at Revel Run to discover a major power outage in the entire area. While this was obviously less than ideal, we couldn’t have asked for more from Jim and Darlyn, who put in a 20-hour day, starting at 3:30am, first working tirelessly to find a generator and electrician, then, when the power luckily came back, staying throughout our entire wedding to ensure everything ran smoothly. For us, it was ideal to have a venue that had one designated caterer (cutting edge cuisine) and one designated decor rental company (Blue Sky Rentals) — it made our planning process easier. While not a deciding factor in selecting the venue, the owners made the decision shortly before our wedding to have the entire bar on tap included as a part of the open bar, rather than a limited selection of beers (in addition to our other selected drinks), which ended up being a huge hit with our guests. They were flexible with our wishes and open to our ideas and thoughts about set up, service, and so much else. The lakeside ceremony was beautiful, and having separate spaces for cocktail hour and dinner/dancing was a huge perk.
While it absolutely would not have changed our decision, a few notes that we learned from working with Revel Run. First, make sure you know who you are working with and get as much contact information as possible. Michael, the sales rep, initial point of contact, and sole contact when we were signing the contract, was amazing but works for Cutting Edge Cuisine (the caterer) and until we really navigated who was responsible for what (venue versus food) it caused some confusion. Clarify who can help with what and get phone numbers. Additionally, from the client side, things would have run much smoother if we had one designated person as a contact for Revel Run (probably the bride or groom) – between us, our parents, and our planner, we had too much “one person calls with a question and a different person gets the answer.” Third, make sure you understand exactly what your expected numbers will mean for layout. When we toured, we were told Revel Run could accommodate over 200 guests. While this is true, it would have meant either having dinner and dancing on separate floors or moving tables to create a dance floor after dining, neither of which would have worked for our vision. For us, with a wedding of about 125 guests, the space worked perfectly for tables, a large band, and a moderate sized dance floor. Had we gone over about 150, we would have had to reimagine space, which we did not realize when we first booked the venue. Finally, your contract spells out exactly what is included, but don’t assume there is anything else. There were a few things (such as bar glassware and coffee service) that we were surprised by because we incorrectly assumed they were included.
All that being said, these are only suggestions for a smoother experience – Revel Run was everything we could imagine, and we had the wedding of our dreams. We would do it again in a heartbeat!