It is prudent to note that I am the type of person that ALWAYS leaves a review–positive and/or negative. I feel it is extremely important to note when something/someone excels and exceeds expectations and also when something/someone severely di...sappoints – and everything in between. I feel even more compelled to do so when such a large investment is in place as with a wedding/reception (one-shot once-in-a-lifetime event) and to make sure other brides-to-be’s do not have to go through what I did.
Here is our limited feedback from our wedding experience at the River Club of Mequon on Sat., October 11, 2014 (and all of this was provided to the venue in order to get any sort of an apology, rectification, etc. prior to leaving a review):
Pros:
Our wedding was BEAUTIFUL aesthetically.; Larry Kreiner, the event sales director, was one word: classy.;The food tasting experience was out of this world; the professionalism, taste and vibe to our tasting was phenomenal - all hosted by Patti.; The bridal suite for the women is extremely comfortable and convenient; Everything was extremely clean – from the hall, to the patio to the bathrooms.
Cons:
The kids meals did not go as paid for (no baby carrots during adult salads, and no applesauce);The meal service (entrees) did not go smoothly - my father, brother-in-law & 4 children did not receive their entrees until after others were given wedding cake;The bars (there were 3) were not staffed (and staff making comments about not wanting to be there) as paid for and it was embarrassing to see guests (including us) waiting with no drinks especially during the open bar hours!; it took almost 20 minutes to get a broken glass cleaned off of the dance floor (unfortunately, it happened) - staff was hard to come by;we simply requested corks to be saved from the night of for a memento craft project-still no corks delivered to us; The staff did not replenish my floral centerpieces with water, as requested (and basic event knowledge)-they had gone over 16 hours without some stems being in water!!!-I had my bridal party go water all of them the afternoon of the wedding. Flowers make the centerpieces that I had put so much effort, time and money into, and to see this simple request still on the back burner (or even forgotten about) was so disappointing and expensive!;We were never given back our cake plate from our wedding cake – that was made by the groom’s grandmother.;The banquet hall was only set up was for only 20 tables for our reception. 21 tables were on our layout/planned and I had to basically argue with the manager to have her make this right an hour before the wedding!;Our top tier of our wedding cake was saved, as requested. However, it was placed in a box too small for it, and smashed in all over (it looked like a child's first birthday smash cake AFTER the child ate off of it), and the top wasn't even all the way closed!;Our manager’s (Tina) "too good" attitude was such a let down and put such a bad vibe out to all the guests during our big day.;The AV (tech personnel) manager didn't show up to our planned meeting the week before the wedding and didn't even respond to our calls until almost a day later!
We had such high (and very realistic and reasonable) hopes for our overall decision we made in booking RCM;A beautiful venue can only go so far...