BOOK THIS VENUE!
We recently had our wedding here in August, and everything was perfect! What sold us on Riverside (besides the breathtaking backdrop) was having the property for the whole weekend (Friday-Sunday). Our biggest fear with find...ing a venue, was we would put all this money into something that felt like a drive through wedding. Riverside is the furthest from that. When you're there, you can't help but feel calm. The accommodations on property made it so convenient for our friends and family to enjoy the weekend. I will be completely honest and tell you this venue was the most expensive we looked at, but for all the amenities that come with the venue, you are definitely getting your money's worth.
If we were rating just the coordinator, Alli, she would get 10 stars. I guarantee if you emailed her right now, she would email you back within 10 minutes. She absolutely knocks it out of the park. My biggest flaw is not allowing myself to delegate anything to anyone (not even my bridesmaids), but Alli made it so easy to hand everything off the weekend of the wedding. Relaxing is not necessarily a strong suite of mine, but I was drinking, having fun, and not worrying about anyone else at the wedding, because I knew she had it under control. The vendors she recommended not only were extremely professional, but also felt like family (Trish at Pittsfield Garden center I'm talking about you).
At first, we were disappointed we were forced to go with a specific caterer, in fear we might not like the food (more me than my husband, I can be a picky eater, I know my flaws). However, the second we sat down to taste everything we were in awe. Vermont Farms Catering is hands down the BEST wedding food my friends and family have ever had, even a month later, everyone is still talking about that gnocchi. So trust in Riverside's ability to pick the finest caterer, because they 100% did!
I have only one criticism to mention. Not being able to have our dogs stay on property was a huge let down. When we first toured we were told they always have dogs in the ceremonies on site, and technically you're not supposed to keep them with you, but people have had them stay in the past. We were totally okay with paying the $500 cleaning fee so we could have them with us. We had two venues we had draw up contracts for us. The reason we went with Riverside was because we had a full weekend and we could have our dogs. Unfortunately, after signing a contract, we met with our coordinator for the first time, who was confused when we said our dogs would stay with us. She said absolutely no dogs can stay on property. Now we knew going into it "technically they couldn't stay," but the way it was presented, we were made to feel like it would be okay. In the future, I would suggest not even mentioning dogs have stayed in the past, and making sure clients are fully aware of that before they sign a contract.
With that being said, we are still giving Riverside 5 stars because at the end of the day, our wedding weekend was AMAZING! Even though we were disappointed we couldn't have our dogs stay on property, Alli and her team did a fantastic job making them feel welcome while they were on site and ensured everything was perfect. We will remember this day forever, and Alli is a huge part of that. Thank you Alli and Riverside Farm for the picture perfect wedding.