Royal Melbourne Country Club

Our wedding was a dream– and exceeded our (high) expectations. A month later, we still have guests telling us it was one of the nicest weddings they’ve been to. We got the question, “how did you find this place?” multiple times! The newly renovated clubhouse is stunning, which is what initially sold us on the venue. It has “wow” factor from the moment you drive onto the property. The ballroom provided the perfect palette to create our vision. The terrace for cocktail hour overlooks the golf course. The room connected to the ballroom was a perfect setting for our photobooth and the ice cream cart we brought in. Megan, the coordinator, is wonderful to work with. We didn’t have a wedding planner and she made sure everything was executed to our expectation. On the day of, she was there to guide us and take us around to all of the pretty locations for pictures. Having great food was one of the most important parts of the wedding to us – and it was something we were anxious about having never previously attended a wedding at the venue. We offered filet, sea bass and risotto options to our guests. The filets were cooked to a perfect medium rare/medium temperature. Fish was really good. There were a few minor issues with the food – one table didn't receive salad dressing – it took multiple people to resolve the issue due to language barriers of the wait staff. A few of the people we’d noted had food sensitivities didn’t receive their adjusted meals. I wished we could’ve offered a chicken option – but will note that they are rigid on only letting you select 3 entrees and 1 must be vegetarian (or, if you don’t offer it and someone needs a vegetarian meal, you’ll be charged a per person price for every single guest, as we were told they’d have to bring in an entirely separate chef to be able to offer a 4th option.) Overall though, the food is solid. We toured many venues before deciding on RMCC– the one piece of feedback we do have – is they are less flexible than other venues. When we asked for certain things other places, the response always seemed to be “we could do that for you.” Unfortunately, RMCC was more rigid and we were met with “no” more than we would’ve liked. First, we wanted to offer Aperol Spritzes but were told it’s difficult to get the supplies for them. As you likely know, this is a popular drink and these supplies are readily available at local distributors. Secondly, we wanted to offer a certain beer as one of our “signature drinks”. We were met with the same reaction, even when we confirmed that Binny’s could provide a keg of this beer. It was a violation of the liquor license to bring it in ourselves, so we had to let it go. Secondly, the bar packages didn’t include the bride's dad’s favorite drink - Johnny Walker. The solution was they’d keep a bottle behind the bar - but charge him $15 per drink. From an experiential standpoint, when you’re already spending a lot of money at the venue, this seems like something they'd throw in. Lastly, the groomsmen went to RMCC to take their “getting ready” pictures. RMCC was strict on no photos on the golf course, which was the main reason they went to take pictures there. We understand safety precautions - but, per our photo/video vendors, this was a level of strictness they don’t often encounter other places. All in all, it was a magical event and we’d highly recommend RMCC. There are just a few small customer experience adjustments that could take it from great to exceptional.