The Lodge at Richfield Heritage Preserve

We had our reception at the Lodge this June. My husband and I had visited the park before not knowing it was a wedding venue. I came across the lodge in a bridal FB group COMMENT. Thank goodness I found our needle in a haystack. The Lodge is all wooden/rustic; perfect for our vibe. The venue pretty much comes with tables and chairs, you have to bring in everything yourself- but you do get a vendor list to choose from. It was a lot of work but we were able to bring our vision to life including a cold sparks machine and a beer canoe. Shari was great to work with when we had questions. OH ALSO the park just opened up Amity house for rent. It is breathtaking! You can do day or night rentals. We did a day rental for getting ready. I wasn’t worried about bad weather because if we couldn’t be outside we had this beautiful house to take pictures in! The whole experience was everything I could have asked for.

My wedding at the Lodge was absolutely beautiful. From the ceremony in front of the water, to the reception, it was perfect. We rented the Amity House for day use for the girls to get ready in, and it was perfect for what we needed. The ceremony space is gorgeous, and the lodge for the reception was a big size. Sherri was amazing from the start when we toured all the way until our wedding night ended. She was informative and very helpful. There is a large kitchen area for the vendors, as well as a fire pit that we used to make s’mores. The back patio allowed us to have a mobile bar which was a great hit for our guests. I wanted a space where we could bring our own vendors in and did not have to use the venues preferred vendors. The lodge allowed us to use all of our own vendors and it was basically like a blank slate for me to be able to have my vision come to life. I would recommend the Lodge to any brides wanting an outdoorsy wedding with an intimate feel.

When deciding what kind of venue we wanted we knew it had to have elements of outdoors and nature. We toured the venue with Shari and fell in love. We were okay with the venue only providing the physical space, tables, and chairs. This helped keep in line with our budget. Some things to keep in mind: You are responsible for set up/tear down of ceremony seating. The venue doesn’t have any staff other than Shari, the event consultant. If there is a wedding the day before your wedding you may not be able to rehearse at the venue. It would be helpful to have rehearsals scheduled prior to the week of the weddings and that a confirmed rental calendar should be given out to help coordinate a time for rehearsals since there are other events and multiple weddings in one weekend. When touring the venue we were told that golf carts are provided to help guests get down to the lake. This was wonderful as my husband has a prosthetic leg and we had elderly family members attending. Use of the golf carts was not brought up until morning of while we were setting up our decor. The golf carts are only available for a certain time as an employee park volunteer drives them and works a specific scheduled shift. Confirming and coordinating use of the golf carts (cart really, we only had one) ahead of time would have been helpful and alleviated any day of stress. Tours to prospective couples can be given during your time. We were not made aware of this till morning of during set up and were caught off guard by this as we weren't asked if this was okay - we were told it would be happening. People were coming in while we were setting up and while we were getting ready in the bridal suite. Because you are given “exclusive access” you should have the option to say no to tours being given during your rented time. There is a $150 cleaning fee that is added on and you are responsible for taking out all garbage at the end of the night. Our caterers thankfully handled the garbage in the kitchen. However, upon arrival to the venue at 9am for set up, my father noticed there were lemon and lime wedges scattered on the back patio and around the side doors of the catering entrance. He picked them up himself and disposed of them. There were also empty water bottles and some kind of stake left down at the lake ceremony space as well as small decor pieces left from the night before. Heritage Preserve is a public park and anyone can access the grounds but we had some folks try to come in and use the restroom (there are public restrooms right by the trail) and had some guys ask to fish the lake. Having some kind of signage that there is an event would be helpful so that those paying $4,000 don't feel encroached upon and patrons can be mindful that the space is being rented. Having a sign near the gate stating “Lodge Event from 9am to midnight” would be helpful. We were married one of the hottest days in June. The thermostats are locked (understandable) but never were adjusted once dancing started. Many of our guests left early because of the heat. It was 77 in the Lodge once dancing started. If The Lodge continues to book as rapidly as it does Richfield should consider hiring someone as a wedding coordinator in addition to Shari the event consultant. We like that we can come back and visit during public access hours (while being mindful of weddings and events) and that the rental fee helps support the park.

This is a great place for a wedding if you are looking for a nice outdoorsy venue. We had our ceremony outside overlooking the lake and it was absolutely beautiful. There are a variety of nice spots for photos featuring the lake, trees, paths in the woods, and old brick buildings. The lodge there was a great spot for the reception, and tables and chairs were included and set up for us. Although we could hire whatever vendors we wanted, they did have some recommendations. We chose to hire from that list and we were extremely happy with them all. Shari, the event consultant, was good to work with and even helped me set up and decorate a cake cutting table at the last minute when I hadn’t planned for one! We got so many compliments from our guests about the location being really nice. They even have a fire pit next to the lodge, but unfortunately we didn’t get to enjoy it because it rained by the end of the evening.