The Riviera is exactly what I wanted from a wedding venue. A beautiful place with historical significance to the town.
Wow, is this building absolutely beautiful. I talked with H...eather throughout the planning process and she was incredibly helpful along the way. After using my initial floor plan as inspiration, she helped me to create the most beautiful room layout for the reception and then made the floor plan for the ceremony for me. So helpful and accommodating.
Some things to be aware of. There is no parking at The Riviera. We ended up buying spots in a parking lot across the street at The Cove. For any weekend where there’s a major event (we had our wedding the same night as the Christmas light parade) you’ll probably need to do a similar thing. Also, the room flip. The caterers are obviously amazing and can flip the room pretty quickly. But it’s still something you have to consider in your plans. And since it was 20° outside for our wedding, having our guests wander around for 40 minutes while the room switched around wasn’t an option. We ended up doing cocktail hour as the room was being flipped and I hear it all turned out fine, although I wasn't around to witness it. The Riv also doesn’t have any getting ready suites for Bride and Groom. Totally fine, just meant that we had to get ready at the hotel and walk over, which really wasn't a big deal for us. If hiding before the ceremony is important to you as the bride, I ended up sort of hiding by the elevator.
I did not have a wedding planner, and at times thinking about all of those things drove me crazy. I think if planning and logistics are not your strong suit, this is a good venue to have a wedding planner for. I love planning things, and even at times I wished I had a professional to help me out with the logistics.
The only complaint I have is about Gale, the lady who was there to supervise us in the beginning of the day. I didn’t directly have a poor experience with her as the bride, but she snapped at my dad when he went over with a question about two tables that were missing from the ceremony lay out where the tables were pushed off to the side to be moved after the ceremony to the center of the room. From what I heard back, she sort of was insinuating that it was my fault that the number of tables didn’t match up between the ceremony and reception floor plans, even though I was not the one who made the ceremony floor plan. Should I have caught the mistake? Probably. But it still rubbed me the wrong was that she would snap at the father of the bride like that.
Overall my night at The Riviera was absolutely fantastic and I wouldn’t have changed anything from the entire night! Thank you Heather for your guidance and helping make my dreams come true!
