celebrations at the reservoir

A++++++, I cannot say enough great things about Lori and all the staff at Celebrations at the Reservoir. Our wedding was just as we pictured. They were extremely flexible with me, as I wanted to get married at one of their reception sites instead of a ceremony site. Together we figured out how to make the wedding and the reception beautiful. I could not have asked for anything more!

I loved Celebrations from the beginning. It's on the Swift Creek Reservoir and the setting is absolutely amazing. They have three ceremony locations and three reception sites, and each is extremely unique. They include an on-site coordinator, which was very helpful but we only met a few times and I wish they had had a few more coordinators (they have two) so that they could spend more time with each couple. But my husband is a marine and due to deployment schedules we had to move our date up from May 2009 to October 2008, and they were extremely willing to work with us with only a few months notice. Celebrations was great, but I think it was a little overpriced. The in-house caterer (Morris Hicks) is wonderful and our guests raved about the food, and the in-house florist (Sharon) is so sweet. Our guests raved about how beautiful the wedding was, and I would change nothing if I had it to do over again.

The wedding was beautiful and all our guests had a wonderful time. That being said, there are a few things that I wish we had known ahead of time. We had a bit of a mixed bag. The venue is beautiful. We used the Landing (giant dock) as the ceremony site and the Pool Pavilion for the reception. Alyssa was great and open to all our ideas. Like others who have reviewed, we sometimes had a lag in communications..but things were handled. There are things to keep in mind. If you use the pool pavilion, make sure that all of your guests can sit on the first floor. Anyone that you seat in the loft will NOT be able to see or interact with the main group. Also, the DJ and dance floor are out by the pool. Make sure your DJ brings a setup that includes some sort of speaker for the inside. It was hard to hear the announcements. When they say the reception must end by 11pm, they mean it. When the dinner was cleared, they took everything. Folks went back later for more cake and there were no plates or silverware available. At the end of our event, they were stripping tables at 10:30 and wanted us out of the building immediately after 11pm. Also, ask for a receipt for every payment you make. They do not give you one as a matter of course, and it would have come in handy when we had a difference of opinion on payment amounts. The parking is VERY confusing. We would still have chosen Celebrations, but would have changed how we handled some things!

Celebrations was a beautiful location and we were very happy with it for our wedding. It is fairly pricey though, we ended up having to scrimp on a lot of other things because we chose Celebrations. They provided a wedding coordinator and a mistress of ceremonies, which was quite helpful for me (since I did all the planning myself), although in many cases I felt that I would have been better off just being able to speak directly with the chef or the caterer, etc. They were also a bit difficult to get in touch with at times, which got frustrating. At times they seemed fairly stuck on "the way things should be", which I didn't like because my husband and I are more about making it fun and enjoyable than making it proper, but they always let me have my way without too much fuss, and they were able to give good suggestions as to ways that I could improve upon my own ideas. The only complaint I had was that the catering staff didn't seem to know exactly what it was they were serving (I had a vegetarian meat substitute, but the servers told my vegetarian guests it was an organic meat, so they didn't get to eat it). I would recommend Celebrations as a venue though, since the setting is beautiful and the staff really were professional and helpful. Just give yourself plenty of time to work through all the details with them.

This place is absolutely beautiful! We had the best time at our wedding. However, it is waaaay over priced. We paid over $7000 just for the site fees- which included nothing! Just beware.... Also, our event coordinator was very unorganized and it kinda made the day a little hectic.