celebrations at the reservoir

I was thrilled. If I could do it over again, I would do it all the same. The Wedding Planner was great. The food was to die for & was the talk of the night. Chef Carolyn made many promises and kept every single one of them. Food is a big part of the wedding and I was thoroughly pleased. Thanks again!

My husband and I fell in love with Celebrations when we visited. It was wonderful to have a venue close to Richmond but still on the water. We were at the Manor House, which is set up above the reservoir. The venue was beautiful, and went off without a hitch. Part of the package with Celebrations is a wedding coordinator. We didn't hire a wedding planner - no need for us really - but having the coordinator there (we had Heather, she was fantastic) made the site worth it by itself. Heather was amazing in the pre-planning (deciding on all those little details) as well as on the day. She made it so easy to be "in the moment" because I knew that she was taking care of everything. It was just another "turn key" characteristic about Celebrations - wedding coordinator (day-of), food, beverages, rentals, tent, reception, ceremony site all rolled into one. Though it is definitely not on the cheap end, I would say it was a good value.

The physical setting is great, and the tent is surprisingly roomy and can be lovely (Manor House). The wedding coordinator that they provide is an absolute lifesaver -- even though she'd heard questions and worries like ours dozens of times, she was always kind, helpful and just so competent. The day-of coordination took ALL the stress off -- can't imagine what it would have been like to try to do it ourselves. And the food was absolutely SPECTACULAR! Really top notch. Re. the site: pros are that you have this lovely venue looking over the water amidst trees, the coordinating and food are fantastic, you can have candles on your tables and sparklers at the end of the night (it's in Powhatan, one of the few places near RIC that allows sparklers), and there's a great space for the bride/maids to get ready. Cons: you have to have a DJ (no bands allowed because of noise ordinances) we needed to hire a bus for the under 30 crowd to make sure everyone got home safely -- long way out on twisty roads, and the Manor House building itself is, well, not very much like a "manor" -- kind of like an overgrown Brady Bunch house with columns in the front. Luckily no one really notices or remembers the house because the action all takes place on the lawn or in the tent. The tent holds a lot of people comfortably (we were 153, seated dinner) with a great dance floor space.

Beautiful venue and the planners are helpful and wonderful to work with.

I recently had my wedding at Celebrations. The food was wonderful, all of our guests loved it. The venue is beautiful but everything is extremely overpriced. My wedding planner was very flighty and forgot things often, my mother was doing the majority of setting up on our wedding day because the planner could not be found. Everything was very rushed at the end, we had to find our planner and remind her that it was time for our last dance and exit. Wedding planners need to be very detail oriented and on top of things, mine was not. If I could go back I would elope.

I know everyone says there is no such thing as a "perfect" wedding day, but that is exactly what it was, PERFECT, PERFECT in every way possible. The staff jumped through hoops to make sure my guests were happy, and that I was well taken care of on my big day. My event coordinator had planned everything to a "t" that I had asked for, and was two steps ahead of me on everything else. The food was everything that we had hoped for and was the talk of the night. The night flowed unbelievably smoothly. If there was something I could re-do, I wouldn't, it was nothing less than perfect. I rate Celebrations at the Reservoir with an A++++!

Beautiful venue. Great in-house caterer. Nice owner and staff. Way over-priced. Not well organized. Poor communication skills. Double check everything you are told verbally.

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!

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.

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.

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!