River Park Wisconsin Reviews
Reviews
4.2 out of 5 rating
4.2 out of 5 rating
12 Reviews
84% recommend it
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User1646074 Sent on 06/04/2014Grafton Dells River Park was amazing! They made our wedding day an incredible event. The owners were very easy going and able to accommodate our last minute requests. They were helpful during set up and take down and on the day of the wedding the ensured that everything ran smoothly. The park itself is gorgeous and our guests loved being outdoors. Our pictures are wonderful and we only have happy memories from the day! -
User2300860 Sent on 09/04/2015We fell in love with this venue right away. For those looking for an outdoor area fro your wedding this is the place. The outdoor setting is beautiful and the interior has wonderful charm, and doesn't need to be decorated to much. They have a wide selection of meal options. We had chicken, tenderloin and bbq ribs! (Thank you Saz's) We loved that the beer was included in the price of the meal so it wasn't a surprise at the end of the day. Having the dance floor on the outdoor patio was unique and amazing. Nancy and crew were a pleasure to work with and we barely knew they were there on the wedding day. She always got back to me with answers to my questions and was helpful when trying to figure out decorations and other details. We were able to borrow their vases and candle holders, which was nice and convenient. Our guests loved it and our wedding day could not have been more perfect! Thank you Grafton Dells! -
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Alexandra H. Sent on 07/02/2019Beautiful but with some problems
I want to emphasize that my wedding day was absolutely stunning and perfect. The food was amazing, the venue was beautiful by the river, and the staff was SO nice and accommodating. However, the professionalism from the owners the day before and the day after my wedding were entirely disappointing.
One of the perks of choosing River Park for your wedding venue though includes the opportunity to set up decorations the day before and take them down the day after your wedding. Throughout the process leading up to our special day, Nancy was extremely flexible with my requests and everything seemed doable. She even went out of her way to incorporate drink tickets for us. She was very responsive and always available to answer any questions, which was helpful because I coordinated everything myself.
However, I was surprised and disappointed when we arrived to set up our decorations by the complete lack of flexibility and professionalism shown. Even though I had sent a picture detailing the exact tables and layout we needed for set up, nothing was arranged correctly. The space was packed with extra tables and chairs, stacked and shoved against the walls. The overall affect was visually cluttered and chaotic. My wedding party, family, and myself had to take out EVERY SINGLE set of tables and chairs and rearrange them correctly inside. Although we paid for an extra hour of set up and were willing to do everything ourselves, Nancy and Steve were very unpleasant, and it seemed as though everything was an inconvenience to them. They made it very clear that we, “had to get our garbage (decorations) out the day after our wedding.” (To clarify, our decorations were beautiful and classic—including glass vases with floating candles and string lights. Several of the staff on the day of the wedding said they had never seen the venue look so beautiful.)
While every answer leading up to our wedding was, “yes,” or, “we can make this work with some compromises,” on the day of set up, the owners were less than helpful and answered, “no” to almost every request. After the reception, they were telling our parents and family that they needed to start taking decorations down at 11 p.m. while everyone was in their eveningwear. This was unacceptable given that our contract stated we would tear down all decorations the next day (after the wedding).
On the wedding day, be warned. They do provide a “space” to get ready, but this space is basically a screen that comes up to your mid chest (I’m 5’8” and had to hide behind by bridesmaids as I stepped into my gown). The bathroom stalls are small as well, so there is pretty much nowhere to get ready.
When family arrived to take down our decorations the next day, the owners told them they had to rearrange every table and set up the chairs for the next weekend’s wedding. (Although we were happy to take down our own decorations and bring all the extra tables and chairs inside, I found it very rude that they expected us to set up for someone else’s wedding when the next customer would need to rearrange tables and chairs anyway.) Weddings are already stressful, and I would have expected a certain caliber of professionalism, especially when we are spending so much money on a particular venue.
Like I said, I have nothing but great things to say for the day of our wedding. I just feel the need to let others know and be aware of the challenges they will face if they chose this venue. It is absolutely worth it, if you are willing to put up with the problems I have mentioned.
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Elizabeth Sent on 07/21/2010I want to start off by saying I had an absolutely perfect wedding day. The food was great, the venue was beautiful, and everyone had the time of their lives; however, all of this was after a horrible experience with the owner and contact person of Grafton Dells' River Park. She was absolutely impossible to deal with. Luckily she assigned another staff member to assist me throughout the evening. My first meeting with the owner went extremely well and both my fiance and I loved the venue and her. But after that meeting things went downhill very fast. She would never answer any of my questions through email, so I had to call her for the smallest inquiry. She had some discrepancies on her dinner price list, but refused to listen to my questions and just asserted that all prices were final. When I thought I found a small miscalculation on the final bill and sent an email show the mistake, she called me, screamed at me over the phone that everything was correct and that I better not write the check for the wrong amount, then hung up the phone before she let me talk or ask my question about the bill. It turned out that she had charged me tax on the gratuity charge but didn't show that on the bill. If we would have been able to talk then it would have been a very easy fix. On the day of the wedding, I had my bridesmaids play interference and intercept her if she tried to talk to me. I got through the whole day never talking to her and my day couldn't have gone better. Her staff were professional and courteous, it is just a shame that she made my planning experience extremely stressful and traumatic. The prices were very reasonable, the best I could find in SE Wisconsin. The building looks like an old German cabin, but is cool and spacious. The "dressing room" that was set up for my bridesmaids and me was a complete joke. It was a 4 foot high folding screen set up in the back corner of the room. We used it as a storage space because everyone changed in the bathroom because the screen provided no privacy. The venue is beautiful, but be ready for some big headaches. -
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Angela Sent on 07/10/2017Although our wedding was absolutely AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL at the Grafton Dells, it really only was that way because of the time and energy WE put into it; not the owners of the Grafton Dells themselves. Most of the time they gave off the impression that it was an inconvenience to have us there which was unfortunate. My fiance and I and my family literally had to re-set up EVERY SINGLE TABLE inside the venue in order to make it work to fit everyone and the morning of my wedding when there wasn't a gift table set up the owner looked at me and said "You figure it out." Needless to say I was less than impressed by the owner's professionalism and willingness to help considering the amount of money you pay for this venue. And this isn't the first time I've heard this type of review of the owner's personality; friends of ours were married there last year and said they had the exact same experience. Unfortunately she should not be running this type of business.
Overall Grafton Dells is an amazing venue BUT only if YOU are willing to put the work in on it yourself.
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