I rely quite heavily on Yelp for making decisions about businesses, but like so many others, I don't contribute nearly enough to the community with my own reviews. After my wedding this past weekend, I felt I had to come on here and share my experience with our venue, Riverside Receptions. My wife and I were intent on having a unique wedding. We wanted something outdoorsy, and within a 200 mile radius of Detroit. We were also intent on finding a venue that would let us do things the way we wanted. So often, you see that the best venues make you use their caterer, place restrictions on how long the bar can be open, etc, and we wanted to avoid that to make sure we could throw the best party possible. We scoured the internet, and found virtually no options that met these criteria. When we came upon RR's website, we were obviously impressed by the pictures. However, we always assume that pictures are deceiving. So, when we visited the venue for the first time, we were astounded. Seriously, this is the most beautiful place you can imagine. The precision and care that went into the design of RR is mind blowing. Every detail is perfect - it's like Disney. John, the owner, was absolutely wonderful to work with. He let us do whatever we wanted, and provided tons of support in terms of pulling everything together. We had our set up at 10am, started the cocktail hour at 3pm, and didn't have to be out of the venue until midnight. How often can you find a wedding venue where the party is 9 hours long? And, since we were allowed to bring in our own bar and our own caterer, we were able to save thousands when compared to other venues. I've read other reviews online saying that RR is expensive. These reviewers are *insane*. You couldn't possibly find a venue as beautiful as this and spend less money. In the end, the comments from the guests ranged from "How the hell did you find this place?" to "This can't be real". Our goal was to wow people, and RR made that possible. Now, there's always a catch. For RR, it's that the venue is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. This is kind of cool, because you're totally isolated, but it does add headaches to the planning process. The closest hotels to the venue are in the middle of Three Rivers, about 10 miles away. I strongly recommend using the Super 8. I know what you're thinking: "Super 8? Sounds gross". But, it's actually quite nice, and much closer than some other hotels down in the Sturgis area. It's also very reasonable, as one would expect from a Super 8. Now, if your guests are drinking, you really need to have a solution for getting everyone to and from the venue safely. So, you'll have to spend some money to hire shuttles. The closet vendor we could find was in Kalamazoo. This added some cost to the event, but this was more than offset by the savings we realized on the caterer and bar. Moral of the story: For us, having our wedding at Riverside Receptions was the best decision we've ever made. Just visit the venue, and you'll understand why. read more

Riverside Receptions is by far one of the best wedding venues in Southwest Michigan. If you see a bad review of this venue, contact the owners and they will assure you that these reviews have many false statements in them. You will not be disappointed having your wedding here. read more

MILITARY FAMILIES BEWARE Our family was thrilled to reserve Riverside for our daughter's wedding which was scheduled for 6/29/13. We had great experiences talking with John who was prompt in responding to calls and e-mails as we planned our event. I was pleased and excited to have secured the venue. I had talked with several people who had attended weddings there and I knew our wedding would be all we had dreamed. Unfortunately, our experience ended badly. Two months before the wedding we learned the groom would be deployed to Afghanistan for 9 months. He was deployed July 1, 2013; the wedding was scheduled for June 29th. I immediately called John to inform him, giving two month's notice, he requested we send written notification regarding our changed circumstances. John responded in writing, reminding us of the details of our signed contract. If you consider Riverside, it is in your best interests to read the document carefully. The refund policy states, "$200. of the $1,000 deposit is refundable should you cancel 180 days before the scheduled event". It implies the cancellation is one's choice. In our case, it obviously was NOT, and NONE of our $1,000. was refunded. John further stated "some sort of discount may be possible should we rebook in the future". I wrote to him asking for specific details. I did not receive a reply until weeks later, and I spoke with Pat on the phone yesterday., July 18, 2013. Pat stated the July 1st deployment gave us enough time to have had the wedding as scheduled. Apparently such a brief timeframe had "been acceptable to other families." I asked Pat if she would want the focus of her child's wedding to be the painful separation of a dangerous deployment instead of a celebration. She then asked me why they should "lose income"... I too am self-employed, so I experience the "losses of income" and contingencies that arise from dealing with peoples' lives and circumstances. I know what is "legal" is not necessarily ethical or proper. In this situation, given the fact that 1% of the population protects the safety of the rest of us through their military service, some consideration would have been appropriate. If you choose Riverside, know you are dealing with business people who do and who will protect their own interests despite your painful circumstances. If you are a military family, DO NOT EXPECT ANY CONSIDERATION IN THE EVENT A DEPLOYMENT CHANGES YOUR PLANS. Dr. Colleen A. Thebert-Wright read more

This venue is absolutely gorgeous. My daughter and her fiance knew the moment they saw it that is was the perfect venue for the wedding. It lived up to their expectations in every way with its beauty. Unfortunately, we felt like we were being chaperoned at a middle school dance. John, the owner, hung around the entire evening, standing and sitting off to the side of the pavilion and watching everything we did. A couple of female guests even commented that they felt he was watching them and they felt very uncomfortable. He helped himself to food and cake without being invited. We had the venue scheduled until 11:00 to end the reception, and 12:00 for clean-up. Around 10:00, he began pushing us to start cleaning things up and have the DJ announce last call for drinks. The fathers finally talked to him and told him he needed to back off. He stated that it was his property and that basically, he felt he could do whatever he wanted. He said that he has had guests mistreat his property in the past and so now he takes this approach. We also own rental property, and know that there is a risk with people not treating the property respectfully. However, when you accept rent payment, that is a chance you must take. We are professional, respectful, responsible adults, and in no way were doing anything that required this invasion of privacy. I don't like leaving negative reviews, however I feel other families should be aware of this. It made an otherwise gorgeous, happy event quite uncomfortable. read more