Riviera - Questions before I book...

Hi Riviera Brides (Future and Former)!

My fiance and I wanted to check out 'one more venue' before deciding between our final two, and have now crossed those other two off our list and plan to go with the Riviera - we love it!! :)

Some Questions:

We are planning a July wedding on a Sunday and have the option of an afternoon (start time 11:30 ceremony) or evening (start time 6:30 ceremony).

Weather permitting, we want the wedding by the gazebo. With it being on the water, we're concerned about bugs/mosquitoes. Anyone notice whether bugs are a problem, and if so - are they more problematic during the afternoon or the evening hours?

While the bridal suite is very pretty, it seems on the small side. Do you plan to arrive at the hall already dressed?

If we go with the evening wedding, how much time prior to our wedding time are we allowed to show up?

Also, we will need a place to sign the Ketubah... any ideas of where to do this?

One more thing... has anyone seen the flowers that come with the package? Wondering if we'll want to upgrade...

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide!

~Deb

Hi Deb! I'm a fellow Riviera bride and I also love it there! I think I can answer most of your questions, so here goes:

Weather permitting, we want the wedding by the gazebo. With it being on the water, we're concerned about bugs/mosquitoes. Anyone notice whether bugs are a problem, and if so - are they more problematic during the afternoon or the evening hours?
--Ive been there several times during the day and didn't notice any bugs. Our ceremony is at 7pm, and being by the water I'm guessing there may be bugs. We are going to use citronella candles to hopefully keep them away. And at 6:30 in July it will still be light out, so hopefully that keeps them at bay.

While the bridal suite is very pretty, it seems on the small side. Do you plan to arrive at the hall already dressed?
--I am definitely arriving already dressed to the hall. The bridal suite is definitely not big enough for our whole BP to get dressed in. But we will hang out there beforehand and have some food before guests arrive

If we go with the evening wedding, how much time prior to our wedding time are we allowed to show up?
--You are only allowed to show up 45 minutes before the ceremony start time. They were fairly adament about this when I asked. Especially if there is an afternoon wedding before yours, they will need time to clean up and get everything ready.

Also, we will need a place to sign the Ketubah... any ideas of where to do this?
-- I would say the bridal suite would probably be the best option for this.

One more thing... has anyone seen the flowers that come with the package? Wondering if we'll want to upgrade...
--I think you will probably want to upgrade. The CPs that are included are small vases of roses. You don't have any wiggle room there. However, if you don't use their CPs in the ballroom, they will let you either use them for CH tables or they will credit you $8 per table.

HTH, let me know if you have any more questions

i got married there this past august.......it was not buggy at all............there are some pics in my album...........they allow you to arrive a half hour before the ceremony start time (if you have an early morning wedding you can try to talk them into a lil more time....I did)
if you have anymore question please feel free to fm me and I can also try to get you more pics and info
as far as the centerpieces you can either use the roses they give you or include them in an upgrade or i used a different florist and received a flower credit meaning that since i had 10 tables i got a certain amount off my total bill for each table i had)

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Posted by Chanwich

Hi Deb! I'm a fellow Riviera bride and I also love it there!

HTH, let me know if you have any more questions

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Hi there... if we book with them, we're likely going to be the day after yours - that'd make two of us hoping for beautiful weather that weekend!! :)

Will you be putting a 7pm start time on your invite, or will you have guests arrive earlier for champagne and a lite bite beforehand?

45 minutes??? That's not a lot of time, is it?!? Are you planning to get all of your formal photos done during that time?

As for the CPs, I figured they might be on the smaller side. Nice that they even offer them, though! Do you know if the flowers that are around the gazebo are supplied by them too?

I'm just glad we found a place that we both are really excited about! :)

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Posted by JennandAnthony

they allow you to arrive a half hour before the ceremony start time (if you have an early morning wedding you can try to talk them into a lil more time....I did)

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a half hour?! eeks... that's even worse than the 45 minutes - and i thought that was bad!! :-P

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Posted by Debbie2011

Hi there... if we book with them, we're likely going to be the day after yours - that'd make two of us hoping for beautiful weather that weekend!! :)

Will you be putting a 7pm start time on your invite, or will you have guests arrive earlier for champagne and a lite bite beforehand?

45 minutes??? That's not a lot of time, is it?!? Are you planning to get all of your formal photos done during that time?

As for the CPs, I figured they might be on the smaller side. Nice that they even offer them, though! Do you know if the flowers that are around the gazebo are supplied by them too?

I'm just glad we found a place that we both are really excited about! :)

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We will be putting 15 minutes earlier on our invites so that people don't show up late

and 45 mins beforehand is definitely not a lot of time, but we are doing most of our photos elsewhere. We will just be doing a few family formals on the water in that 45 minutes.

I don't think that the flowers around the gazebo are provided. I believe that is done through your florist, but I'm not 100% sure about that!