Rebecca Taylor

Review of Riverlife Brisbane

We recently had our wedding at Riverlife and it wa...

We recently had our wedding at Riverlife and it was such a negative and stressful experience for me and my husband. During the 8 month lead up to our wedding we were assigned three different wedding coordinators.

The first change was at my request. We were assigned Isabelle who we signed the agreement and paid our deposit with. The moment we paid our holding fee her 'customer service' was polarising. Everything we originally discussed as part of our vision now had additional cost associated to move ahead. We discussed our vision at length and at no point during the sales process did she mention that it cost extra for pretty much everything we wanted. Simple things like having BYO available for guest while the photos are done, bringing in our own cheese table etc.

In addition to their deceptive conduct Isabelle would take weeks to respond, she was inflexible with her availability to meet with us and even showed up to one meeting in thongs and rushed us through because 'she needed to get to a party boat and start drinking'. We were then palmed off to Dean who was actually very good. Dean left the company two weeks out from our wedding and we were tossed to Jess. Throughout the lead up to our event all of these staff members said that there was no other events on our night. FYI- if there other events you will be battling against there music and speeches. They carried on this lie until the notice period to cancel (4 weeks out) lapsed and then informed us that there was three other weddings in other marquees and there was no backup if it rains.

On the day of our event Jess assured us Isabelle would be on site to put into place our hired furniture which was being delivered at 9am. Of course Isabelle let us down. Guests were arriving at 2:30 pm and Jess didn't even arrive to set up until 11:00 am. If it wasn't for my lovely brother who worked from 10am until 2pm setting up our wedding and directing the florist it would never have come together. In addition to this our BYO was mis-managed and all of our beer ran out by 6pm. Our package didn't even start until 4:30pm I don't know how this was possible. Jess wouldn't let us bring in more BYO beer but rather forced us to purchase from Riverlife. Convenient considering Isabelle said they make most of their money of alcohol sales.

Our 'dedicated co-coordinator' Jess left our event at 6pm without letting us know and there was no alternate coordinator assigned to manage anything. The wait staff were rude and rushed our food around without serving people. We had hungry and insulted guests. They threw around our hired furniture at the end of the night causing damage in a bid to make us get out so they could pack up.

Do not have your event here. It will cause you much heartache and disappointment. Jess also claims to be a lawyer which was a blatant scare tactic so you don't bother to fight back when your unhappy with the appalling service they have provided you. I wish we never booked this place.