Dubuque, IA, USA < change city >

Response from the couple:
I was very happy with our wedding at the Grand River Center. JoAnn Lavenz is the wedding coordinator there and she is extremely efficient and helpful. We used rooms 4/5/6 which accomodates 280 guests and has the large window overlooking the river. This allowed us the hallway outside for cocktail hour, which was a beautiful place for our guests to enjoy the river and the outside patio area. We actually got married in the glass river room on the top level which was unbelievable. There were no hidden fees in my experience. The room minimums are clearly defined and JoAnn will give you a packet with the descriptions and prices of everything you could possibly need. The hotel rooms at the Grand Harbor were the only thing I was not happy about. The Grand River Center and the Grand Harbor are owned/managed by different companies. They have a relationship, but it is not seamless. We asked to get a block of rooms 9 months before our wedding and were told that the hotel had already filled their quota of blocked rooms for that weekend so that we could not guarantee our guests any rooms. This was not acceptable and we communicated this to JoAnn who got us 10 rooms blocked for our weekend at a discounted rate. This ended up not being a big problem in the grand scheme of things. We warned our guests to book early. Even after the blocked rooms ran out, the Grand Harbor still gave many of our guests the discounted rate when they called the hotel directly. All of our guests were extremely satisfied with the rooms and service and the families loved the waterpark for the kids. There is a stipulation that you must pay for one night of each unused room in the block. My advice would be not to block more than you can fill. Start with 10 and see how quickly they fill up. Communicate to your family and wedding party to book early. Once the rooms run out, tell guests to ask for the discounted rate anyway. I used our wedding website to communicate this information. We also had a block of rooms at the Holiday Inn which is a short drive or walk away. You do not have to pay for unused rooms there. Overall, I was very happy with our wedding at the Grand River Center. The only downfalls were the stress over hotel rooms and the fact that there were 5 or 6 wedding receptions in the facility on my wedding day. They had things completely under control and I never felt like I wasn't important, but it may bother your daughter to see so many other brides on her wedding day. Part of the reason there were so many receptions that day was because the Julien was closed for renovations. They stuck a lot of brides who had contracts with no venue when they decided to remodel. The Grand River Center did a lot of those brides favors by opening up rooms for their receptions. Our guests were so impressed with the Grand River Center's facilities and the quality of the reception. I would do it there again in a heartbeat. I would also recommend Inside Decor for decorating, Steve's Ace for flowers, Milroy's for tuxes, and Scorpio Productions for a DJ. I would not recommend Brides n' Weddings in Manchester for wedding attire or Patticakes for wedding cake. I hope this helps. Congratulations!