Romantic Wedding at Riverside on the Potomac

The visuals of this Riverside on the Potomac wedding are straight romance. But the party was loaded with tons of cute bucolic details. Welcome to the story of a record-breaking wedding for the Bellwether Events team!

I am in love with the dusty rose bridesmaid gowns and the romantic florals. Riverside’s arch is a great canvas for floral swags, as you can see below. Please don’t skimp on decorating this arch. Bonus points if your floral designer can repurpose those items at your wedding reception!

Dusty Rose Wedding Ceremony

Romantic Portraits at Riverside on the Potomac

First, I wanted to show off a couple of portraits since we did not do a first look. There are so many fantastic photo ops at Riverside for newlyweds and wedding party groups. Cocktail hour was in the Long Gallery, of course. Don’t miss the koozie wedding favors that reference R&C’s first date!

Bucolic Wedding Reception at Riverside

Ok, I’ve buried the lede long enough. How was this a record-breaking wedding for us? It was the largest, by far, that we have done at Riverside on the Potomac, and the largest we have done in decades at any venue. There were 274 people at this wedding. This shocked us since they invited just 300, and we were planning on 240. This is a real outlier regarding RSVP acceptance rates. Sweet R&C wanted to use more farm tables for guest seating, but they aren’t as space-efficient as round tables – especially at scale. Meaning we had to maximize the space and use which tables made the most sense. If you keep scrolling, we do share the final floor plan.

I don’t want you to miss the guest book – a wooden bench that guests signed and R&C now have on their porch at home. What a creative idea!

Some notes on this floor plan. We had to set up the buffets outside of the barn – but that area is covered, so it was safe from potential rain. The remote bar just had beer and wine, which takes up less space for service. The existing Riverside bar served liquor as well. At Riverside, your DJ (or band) has to go on the wall shown below so that the speakers face a certain way.

Our biggest lesson learned was that we needed more restrooms for 274 people. There were lines at the restrooms all night, making for a poor guest experience. An investment of $1500 to bring in an extra trailer would have been wise.

We have worked at Riverside a ton. Here is a favorite Fall ROTP wedding of ours and a favorite Spring Riverside wedding of ours. I also did a round-up of all our past Riverside wedding floor plans.

Venue: Riverside on the Potomac // Photo: Sincerely, The Kitchens // Catering: Simply Fresh // Entertainment: Shew-sical // Hair: Alex Kasey // Make Up: Beauty by Aubrey // Flowers: J. Morris