Monte Rio Community Center

We held a wedding at the Monte Rio Community Center in August 2014 and it was splendid. A beautiful setting, we held the ceremony in the park next to the center under a beautiful tree. Dawn is an excellent coordinator and everything went smoothly. It’s a very affordable location that gives you full autonomy over picking your own caterer, buying your own drinks, etc. There’s a great backyard area for cocktails, a bar/​kitchen area, and the local vendors suggested by Dawn worked out splendidly. Unlike in an earlier review, we didn’t have any problems with the neighbors, it sounds like maybe that neighbor doesn’t live there anymore. You can also have the local theater across the street put up a congratulations sign! Plenty of parking too! Monte Rio is a great place to have a wedding — it’s a low-​key vacation area, and if guests stay there (I recommend The Village Inn) everything is in walking distance or a couple minute drive so you don’t need to provide shuttles or worry about people drinking then driving. There’s also a meadow that can be rented out for the wedding, about a ten minute walk from the community center. We didn’t end up using the meadow since it was less shaded during the midday when we were having our wedding but it’d be beautiful for a late afternoon/​evening ceremony. We’ll remember the day for the rest of our lives!

I got married here in August 2012. First off, Dawn is not a great communicator, She misrepresented the MRCC sound and alcohol policies and overcomplicated the contract process. Second, there is a crazy meth head that lives next door, and hates weddings. He played his drums as loud as possible, badly to the Rolling Stones, throughout the entire ceremony, and threatened our friends and family with violence. MRCC staff did not warn us of this possibility, and did very little to explain or fix the situation. When we confronted MRCC with this gross negligence, they brushed it off.
At least the pictures and the party weren’t ruined.

Last month I got married here and was/​am happy with everything throughout my planning process. They are a local non-​profit so I enjoyed supporting the community. With it being non-​profit they have a wonderful lady named Dawn that works part time to help schedule/​plan events there.
I had searched all throughout sonoma county and surrounding areas for an affordable center that I could have my own cater, my own photographer, my own alcohol and when I found this website (per recommendation of a friend) I knew this would be the place, pending the groom-to-be’s approval.
It is a bit tucked away so our first visit we past it, so I gave very specific directions to my guests and they all easily found it.
I received so many compliments about the location, the drive out there and how beautiful it was and just felt so comfortable.
We had the ceremony on the grass patio with a bit of concern about the noise of driving traffic and when it came to it, it actually wasn’t an issue at all. No one seemed to notice. We had the dining part of the reception inside and with it’s neutral décor it really allowed me to transform it into my vision and it looked amazing. We did not want to pay extra to have a dance floor brought inside so we opted to dance outside on the patio which ended up being perfect because those that didn’t want to dance could stay inside and mingle without the loud music but still be able to view the party going on outside.
Literally everyone was happy, it was an amazing day and I was so happy with the Monte Rio Community Center as my venue.
As an additional cute idea, the movie theater will display a message on it’s sign for only $ 10. So I had them put «Congrats Chris and Terra» which made for a cute photo opt and something for people to talk about when they arrived. (a good signal for guests to know they are in the right place).