Booking with bear brook valley is so easy! And staff is very flexible and helpful!

We went for a visit and right away they poured us a glass of wine or beer. The grounds are beautiful, everything was explained thoroughly, and the presentation was exquisite. We booked right on the spot. After we booked they immediately got in touch with us and communication has been open ever since. I look forward to working with them

We booked our wedding with Rock Island Lake Club for 9/18/2020. Given COVID, our wedding reception was going to be held in a tented outdoor space, lakeside; however, the week of the wedding, the owners offered us an option to switch our reception to their sister location, Bear Brook Valley due to expected low temperatures on our wedding day and being in an outdoor space. They explained how Bear Brook Valley was newly renovated to allow indoor/outdoor access throughout the reception space and increased comfort for our wedding guests. We were initially wary of changing the location of our venue the week-of (due to logistics and fear of guests declining to attend since the reception would no longer be fully outdoors), but we were also concerned about how a tented reception outdoors could be chilly for our guests if we kept the reception as planned. Ultimately, we decided to take the owners up on their offer to switch to the renovated space at Bear Brook as we were assured this would be a ... Read moregreat option for our guests. We met the owners and Bear Brook staff on 9/17, saw the renovations and incredible space, and were SO excited to host our event at Bear Brook the following day. We had zero doubts that our wedding would be incredible and fully trusted the staff to accommodate our wedding details as originally planned at Rock Island. Even still, they beyond exceeded our expectations on our wedding day. From the very moment our wedding party arrived on 9/18 to the very end of the reception, we were treated like royalty. The service provides was seamless and top-notch. Our guests had an awesome time and followed up with us the next day about how great our event was. Truly, we couldn’t have been happier with how our day went and are so grateful to the owners and staff for having our day run so smoothly. We have been raving about our wedding ever since and encourage all couples to trust that the renovations and indoor/outdoor access is a great option! Our only hope is that we will attend a future wedding at Bear Brook or Rock Island as guests ourselves because we had such an incredible time! Thank you to Rock Island/Bear Brook for making our wedding day the best day of our lives.

Our wedding at Bear Brook Valley was a dream come true. The beauty of the venue speaks for itself, but the staff truly go above and beyond to make your day special. Leading up to our wedding day, every phone call and email was answered promptly and thoroughly which put us at ease knowing we were in good hands. My husband and I didn't have to worry about a thing on the day of the wedding or even the day after since the staff packed up all of our items and decor. The entire day was unbelievably organized and everything ran according to plan. Juana, our Maître D', was absolutely incredible, and we are so thankful for her. She hyped us up, kept the drinks flowing, and was ready and willing to help with anything we needed. Bear Brook Valley's rustic chic vibe, delicious food, stunning grounds, and spacious getting ready suites made it our dream venue. We really couldn't have asked for more, and we hope to attend a wedding here as guests one day!

The staff was great!! Everyone made sure the guests were content, staff was always after me making sure i was eating and staying hydrated.. have no bad things to say!! I keep going around telling family and friends to get married there so i can relive the night 😂

I am a professional florist (ANDERSON FLOWERS, METUCHEN, NJ) and I just did my first wedding at Bear Brook Valley - and the people there are so nice to work with. And - That surely translates into a great experience for the Bride, Groom, Their Families and Friends. Look forward to being back there

My husband and I could not be more thrilled with the decision to get married at Bear Brook Valley. Initially we were supposed to get married at their sister venue but due to the pandemic we had to postpone and have a micro-wedding at a much later date. The staff offered us the option to hold our wedding at Bear Brook and we accepted. It was the BEST choice we ever made. The staff was fantastic. They were so attentive. They made us feel safe, secure and so comfortable. Our guests are still raving about the food, picturesque grounds and stunning interior. The staff at Rock Island and Bear Brook are second to none. They go above and beyond to help you even when in a pinch. Our wedding day was everything we dreamed even in these uncertain circumstances because of Bear Brook!

I don't think Bear Brook Valley needs any more 5 star reviews, but here goes. This is hands down the most amazing place you could imagine to have your wedding. It is absolutely stunning! The attention to detail to making this place exclusively a wedding venue is extraordinary. Not a single square inch of the venue is wasted; it was designed to host a wedding from start to finish. Planning with them was so simple! You have your one point of contact the entire time and they handle everything. No worries about rentals, overwhelming options, and hiring multiple different companies. Bear Brook is your venue, caterer, bartender, rental supply, cake supplier (included in contract price but you order at provided bakery), set up and tear down crew, and even day of coordinator! The amount that you are saving by having BBV provide all of this for you is priceless! Like, do you know how much an independent day of coordinator costs? Oh, and their prices are inclusive of sales tax and they don't cha... Read morerge a service fee. Venues we thought were more affordable really weren't after you add on that tax and 22% gratuities. I love the honestly and integrity behind their no hidden fee pricing and their "leave gratuities if you feel moved to" tipping philosophy. At BBV you are a part of their family. Even though they do so many weddings a year, it's always like you are their top priority. For our wedding, we dropped off our decor 2 days in advance and had the place to ourselves with Becca, the day of coordinator, and Juanna the Maitre D, and were able to set some stuff up with them and they had no problem with me meticulously telling them how I wanted everything. They were happy to oblige! After the wedding, we left my husband's truck in the parking lot and they had it packed up ready to go with all our decor the next day. Like, what venue does that?! That's just a little peak into the service the staff will provide to make you feel like royalty on your special day. In all, BBV is just the perfect modern wedding venue. It's rustic yet timelessly elegant. You can get ready in the beautiful Silo Suite that has everything you need, or the Woodford Lounge with all the games your groom will love. You can get married on site and have a perfectly seamless transition from ceremony, to cocktail hour, to reception; guests are never bouncing back and forth between locations. You have an abundant of stunning locations for photos so you have all different kinds of backdrops without ever having to leave the venue. You get a flexible and accommodating staff that says things like "well we've never done that before, but that sounds great, let's do it!" or "we reduced the price of [an upgrade] in our package this year so I credited your account the [few hundred dollar] difference!" And you get the job of 6 different vendors all rolled up into one easy package, no complex tiers to weigh options. You will not regret booking Bear Brook. That's just the honest truth :)

My fiancé and I looked at about 10 places when we decided to visit Bear Brook. As soon as we walked onto the property we knew we loved the venue. Then meeting all of the staff, seeing the bridal and groomsmen suites, and the gorgeous rustic romantic decor sold us. Our wedding coordinator made everything idiot-proof for us: reminding us about payments, timelines for vendors, etc. We recently had our wedding there and people have not stopped complimenting us about their experience at Bear Brook. They loved the food, the staff, and the overall ambiance of the place. We are so thrilled with how our wedding turned out, thanks to Bear Brook!

absolutely stay away from this place. I’ll keep this short and sweet, the venue is run poorly and understaffed and it shows. As a bride I never felt they were there to make my day less stressful and they never went “ above and beyond” it’s more like bare minimum. The amount this venue costs you would think they would be attentive but they were the opposite of that and almost avoided me all night because of the things going wrong at the venue. I could go on and on about specific details and things that were just absurdly horrible but really how I was treated is why I’m writing this. As a bride to help out anyone into making this huge decision to trust a venue and to feel special your day PLEASE don’t go here they are after the money and to crank out weddings, not here to make your day memorable.

This venue does not care about it's clients, especially during this covid 19 pandemic. Their only focus is their bottom line. They are not accomdating or flexible with the postponement/ cancellations of upcoming wedding that are a direct result of government regulations and uncertainty due to the pandemic.

This place has very poor business practices. I'll start with the good- We chose this venue because it is gorgeous inside and out. The staff the day of the wedding was great. The food choices, drink pairings, and bar were fantastic. The food is good, not great, but the options and display make up for this in value. The bad- From day 1 I felt lied to. During the initial tour they promise you so many thigs that just aren't true, such as "48 beers on tap" and you can "choose your favorite beer". This was later deemed false. They also implied we could utilize a golf cart on site- again, this was false as we had to inquire numerous times the day of our wedding until finally someone brought it out for us yet didn't even let us drive it. The list goes on...The handling of the COVID-19 situation was most disappointing. We were pressured into choosing a postponement date within 24 hours (not enough time to check with all vendors), and were only given the option of weekdays in the winter despite ... Read morepaying for a weekend in the summer. They then felt the need to tell us that they had to spend $10,000 on a tent for the wedding to be outdoors, and that they already put a $5,000 deposit on it for our wedding date without our agreement to continue with that date. They further implied that they would lower the minimum if we continued with the wedding, stating that some weddings were having "as little as 100 guests" and they were "working with them". This was false hope as they didn't lower our minimum anywhere near this, and they tried to say they would "let" us allow for our vendors to count towards plates, even though we still pay for them. They also said that we couldn't take our $5k+ worth of plates to go as its "against code", yet they sell an upgrade for to-go food, so how does that make sense? They made us reschedule out entire day and told us our band couldn't play past 10pm. They promised us they could move the piano outdoors and then the day before our wedding they said they couldn't- we had to change our band around because of this. Also they charge for "uplighting", which is them turning on the lights. You better believe they have these lights on during their tours and they don't tell you it's an upgrade, then they try to sell you this upgrade later on. One staff member told us they were working on making the uplighting free. We ended up getting it free because we added on a late-night to-go food station. Funny thing though is that because the wedding was outdoor the uplighting was now useless, yet I had to ask what we were getting in return, you know, because it's $500 worth of value. We asked for the groom's lounge (~$700 value), their response was that the groom's lounge was too much money, then they offered us a $100 s'more station instead. So essentially they were not ok with giving us $200 but had no issue taking $400 from us. We ended up paying for the groom's lounge anyway- it was not good. When we arrived there was no proper explanation as to what was included and there wasn't much of a service of any kind. The food came very late and we didn't know where or how to set up the lawn games. Basically this upgrade was a ripoff. Overall I am very disgusted with how the admins/management treated us by taking advantage of us in a vulnerable situation and lying to our face. I also don't appreciate them complaining to us about their problems resulting from a lack of good business management (why wouldn't you invest in a outdoor tent from day 1?). I hate to say it because this place had so much potential, but I would NOT recommend this venue.

I am writing this review to alert people of the unethically business practices of the Bear Brook Valley Wedding venue in Newton, NJ. They are callous and only care about their bottom line. They are unaccommodating and not flexible in anyway shape or form. They don't care about clients. This is by far the worst experience I've had with a vendor. When awareness of the pandemic first became prominent, I reached out to my contact at the venue Heather Truesdale in March, to ask about what their procedures were on handling upcoming events during these unprecedented times. My concerns were dismissed due to my wedding being in July, with no consideration for the other facets that goes into executing an event of this magnitude (sending out invitations, dress fittings, food tasting, other vendors, etc). Hi reached out to the venue again in April after they began "rebooking" March and April dates. I was told as of right now they were only rebooking through May. I reached out again in April expres... Read moresing my frustrations, but again I was dismissed and the reason being, that they were "waiting on answers from the state as to when [they] can or cannot host". However, at this point the governor of NJ placed a ban on all large gatherings until further notice and to date that hasn't been lifted. So to me that clearly states that you cannot host until further notice. Nonetheless, yesterday May 7th I received an email from Heather stating that the venue plans on staying open for July, (even though on their website it states they are currently closed) and I had 24hrs to decide whether to keep my date and put a tentative date on hold or completely rebook to a new date based on the currently available dates. I paid almost the full balance for a peak month and weekend day wedding date, to only have the winter season or Thursday's options to choose from within 24hrs. I asked for more time to think about my options and that was denied. I asked to be better accommodated financially given that July weddings are a peak month and pay higher than most months and that was denied. The best they could offer was 5% off our subtotal which is a mere $1,600. At this point we've made a deposit of about $25,000. This is what they consider fair. We eventually got to the point where I asked for a full refund, giving that we couldn't come to a mutual agreement to rebook and the uncertainty of the venue being able to perform the service they are obligated to in our contracted July date. I was then directed to their legal them, as according to them it would be a cancellation on my part. I never reached out to cancel or mentioned anything about cancellations. I requested a full refund based on the fact that we couldn't come to a mutual agreement on rebooking a new date and on the CDC, government regulations, the environment of uncertainty and unpredictability that we should not hold any large gatherings until further notice. I spoke with Steven A Loeb from the legal team who was very unhelpful and unprofessional. He stated that he would recommend that Bear Brook Valley terminate our contract. I asked him on what basis, he said he doesn't represent me. So I asked if that meant he couldn't explain on what basis our contract would be terminated? He repeated himself and eventually we got no where. I reached back out to Heather to inform her of how my call went with Steven and to let her know at this point I can't make a decision. We went back and forth a bit for her to basically say if I keep my July contracted date and they are unable to perform the venue will keep my full deposit based on their force majeure. Given the recent COVID-19 pandemic and shelter in place mandates across the United States, it is not ethical for vendors and venues to capitalize on such misfortune of human beings. It's not our choice to cancel.

The lead up to the wedding was a disaster. The wedding day performance was a 5/5. My situation was very different given the fact that my wedding had to be postponed to a later date because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The communication from Bear Brook leading up to the wedding day was very poor. I had to change my date from a Friday in May to a Thursday in November. The prices stayed the same and no one honored a Thursday night price. I had 3 wedding coordinators since the day I booked which was back in 2018. This made the communication so much more challenging. My husband and I were very understanding through the process as we know they are a business trying to make their money but at the same time Bear Brook Valley had 95% of our money when we had to postpone our wedding back in March. It felt like we were just another check and money being deposited and didn't feel that they were just as understanding as us. I thought they could've been more accommodating during the process, b... Read moreut i know everyone, even Bear Brook, was trying to figure out everything given the unprecedented circumstances. I thought their approach during the lead up to the wedding was unprofessional. We met with our wedding coordinator, at the time, and the owner Perry to go over some of our concerns and to review the contract. We came to an agreement and my husband and i left the meeting feeling better. Two weeks later we had a different wedding coordinator starting. When I informed her of our meeting and the discussion we had with Perry she wanted to double check with him. He denied our meeting outcome and told our wedding coordinator that "he doesn't remember having that conversation." We were appalled. We kept telling ourselves that we just want to get through our wedding and at this point we were only a few weeks away and to be honest we were mentally drained from the wedding planning. It was a tough decision for every bride getting married whether or not to keep their date or to postpone. My husband and I postponed and finally got married November 5, 2020. I do not regret having our wedding during a Pandemic. Bear Brook made it happen and it was everything I could've asked for and more! The day of the wedding was AMAZING. The staff was on point! They decorated the venue exactly how I wanted, Juana the maitre d, was awesome to work with. She knows how to run a wedding. I wish she was the person responding to my e-mails from the beginning. She knows all of the ins and outs of the venue. The staff were accommodating the day of. My Uncle brought his old Ford pickup truck and we decorated it with Fall decor (pumpkins, mums, hay, etc. ) Bear Brook was accommodating and let us bring the truck over the day before and set it up. Anything I needed the day of they did for me and made sure I had. Overall I was pleased with the venue on my wedding day. The food was delicious and the event ran very smoothly. The staff are very nice and will make sure you are satisfied with everything the day of. My recommendation for future brides is to read your contract and KNOW YOUR CONTRACT. Make sure there are things written in your contract that you are okay with signing and agreeing to. Bear Brook will absolutely give you the wedding of your dreams.