The Rickhouse Reviews

The Rickhouse was perfect for our wedding! The venue was beautiful, the staff incredible and everyone had a blast! Their recommendations were perfect to make our wedding magical!! Absolutely the best!!

After one of our non-profit's board member's wedding at The Rickhouse got canceled due to COVID, he donated the space to our non-profit to host our annual auction/fundraiser. IT WAS PERFECT! The wood floors, brick walls, magical lighting, and sunset over the back porch all imbued the event with warmth and good vibes. The GM and all staff were top notch and made it easy to create something so beautiful for the community.

We Went here for a Wedding/ Event show Case ( the best one so far ) The space itself was a greats size the staff was very attentive. The space is very versatile.

My husband and I visited four venues and easily decided that The Rickhouse was the one for us. It was so easy to customize everything so that we got exactly what we wanted. We're fairly minimalist when it comes to decor, so it was perfect to find a venue that didn't need much additional decor. We worked with Jessica up until she went on leave and Sarah took over for our wedding. The transition was seamless, and we were so happy with everything they did for us. We also loved that we got to share the AllSeated platform for our seating chart so that we were easily able to set things up how we wanted them and that they could easily view our floorplan and make any necessary adjustments. This was the perfect venue for our wedding, and we would recommend it to any engaged couple!

The Rickhouse was the only place we looked at for our ceremony and reception. Once we saw how beautiful the space was we were sold. The staff was friendly and super easy to work with, and our guest really loved the location and the experience.

This wedding venue is absolutely stunning! It was perfect for our downtown/modern wedding and the venue is so pretty on its own that it required little decoration. It has such a unique feel between the back patio overlooking the baseball field, to the glass wall overlooking the brewery. The bridal suite made for gorgeous pictures and the oversized chalk wall is such a fun addition. Not to mention the staff are so helpful and pleasant to work with! They never made me feel like I was bothering them and went out of their way to accommodate us on our special day. Absolutely amazing venue, even the best picture doesn’t do it justice. Would highly recommend!

he Rickhouse was such a fun venue to get married at. Sarah and Jessica Myers were so helpful and accommodating with any questions that my husband and I had. They were very responsive with our emails! Sarah was extremely helpful with helping us set up our ceremony and reception floor plans through all seated ( my husband is an engineer so he really enjoyed that program offered) ! The cocktail hour was so fun for the guests! There was a baseball game still playing so they were able to enjoy drinks and appetizers while watching the game!
The weather was fluctuating a lot the weekend we got married. It did get very hot in the venue at one point, but once it was brought to the managers attention they took care of it promptly!

All of my guests raved about how gorgeous the venue was. Its also a walkable location to downtown bars and hotels for guests staying in the area

We could NOT have envisioned a more perfect wedding venue! We had our ceremony and reception at The Rickhouse, and it was magical. The staff (Jessi and Sarah) were absolute rock stars throughout the whole wedding process. The venue is beyond gorgeous: with the perfect weather we had, we were able to open the doors to the patio and have guest mingle throughout. Their bartenders and alcohol selection(s) were fantastic and we just couldn't be happier with how everything went. I want to get married all over again just to party in this perfect space once more. We LOVE every ounce of The Rickhouse and it will forever be the most special place to us! XO

The Rickhouse staff are amazing! The venue is so warm and cozy. It has so many unique elements, literally every corner offers something different. It is a blank slate and can be turned into anything. If I had to do it over again a hundred times, The Rickhouse would be my wedding venue pick every time. What a dream.

This venue is hands-down, amazing! Our coordinator, Jessica, was so wonderful and prepared us well for our big day. Our guests could not stop raving on how beautiful the venue was and how close we were to many after-party options (Boxcar, Motorco, Fullsteam, etc...). If we got to do our big day all over again we'd definitely head back to The Rickhouse!

The Rickhouse is amazing! Not only is it such a beautiful and unique space, but the people there are wonderful. Sarah is a true gem and took care of our every question and request while we were preparing for the big day. We also happened to get married on that day of Hurricane Matthew, and the venue was more than prepared with alternate entrances, flexible staff, and lots of support! I couldn't recommend the Rickhouse enough!

Being from a Midwestern industrial town, and a bit less traditional, this venue was perfect for us. The cement flooring and exposed beams offset by the wood and copper walls give the space a very unique feel. You could go so many different ways with your décor and that’s one thing we fell in love with. With the patio for a cocktail hour after the ceremony, our guests were able to enjoy themselves while the catering team transformed the inside to a warm and welcoming reception. The patio was also wonderful for a breath of fresh air after dancing. It’s definitely a unique space and thoroughly enjoyed it! Sarah was very helpful throughout the process and we absolutely LOVED how everything turned out.

This was the first vendor that we chose, and it helped make the rest of our planning process that much easier! There are a lot of things that make this venue unique- but what attracted us the most was how little needed to be done to make this feel it was ready for a wedding. From the lighting to the dark wood, and undoubtedly the coolest feature: the view onto Durham's historic ballpark-- this place has it all. We were very pleased with our communication, and how the event was managed on our special day. Would highly recommend it!

The Rickhouse is a beautiful space that we picked mainly because we knew it wouldn't need much other decoration. We also really appreciated The Rickhouse's wide variety of vendor options for catering (rather than requiring you to use an in-house caterer). This was a big defining factor in helping us choose this space.

Sarah was kind enough to let us walk through the venue several times (including a few unannounced drop-ins) and offered lots of helpful suggestions each time. Jessica was great in helping us make sure our smaller guest count (~80) didn't get lost in the large space.

We held both our ceremony and reception here, using the back of the space and the patio as a holding space for guests, and the staff smoothly flipped everything in what felt like minutes. Our guests commented all night what a neat space it was, and we are thrilled we chose this spot for our wedding.

The Rickhouse was a wonderful space to have a wedding in Durham! When we walked into the space originally, my husband and I fell in love. We had both our ceremony and reception at The Rickhouse and absolutely loved it! The space has a really neat vibe and lends itself well to hosting your guests - ceremony inside, cocktail hour on the patio while the room is flipped, and back inside to a transformed room for the reception. We found that the space, with the urban features and ball park view, decorated itself but also allowed us to add our own personal touches through lighting and florals. Our guests still talk about how awesome the space is and how beautiful our wedding was. Sarah and Daniel were great to work with and great contacts when needing vendor recommendations and ideas. We wish we had a little more time and flexibility with the hours we could occupy the space. The weekend that we got married, there weren’t any other events at The Rickhouse, but we were still limited to our 8 hours. It can be difficult to get everything done in that timeframe! Overall, we would highly recommend The Rickhouse for an event space!

I cannot say enough good things about The Rickhouse. Originally we chose The Rickhouse for our reception only; however, due to some unseasonably chilly weather, we moved our ceremony inside to The Rickhouse as well. Sarah, the Director of Operations, and our point of contact, was integral in helping us figure out how to utilize the space for both the ceremony and reception - she even put together 3 ceremony options to help us visualize everything. The only thing to note is that it can sometimes take a while to hear back when you have a question; however, when you do hear back all of the necessary information is included in the email and everything is handled in a friendly, professional manner. If you're looking for a downtown Durham venue for a party or to get married, I would highly recommend The Rickhouse - the space is absolutely stunning and highly customizable to your specific needs and aesthetic.

Daniel and Sarah from The Rickhouse were awesome to work with for our March 2016 wedding! But lets start at the beginning - the venue. I needed a spot big enough to hold my huge Italian family. The venue was unique, spacious, included tables and chairs, overlooked the historic Durham Bulls ballpark, and had a great vibe. It was perfect for me and my husband! He especially loved how one whole glass wall of the venue overlooked The Rickhouse's distillery.

In the months leading up to the big day, Daniel and Sarah both accommodated tours and meetings and gave valuable insight to the best way to layout our wedding event. I really liked the resources they provided for planning - like AllSeated.com for the floor layout. The agreement/payment platform was user friendly and well organized.

The day of the wedding went off without a hitch. My guests were all able to find parking nearby and loved the intimacy and uniqueness of the spot. We had room for two bars, four food stations, a dance floor, round tables, cocktail tables, and even three little "living room" setups from a local vintage rental company (shoutout to Greenhouse Picker Sisters!!)

Reasonably priced, super lovely location, great guest service, A++!

The Rickhouse was the perfect venue for my husband and I to get married in! It's laid back, open floor plan, overlooking the baseball field and attached to a distillery, and right in the heart of downtown Durham - we loved the industrial/farmhouse feel. We loved working with Sarah - she was always extremely nice and professional. The one thing we did not like was how long it took to get a response back from them, and when we did, it was generally not a complete answer - we were very glad we had a day-of-coordinator to work with them to get everything together the few weeks before the wedding (which is something the Rickhouse requires you to have, so it works out!) The alcohol is provided in house and was VERY reasonable prices for open bar, and we liked how we could pick all our other vendors to keep the price within our budget. Overall, we had a very pleasant experience and would highly recommend to anyone looking for a beautiful, laid back venue!

There are a lot of venues in the triangle that have a similar aesthetic to the Rickhouse (brick, industrial esque converted wearhouse), but we chose it for a couple of advantages it has over other similar looking spaces. (1) It had the capacity for our estimated 200-250 guests, (2) there's a lot of flexibility in choosing your own vendors, (3) it as a beautiful outdoor space that is lovely for cocktail hour but not so big that guests want to spend all their time out there and (4) it's walking distance to the hotels downtown and several bars that people could hang out in during downtime between the rehearsal and reception.

This is a newer venue so they are still working somethings out. They need to work on lighting (but we rented some beautiful ones so it worked out ok) and responsiveness. Of the probably ten times I called the phone there over the course of a year, no one ever picked it up. But my reception was beautiful and Sarah was lovely to deal with. Overall a great space run by really nice people and a great place to have an event.

So I did my research on this venue and asked around for those who has used them before, including a large company who had their holiday party there. Everyone was consistent in their summation- great venue, excellent on the day of, will be silent and hard to get ahold of before that. So I will say they were consistent to what people had said about them and their delivery. There also seemed to be alot of change over in who I took a tour with, signed the contract with and then who I worked with leading up to the event. On the final walk-through before my event the event manager? asked that I not have a sparkler exit. This was after I discussed it on my initial tour, they had pictures on their website and it was not in the contract. My best advice would be to make sure your planner has worked events here before, because she was a great liaison for me. The venue would never respond to my emails or calls but always would to my wedding planner. Again I expected this lack of communication and was willing to deal with it for the venue.

Pros: Sunday pricing, many vendors have worked with the venue before, super close to downtown Durham hotels, great outdoor space overlooking original Durham bulls field, great space for ceremony & reception in one.

Cons: Non-responsive to communication. Asked for exception to their own contract. Did not have suitable chairs for a horah (other venues has these specifically).

All in all, we were very happy with our experience with the Rickhouse for our July wedding. Much like some other reviewers have mentioned, there are pros and cons to this venue, as there are with any, but the pros won out in the end.
Pros: large space; beautiful venue with great view off the back terrace, visually stunning; bridal suite is beautifully done; tables and chairs are included in the rental price; they have a good relationship with many of the vendors we used so that made coordination easier
Cons: parking is limited and somewhat confusing; alcohol must be purchased through the venue and is executed by the owners of Tyler's Taproom, alcohol pricing is confusing and somewhat high; the rental timeframe is short (4 hours +2 hrs for setup and 1 for breakdown); it was difficult to get in touch with the staff by phone; they are still a relatively new venue so they were regularly making changes to the infrastructure between when we signed the contract and our actual event; the staff had a personality clash with my parents early on but once we came to an understanding about our expectations, things went forward smoothly

When searching for wedding venues we were looking for something rustic, affordable and large enough to hold about 180 people. The venue always fit our vision and was the absolute best place for our ceremony and flip for the reception.
Quality of Service - the owner and coordinator could use some improvement. There were many confusing elements to the planning process when working with them. The beer and wine had to be purchased through the Rickhouse. It was a very messy process.. from no organization of what they do/don't offer to what actually showed up was not what we had asked for (some was, some wasn't). Our guests were not impacted as they didn't know, so that was helpful!
Responsiveness - At times it was very difficult to get ahold of them. When you did, they were willing to spend the time with you to get what you needed.
Professionalism - To start, Daniel and Sarah are very nice people! The venue is about a year old and it is obvious that some fine tuning would be helpful especially when working in the wedding industry.
Value - I believe the initial value for renting the Rickhouse is well worth the money. The problem is you don't get the venue for the entire day so you have to pay to add on additional hours, which can add up quickly. You also cannot bring your own alcohol and the price they charge for the alcohol is outrageous.
Flexibility - We had a lot of confusion about what was stated in emails and what would happen. While this was frustrating, Sarah was willing to work with me in order to accommodate for the many changes along the way.

The venue itself is really great although I would recommend it for weddings with more than 175 guests attending. We had around 130 guests and the dance floor felt empty (I didn't factor the impact that the lure of the outside patio would have on the male guests).

My experiences dealing with the owners/employees of the Rickhouse were less than ideal. It got to the point that I would dread having to reach out to them to ask them something because I knew the answer would either be 1) No or 2) Yes and you have to go through us or someone we approve and the cost is $$$. If I had to do it over, I would consider a different venue.

As previous reviewers have mentioned, there is a lot of room for improvement. I want to start by saying that the space is gorgeous and the venue owner, Daniel, is very nice. However, the type/style is a dime a dozen in the triangle.
Pros: the ballpark views/lights, the capacity of the venue, variety in the preferred vendors.
Cons: The alcohol is insanely expensive and the consensus from my guests were that the bartenders were pretty bad. Sarah, the venue manager, was very unresponsive to emails and phone calls by myself and my other vendors throughout the planning process, they do not have a list of formal policies that they could provide me with and not all of their policies were listed in my contract, Sarah was a bit offensive during our final walk-through and said some unsavory things towards me, my husband, and other vendors, and the parking lots that they recommend are less than ideal. To expand on the last point, one of my guests had their car broken into. When the police arrived, the officer told them that they routinely respond to vehicular break-in calls during event nights and recommended that the couple write a negative review. Additionally, in a separate parking lot, that was recommended by Sarah, a guest almost received a parking ticket as he was not (apparently) not allowed to park there according to the cop. The guest showed confirmed that the parking lot was the correct one according to the map that Sarah provided me with, but he was instructed to move his car or he would still be ticketed.