Rockwood Manor Retreats & Events — Attraction in Maryland

Wow, where to start with Rockwood. My spouse and I got married here in Spring of 2025 and every experience with the staff and at the venue were awesome from the start. Lucy deserves SO MUCH praise for her hospitality, responsiveness, and professionalism. Literally other vendors who had worked with Rockwood in the past agreed with us when we told them Lucy is the sweetest and we were in good hands with her! Ryan, her manager (?), was also so great to work with! PROSPECTING When booking, she was very upfront about availability for our date, and how quickly we should move to secure it, knowing the specific date was special to us but never ever pushy! She allowed us multiple tours, knowing that most of our important loved ones were out of town folks who couldn’t all be there for one main tour. Staff also invited us to several vendor fairs and open house opportunities for the venue, which made being a DIY couple and seeing the space multiple times super helpful! Lucy showed us exactly what to expect from the process up until wedding day, from making floor plans to adding one of the suites to our contract. PRICING This is such a great reason to book here because I wholly believe you won’t find a better price for what you get in the DMV. The location is gorgeous, and staff were working to update things aesthetically throughout the time we booked with them. All and all, we paid maybe 3k for a honeymoon suite and the venue on a holiday weekend (including MoCo resident discount). Quite literally my only regret is to not have booked additional hours, since you get an 8 hour base time slot for a day event. However, the price does include tables and chairs which was a HUGE plus. EXPERIENCE The location is great, not too far from hotels in downtown Bethesda or other areas. We had the ceremony on-site which brought down transportation costs for us and guests. You get so much beautiful nature since the grounds are upkept by the same gardeners and groundskeepers as Brookside Garden and it can feel secluded and private even though there are neighborhoods surrounding the property. The bridal suite we booked was nice for myself and my bridal party to use the morning of as well. There are other cottages onsite that can be used for out of town VIPs or bridal parties to make getting ready easier (I had a party of 5 and that would probably be a limit unless we had reserved more space). COMMUNICATION The management staff is so very professional! We enjoyed every interaction with them, and knew of all else went wrong on wedding day- at least we had them to rely on. Lucy was great and gracious when we had issues with other vendors and even did follow-up for vendor required documents on her end. She was a great advocate for us and made sure all was set to prep for smooth wedding day.

TLDR; great pricing and location, grounds are great and beautiful, and staff is exceedingly professional. Lucy for Queen...

Rockwood Manor worked great for our on budget small 60 guest. It is a little red brick manor with tranquil scenery of green and seasonal flowers. Their outdoor ceremony is beautiful but we had to go with the indoor ceremony due to the rain. It worked out well. Luckily it stopped later and allowed us to take advantage of their pretty exterior. Due to logistics of our caterer, we did the whole ceremony and party time in the main dining room. We were more into singing then dancing so it worked out great. We used the fireplace area for stage & sweetheart table and still be able to fit 9 tables (plus DJ) in the main area of the room. Since they don't limit caterers, we allowed to pick an affordable option with amazing food (shoutout to Classic Catering). We booked the Carolyn cottage for storage the day before and staying the night of the wedding and it helped a lot since both of us were exhausted after the wedding. Overall a value for money option. However, there are a few downsides that I might want to reconsider if I did it again: (1) It is pretty bare bones and will require extra efforts for decoration. The dining room has a large empty bookshelf that needs a lot of small stuffs to fill it up. (2) Their timeframe is only 8 hours. Extra hours are not cheap. Combined with (1), it became a real stress for me to plan and prepare for the day (my coordinator was a superwomen to pull things together in less than 2 hours). I think it will be a really attractive venue if they make some effort in renovation by adding some decor and extend the duration of...

I recently had the privilege of officiating a wedding for a wonderful couple at this beautiful venue. Regrettably, this experience was marred by extremely unpleasant service. The venue manager at the event was not only unhelpful but seemed to actively obstruct the smooth execution of the event. It was particularly disheartening to feel a lack of acceptance and respect for our customs, which was embarrassing in front of the non-Jewish family of the groom, who were shocked to witness such hostility. One example: Despite all necessary documents being submitted in advance, the venue manager decided at the very start of the event that she was not satisfied with the approvals provided. Crucially, she denied access to the wine needed for the traditional Jewish wedding canopy ceremony, which includes a blessing over wine. Her lack of concern and obstructive behavior significantly delayed the ceremony. The manager’s attitude was not just terrible; it was outright offensive. It was a deeply...