Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center

We had the perfect wedding at the perfect location, could not have asked for a better support staff who were flexible, interactive throughout the time the location was booked. The day went perfectly without any hiccups. I would thoroughly recommend this venue and our vendor to anyone:-)

This is the perfect venue! I searched for months for a venue that would provide ceremony and reception services. My husband and I met at Maryland and graduated from Maryland in 2005 and when my father suggested the Alumni Center, we visited and immediately fell in love with the venue. It is beautiful and even more so with the bells and whistles provided by the caterer, florist and lighting company on the big day! The staff at the Alumni center couldn't be more wonderful. There was actually a second staff member the day of my wedding and it was extremely comforting to know that they were willing to go above and beyond on our special day!! I would definitely recommend newly engaged couples, especially with ties to Maryland, to check our the Alumni Center. It is gorgeous and the staff is excellent!!

Working with the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center made wedding planning easy! Angela was very responsive and flexible, even when I had to make last minute changes. She always answered all my questions and was very professional the day of. The space looked beautiful on the day of, and she was there to make sure everything and everyone was right where it was supposed to be. I would recommend the Alumni Center to anyone who wants to get married in a beautiful and spacious place that has an extremely helpful staff!

Wonderful Venue and unbeatable prices.

We first worked with Dakia & then with Angela. They made everything easy from every last detail!!! Our Reception was everything we wanted it to be!The Alumni Center is the perfect place for wedding receptions. All of our pictures were so elegant. I would recommend the Riggs Center to every bride!

We had our wedding reception at the Samuel Riggs Alumni Center and it was PERFECT! From day 1, Angela was so helpful in answering questions (and immediately) about anything and everything! She let us see the space numerous times just so we could be sure it was "the one". Since no one had an event planned the day before our wedding she let us in early to do the set up which was really helpful. On the day of everything ran smoothly and she did everything she could to assist. The best part was we used the garden area for cocktail hour instead of the hall and people couldn't stop talking about it for days! It was beautiful and we had perfect weather for it. Everything turned out great and we couldn't be happier!

The Riggs Alumni Center was a great venue for our wedding reception this past July! The staff is very professional and attentive and the venue is beautiful! Our guests were very impressed with the space and it was very convenient being located close to the beltway. I would definitely recommend the Riggs Alumni Center to other brides!

Perfect location/service with very reasonable price. I give them perfect 5 stars!

The event staff here is GREAT!!!!!! We worked with Dakia Kelly Adams, she was always responsive, she took notes, and she knew her place. She asked all the right questions, she probed to see what we wanted. She didn't try to force her ideas on us, however, she did offer suggestions to make the day better. She answers all calls and emails very promptly. She kept a smile throughout the whole process. Even when we went back and forth on things she was there to make the transition smooth..... THe event space was lovely, we got married in the garden which was beautiful. There was no need for decorations which also saved us money. THe garden decorated itself, and the staff at MD set it up butifully. It comfortably held 230 people. The reception area was marvelous. The walls are such that it will work with any color scheme. If you have lighting this is the perfect location.....We were pleased with everything. If we were to do it all again this would be the place, and we would work with Dakia Kelly Adams.

We wanted to personally thank you for making our day special. We really appreciate that you were willing to help us out on a lot of things including working with our schedule for the rehearsal (although that was a game night) and being creative with the place card setting (which I mistakenly left at home). Although it was not expected of you to help with those issues, we are grateful that you were there to do so. Also, my husband really enjoyed that you allowed the game to be on during the reception. So once again, thanks for making it possible. We truly value your service and everything you did for us

We are so happy with how everything went, it was absolutely perfect! It was so special for us to be able to have both our ceremony and our reception on campus at our alma mater, where we first met. The venue is so gorgeous, it is such a beautiful backdrop for photos! We got so many compliments on how beautiful the Alumni Center was, especially from our fellow alumni (who hadn't seen it, as it was built after we graduated in 2004). Everyone was very impressed! Dakia was extremely professional and pleasant to work with. She was very responsive and patient, both throughout the planning process and on the day of our wedding. It's great to have the person you've worked with all along be your day-of contact. Also, because Riggs uses required caterers, everything flows very smoothly because the caterer and the Riggs staff are familiar with each other and the venue. The event can get a little pricey, compared to other venues, because the Alumni Association is responsible for providing the alcohol, so I feel like we paid more than if we had the event somewhere else, but for us, the venue was so special that it did not matter to us. And, I would say that it is worth any premium you may pay at Riggs to have the entire building to yourself the day of your event - to not have other events sharing the bathroom, for example, or really ANY of the facilities (the beautiful rotunda, the gardens, etc.) made our event much more intimate and classy. One lesson learned, if you are considering having your reception here - I would strongly recommend getting a lighting vendor. I didn't realize until too late in the planning process that we would have to get outside lighting vendors, and I did not like how bright the room remained during the dancing part of the evening - it was basically the same lighting that we had throughout dinner. But, that is a small issue to an otherwise perfect day! I think that Riggs is unmatched for those that want to have their entire wedding on campus/in College Park (our ceremony was in Memorial Chapel on campus). I would certainly recommend the Alumni Center to anyone planning any event, especially a wedding!

Excellent! Ms. Roberts did a wonderful job! Our hopes were to use the garden for our ceremony, but weather did not cooperate. Staff at Riggs would not let the day be any less special and took care of all our needs. Being a UMD Alum, I guess I should not expect anything less, but their commitment to service was second to none. The facility is absolutely gorgeous, AND affordable!

The Alumni Center was an amazing venue that all of our guests raved over. A large glassed atrium started the evening with cocktails, followed by a spacious room with a more than ample dance floor to celebrate the event. Our band was pleased with the space and stage provided and our caterer said the event coordinator was fantastic to work with and the facility made it a pleasure to cook and serve. We were always able to get in touch with our event coordinator and she had great ideas to supplement ours. They were extremely professional, hard working, pleasant, fun and engaging. We would book a future event here without hesitation.

excellent facility and staff. Always available to answer our questions and flexible enough to work out th eplan and layout that would fit our needs.

My big day was none other than the storm of the decade 12/19/09 and the staff especially the coordinator working in concert with the caterer made my day extra special for my husband and I. We were blanketed with snow and very beautiful people celebrating our special day. The staff was tops for braving the weather and putting their special touches to the day. I would surely plan an event at this venue again. It was beautiful nestled in the snow..

My wedding was amazing! I appreciate all the emails and visits that we had. The staff was very helpful and friendly. I would do it again there.

Excellent service and beautiful location.

Jessica Roberts was the BEST thing that happened to my husband and I. She was all that a bride and groom could ask for. She was extremely flexiable, patient and professional. I appreciate the outstanding effort she put into making our day EXTRA special.

My husband and I graduated from UMD in 2008, and since UMD is where we met, we wanted to have our wedding there, complete with ceremony in Memorial Chapel on campus. We were assigned to work with Heather Gleason. At first, I was hesitant because she was a new event planner (she told us ours was her first wedding); she did make a few mistakes (telling us we could have certain things at the reception and then telling us later that it wasn't possible). However, after working with her, I am glad she handled our wedding. No matter how many times I emailed or called her to talk about the reception, she always answered all of my questions. She was always pleasant to work with and never showed a bad attitude (which I am grateful for since I definitely sent her a million emails about everything). One thing that I was happy about was her ability to guide us with the bar situation. We wanted to stay on budget, but didn't want to be tacky and have a cash bar or drink tickets. Heather was able to work with us to have an open bar, but tailored it to our needs (we had a Sunday wedding and knew folks weren't trying to get wasted like we did in our college days, LOL). With her help, we were able to stay exactly on budget. As far as value goes, I felt like Riggs really nit picked on every detail. For example, there is a very large, ugly portrait of Mr. Riggs himself in the ballroom. No one wants to look at a huge portrait of a random guy in their wedding photos. When I inquired about covering it up, Heather told me there was a $150 fee to cover it up! $150?! That could have been $$ well spent on something nice for our wedding! In the end, the portrait was covered during the reception and I don't believe we were charged for it (thank God, or there would have been some yelling from my mother). Another thing is that Riggs will NOT store anything for you. I am grateful that they ended up making an exception for me, but I'm sure it was an accident and I didn't even know they did until the day of my wedding. This was one of those details I didn't hear about until the Friday before my wedding when my event rental company tried to deliver the hurricane globes for my reception. I got a call right before my rehearsal dinner from the delivery man, spoke to Heather, found out the globes could not be stored there, and then frantically tried to contact my caterer to see if she could take the delivery. It made for a very frustrating hour and resulted in my only bridezilla moment with my maid of honor. In the end, it turned out that Riggs DID allow the hurricanes to be stored there (I only heard about this on the day of my wedding, when I was getting ready at the chapel; up until then, I had settled with the idea of not having the hurricanes if they were unable to be delivered). A good thing to say for the value is the fact that if you book your wedding and/or reception there, your event is the ONLY event held there that day. This was very helpful since I was a little worried about random people who might do some wedding crashing. The only time I know of two weddings happening in the same day is when one of the event planners held her reception there in July after a daytime reception; the exception was made for her since she's an employee. Other than the few wrinkly details, everything else was a breeze. Our wedding turned out beautifully, and I'd like to thank Heather and the rest of the staff at Riggs for their hard work.

Samuel Riggs Alumni Center Being an alum of the University and a staff member, we were able to get a good price on the hall rental. We also had access to rent out various rooms for the bridal party to change and for the tea ceremony in the Chaney Library. Working with the staffers there was simple, but it took some time to get back to us. Although they were not able to provide the bartender that we requested from the University, they did provide a good bartender. The room was set up before the caterers and coordinators arrived and according to the way I wanted tables/chairs placed. We did not see the staffers there hovering around us, but when we needed them they were easy for my coordinators to find.