Rode's Barn Reviews

We had a fun and exciting wedding at Rode's Barn. Our guests the food and the atmosphere!
Rode's staff could not do enough for us, went out of their way to assist and gladly met our every request! Highly recommend!

Since this was my first wedding I went in very anxious....wanting everything to be perfect for my wife. (Yes I, the husband, decorated). Alyssa and Kaila were AMAZING! They put my worries to bed immediately. They were understanding, communicative, responsive to any and all questions, and worked with me every step of the way. The staff was awesome throughout the night (especially Cameron who made surey wife got the last smore). The barn is perfect for a beautiful and rustic setting, everything was clean..and looked wonderful. The food was out of this world. Our guests were blown away with how good it was. All in all it was the best wedding I've ever been to (and not just because it was mine).

We were Married on 3/10/18 at Rode's Barn. Our wedding was perfect in so many ways. The barn is so rustic and cool. All of our guests loved the venue and atmosphere. Alyssa and her staff were amazing. Easy to work with. They made sure all the details were perfect! The food was excellent as well. We went with BBQ and our guests are still talking about how great the food was.
The only thing we would have changed would be to have buttlerd apps instead of station. Not really a huge problem but we all know that the initial line to get your first drinks are long so it would be nice to offer the apps while people were waiting in line. Again, not a big deal.
Over all our wedding was Perfect!
Thank you Rode's Team

Just had our daughters wedding reception here last night, Alyssa is amazing as well as all the staff, couldn't ask for a more perfect evening. The food was awesome and we received so many compliments. Highly recommended Rodes! Thank you all so much!! The Stiles family

This venue is absolutely beautiful! Alyssa was great to work with! Everything was perfect just the way I imagined it to be!

AMAZING. That is the best word I can think of when reviewing Rode's Barn, and when thinking of the lovely family that runs this venue. And that word doesn't even do this experience justice!!

Alyssa Rode was our point of contact when we booked Rode's Barn for our ceremony and reception, and she was straight up incredible. She was communicative, flexible, and so excited to make our day unique and what we needed. She worked with us as we planned a wedding from 3,000 miles away (husband and I live in CA, but families are in NJ), and helped us figure out everything that was needed while we gathered everything together.

And the food (Rode's Catering) was delicious!!! Everyone got as much food as they could pile on their plates, and they kept coming back for more. We're still hearing compliments from our guests about the venue, food, and service that the Rode family provided.

Thank you Alyssa, and everyone else at Rode's Barn!!! You truly made our day so special, and we can't wait to find an excuse to celebrate there again some day in the future!!

Alyssa and the wonderful staff at Rode's Barn were awesome! We received so many compliments about the beautiful venue! The rustic barn is an awesome place and makes for some awesome pictures! All of my guests loved it!

Alyssa, her family, and the staff are all amazing people! I couldn't have asked for a better venue and food. Talk about accommodating, I have never felt so secure in a decision. Everyone was blown away by the barn and I still keep getting compliments on how awesome the food was!! We've loved going to the restaurant so I had no fear in the food tasting bad. It is all great! Thank you so much for such a beautiful night!

Rode's is an amazing place and caterer for any event. My husband and I couldn't have been more pleased with their approach and helpfulness. We got compliment after compliment on the food and the venue. Being a family business, they are fair, reasonably priced and easy to work with. Our wedding was everything we wanted and wouldn't have changed a thing because we used Rode's.

We knew we wanted a barn wedding but some of the other local venues were out of our price range. Enter Rode's. First, I love that the barn is an authentic 1940's barn. It gave an element of authenticity to our "rustic chic" vibe and the space is BEAUTIFUL. Photos do not do the inside of the barn with it's raftered ceilings and wooden plank floors justice. It's also a perfectly blank canvas to decorate as much or as little as you please. We opted to have our ceremony in the outdoor tree chapel area which was also beautiful especially with the fall colors as a backdrop. The plank benches are plentiful and none of our guests had to stand.

Leading up to the wedding, we communicated mainly with Alyssa and Kaila who were beyond helpful. Alyssa set up an amazing tasting for us to finalize our menu and it was so hard to narrow down our choices! We are able to offer our guest an amazing cocktail hour spread plus a buffet dinner with a TON of options for an extremely reasonable cost per person. Seriously, the food here is AMAZING. Our guests raved about everything especially the mac and cheese. We also opted to use Rode's to stock our bar and were happy with that decision. There was plenty of beer, wine, and liquor to pick from to make sure we had something that each guest would enjoy,

The reception itself was coordinated by Shelly and she could not have been nicer. She made sure my new husband and I had drinks at all times plus brought us huge plates of both cocktail hour food and dinner. She was amazing.

So basically, if you are looking for a reasonably priced barn wedding location with AMAZING food, Rode's is the perfect venue. I am so happy we decided to have our wedding there and cannot thank them enough for everything!

I recently had my wedding on 11/10/18 and had working with Alyssa for over a year and Kaila while Alyssa was out on leave. Both ladies were beyond helpful, reassuring, and honestly even though I was nervous how everything would turn out, even my expectations were surpassed. The food was BEYOND amazing and the entire staff that night were super accommodating. The staff made setting up a breeze and Alyssa was there with me morning of for anything thing I needed. Our guest raved about how cool the venue was and it really did look like something straight from Pinterest. Hands down, best night ever!

We booked our ceremony and reception at Rode's Barn for this coming May (3 months from now) and Alyssa, who runs the barn has been great with everything we've needed! She gave us a tour of the venue, including her parent's restaurant (Rode's Fireside) during our first visit and answered all questions that we could think of. Since then we have kept in touch via e-mail and provided us with most information we have inquired about. If you are looking for this kind of environment to have your wedding, there is nowhere else in the state I would recommend (and we checked out almost every option for a DIY Barn wedding in NJ) other than Rode's Barn!

I had my wedding recently at Rode's. I loved the barn itself it is really so beautiful! However, the heat is unbearable! They do offer some household fans, but almost all of my guest complained about the heat. Actually most of my guest stayed outside for the entire evening, or left early because of the heat, which was disappointing. So keep that into consideration when having a spring/summer wedding there! Alyssa is very sweet, but often hard to get a hold of. Also, some of the catering options weren't clear since I did not even have any soda available for my guests and had to run out and buy some during my wedding! And finally, the server who was cutting my cake started eating the cake before my guest were served! All annoying things, but not deal breakers. I still loved my wedding and recieved many compliments!

Overall good experience with this venue. They were very flexible with our menu and customizing it to exactly what we wanted. Biggest issue that can be improved on is their communication. Many of my emails with Alyssa were never returned. I was also in communication with both Alyssa and Shelly and was told conflicting information regarding important details like start/ end times of the event. We also decided on a signature drink using Tito’s Vodka (our particular favorite) and on our wedding night, they decided to use whiskey instead which completely took away from the fact that it was supposed to be our “signature drink.”

very bad customer service. No apologies for months of no contact. Ran out of beer 3/4 of the way through our wedding (we chose 3 types and they ran out of our top choice even though we had a small bar bill). Kept harping on how busy she was, how she had no help and how she just had a baby.

Awful overall experience. 3 months of zero contact on their end (this was the last 3 months leading up til the wedding). One month before the wedding I finally heard back and received no apology only excuse after excuse. I was told that she had sooooo many weddings and catering events that she is just so busy. I should have been made to feel like I was the only wedding and the only bride. I was told that if i really needed to contact her i should have googled her phone number (mind you she had told me she’s never really in the office and emailnwas best!) When confirming everything in February I was told the benches around the ceremony space would be done and would match the stump and board seating in place only to find that due to a lack of time on her part she ordered benches that look nothing like the original seating. Was also told there would be plenty of seating once done but instead most of my guests had to stand. I was told my rehearsal day and time was good (after begging for her to let me know it was so my party could take off of work) then one week before the rehearsal I was told the Friday bride would have to let me know if that time worked since she gets to set up the day before. There was an issue with chairs the day of (the rental company came to get them and told my coordinator they were not paid for). I paid Rodes directly for the chairs and I could not reach anyone. There were 2 helpful people and that was the new assistant (Kaila) who tried really hard to fix the damage done and Shelly the bar tender who was amazing and super sweet and accommodating!

DO NOT have a wedding here! Not worth the hassle! My sister just got married here and had nothing but issues. The owner is TERRIBLE!!!! She seems to think having a baby gives her the right to ignore requests from the bride, and does not answer her phone or email! Accommodating in the beginning until she receives payment then goes M.I.A.
Alyssa SUCKS!

Post from the Bride:
Awful overall experience. 3 months of zero contact on their end (this was the last 3 months leading up til the wedding). One month before the wedding I finally heard back and received no apology only excuse after excuse. I was told that she had sooooo many weddings and catering events that she is just so busy. I should have been made to feel like I was the only wedding and the only bride. I was told that if i really needed to contact her i should have googled her phone number (mind you she had told me she’s never really in the office and emailnwas best!) When confirming everything in February I was told the benches around the ceremony space would be done and would match the stump and board seating in place only to find that due to a lack of time on her part she ordered benches that look nothing like the original seating. Was also told there would be plenty of seating once done but instead most of my guests had to stand. I was told my rehearsal day and time was good (after begging for her to let me know it was so my party could take off of work) then one week before the rehearsal I was told the Friday bride would have to let me know if that time worked since she gets to set up the day before. There was an issue with chairs the day of (the rental company came to get them and told my coordinator they were not paid for). I paid Rodes directly for the chairs and I could not reach anyone. There were 2 helpful people and that was the new assistant (Kaila) who tried really hard to fix the damage done and Shelly the bar tender who was amazing and super sweet and accommodating!