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The new Roof Garden at Arnolds Park has much the same appearance as the old Roof Garden that was razed in 1987.
The old Roof Garden ballroom, which hosted dances and music beginning in 1923, was replaced with a second Roof Garden in 1987. That open-air venue, which had little else in common with the initial Roof Garden, was demolished in May 2019 during the multimillion-dollar "Restore the Park" campaign and replaced with the current Roof Garden, which was completed in August of that year.
Schultz-Mugge said the Roof Garden's 2020 was looking "great" for weddings, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and many of them were pushed back or canceled. She said this year is mostly filled with either weddings or fundraisers and that she's already booking into 2023.Â
"It's just getting more popular with all the improvements that are happening down here at the park -- the new boardwalk and those beautiful arches. And then, in the fall, we will be tearing down the old stage outside -- the Preservation Plaza. That's being replaced," she said. "There's such a verve down here when you have a wedding in the prime season. There's just a lot of fun energy here."
The current Roof Garden's appearance hearkens back to the old Roof Garden of the mid-20th century. Everyone from the Yardbirds to the Byrds, and from Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs to Roy Orbison, played the ballroom.
Schultz-Mugge said the new Roof Garden has a tile floor that resembles wood, instead of a real wooden floor, which the original Roof Garden had.
The Roof Garden ballroom can accommodate up to 1,000 people total and roughly 475 guests for a sit-down dinner.
"(The ballroom) was on the second floor and it was wood. Those bounce a little bit with everybody in there dancing," she explained.
One of the highlights of the venue is a wood bar with brass fittings, which Schultz-Mugge described as "beautiful."
"The lighting in there is amazing. It's all state-of-the-art sound and lighting," she said. "Even for weddings, it's wonderful, because we can choose the color around the stage and under the bar. With one touch, we can dim it down for the first dance. With one touch, we can light it up again for a speech."
Placing the head table in the middle of the room instead of on a stage or pedestal, Schultz-Mugge said is trendy. She said other couples are looking to create a lounge area for their guests.Â
"A couple weekends ago, we had (a wedding) that had this beautiful long charcuterie table down the middle of the room that they used during their cocktail hour. That was fun," she said. "There's a wedding coming up that's just doing food stations. You have the room to do those unique things."
