Wedding DJ at Sweetwater Marina & River Deck in Sweetwater, NJ

The Space

On the Mullica River in Mullica Township, a restaurant first opened in 1927 has become Sweetwater Marina & Riverdeck, rebuilt with permanent structures after fire and years spent under a tent. The original building, run under the Sweetwater Casino name despite never actually being a casino, burned down in a lightning-caused fire in 2008. The Iles family bought the property in 2016, running it for three years as a tented river deck bar before building permanent structures in 2019 and 2020.

The result is a working marina, restaurant, and event space built specifically around river views: the larger building houses the kitchen, offices, and marina clubhouse on its first floor, with an upstairs event space called the Riverview used for weddings, showers, and parties. Multiple roll-up glass doors throughout the property let indoor and outdoor dining areas merge into one another, so the line between inside and out is genuinely soft rather than fixed.

Capacity & Layout

The Riverview handles the upstairs event side of things, giving weddings and showers river views over the Mullica while keeping them separate from the marina’s day-to-day restaurant and bar traffic below. Because the venue also functions as an active 80-slip marina, couples should plan their layout with that working waterfront in mind, this is a real, in-use marina and restaurant, not a private property closed off for the day.

Downstairs, the covered outdoor bar and dining area, connected to the indoor space through roll-up glass doors, gives a wedding weekend more flexible options for cocktail hour or a rehearsal dinner separate from the Riverview upstairs. That layered layout, marina and restaurant at ground level, dedicated event space above, lets a couple use one part of the property for casual gathering and another for the more formal parts of the day.

Amenities

Three firepits are available for private gatherings, a real amenity for an evening reception on the water where guests may want somewhere to sit outside as the night cools. The full-service bar handles handcrafted cocktails, premium spirits, wine, and craft beer, and on-site dining covers everything from hand-rolled sushi to full dinner service, so catering and bar can both be handled without bringing in outside vendors.

The marina itself offers 80 boat slips in fresh water with a fuel dock and boat storage, and live entertainment runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in season, with both daytime and evening bands on weekends. For a couple planning a wedding here, that existing entertainment schedule and the venue’s regular operating rhythm are worth coordinating around directly so a private event does not overlap with the property’s normal live music nights.

Location & Getting There

The venue sits directly on the Mullica River, and its waterfront position is central to what it offers: river views from the Riverview upstairs, direct water access for the marina below, and a short boat ride out toward Atlantic City for guests arriving by water rather than by road. That river frontage is not incidental, it shapes both the views and the layout of the buildings around it.

With the property split between an enclosed upstairs event space and a covered but open-air downstairs bar and dining area connected by roll-up glass doors, sound behaves differently in each: the Riverview’s more contained upstairs room holds a DJ setup and dance floor sound more predictably, while the downstairs covered area, open to the river and the marina beyond, needs speakers positioned carefully so music reaches the dining and bar space without drifting out over the water.