One of the most important decisions any soon-to-be bride and groom can make is what vendors to use? Where do you start? What do you look for? Who’s in my price range? What is my price range? Before all of these questions overwhelm you, take a step back. Ask yourself, what means the most to us, what do we want to absolutely have on our wedding day?
Whether you’ve dreamed about this day your whole life or are just starting to wonder what it is you want, do your research and visit as many Venues as you want!! I may have never been the type of girl who dreamed about her wedding day her whole life, but I always knew I wanted to get married on the beach! One important thing to remember when doing your research and visiting venues, is your guest list count! Don’t waste your time going to places that can’t even handle the amount of people you’re inviting. You’ll end up disappointed if you fall in love with a place that just can’t handle your 200 person wedding. So know before you go!
We visited Oyster Point in Red Bank, McLoone’s in Long Branch, Shadowbrook in Shrewsbury, Salt Creek Grill in Rumson and finally Windows on The Water in Sea Bright. All had their own unique pros and cons. One thing was we knew we wanted to get married outside and were going to have at least 150 people (we invited about 200). Our final stop was Windows on The Water. I don’t even know how to explain the beauty of this venue.. the beach ceremony set up was out of a movie.. the cocktail hour was just a few steps up from the beach and the reception was just up stairs from the cocktail hour in an incredibly elegant ballroom lined with gorgeous chandeliers! They literally had huge windows all along the ballroom that showed the last few minutes of the sunset. It was breath taking. From what we heard, the cocktail hour was insane! People were raving about it!! We were rushed upstairs to the bridal suite right after the ceremony to take it all in and to enjoy some food. When we got up there they had an entire spread of everything that was at the cocktail hour!! We were blown away, but also so excited and taken back by the moment that we barely ate any of it!!
Although the day was a tad windy, it was gorgeous. The sunset set the backdrop for an amazing ceremony and the clear night lit up the beach as we danced the night away in the ballroom. Needless to say the venue was incredible!!!! The food was awesome and the drinks were strong!!! Our maitre’d, Cheryl, made our entire night a breeze! She kept everything rolling and kept Christian and I calm and cared for all night! We cannot say enough good thing about her. She even made sure our parents were taken care of all night and that means a lot to us!
With all of those wonderful things said, there has to be some hiccup right? Right. And expect it ladies, its inevitable and unavoidable. The sooner you realize something’s gonna go wrong the easier it will be to let it just roll off your back!! And thats exactly what we did when it happened. We should have known it was going to be this particular person to activate the “hiccup” in our day but it was unavoidable. Now this person by no means ruined our day or should ever be the reason not to book your wedding at Windows on The Water, but Christian and I will warn you now.. the sales director is a trip. It started when he began asking me questions like, “Why are you having kids at your wedding”, “Why do you want a crab cake, everyone loves scallions”, “Why are you doing beige and white linens, where’s the color, there’s no color?” and finally “Why aren’t you doing any flowers on the gazebo?” Any man or woman would be appalled to be asked these types questions when we are paying a very good amount of money to rent this space from YOU for OUR day. We tried to let it roll off our back but it came to a screeching halt the day of the wedding. I will say from the one question he asked came a great thing; when he asked why we weren’t doing flowers on the gazebo, we replied with because we are trying to save money and cut costs. He offered to put flowers and plants on the gazebo for us at no additional charge, which we are forever grateful for. But people should know what they’re getting into when they book this venue. Like I said, and want to make sure everyone understands, the venue was AMAZING, the food was INCREDIBLE and the maitre’d was OUT OF THIS WORLD!! We didn’t let this one thing ruin our day and that’s all that matters!
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