Great location, Betsey the property manager is so sweet and friendly. Place books up several months out, so book early.
I recommend hiring a lighting effects company (for night weddings), a lot of floral arrangements, or showy centerpieces to help give your eye a focal point in the main room. I also recommend a showy table linen since the windows do not have treatments and the room needs a nice fabric to make it feel complete. (I don’t think a plain polyester linen provides enough pop) The room will really come together with these touches because it is a spacious room with very high ceilings, a very neutral wall color, very simple architecture and hung decor is prohibited.
The room has beautiful hardwood floors and lots of windows overlooking the cape fear inlet. Its rental comes complete with tables and chairs so you wont have add these to your rental costs.
This is a great place for brides on a budget or if just wanting a scenic coastal wedding indoors and without the sand.
Food was amazing. Joe is easy to get in touch with and will take care of everything! Plus there is zero compitition in the area. Bon Appetite catering was snobby, rude, and the food was a lot of garnish and fancy in appearance but did not taste good. When you have too many sauces and garnish, its a little overkill. Plus they wanted to do everything through email and didnt want to answer questions. Imagine if they had gotten my money.
Coastal catering is the best! The only thing I didnt like about this place is that the linens had creases in them on the cake and guest table and the skinny metal legs of the folding table were exposed on my guest table. Did not look good at all! I am surprised that no one from the catering sfaff noticed this. First thing I saw when I walked in on my wedding day. It bugged me, especially in the pictures when you see about 2 feet of aluminum table legs.
Joe is also very busy and you get that feeling sometimes.He is a new yorker, always in a rush but you can definately count on him.
Was prompt and polite leading up to the wedding. Portfolio pictures on website seemed great. Kris truly lacked the communication and direction or "take charge" a photographer should have when shooting posed family and wedding party pictures. It really felt disorganized and took a very long time.
When I got the pictures back some turned out good but they were very far away and almost all had things in the background that I cropped out myself once I got the picture disc. I was surprised that with all the beautiful locations nearby, several of the pictures he took had cars, houses, and other things in the background that a photographer should notice.
The cake cutting and other pictures didn’t get captured well if at all. He had a lot of excuses like saying the low lying ceiling was to blame. Shouldn’t an experienced photographer know that? Or at least be able to see the images right after they were taken to determine if a do-over is necessary?
Kris also was taking pictures from under his leg, behind his back, upside down, just really being goofy and not serious in getting good images.
Wedding guests even saw him helping himself to beer at the bar and several people were talking about how he appeared to be drunk towards the last few hours of the evening. The quality of his pictures coincides with his apparent sobriety as the night wore on.
It is hard for me to decide if he just lacks experience or was just feeling slack at our wedding, either way, you dont want this to be your photographer. Your pictures are the one part of that day that you will walk away with. (aside from your spose) you dont want to negotiate those, I do not reccomend this photographer.
All of my curls fell out within about an hour. :(
My hair does not curl well when I do it. I told the stylist and she reassured me she could make it happen. I have had many stylists be able to keep it curly and one who couldnt. Micha couldnt.
Jonie did my bridesmaids hair and I wish she had done mine.
Another girl styled another bridesmaids hair and she was not happy with her style.
The nail tech was sweet, my nails looked average, had some air bubbles. Toes looked great, but the little asian women at the dive places really do the best job when it comes to nails.
I had made the salon reservations several months in advance and had called periodically to add or change reservations for my wedding party. Each time I called they had me down at the wrong time and didnt have my wedding party with me. They lost records of deposits too. I would always correct them on the times and names and they would tell me that they would let the appointment manager know and that "she" would make the changes and call me back. I never heard back. I had called several times to confirm and it seemed way to difficult for them. Each time I had called, they still had me down for different times and I had to remind them my correct time. They forgot to take people off my party for salon services and tried to charge me for it.
I had my trial run the day before the wedding and my appointment times still, after all that, were wrong! It was a mess and I was then pressed for time for the rehearsal dinner. You dont need any extra stress on your wedding weekend.
They did everntually get it worked out and my wedding day went smoothly. They undercharged my by about $60 and I told them about this and they said "dont worry about it" and appologized for messing up the times and the confusion.
The place is nice, it is a top dollar salon but definately hit or miss with the stylists. I think it would still be a good salon for your wedding day. It is spacious, nicely decorated, staff is very friendly, but choose your stylist wisely, plan in an extra hour for your day, and definately comfirm with them ahead of time.
We gave salt water taffy fresh from the Christmas house. Neat local shop. Best Taffy and good price!
Great selection on bridal gowns, best prices! Changing room area is one large open room so be prepared, no privacy. No one is looking at you anyway.
Steaks were good quality meats! View is breathtaking. The food for the most part was excellent! Some of the steaks were not rare, but raw. Not exaggerating.
The waitstaff knew that a wedding party was coming in that night because the tables were set up with specially printed menus for our party but they were puzzled when we arrived. We sat around an hour past our reservation time before they took our order. Gave us an upcharge for menu items and could not really explain it.
I was disappointed in the managers not coming out at all when we were there and the wait staff didnt have a head table arranged for bride, groom, and parents as discussed ahead of time.
It is very difficult to find a place in the Oak Island / Southport area that is suitable for a wedding rehearsal dinner for a party of 20 or more and get good reliable service.
We called around and left messages and a lot of places wouldnt even return a phone call. Thought fishy fishy would have been nice but they would not put an agreement in writing and I just didnt feel good about giving them a $200 deposit and not having a written agreement, that sounds fishy fisht to me!