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Receptions -The Surf Club New Rochelle

naqueebanaqueeba
First Comment
in New York-New York City
I am overwhelmed with reception hall information.  Anybody have a review on The Surf Club in New Rochelle, NY?  Beautiful venue and reviews are averaging 3.5 out of 5.  HELP!!!
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Re: Receptions -The Surf Club New Rochelle

  • lisy_36lisy_36
    First Comment
    Check out weddingwire.com. They have been very helpful in providing detail information about the food, management, etc.
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  • teenie1031teenie1031
    First Comment
    I'm going to go see the surf club next week...iv been to two weddings there i fell in love with it! how much are they charging you if you don't mind me asking? I'm looking for a saturday night and i'm hoping its less then 175 pp but people keep telling me its closer to 200-220 pp 
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    First Comment

    We're getting married there 6.1.13 & we absolutely fell in love with the place as soon as we went through the gates. We also attended the bridal show there last month and they remembered us and the food was really good. We're paying around $200-$210 a head for a Saturday night. That's a huge difference for a Friday night-but we both wanted Saturday. In fact, we had the upstairs room booked & then fell in love with the downstairs and changed our contract.

    You do have to use their florist for centerpieces. I'm not sure how they're priced yet-does anybody have an idea?

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  • KJS22KJS22
    First Comment
    edited June 2012
    I am getting married at the Surf Club this fall and have felt compelled to write this review for a while now to serve as a heads up for couples who are considering this venue. There is no doubt the Surf Club is a beautiful place and it is easy to envision a fantastic event taking place there, overlooking the water. But, for as warm and inviting as it feels the people who you work with to plan the logistics of your event leave much to be desired in terms of responsiveness, manors, and overall customer service. My fiance and I have very much gotten the feeling that now that we've committed to this venue and they have our money, they don't really care about us anymore and can't be bothered to spend time talking about the details of our day with us or discussing requests that we have. This is the case with everyone I have interacted with so far, which includes the event managers (who often let messages/emails go unanswered for weeks) and the floral staff (they do make you use their in-house florist for all on-site floral decor).

    There are tons of positive reviews online about this venue and I've spoken with several people who attended weddings here and had good things to say overall. My fiance and I took a lot of care in selecting our venue and we read several reviews that were not so positive about the Surf Club before we made our decision. We were a bit nervous because of what some reviews warned but ultimately we decided to move forward as there wasn't any other venue with a similar offering for us. (Obviously we know you'll find some negative feedback about any venue, but something about how our event manager began treating us before we had even booked our wedding rang true to what those reviews warned- (i.e. before he had even "made the sale" he seemed to stop really caring about our business. He was abrupt with us like he didn't really care whether we had our wedding there or not... hey, if that's how an event manager feels, whatever I guess, but you shouldn't let a potential customer get that feeling from you, right?) 

    We have had a lot of frustration in trying to communicate with (and get responses from) staff at the Surf Club. I am truly hoping that our wedding reception will come together without any major issues and that in the end the day will be great, like many others who've mentioned problems in their reviews have said their day ended up. But be warned** if you are a couple who wants... 

    - easy communication with your wedding venue/event mngr
    - an event planner who will take as much time as you need to answer your questions or bounce ideas around w/ you
    - to be involved in the details of your day and not just leave things up to chance that they will all work out fine..

    ...then you should really think twice about the Surf Club. Or at least adjust your expectations going in. Just some advice from a couple who's dealing with this right now.
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  • k82stark82star
    First Comment First Anniversary
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-york-new-york-city_receptions-the-surf-club-new-rochelle?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:114Discussion:a7289cec-b2f4-4eb4-a2bc-18fccac9d236Post:7c931ad9-df0d-47c7-a48f-42ee55846199">Re: Receptions -The Surf Club New Rochelle</a>:
    [QUOTE]I'm getting married there July 5, 2013. We're paying $111 per person for a friday night but that was with a little negotiating and our guest list is 360 which helped. We are also paying cash which brought the price down...we went to the food tasting and everything was good. I've heard great things from people who have been to weddings there.
    Posted by Kpaps24[/QUOTE]

    I was wondering if you actually booked yet? Funny enough July 5th was actually the date we were originally looking at for the surf club. We are now looking at a June date, but they are telling us they can go no lower than 115 pp. Did you guys have to do a lot of negotiating in order to get the price down that low?

    Please help!! Thanks! Any advice is greatly appreciated!!
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  • Jward210Jward210
    First Comment
    I just went there today. I fell in love with the place. I am very worried about all the reviews. It seems very sketchy. I love the place but I don't want to make a bad decision. I've never read so many bad reviews. I thought it was very interesting that all the bad reviews were very similiar. I would love to know what people thought who were married this year.
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  • nooproblemnooproblem
    First Comment
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-york-new-york-city_receptions-the-surf-club-new-rochelle?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:114Discussion:a7289cec-b2f4-4eb4-a2bc-18fccac9d236Post:e66361ea-1b98-4473-a980-6220220e1951">Re: Receptions -The Surf Club New Rochelle</a>:
    [QUOTE]I just went there today. I fell in love with the place. I am very worried about all the reviews. It seems very sketchy. I love the place but I don't want to make a bad decision. I've never read so many bad reviews. I thought it was very interesting that all the bad reviews were very similiar. I would love to know what people thought who were married this year.
    Posted by Jward210[/QUOTE]

    Hello J. Ward,

    You may want to continue looking. The venue is spectacular, BUT the service and delivery of promises get an F. I attended a very elegant wedding there last Saturday that could have been spectacular, but was not due to the staff of the Surf Club. The family hosting the wedding spared NO expense. Any additional charges that the Surf Club asked for, they happily paid with expectations of the formal affair they deserved. Unfortuantely, the management and staff did not produce on their promises.

    You have one chance for the wedding of a lifetime. Please do yourself a favor and look at other places that will truly care to give you the wedding of your dreams - not just a bunch of empty promises.

    I could rattle on and on with specifics, such as not preparing the rooms on time, dinner being served at 11pm, staff basically non-existent. This is only part of it. Really - do some more research
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  • MrsMcBainMrsMcBain
    First Comment
    CAUTION - DO NOT book wedding at Surf Club in New Rochelle!

    We had our wedding at the Surf Club in New Rochelle in July 2013.  We had read the other horrible reviews but somehow thought it was other people just griping.  Boy, were we wrong!

    We had the same experience as most of the bad reviews:

    - Slow service, no callbacks
    - Lack of care, extremely low attention to detail
    - Big promises in sales room, little delivery on big day

    However, it got much worse!

    1.  DISHONESTY - They disrupted our wedding after the ceremony and demanded $2,500 cash before they would serve dinner.  This was a false claim of "extra people" and they would not accept a check or credit card.  Our groomsman had to drive all over town looking for ATM's - this delayed the wedding 90 minutes and we were not able to have a proper dance.  My bride was obviously in a panic and there was no reasoning - I overheard the owner, Sal, swear at us while he was talking with one of his minions.

    2.  BAIT AND SWITCH - We negotiated our wedding with their salesperson, got it in writing, and then he mysteriously dissappeared from the place.  We got a call months later, after paying $5K in downpayment saying "are you still getting married here?"  We received a call 6 days before the wedding and they changed the signed contract by removing the Viennese hour unless we paid more!

    3.  UNETHICAL - They wanted everything in cash since the day we locked in our date.  Perhaps everything isn't on the up-and-up.  Will copy IRS on this review.

    4.  BROKEN PROMISES - Everything from "top shelf" liquor that was never served, to carving stations that never appeared.  They force you to use their florist who then significantly overcharges.  They promised to charge "half price" for children and vendors - they ended up charging us full price and more.

    5.  POOR TREATMENT of vendors - the photo booth guy had to carry his equipment up the stairs because they gave him a liability excuse on the elevator. The DJ, videographer and photographer were all limited to what they could do and where they could go even though we had the place to ourselves.  While they were demanding the extra cash from #1 above - they would not let the DJ play music.

    Needless to say, it was a cluster from the very beginning.  They have a nice location, but feel that no effort or investment needs to be made on customer service.

    Two thumbs down.
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