The Tides - North Haledon

jvg6909 · October 2009

Hi, I'm having a hard time searching here for some reason. The Tides is one of my choices but i'm torn between this and anohter place. Any opinions/info/input would be much appreciated, or if there is another thread that I could be linked to that would be great. Thanks!!

brad1431 · October 2009

beautiful grounds, good food, but the downstairs room the ceiling is too low, the dinner room is too small, the couch in the bridal sweet is like 30 years old, and they dont allow shots.

brad1431 · October 2009

oh and it is 2 weddings at a time and one entrance so you will see the other bride and her guests

mrs.spunky1508 · October 2009

For chrissakes it's SUITE not SWEET. God, you say it EVERY TIME, GET IT RIGHT. Moving on... the Tides is a very popular venue with the knotties. It has lovely grounds, reasonable pricing and pretty good food. I've been to a wedding there once, a knottie's wedding as a matter of fact, and it was very nice. I'd recommend it, having been there as a guest.

mbcdefg · October 2009

I booked there for this April. We visited maybe 7 or 8 halls and liked this one the best (runners-up were Costa Del Sol and The Bridgewater Manor). We're in the smaller room - I would've loved to book the larger one, but the smaller one fit in our budget. As for the shots, they told us that they technically WILL serve shots if someone wants them, but they will just serve a shot-sized portion in a regular glass (no shot glasses).

jvg6909 · October 2009

Thanks For the info, these were some of my concerns too. We would be in the downstairs room. I was wondering how that would work with the entrance way, with arrivals and taking pictures and such. Our other choice is the Royal Manor in Garfield, my concern there is that the room would be divided in 2 so not too sure how that would work, and the same issues with another event going on. Plus i haven't really heard much about the food there or any other weddings. It looks really nice though.

jvg6909 · October 2009

MBC - Are you in the downstairs room? How many guests do you have?? We're only looking at around 100. I have no idea how big the upstairs room is but I know the main floor is pretty big.

I <3 Seabass · October 2009

I've never been there but I'm assuming they would stagger the start times of the weddings if they had two of them that day. So running into another bride and her guests may not be an issue. Also, a lot of venues don't allow shots, but there are usually ways around that.

tvlirene · October 2009

I went to a wedding there in June in the downstairs room. I do agree the ceiling is low but it was still very nice. The food was good, nice grounds...if the price is right I'd do it

mbcdefg · October 2009

Yes, we're in the downstairs room. Their limit is 160 people, I believe. You should be fine with 100. Our ideal guest list was 125 people, before my mother got ahold of it ;)Our guest list is unfortunately around 175 right now ... I know some people will likely decline, but I don't want to take that chance. And even if those 15 people decline, 160 will probably be TIGHT. So I need to sit down with my mother and cut some people or at least do a B-list. One Knottie here said that she called the week before their wedding and the upstairs room wasn't booked, so they let her have it for no additional charge (upstairs room is more expensive per-plate). I plan to do this as well, so keep your fingers crossed that nobody else books my date for that room!

jvg6909 · October 2009

Wow yeah 160 is a lot! We're actually trying to add more people to make the 100 minimum, right now we have 105. I will keep my fingers crossed for you! The thing that I did like about the downstairs room is the outdoor patio. I think it's always good to have an outside area for people who want to smoke or even just to have the option, I feel like people always gravitate towards outside. I just don't know, it's such a hard decision. I am really torn.

AnnPH424 · October 2009

Hi, I'm also booked at the Tides. As far as your guests go, they can go in the front entrance. But, for the downstairs room, you the bride and bridal party can go in through the patio door and not see any of your guests or the other bride if you don't want to. FI's grandmother is handicapped and takes a lot of time on the stairs so the manager told us she can be dropped off at this entrance as well. And are you really going to be sitting on the couch in the bridal suite? HTH

jvg6909 · October 2009

Thanks Ann. This is true, the only thing I would worry about is taking pictures in the main entrance when you first walk in, if another bride also wants to do the same. I will have to ask about arrival times. The thing is, even if you wedding is 700 and someone else is at 730, both bridal parties will obviously arrive prior to that to take pics and get settled so I guess that would be my main concern. I'm sure it could be worked out though. Anywa,Congrats! what month are you doing??

jvg6909 · October 2009

Oh, and yes i agree...the couch is the least of my concerns. At least the room is big, some places that we've looked the bridal "suite" is literally like a closet.

brad1431 · October 2009

I can only talk about the one time I was there, but both wedding parties hung out in the main entrance when they first arrived, so it was a mixing of guests. I dont see how it can be avoided, unless everyone goes around the back to the patio, but that seems weird.

AnnPH424 · October 2009

I'm 11/20/2010...so far away. The downstairs room is what worked for us for our budget and minimum because we are only expecting about 100 people as well and they would all be swallowed up in a bigger room. We went to about 6 other halls and this just worked. As far as taking pictures if you do end up booking I think if you just asked when the other party was starting, if there was one and maybe tell Tom or whoever you work with that you would like to take pictures there at a certain time so he can figure it out? I haven't even started thinking about this stuff yet...

mrs.spunky1508 · October 2009

From what I have seen of venues that do more than 1 wedding at a time, they usually try to stagger the start times. Perhaps the people at the wedding you went to, Brad, arrived early or something? We went to a wedding at the Berkeley Plaza. One wedding had a start time of either 6:30 or 7, the wedding we attended was 7:30. At our venue, 6PM was the earliest evening reception time, but you could certainly choose 6:30 or 7 or 7:30PM if that's what you wanted, and they said they'd encourage a different start time for additional weddings if another one was booked on that day (it wasn't).

jvg6909 · October 2009

Thank you everyone for your comments, I really appreciate it. Gonna check out both places again on Saturday then hopefully make my final decision. Not to confuse myself more, but are there any other good places to look at in North Jersey that are reasonably priced? I honestly thought these were the best but I'm still open to possible suggestions.

mbcdefg · October 2009

Do you know what you want to spend? We liked Bridgewater Manor, and Costa Del Sol in Union. Both were under $100pp. Gran Centurions in Clark is also reasonably priced, but we didn't check that out. I would not recommend Berkeley Plaza or Galloping Hill because we did not like the initial meetings we had with them. I believe The Atrium (West Orange?) is also around that price and gets good reviews here - we would've checked it out but we liked The Tides and just wanted to book a hall and get it done.

mrs.spunky1508 · October 2009

Where in North Jersey? I'd recommend the Bridgewater Manor, but it's in Somerset County which some people do not consider to be North, but rather Central.

jvg6909 · October 2009

mbc - The places that we looked have been between $86-$109, but $109 i think is too high. So i guess between $85-$100. I looked at Berkeley Plaza too and wasn't a fan. I am the same way, just want to book something and get it over with. We also checked out Richfield Regency which was nice but a little small as far as the cocktail room, parking, bridal suite. Nice room though. I think i have pretty much exausted the possibilites in my range, but i feel like I want there to be something out there where i don't have to think about it, i just know that that's IT. Mrs Spunky - I tried to limit it to North Jersey just because we are kind of pressed for time as we want to get it booked by Monday and didn't really have time to visit a lot of places that were far away. Bridgewater Manor did look really nice though.

melissa82 · October 2009

I've been to The Tides a few times for different events, once for a wedding in the downstairs room. I thought they had a large quantity of food, and some of it was very good, other dishes were only OK. Nothing I had was bad. One of our friends was served raw chicken for dinner though. Oh yeah--their cake was really poorly decorated. I know Bella (another knottie) was upset with the way her cake looked too. So I'd be sure to pick a very simple design. (My venue is not great at decorating cakes either IMO, so I'm having my florist decorate it with flowers so they don't have to do much.) Also, the bar closed for an hour mysteriously. I am not sure if this is something the couple did to save money or something, but I thought it was odd.When you walk in, they are really good about having someone right there to direct you, which is good if there are two weddings.At the wedding I went, the upstairs wedding must have started slightly before us because when we were doing toasts/speeches, they had just started dancing and it was really loud. We could hear their music and people screaming. (I think it was because it happened to be a quiet time for us and they were an excessively loud wedding.) Once we started with the dancing portion though, you couldn't hear anything. People get upset when I say this, but that was my experience and something I'd want to know as a potential bride.The ceiling is very low, and I don't like that, but it doesn't make or break the wedding at all obviously.

bella9280 · October 2009

we got married at the tides and used the downstairs room, and we have no complaints! there was a wedding going on at the same time but ours started after the other one. we took pictures upstairs and outside and i didnt see the other bridal party once. we had 120 people anymore would have been tight and my reason for using this room cause in other big ballrooms my 120 would have felt empty. for the price and the service we recieved i cant complain and i would choose them again. good luck

cascaste · October 2009

when we looked there, our concern was less about the low ceilings, but more with the noise. There was an event happening at the same time and the base of the music upstairs was very loud. Granted it may have seemed loud because we were in an empty ballroom, but my fear was during "quiet times" of our reception (i.e. dinner), upstairs would be in full swing and all we would here is boom-boom-boom. I did, however, love the cocktail room outside of the main room, very nice, although Good luck

jvg6909 · October 2009

Thanks to both of you. Melissa - I appreciate hearing your opinon. Bella - That makes me feel better, it's good to know that anohter bride had a great experience there.

mbcdefg · October 2009

For those of you who looked into the upstairs room, do you remember how much more it cost than the downstairs room? I'm wondering if we should just bite the bullet and ask if the upstairs room is available so our guests won't be cramped.

bella9280 · October 2009

thanks melissa i forgot i hated my cake!! i gave them a picture and it didnt even look like it i should have picked one from their book or added flowers but it didnt ruin the wedding. as for noise issues, we didnt hear anything from the upstairs wedding at all maybe ours was too loud who knows but we really didnt even know there was another party we were too busy with ours!

jvg6909 · October 2009

Does anyone know anything about the Royal Manor? Might as well compare.

brad1431 · October 2009

the wedding I went to was 125 people and it was cramped in the dining room.

bella9280 · October 2009

i know that for us the upstairs room would have cost double since we got such a great price. not only that my min would have been alot higher so i would have paid for empty seats.2months before my wedding i freaked out that i wanted the upstairs room cause i kept reading bad feedback about downstairs but it was booked so i was stuck!!honestly im SOOOOO glad we stayed downstairs!! i saved a ton by using candles as centerpieces since we couldnt do tall flower arrangements. i like that there was the patio most people were on the dance floor but those who wanted to talk were in the cocktail hour room lounging and whats nice is they could carry a conversation without screaming over the music.the smokers loved the patio right there.i felt we really utilized the space. if i had triple the budget and a bigger guest list maybe i would have switched but for my guest list and budget this was the way to go

jvg6909 · October 2009

Wait, you couldn't use tall flower arrangements? Hmmm that kinda sucks.

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