Keys Wedding Venues

Re: Keys Wedding Venues

• ktkoala

  

  August 2012

  We are getting married in the Keys and considered all of those places. If you are looking for ideas, I would check out Caribbean Caterings website and facebook page. Everyone in the Keys recommends them and their website has a lot of info.
  
  In terms of the specific places you mentioned:
  The Islander - nice, huge property; reasonably priced rooms. We decided not to go their since you have to use their in-house catering and I didnt think it was a good deal.
  Coconut Cove - they are a wedding factory and they do it great. It seemed like they had everything down to a science and nice if you were coming from far away. The drawback for us - the rooms are bad. We don't have the highest standards, but the rooms were really really bad. Not updated, cheap beds and linens. I would have been embarrassed to have my guests stay there.
  Coconut Palm - Out of those options, this is my favorite. (Thats easy to say though since Coconut Palm was my second choice venue over all.) They have  a great little property. Great layout for weddings. Kathy is really involved and loves what she does. Seriously, property wise for a classy, informal wedding - this is what you want. So, why didn't we pick it? We are getting married at peak season and it was high site fee plus we had to rent out the whole property for 3 days and the rooms were expensive. We were just worried that we didn't have enough guests willing to pay 400-500 dollars a night. But, otherwise, it was perfect. Hard to turn down.

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• ktkoala

  

  August 2012

  PS - If it wasnt clear from my post, we went to about 15 venues in the keys. Feel free to ask me about other places too.

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• AmandaM0209 member

  

  August 2012

  We are getting married at Coconut Palm Inn next May! I cried when I went to see it! There are no pictures that do this place any justice! It has the laid back feel of the keys but the rooms are better than any other place. They really take pride in their property and it shows. Kathy is AMAZING! The site fee was $3000 and we have to have all 18 rooms booked with a 2 night minimum. I got proposals from Carribean catering, Smoke and Spice and Food by Chef Lars, Chef Lars is by far the best priced and his food was outstanding at the tasting. 

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• linjo75 member

  

  August 2012

  I am going to the Keys this month after the holiday to check out about 22 venues from Key Largo to a few in Key West. The Coconut Cove and the Coconut Palm are in my list as well along with others I will let you know my observations.

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• kladino member

  

  July 2013

  Hello @Ktkoala! I'm curious where did you end up booking your ceremony/reception? I'm going in a few weeks to look at Coconut Cove, Coconut Palm and Ocean Dawn.

  I'm open to any other suggestions.

  Thanks!

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• nicolhuff member

  

  July 2013

  Just a warning... 
  
  The Bayside Inn Key Largo...
  
  We had our wedding there and were enthusiastic about working with the old manager, but the new management was awful. She took forever to return our calls and emails, when she did bother to return them in the first place. When we did get to the hotel days before the wedding we booked one of the suites (we had planned to book them both) but we could not stay in the room because our bedroom was infested with TICKS!!! They claimed they sprayed and had the exterminator in, but we still found live ticks in the room and on our pets once we returned home. Instead of apologizing the management started off trying to claim we brought the ticks. The maintenance on the grounds and in many of the rooms was appalling with widespread neglect (and in some cases what appeared to be blood) frequently evident.
  
  The pool is tiny, the outside grills rusted through, and the end of the jetty a taped-off hazard of twisted wood. We were told by the manager an hour before our wedding was to start that we didn't have to have our wedding there and that we could "go somewhere else."  To top it off NO management was present when we tried to check out and settle our bill, and instead, without any apparent attempt at contacting us, and directly in violation of what we requested when we left, our credit card was charged without an invoice.
  
  A real shame because the hotel has promise, but it is being run into the ground.  Save yourself the trouble and possible contagious disease, stay somewhere else...

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• kladino member

  

  July 2013

  Thank you for the feedback! Maybe thats why they waive the site fee if you book a certain amount of rooms...

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