Perfect venue if you want the beach scenery without doing a destination wedding or heading to another trashy beach nearby MD. The scenery is beautiful! I had a summer wedding. Th...ere's an onsite planner/coordinator as well. Overall, I would choose this venue again. I had as perfect of a wedding as one could have. There were a few mishaps, but that's expected. And as the bride, I didn't know about any on the day of.
You are required to use their catering for food, which made it easier, but I also didn't think the food was as good as if we has gotten a separate vendor. But, I was willing to trade food quality for the venue! The appetizers were really tasty, and they can make any drink you ask for as your signature drink. The head bartender also provides suggestions and input on request.
I also used this venue for the spa (hair/makeup/nails) and for some hotel rooms. Sometimes the spa was hard to get in contact with, but with the help of the venue coordinator it all worked out. So I suggest keeping multiple contacts there if you use them for as many services as I did.
There seems to be high turnover with the onsite planners/coordinators, but my personal planner told me that should be expected. The transitions were easy, and I would up with Sarah who really helped pull things together, even though she was assigned about 2 weeks before my wedding.
Make sure you ask detailed questions, and keep your information organized. Sometimes, my planner and I were on different pages than the venue coordinators were. That's not to say anything bad about the venue, but there were just some miscommunications that are easily resolved by openly communicating, and not waiting until the last minute.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this venue, and do it all over again! So many of my guests loved the venue too. I live in Baltimore, but a lot of my parents' friends were coming from NJ, and they were all excited to have a little beach weekend away. There's not much to do around the town except beachy things, so if you're looking for a spot for an after party this is not going to be it. (unless you host a hotel party like we did - we got the biggest room... I think there are 4).
Definitely check this place out if you've always wanted to get married on the beach. It's technically the Western Bay, but it was PERFECT.