Sands in Atlantic beach

Please give me your honest thoughts and opinions on the sands in atlantic beach only.
THANKS :)

I was originally planning my wedding at Sands in Atlantic Beach.

I called made an appointment with Richie. We got there (about 8 of us).. His partner came up to the door and greeted us and the first thing he said to us was “we don’t deal with clients, we deal with caterers directly”. When I spoke to richie on the phone I had mentioned to him we MIGHT be catering Indian food. At the same time, I had done my research and spoke to 2 different Indian caterers and they were both looking into the best deal for me.

Apparently, both the caterers called Richie and Richie himself decided to go with one of them. However, we decided to go with the other caterer. (Which Riche didn’t know about..)

When we walked in, they were already under the impression that we’re catering Indian food so I made it very clear to him; we’re open to American food or Indian food, it’s not finalized yet. His partner is standing at the door, talking to us and KEPT emphasizing he doesn’t deal with clients! So at this point my father was calm and he said “okay you said that about 10x already, keep in mind w/o clients (us) neither you nor your caterers are going anywhere!”

I felt like he treated us like crap from the second we walked in there till we left. Not ONCE did he say, come take a seat lets talk about what you want. We got into a huge argument by the front door. Richie’s partner said, you know what since you came to see Richie anyway, you can talk to him… I don’t want to deal with you guys!

Richie came out, he’s leaning on the piano – mind you, we’re STILL standing by the door.. He goes “how can I help you?” He knew ALREADY who I was and he knew I’m planning my wedding and I’m considering Sands. My father said, well my daughter is planning her wedding so she has a bunch of questions put together to ask you about Sands. Richie responds, “Sure, what’s your question?”

I didn’t know where to start, because we’re still standing by the door. So at this point, I asked him, “can we at least sit and talk about this?”. He said “sure come on in!” He took us to his office; he leans back on his leather chair, swings back and forth and goes ‘okay so what’s your question?”

I really wanted to just cry and shut him up and walk out of there! I was boiling inside, I felt like they were treating us LIKE CRAP!!!! I said, Richie ok let’s start from the beginning, can you at least show me this place?

And he goes sure! He slowly takes us around, and every question I asked him, he kept saying NO to me! They don’t provide ANYTHING! Only thing they provide is the hall! You mention anything to him; he’ll say its additional cost!

At the end of the day, we were still thinking about forgetting what happened and just booking with Sands. However, I made an appointment with Crest Hollow. They were a little more expensive originally but then we realized CH gives us everything (including cake, decoration pillars, tulle, huppa, burst…etc). Sands gave us nothing! Even the chair he said we sit on is an ordinary chair! I really wanted to ask Sands = are you going to charge me for the spoons/forks/knives too?!

Before we left, I asked Sands, can I see the back (beach area), he said sure, you can go out that way. It was a little cold that day, but still? I felt like he could have still walked us out and showed it to us!!

A friend of mine got married there in October, he said after they get all your $$, they could care less about you!

oh! another thing, for my friends wedding they wanted everyone to get out of there early for some other party... so they made an announcement saying everyone had to leave!! (it was a big wedding too!)