Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum

"But problems do arise when expectations do not match experience." - Ships Interim Executive Director Let me start with the quote above that summarizes our entire experience with Ships. Our actual wedding was beautiful and we have so many memories to keep with us, however, our experience with Ships was horrendous from start to finish. And since I was accused of making a threat, let me be CLEAR, I planned on reviewing my experience with Ships regardless of the outcome. If you are a middle-class, DIY, or on a budget bride, Ships of the Sea is NOT for you. They only cater to privileged bridal parties who are in a financial position to hire wedding planners or coordinators. As a result of our complaints, they made this an official policy. A policy that is classist and flat out discriminatory. Ships will NOT take accountability for anything, and we barely got an apology. No matter what we said, they kept telling us "You are not professionals. A professional would not have let these things happen." I am extremely saddened that this experience. My only hope is that brides in the future take this information and choose wisely when deciding their venue. My husband and I went through THREE venue coordinators over the course of five months when planning our wedding. Each time a coordinator would leave, I was never notified of their departure, and several details of our wedding were lost during each transition, so it felt like we were starting from square one each time. I complained to Ships how it was frustrating that several details of my wedding was lost and approximately two weeks before my wedding, I am being bombarded with last minute details that should have been addressed beforehand. We did not have a formal Day Of Coordinator, however, I had a friend (with years of event planning experience) volunteer to help us. My Day Of Coordinator also had several complaints about things that happened on the wedding day. Due to our extreme disappointment, we decided to take our complaints to the Interim Executive Director. My Day Of Coordinator sent her complaints to her, and that's when we received the quote above. In the phone call, the Interim Executive Director essentially blamed everything that happened on us for not having a wedding planner. She stated, "You didn't know what you were doing because you are not a professional." I was FLOORED. I pointed out every single incident of miscommunication and lack of accountability from her staff, and she stood firm to her statement that having a planner would have prevented all of this from happening. I read off emails her staff sent, and she told me that she DID NOT see the email chains, but was only looking at our contract. AGAIN, I WAS SPEECHLESS. Here we are, customers who paid, who have proof of when Ships employees were clearly in the wrong, and she didn't even bother to read it so that she could have a better understanding of why we were upset. At that point that I knew Ships did not care. They did not care about us, they did not care about our complaints, they were not going to take accountability, or even acknowledge the mistakes their employees made. The interim Director had a terrible attitude and even accused us of not having "common sense" when I noted that one of the issues could have been easily resolved if her employees just communicated. We requested a refund and it was immediately denied because they "upheld their end of the contract." Words cannot express how unprofessional Ships was.

We used ships for our wedding venue. It is such a beautiful venue and we fell in love with the gardens. We had our ceremony in the Scarborough Garden, Cocktail hour in the maple grove, and reception under the pavilion. We did have to provide all of our rentals (tables, chairs, linens, etc.) but that's okay because we we're able to curate our own look. We didn't rent glassware, instead ships provided plastic cups that were able to be recycled because of their sustainability policy - which is awesome! During our planning process, Ships went through a few different wedding contacts, but they were always on top of communication and answered any all questions we had. The director also worked closely with my day-of coordinator helping to ensure our day went smoothly. I would highly recommend!

We got married at Ships of the Sea in March and were so, so grateful that we were able to have our wedding there. The azaleas in the garden were blooming and it was so, so beautiful! While I also had the experience of working with multiple members of their team throughout the planning process, we had the privilege to work with Sarah there for the last couple of months of planning and she was such a gift. She was a clear communicator, very prompt, and would always answer all of my questions that I had without issue. I was so thankful to have the opportunity to work with her for the night of our event! I agree with other reviewers regarding having to bring everything in, but in my opinion it is totally worth it for such a beautiful and unique space!

Ships of the Sea is a gorgeous venue, but choose it at your own risk. We went through FOUR coordinators for the venue, and it felt like starting from scratch each time. This venue provides you with absolutely nothing- so essentially you are paying thousands of dollars for a covered slab of concrete. If you have the budget, amazing vendors, and a great vision, you can pull it off. I had an amazing florist and coordinator, but if I could do it over, I don't know that I'd go with SotS. Like a previous commenter, I was upset with the installation in the reflection pool. It was very inappropriate for a wedding. Museums of course can display whatever they'd like, but when one of their main revenue sources (that they are charging a hefty fee for) is a wedding, that has got to be kept in mind when choosing outdoor exhibits in the wedding space. Be warned that there is no single use plastic (which I am fine with) allowed on site, but there is also no dishwasher for the bar. So when you run out of rented glassware, they switch to paper. There is also no flames allowed on the premises, so that limits send off options. All in all, this venue worked for me, but you really need to know what you're getting into before you spend the money!