The White Sands Banquets & Catering

I used White Sands as my hotel room block for my guests since we got married at Clark's Landing 5 minutes down the road. First off the rooms were SO expensive for literally the last day of September AKA off season! Then Alex and Cathy Marie NEVER responded to my calls or emails. It was the worst customer service especially since I spent $1000 myself for hotel rooms and then my guests probably another $5000. The lack of follow up was horrendous. Anyway we got the rooms, they were decent - nothing special. We were planning on coming back to the hotel bar for our after party, our wedding ended at 10pm so it was still early. The day we checked in we asked the front desk if the bar will be open and they said it will stay open since they know we are coming. Well what do you know we get to the hotel after an AMAZING wedding at Clark's and the bar is CLOSED. We spent $250 for a shuttle to take our guests from the reception to the White Sands to SPEND MONEY and they staff did absolutely nothing. The front desk and even Alex when I booked my room blocks said even if I don't book the after party it will stay open. I did not want to pay for my guests to drink again since I already spent money for them to drink at my wedding, however it would be a cash bar just like going to any other bar in Point Pleasant which we should have done since White Sands was awful. I would never recommend them due to their terrible communication with planning my wedding, the lack of the front desk knowledge and the false advertising they gave us.

I used the White Sands for my wedding hotel block & rehearsal dinner. The only reason I am giving a 4 and not a 5 is just because of a few minor mishaps, otherwise everything was good! Hotel - there was confusion with guests booking online where they didn't go into our hotel block & didn't get the correct rate but when I called the hotel was able to fix. Also, there was confusion towards the last couple weeks with last minute guest bookings - some guests were told hotel was sold out, and others were told they could get a room at our rate but then charged higher rate. I'm not quite sure all of what happened there but it was a bit confusing! Check in was supposed to be at 3p on Friday but some guests had to wait until 4p for their rooms - but they did have a soft check in where you could check in and leave your stuff and they text you when your room is ready. The rooms were clean, hotel staff was nice, cleaning service was friendly Banquet side - the food was amazing, Alison & wait staff & bartender were AWESOME! I'm not going to lie ... I was unfortunately a little nervous going into the event! It was a little hard to reach someone from banquets for questions I had, I did have a small event (50 ppl) so it may not have taken precedence but the food was good, price per plate was reasonable and as I said Alison & the team were absolutely great the day of the wedding with helping to set up the decor & signs I had. Alison really transformed the room! The guests loved the rehearsal dinner and couldn't get over how awesome it all was

I checked out the White Sands as a possible wedding reception site. From the second I stepped in, the staff was incredibly professional, hospitable and friendly. Everyone I encountered was great - it's a family-run enterprise and it shows. I thought the hotel and spa were great and it would make for a fantastic reception. The bar area for an after-party was awesome and the beach is across the street for a perfect ceremony. The menus sounded delicious and I had the pleasure of meeting the Chef at Arugula and he's great. You can tell he loves what he does and takes pride in his work. Ultimately, I chose another venue but am still considering the White Sands for the rehearsal dinner and/or the weekend getaway following my Friday wedding.

I can not say enough about the amazing staff at Firefly and the White Sands that made our wedding events perfect. First, Scott in the kitchen was incredibly accommodating. I ordered flowers from Costco for the girls’ bouquets. Scott allowed them to be stored in his cooler. My mom and her best friend were constantly in and out of the cooler storing the flowers and making the bouquets, which was incredibly annoying and Scott was fine with it. We also had an ice cream cake at our wedding and Scott allowed us to store it in his freezer and get it whenever we wanted. He managed his kitchen and my wedding flowers and cake with unbelievable poise and patience. We had our after party in the lounge across from the main desk and had Christopher as our Maitre’ D and Bartender. He made sure the bride and groom were taken care of, as well as the 60 or more guests that joined us for late night cocktails and snacks. The chicken fingers, wraps and spring rolls were a perfect way to make sure the beverages we were consuming wouldn’t make anyone feel ill the next morning. He also closed the bar with us and stayed until 3 AM! The next morning we saw Christopher again as our host for the brunch. We had 145 guests for a delicious buffet meal, various beverages to help nurse any residual effects of the late night, and great conversation with anyone we missed the night before. The room was set up nicely, and even when we had a couple people show up after the event ended, Christopher ran into the back to get them a plate of food so they wouldn’t go hungry. He even got the bride a plate of food because she had forgotten to eat. Christopher went above and beyond at the after party and the brunch. We loved working with him and booking these two events here!

I cannot recommend them to anyone for their wedding. Food was ok, that's about it. Lori and Alex are unresponsive unless you leave many many messages for them. I feel that they did very little to help with my wedding and were more in the way than anything. I have yet to get back my decorations and cake toppers and never respond to emails I send them. I think they are very money hungry and don't really care about people once they have your money. They also moved my wedding to the big room and never told me that they were moving it back to the small room after Lori made such a big sell that she only does one party per day! There was a high school reunion in the big room. OH! The balcony was a complete mess! No one even bothered to sweep it up for my guests to use to smoke on. Somehow due to my bridal party being stubborn and positive everything worked out, but for a bride who is already stressed out to the max no do not recommend.