We worked with Sarah throughout our wedding planning and she is absolutely AMAZING to work with. She virtually was our wedding planner all the way until we were being announced at the reception, then we were sad to see her leave. The staff at The Rusty Pelican are nothing but professional and really make you feel like you are the most important person during your event!! Our captain was Norma and she really did a wonderful job throughout the reception to make our guests happy and a priority! What you pay for your event to be held here is more than worth the money, as you reduce a lot of your stress by allowing them to handle it all!! The gazebo at night is so beautiful and just right for anyone that isn't looking for a church venue!

Thanks to Sarah, Norma and the rest of the staff at The Rusty Pelican for making our wedding night a hit with all of our guests!! It really was a beautiful night!!

The Rusty Pelican's wedding package is an excellent deal. It provided almost everything I needed to carryout a successful wedding. Because I was trying to plan my wedding from Atlanta, it was very convenient having this all-inclusive package deal. It allowed for less headaches and less vendors to communicate with. The quality of food was better than I expected with a selection to please all.

My only complaint would be the communication with my coordinator, Sarah Bauscher. There were many details that she would often leave out or loose track of that caused some confusion. We had planned a separate food tasting time for me since I was an out of town client. However, when I had driven all the way from Atlanta for my food tasting, she had completely forgotten and said I had not filled out the proper paperwork. Also, she did not mention that vendors would receive a basic chicken dish and children would receive a chicken finger dish. So when I asked my vendors if they wanted chicken or prime rib, some were excited for the prime rib. Luckily, a couple guests did not come who had ordered prime rib, so I was able to offer it to my vendor. Sarah allowed me to replace the chicken finger children's dish for a veggie pasta, but then on the day of the wedding, the staff still gave the child a chicken finger dish, which was just an error of communication. I was also excited for the limousine transportation being included in my package, and was told that the limo could pick us up anywhere in a 20 mile radius and bring us to the Rusty Pelican. However, at the last minute less than a week before the wedding, when my schedule was already planned, I was told that 20 mile radius was 20 miles round trip. Thus, the limo would only pick us up within 10 miles, and my ceremony location was 18 miles away. As far as I know, radius means the distance from a certain point. It does not mean round trip. So I had to rearrange my transportation plans from the ceremony location because of this.

However, despite these communication issues, my wedding was executed with little fault. I was very pleased with the value of everything included. Having the meal, table decorations, cake, service, open bar, etc all included made everything more than worth the price.

I had a great experience at the Rusty Pelican.
They offer a great price for a full service wedding! They have an amazing vendor list and an absolutely beautiful location! No complaints here! My wedding was beautiful, the food was great, and the guests were happy!
I worked with Don and he is very organized. He provides you with a timeline that makes the wedding planning easy and keeps you from getting overwhelmed.
I know not everyone enjoys working with Don but I think he does and excellent job, a true asset to the Rusty Pelican.
He's very honest and direct so that you will have a beautiful wedding. I think the folks who don't enjoy working with him are the ones who don't do their own legwork and have unreasonable expectations.
If you get married here you're guaranteed to have everything run smooth and a beautiful wedding.

I worked with Sarah and Don and both were Awesome! They really helped me in the whole planning process! You are getting a great deal for your money and my guests were blown away by the whole thing! If you really want to have a memorable day and surprise all your guests i suggest this place!!!

Absolutely AMAZING! We had our ceremony outside at the gazebo then our reception inside in the Grand Ballroom. Don was our wedding coordinator and did an excellent job guiding us along the way and making things as easy for us as possible. We brought all of the items we wanted for the ceremony as well as the reception the day before our wedding and the staff set everything up. During the reception, we were treated like royalty by our banquet manager Norma. She even put the dressing on our salad and prepared our dinner plates for us from the buffet :) The food was wonderful, the room looked better than I could have imagined. So many of our guests called it a fairy tale wedding. Thank you for the wonderful experience, I would highly recommend this venue to anyone looking for a beautiful wedding with excellent staff

Sarah was wonderful! My wedding was perfect and she did a good job in making sure it went smoothly. She was also quick to respond to any questions or concerns I had. I also really like that I had to much included in my package it made my planning my day that much easier

We had our ceremony and reception at Rusty Pelican in Tampa. It was PERFECT!!! The ceremony was outside along the water. Sarah made sure everyone was where they needed to be and checked on me a few times before the ceremony started. She made sure everything went smoothly for the ceremony and it did. She brought us some champagne during pictures and gave us a private moment before the reception with some appetizers. It was so nice to have that moment with my new husband :) Once the reception started she turned us over to the dinner manager who checked on us multiple times during the night and brought us over drinks when we needed it. The food was perfect! We had a sit down dinner with Filet and Chicken Jack Daniels, mashed potatoes and veggies. Everyone complimented that it was the best wedding food they ever had. Sarah was very friendly and organized and always answered me promptly with my millions of questions :) I was very, very pleased with the service we received and our wedding was perfect and beautiful :)

Our wedding coordinator quit in the middle of our wedding process and we were given Don to work with. I left crying my first in person meeting with him, and he was so rude to me on the phone when I called about our tasting a few weeks later that I immediately called his supervisor to file a complaint and asked that we be switched to someone else. There were a TON of miscommunications during the entire process because of the personnel issues they had.

We ended up working with Sarah and she was great. Very sympathetic to the issues we had been having and did what she could. She saved the ball for this place.

I would 100% recommend this place with 5 stars if you have Sarah (or someone else) as your contact. It really was amazing except for the experience with Don!

Pros:
CEREMONY - The ceremony was beautiful. This place is a great location with an amazing view.
FOOD - The food the night of the wedding was great. We heard a lot of guests who loved the apps served during cocktail hour and the dinner served was great.
SERVICE - The service the night of our wedding was amazing. We had a server dedicated to us the entire time who gave us refills, food, etc. whenever we asked. Very attentive and very sweet.

Cons:
DON - If you're a bride who wants to actually enjoy the process of planning your wedding, ask for Sarah, or someone else. Don is just too short, rude and a not-enjoying-the-process kind of a person for me. From the other reviews, I get the sense you either love him or hate him. My recommendation is to play it safe and ask for someone else. You're getting married. It's exciting and you should have someone who's excited for you! :)

Sarah and the rest of the team were amazing. Everything turned out to be exactly what we wanted, better then expected.Everything was absolutely breathtaking and we had a blast. Glad we went with Rusty Pelican to help us with our wedding.

Sarah was great at planning the whole thing for us. It was a beautiful setting and everything went as planned. We had 2 months to put it all together and it would have been a headache if The Rusty Pelican had not given us a list to work with. They demanded all the paperwork on a timely manner to insure everything was perfect the day of. Carlos helped during the wedding to make sure all the food was delivered properly and was wonderful, as was Jean and Jessica. It did seem a little rushed but they had a deadline to accomplish and it all went smoothly. The decorations were beautiful and just how we ordered it all.

Everything with all the vendors went perfectly except for the Rusty Pelican. I too had a Coordinator that quit. I was only notified through mail that I had another person to help. Even though Don knows what he's doing, we felt somewhat uncomfortable asking questions. It seemed that we were supposed to know how things worked. We were also rushed to set up our decorations for the ceremony and for the reception. We wanted to give Don a list of special things we wanted to do, but he wouldn't take it. So a lot of items were never put out at all, so I actually wasted money on some of my ceremony items and had to mail other items to some guests who didn't receive things.

On my wedding day, Don was there helping with the ceremony and disappeared after that. I found out during dinner he left and had someone else over-seeing my event. Carlos was a sweetheart, but we had some problems that were not communicated. We had a raw bar with little or no utensils. My Grandfather had to ask for a nut cracker and my husbands mother had to ask for a fork. We were supposed to have a Viennese table, which was forgotten, so at the end of the night they put it out for people to take home. We were also to have an end of the night toast which was discussed with Don, but Carlos was not told. So they rushed the champagne out and put it on a table in the cocktail room.The champagne was warm and my husband and friends were grabbing the glasses to hand out to people because there was no staff left to serve it.

My DJ, Eric Hardy was the best! He took control of the night and helped us out tremendously on how things worked and what should be done!!!

Beautiful place, great value, awesome food, but they really need to talk to their clients more and organize their events better.

I absolutely love the decor and ambience of the Rusty Pelican. My issues falls with the staff. We paid the Gazebo fee and got rained out. We were out that money. We also paid for a wedding consultant. Honestly, she was a nice lady. However, I feel I wasted money. All she did was write receipts. According to the contract, she sets out name tags, table assignment/seating chart and favors. I did NONE of those. And I still had to pay her fee. She wouldn't set up any of the things I had done myself, such as a candy buffet, family tree/heritage table, centerpieces, none of it. My bridal party and I had to get up early to set up my wedding, the morning of my wedding!

Our wedding ceremony and reception were at the Rusty Pelican. Don was organized. The staff for the reception were unaccommodating and unorganized. We selected the midrange option, which included Call brand bar, passed Hors d'oedurves, Cheese and fruit display, sit down dinner, Champagne toast, wine served with dinner and the list goes on. Within 15 minutes of cocktail hour, the cheese and fruit display were gone and never replenished. Staff passed hor d'oeduvres were far and few. Our guests were starving by the time dinner was served. We had comments that the chicken was rubbery, dry and unable to eat. We had one veg meal that was given to the wrong person. By the time it finally got to the right person, the veggies were raw. Our cake from Chantilly, never reached the tables. When your dinner is table served and not buffet, cake is served. Needless to say no one got cake!:(
After the reception was over, we were informed by the captain, to hurry and get our things out. They had to "turn the room over for the next event". Mind you, This was a Sunday night at midnight. By this time, they had thrown away all my votive candles, I brought in. And when I asked for the boxes I brought all my things in, so I could to load carry my things out. They threw those away as well.:( I am speak less on how we were treated at the end of our reception. As through we were a inconvenience.
When we booked with the Rusty Pelican, we felt it was a good value, with a beautiful view. Do not be deceived by what looks like alot for your money. There are many beautiful venues in the Bay area. And after our experience at the Rusty Pelican, we would have selected a different venue and paid a few dollars more. We give an "F" :(

The Rusty Pelican was great - we could not have been happier with our entire event and our guests were blown away by the view of the Grand Ballroom (in addition to the setting outside for ceremony at the Gazebo). It was perfect, and the staff was great.

Don loves his job and covers every small detail with the bride - he really makes it easy for you. I highly recommend this venue!

Don was my wedding coordinator, and one thing that I can say about him is that he definitely has a type A personality. He was very polite and courteous at all times and he always paid very close attention to details, which was very important to me. I really loved how organized he was. The list that he gave me made planning the wedding a breeze. People always talk about how stressful the planning of a wedding can be, but everything went so smoothly. To be honest it scared me because I thought that I had to be forgetting something or something wasn't going right. I kept thinking to myself "it can't be this simple", but it was! Don told me the first day, if you stick to the list everything will come together and the day will be perfect, no worries. Well he was right. Anytime I felt like I should be doing something, I would check in and he would tell me no worries and to refer to the list. It was as simple as that. He always made sure all of my questions were answered and he would walk me step by step through each process of the planning. On the day of the wedding he was right there with me to make sure everything went perfectly (which it did). I don't know how I would have done it without him. He was absolutely AMAZING.

We had our reception only here, but had a great experience. It was nice to get a "package deal" with the cake, food, drinks, linens and place settings included. There are so many things you dont think about like the setting up of a dance floor, the breaking down of a room and its tables, servers for served meals, that you have to plan for if you dont have a venue with all of these included. The Rusty Pelican was very organized, gave me a timeline with due dates and decisions to make and they handled the rest...it was awesome!