Southern Waters Venue Reviews

My husband and I just got married on March 18th and it was the most magical day ever! Tom and his team were so responsive, helpful and friendly. It was forecasted to rain and they reached out with backup plans before I even contacted them. The venue is gorgeous and met all my fairytale dreams.

Southern Waters and their staff is absolutely amazing! They truly made my wedding a breeze, being able to relax and enjoy my wedding day with no worries was the greatest gift. I highly recommend this venue!

Tom the owner of the venue was amazing to work with. We found them a year ago and any time we had a question he was always on top of answering it. He was even there the day of the wedding to make sure everything went smooth. All staff were very friendly and helpful.

My fiance and I met with Tom last night and could not be more excited! As well as the venue, Southern Waters will be providing our catering service, and last night we were able to do our tasting. The food was delicious and Tom was willing to work with our schedule. The caterer was willing to listen to all of our requests and went above and beyond what I had expected and Tom discussed wedding details with us throughout the night. Very pleased with everything so far!

Updated 2/2/16:
Our wedding was everything we could have imagined! From the catering to the venue, everyone could not stop raving about the turn out. Loved every minute of it. Thank you to Southern Waters!!!!

I have only begun with my wedding planning and selecting a venue but so far they have been exceptional with their time and value. They have also provided above and beyond services as well as information. I cannot wait for the big day!

This place was amazing!! My daughter's wedding ceremony and reception was beautiful. We have heard from several guest that this was the BEST wedding/reception they have ever attended. The venue is beautiful. The brides cottage was perfect for having the bridal party's hair & make up done and for getting dressed. The grooms cottage just as nice. My daughters wedding pictures are beautiful thanks to the gorgeous scenery. I couldn't have dreamed of a more beautiful place to have her special day. Her wedding was truly a fairy tale wedding (and yes there was a Cinderella Carriage).

We are trying to convince my daughter and son in law to celebrate their 1 year anniversary there just so we can all go back and celebrate and enjoy the venue again.

Everything about my wedding process with tom (the owner) from the day we signed our contract til the day of our wedding was easy and fabulous. The owners are the sweetest people. They were there the entire day of my event to make sure everything went perfectly and perfect it was. I would do it over and over and over again if I could. Can't stress how highly I recommend them. Thanks for the best day ever, guys!!!!

Absolutely beautiful grounds. Plenty of room for many different areas of interest during ceremony and reception. Horse drawn carriage, cigar bar, wet bar, food, dance etc. Everyone had a great time for this best day ever!

This venue is absolutely gorgeous. Everything has a rustic, country style with beautiful oak trees. I would not change a thing! So much room around the property to include different staging areas. Perfection. Highly recommend.

Southern Waters was the perfect venue for my dream wedding! Everything went perfectly and I wouldn't have changed a thing! Highly recommend!

This is a beautiful venue! The second in walked on to the property, I knew i had to have my wedding there! It is such a surprising place! Cape Coral/ Ft Myers are of course beautiful, but when you walk up to Southern Waters, It's like you have found one of the most unique, beautiful and peacefull best kept secret's in all of Lee County. The owners are the best too! They were always helpfully and accomadateing. They went above and beyond to ensure everything was perfect! I loved everything! Thank you so much Southren Waters for the wedding of my dreams!

Southern Waters was absolutely gorgeous. Tom was really flexible and able to meet me multiple times so the photographer, DJ, and family members could see the property. I rented Southern Waters for the entire weekend (highly recommended) so I was able to have the rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception there. It is big enough to have multiple things happening without interfering with each other and have many diverse (and beautiful) backdrops for pictures. Tom lets you dress it up however you want and is very flexible with vendors. I highly recommend this place for any event, big or small.

Southern waters is a gorgeous venue for a wedding! We had a beautiful ceremony. My only complaint is that the owner took photos during the ceremony with his phone so in our professional pictures there is a man walking around in the middle of our vows. It was very distracting. Otherwise we were proud to have our wedding there!

Everything turned out beautifully on our wedding day. Tom is very responsive when it comes to trying to book your wedding. However, after he receives your deposit, he is hard to contact. If I had a question, I waited 5-7 days before getting a response. Which I can understand, since he has a life outside of weddings. But he was very quick to respond before getting our deposit. There was also some miscommunication between the catering company and I (Southern Waters provides a delicious catering company), and they thought our wedding was the next day. It was 2 hours before the wedding when we realized there was some miscommunication (which by this time, I would have thought Tom would have already noticed there was an issue since it was 2:00 and nobody was there when we found out the catering company usually shows up at 11:30). While it was miscommunication between the vendor and I, you would think that Tom would have been on top of the catering company being there on time and the right day. After a complete breakdown, and worrying that we weren’t going to have any food to serve our 120 guests, my aunt made a few phone calls and the catering company was able to pull through. Southern Waters also provides a DJ, and he was absolutely wonderful! My only concern is that the DJ does not come to the rehearsal. Tom assured me that he knew what he was doing since he has done so many weddings there, but as the bride, it would have made me more comfortable with the timing and such when walking down the aisle if the dj was there to help coordinate things with our officiant. There were also a few tables that I asked Tom specifically to move around that never ended up happening. Cocktail hour was supposed to be out on the deck before the bridge, and it ended up staying near the reception area even though I had said I didn’t want it there (I actually ended up liking it more where he left it, but it was the fact that the tables were never moved like I requested). I also requested that our cake table be next to the bride and groom table, and it somehow ended up right at the front of the dance floor. Now that I think about it, that placement could have been disastrous since everyone was dancing right next to it, our $600 cake could have easily been knocked over. I didn’t fret much about the misplacement of the tables, since it wasn’t the end of the world. Everything turned out beautifully in the end, and I was very happy. However, when we first booked the venue, we asked if we should get a wedding planner. We were told it wasn’t really necessary. After the issue with the catering company, I disagree. I would definitely recommend getting a wedding planner when choosing this venue to make sure everyone is showing up on time and is going according to plan (after the catering incident, I had to make several phone calls to be sure that all the other vendors that were provided by Southern Waters were coming). At the end of the day, I was very happy. But it was very stressful

The venue grounds are a hidden paradise. Very beautiful. The buildings are not well maintained, broken door handles, warped doors and unsafe pathways entering the houses. Told they didnt have time to fix things. Mold in the guest house with exposed wires. The lines of communication are not good either. It takes a long time to get a return call, email even text. Make sure you get everything in writing, keep track of all dates and calls. They do not return deposits as per contract terms. Still waiting 4 months later for something that was to be returned with in 2 weeks of event. Now I am proceeding with legal action.

It is with great sadness that we write this post. This is my experience with the owner of Southern Waters, and his wife’s company, “Vision One Management”.
We used this facility on May 24th 2014 for our daughters wedding reception. We had placed a deposit to secure the facility on January 30th of 2014 and paid the balance on March 28th 2014. It has been 10 months since paying the deposit and we have yet to get back the deposit from them. We have made numerous text messages and phone calls (almost weekly), with no action on their part. The owner was at our daughters reception and stated directly to use, we would be getting the deposit back in 2 weeks (the 2nd week of June). He has even used photos from my daughters wedding and uses them on his website . We have received various excuses from them such as I have been out of town, I have had a family emergency etc. It has resulted in sheer frustration on our part trying to resolve this problem. We had no major complaints about the grounds, just in the way they choose to conduct their business. Numerous people have asked me about securing the facility for themselves, but I have told them what has transpired and advised them to beware. As a business person, I have read, statistically for every bad experience a person has, ten people are told and for every good experience only about 4 people are told. This post will blow that statistic out the water. If after this post, this issue still goes unresolved, we will explore several others options to resolve this problem.

With Sadness and Frustration

Steve and Darcy Carlsen

My husband and I had our wedding there march 22nd 2015. it was beautiful, tom was amazing until the day of the wedding. He had three different couples come look at the location as we're trying to setup for our wedding. before we left we talked to him and he assured us we would have the deposit within two weeks, its now almost three months and we haven't heard from him. We have showed up, called, texted and emailed and have had no luck. our attorney will be taking care of the rest. we were holding back from any legal actions but its not fair that we have to go through all this trouble. we have a signed contact with Tom and we has not complied with it.

My fiancé and I were going to hold our wedding at this place. We paid a deposit to the owner Tom Hoolihan after meeting him and touring the grounds. In the months that followed the communication we received from Tom was barely existent. The man never answers his phone, never seems to read his emails, never returns a text message. The lack of professional courtesy he showed to us was simply intolerable for the amount of money we were committing to spend for a wedding at his venue.

Months went by and the deadline for our wedding grew ever closer and in that time only the sporadic communication from Tom was received. Promises were made and never delivered on by him. Finally we decided to cancel our plans to host our wedding at his venue.

Despite agreeing verbally to refund our deposit he has not been forthcoming on this promise either nor has he been communicating with us any further.

I would caution ANYONE from doing business with Southern Waters or Tom Hoolihan. Your dream wedding could become your nightmare.

AWFUL!!!!!!! Tom was very hard to get ahold of from the begining. I had my heart set on an outside wedding, so I chose this place. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! Updates to the property and club house that were supposed to be made, never were. If he promises you a Tiki-Hut-Don't count on it.

I never received my deposit back. But from what I gather, not too many people do.

Read this article before checking out the property. And don't waste your time. Tom is a scam artist!