The Breakwaters at the Dunes Reviews

My husband and I can't say enough good things about the staff at The Breakwater's at The Dunes. We are regulars at Beachwood because you can't beat the friendly staff, great drinks and delicious food. When it came time to plan a reception to celebrate our marriage we knew this would be the perfect place for us! Sarah, the event coordinator and Patrick, the general manager made sure the night was perfect! The room was beautiful, the food and drinks were amazing and everyone had a truly amazing time. Planning the event was completely stress free thanks to the two of them. Our guests had such a wonderful time that no one wanted to leave! I highly recommend The Breakwaters at The Dunes if you are looking to throw a wedding reception or any event for that matter. We could not be happier with the way the evening turned out.

Working with the breakwaters was an all included solution. Our goal was to have a fun, easy and not overly expensive wedding that left a lasting impression on our guests. We worked with the wedding planners via phone/email since we lived an hour away and met in person twice, and everything was PERFECT! The custom menu, the beach ceremony, the coordination with our band, everything. They recommended great vendors to work with including a bag pipe player, florist and videographer. The staff was incredible throughout the whole process and the wedding planners allowed us to not worry about details and just enjoy our day! Also they are super well connected in Sea Isle so they were able to pull off fun details like having the fudgy wudgy man make an appearance!

Our daughter, Lauren, and her fiancé, Kyle, held their wedding reception at the Breakwaters on April 27, 2019. Throughout the process the general manager, Patrick, was so supportive and helpful. We had a wonderful tasting two months prior. The food was delicious. Our guests raved about the tasty appetizers, excellent service by all staff, delectable entrees, and the lovely ambiance of the room. Kudos to Sarah for all her help! Bravo! A perfect choice for seashore wedding receptions.

I love this space so much. As soon as we walked in, we knew that we weren’t going to look anywhere else. It’s absolutely beautiful with the tasteful beach décor that isn’t over the top. The color scheme is really pretty and perfect for a beach-inspired wedding. The adjoining condos that you can book with the venue were perfect for our group. Since we knew we wanted this venue, we booked way in advance (over a year before the wedding).

To be perfectly honest, it started out very rocky after we signed the contract. We were working with a woman who is no longer there, and it always seemed like we were majorly inconveniencing her when asking basic questions (like when we could set up a tasting or when we could see the space). She wasn’t responsive and after a few months we finally got in touch with Patrick, who is so nice and knowledgeable of the venue. However, he was very overworked and needed some help. We ran into some issues with inconsistencies (a lot of what the first woman had told us before we signed the contract didn’t turn out to be the case). Patrick did his best to accommodate our requests or provide quality alternatives. I don’t think this will be an issue going forward because that woman isn’t there anymore and they were going through a transition period.

A couple of months later, Sarah was hired and she was exactly what we needed---super helpful and responsive, with great ideas. I’m sure my mom and I drove her crazy with all of our questions, but she was always pleasant. We’re very detail-oriented people and had questions about every little thing, but Sarah was on top of everything. The day of the wedding, all of the décor looked absolutely perfect and how we’d imagined it to. The way they displayed all of the cookies my mom, aunts, and cousins made was unreal. They are really experts at making things look beautiful and put together. The centerpieces were placed beautifully. The timeline of the night was coordinated, as well. Breakwaters worked with our DJ and photographer to make sure everything ran smoothly. My husband actually sought Sarah out after our reception ended and told her what a great job she did with the whole night.

We can’t recommend the chef enough. The food was unbelievably good. We are still getting compliments on our wedding food, especially the salad and the entrees. We had several people tell us it was the best wedding entrée they’ve ever had. A couple of other people said their meat was the best cut of meat they’d ever had. And we got A TON of compliments on the Caribbean-inspired salad with mango. The first woman we worked with told us that we could choose any of the options on the wedding menu at the time we signed the contract, even if it wasn’t on the seasonal wedding menu when we got married. That turned out to not be the case. My husband is Haitian-American and we wanted the Jamaican jerk salad that was on the original menu, but were told later that we couldn’t get that salad anymore. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the chef created the most amazing Caribbean-inspired salad with mango that everyone loved.

The bartenders kept everyone’s glasses full and got drinks out quickly. We wanted to have signature cocktails (his and hers) and Breakwaters did a great job of creating cocktails for us based on our tastes. They even added cute chalkboards with our cocktails written on them for guests to see when ordering drinks.

Now that Sarah is on board and Patrick has some help, I really recommend this venue. The only complaint I have about the entire night is that the AC wasn’t working properly in the reception area. People had to keep leaving and going to the lobby to cool down, and it was a very hot night. We still had a great time and loved the food and décor. The night would have been perfect if the air was working, but I imagine this was a freak thing that doesn’t usually happen. We loved this venue and will definitely be heading to Beachwood at the Dunes for dinner & drinks next time we’re down the shore.
**I will add photos once we get them back from our photographer.**