Chapel By The Sea

Chapel by the Sea was recommended by a friend............communication was very scarce, but I didn't need my hand held. We just wanted a small ceremony on the beach. The only positive was that we decided at the last minute to add the video option and Ron managed to get that set up. Day of the wedding met at the beach and everything was done in less than 15 minutes. Was told we would have our pictures by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. Several emails later we finally got the pictures on Friday, for the most part they were good, but not as many as I expected. The last minute video though - non existent. Received email on 11/16 saying that it had been sent to the editing company and that we should have it within 3-4 weeks. It is now 7 weeks, 4 emails, voice mail and text message later with ABSOLUTELY zero response. Have requested money back through Paypal but seriously doubt that we will ever get it back. If you want a stress free wedding with everything you ordered DON'T use Chapel by the Sea, it will only result in a great amount of frustration and stress.

Married by this guy 10/6/2012. 3 weeks and apparently the license was mailed.....funny because I had to go to the courthouse today and do everything ALL ove again. Thank goodness the employees at the courthouse felt bad for us and with no assistance from this Ron, we walked out today with our Marriage License recorded and correct. We have not received our photo CD. Save yourself the headache and use someone ANYONE else.

The wedding was perfect. I purchased the barefoot contessa at sunset on Smather's beach, tipped $75, added circle of petals in sand.
Planned in April for July, got a confirmation email from Ron in May. I emailed him once a few days before my wedding to see if we could push it back an hour, he replied the day before the wedding and said that would be fine. So that was great because I wanted sunset pics. The photographer was awsome and we picked up our photo cd 3 days later and all the photos were touch-up and really turned out great.
Honestly it all turned out great, better than I expected. If you're the type that needs to know every last detail about this wedding this probably isn't for you. But, if you were like me and just wanted something small but nice and somewhat traditional, nice photos for the memories then this is for you. Everything is taken care of for you, you don't have to pick colors of the flowers, the flowers in the bouquet were beautiful, fresh and professionally done. All you have to do is show up and Ron guides you the rest of the way, after you marry he leaves you with the photographer for your 1 hr. session and then 3 days later you pick up your cd in the mailbox attached to his business building on the corner of Fleming and Margaret. He files your papers and you get your marriage liscense in the mail.
My only complaint would be that he doesn't respond quick enough, matter of fact I never verbally spoke to him before my wedding, only thru email. That just made me a little anxious, cuz I just wanted some kind of verbal confirmation. But honestly it all turned out fine and I was pleased.

We had a good experience with Chapel by the Sea and Rev. Ron. I had talked with him over the phone a few times to choose a package. We were happy we went with his advice and got the package with the photographer because he was quite good. (Otherwise, Ron would have been the photographer with very few pics during the ceremony.) The morning of our wedding Ron called us to suggest we have the ceremony at Truman Annex by the fountain since the beach was not cleaned up from the 4th of July parties and a heavy rain the night before. We were fine with this because Smathers Beach is nice but not beautiful anyway. Truman Annex was very pretty! We had requested photos at Fort Zach after the ceremony (prettier scenery with trees, rocks, etc.) and Vitaly the photographer and his wife took us there. We enjoyed meeting them and felt they did a great job with the photography. The only negative we had was that our picture CD wasn't ready for us while we were still in Key West, as promised. It was mailed to us and we got it a week later. Our pics have not showed up on the website either, but that doesn't really matter to us since we have shared them already with friends and family. We had a very simple wedding (just us) and were happy with how things went. We love our pictures!

We contracted Chapel By the Sea for our wedding and would HIGHLY recommend Rev Ron's services. We had our wedding aboard the Jolly II Rover on a 2 hr Sunset Sail on a public cruise. It was the MOST AWESOME ceremony!!!! This was everything we had hoped for and MORE! My Bouquet was absolutely gorgeous, Ron provided beer and wine prior to ceremony and champagne afterwards. The Captain and crew of the Jolly II Rover were wonderful. Thanks Rev Ron for the best day of my life !
We feel we got a very good deal for the price we paid and all we had to do was get our Marriage License and show up at the dock, Rev Ron took care of everything else.
Laurel and Jamie Moore

Reverend Ronney was great. I would and will recommend his services to any friends/family who are looking to have a destination wedding. He worked around our schedule, as we were only in Key West for a short time while stopping in on a cruise ship. Ron answered all our questions a couple months in advance, and then contacted us again to confirm meeting place and time about a month before the wedding. The ceremony we received was exactly as described on the website and exactly what we had expected. It was obvious that Ron knew what he was doing and has a lot of experience. I can't wait to get our dvd with the photos he took on it because I'm sure he got some great ones!

We paid in full Chapel by the Sea in May 2011. Ronney was very attentive until he gets your money. Or off of probation/court ordered supervision I eventually found out. By September I had not received and responses from Ronney Scott to my questions regarding transportation. He was contacted by email, phone and text. After six weeks of no contact I started digging deeper into Chapel by the Sea and found disturbing information regarding his drug habits, criminal convictions, and his repeated no shows for other planned and paid for weddings. I immediately worked with my credit card company and started contacting other wedding planners. We were very fortunate that Weddings To Go was available and so willing to assist us with our disaster. Additional research online showed that many other brides had been left standing on the beach with no chairs, musician or officiant. The majority of the reviews that I found were praising Weddings To Go for stepping in after observing the couples on the beach waiting for Chapel by the Sea to show up. Ray and Eileen officiated and used their photographers and equipment free of charge to save many couples from having ruined weddings.

I filed complaints with Key West Chamber of Commerce, Attorney General’s office and Florida’s Consumer Protection Agency. Ronnie did not respond to any of the complaints. I also added reviews to Yahoo and other places, even to find more horror stories. Chapel by the Sea website states you will receive a return call within 48 hours if your wedding is more than 30 days out. I felt it was very important to document this so others were not victims on their special day. Key West is a great location for a destination wedding and all 40 of our guests enjoyed their stay and all intend to come back soon for another vacation. It would be a misfortune for individual like Chapel by the Sea to create negative press for such a great place for a destination wedding. I highly recommend Weddings to Go Key West for your wedding planner.

On our last day in Key West we witnessed a wedding gathered on Smathers Beach with no chairs, no flowers, no musician and no Chapel by the Sea…. I did confront one of the guests and advise them of our troubles. The Bride and groom were still waiting and trying to get ahold of Ronnie to be picked up and taken to get their marriage license. Ten minutes before the wedding started…

We are so thankful we stumbled across this horrible wedding planner in time!

Our wedding was a destination wedding planned via the internet. The Chapel by the Sea website was very appealing, and after emailing with Ron, we booked our package and date. Fast forward to the months and weeks before the wedding and communication was extremely lacking with Ron. We had one phone call about 2 months before the wedding where we confirmed all the details, and I paid the balance. After that, despite my attempts, I did not speak to Ron again until 8pm the night BEFORE my wedding. I was freaking out (to say the least) that things were not confirmed. All I wanted was him to call and tell me that everything was ready and would be as I expected. What I found out was that even though that harpist said she would learn songs, she didn't learn our songs. I'm glad I paid $350 to have to pick wedding songs from her list less than 24 hours before my wedding. The day of the wedding, the trolley came on time and we were off to the ceremony. We arrived to find that there were no flowers. I had paid for flowers for the wedding party and moms/dads/grandfathers, but Ron said his flower lady didn't make them so he had someone go buy some on the fly. Our ceremony started 15 minutes late, and my bridal party carried roses, on the stem, down the aisle. My bouquet was beautiful, but we had to hurry the ceremony in order to keep with the rest of the timeline. There was also no Skype service provided, which Ron said would be included. We have family waiting for this, and it never happened and by the time the flowers were ready there was no time to ask and risk another delay. There was no water, as the contract stated either. Luckily my grandfather married us, so the ceremony went as planned. The videographer stood 2 feet away from us at the ceremony, which ruins all of our beach pictures even though he was told not to stand so close. Ron seems to stand by the "don't worry about" motto, and it just wasn't what I expected. It's also been several days since I asked about our flower refund, and we still have no response. If you want piece of mind, find another vendor to plan your ceremony.

Communicating with and working with Reverend Ron leading up to and on our wedding day was great. He worked with my wife to craft (as close to) a traditional Jewish service as we could get with just the two of us running off to Key West to get married. After our service, we had photos taken on the beach and at Southernmost Point that are absolutely beautiful. We were told then to meet Ron at a bar to finish up the photo shoot, but once we got there we met some other couples and pretty much had ourselves a little reception right then and there! We even got our photos back a day or so later! The only real issue we had was that after we returned home to NJ, Ron was a little hard to get a hold of on the phone so we were getting a little nervous about our marriage license, but everything was filed just as promised. So all in all, I would recommend Chapel By The Sea

" Reverend" Ron came to me at my wedding time and told me that the chairs were running late not to worry. He then asked my family and friends to unload their own WET chairs to the beach. He told me he forgot my flowers at home and then left to get them. 20 minutes later he was no where to be found and would not return calls. I was completely upset in the limo when he showed up 35 minutes late. I got out and saw my guitarist which was a homeless person he had found that day. He then gave us the wrong vows that had a verse about the Apache nation in them. When we got to the reception there was no cake. Luckily it arrived an hour later. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES would I recommend this company to anyone. I would have had a better wedding without paying.

SCAMMERS...DO NOT USE !!!!!so responsive and friendly once we paid never heard from this company again. So needless to say not only did I pay this company and receive no service bur then i had to find another company and pay again THANK YOU AGAIN CHAPEL BY THE SEA FOR STEALING MY HARD EARNED MONEY.

Just got back from getting married in key west. Although I was a little stressed over e-mail responses they always answered when I called. Ron had everything arrainged just as requested. We had a wonderful wedding.

Our experience with this company was HORRIBLE! After paying a substantial amount to "Ron". We never heard from him again. I emailed & called several times to confirm specifics of our ceremony and never received a response. We we're traveling from across the country and wanted nothing more than confirmation that everything was being planned as we had asked. I showed up the day of our wedding expecting for him to go over things with me before our ceremony started but rather, he began the ceremony the moment he saw me. I was completely embarrassed. Afterward, we were told that he would turn in our marriage certificate the following Monday and our picture CD would be in the mail that same day. Well, it is now 2 months later and we just received our marriage certificate 2 days ago and still havent received our picture cd. If I could file a complaint with Paypal, I would but the complaint period has passed. I would NEVER recommend anyone use this company for anything. You will only be upset.

I would strongly recommend against using this company for your wedding. After the ceremony they lost our marriage license and never told us. We found out a month later after calling the court house. It took almost another month for us to get it resolved. He is extremely unresponsive. It was not stress free and I would NOT recommend booking.

The website this is found under could not be more appropriate "lazyway". We had a very affordable package...our pictures turned out horrible, and the feedback we got after complaining was that we had a very small picture budget. So out of the 300.00 + dolllars spent on the service, only 45.00 was designated for our pictures. They did not edit them at all. There were pictures included where my hair was blown across my face. Maybe 3 out of the 50 sent are decent to use. We did not require them to do much because we had already taken care of the ceremony prior to arrival. Basically, All I asked was that our pictures turned out nice. There were only a total of 5 people there in my entire party so it was not like he had too many people to photograph in a set amount of time.....one guy showed up with a camera, and snapped pictures randomly without even having the camera up to his face most of the time. I would not recommend using them at all. The pics on the website are very deceiving, take a look at the galleries of the most recent pics to see the real quality of their photography.

I loved my wedding.... they did everything for me. When they say a stress free wedding they mean it.