Tradewinds Island Resorts

We just had a wedding reception this weekend in "the Pavillon" at the Tradewinds. The setting was beautiful, the staff was helpful, Jule Manes, the event coordinator, made everything one of the easiest events i have ever been involved in. There was not one thing i would have changed and i want to thank The Tradewinds for making this such a great wedding!

WOW!!!!!! WHAT A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO THE TRADEWINDS AND STAFF! WE HAD THE BEST TIME, THE BEST ACCOMMODATIONS! EVERYTHING WAS WAY PAST MY EXPECTATIONS! MY DAUGHTERS WEDDING WAS FANTASTIC!
From the beginning of all the preparations, to the very end of having to leave (which I did not!) Julie and all of the staff at the Tradewinds were so accommodating, gracious, delightful, helpful and pleasant! I have planned many parties, etc. but this one could not have gone more smoothly. The organization, help, information and expertise of your staff was truly helpful and efficient! From the moment I arrived on Wednesday to the time I left on Monday, I could not have been more relaxed about all of the set up and chaos that I know was going on, but yet I was not involved because you and your staff are so well trained!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS SUCH A MEMORABLE AND WELCOMING EXPERIENCE! Tradewinds is the best Wedding Venue imaginable!

Julie Manes in Catering is amazing. the banquet staff was not the best at all. The reception execution was not as expected. However, the venue is beautiful.

We had a small ceremony on the back at Tradewinds and it was beautiful but a little pricey. We had to pay $300 for renting 15 chairs for the beach. They say that it includes a back up of indoor space but for a small party $300 was kinda pricey for beach. Still was a beautiful location would not trade it.

Tradewind Resort was exactly what my husband and I were looking for. Beautiful scenery over looking the water. We dealt with Renee from the beginning. We had booked the venue a year out so every time we called or emailed, Renee was always out of the office. She would answer us back within a week and if she didn't we would just email her again. She always answered our questions and was very helpful when we did get a hold of her. Much closer to the wedding she answered our emails right away. I did wish for the amount of money we spent that they would offer more in the sense of decorations but that's my own opinion. Other wise I was very happy with them overall!

We are from Chicago and decided to have a destination wedding in Florida. From all the resorts in the St Pete Beach area we chose The Tradewinds Island Grand. The resort is beautiful and it is in a perfect location for a beach front Ceremony. They have many different ballrooms for you to choose from, but make sure you make a reservation in advance because it books up very quickly.
The day of our wedding arrived and we were so excited for the big day and for our dream ceremony facing the beach at the gazebo. Unfortunately, the weather did not help at all with 45 miles per hour winds, so we decided to use the back up room inside at one of the reception halls, which it worked out perfect.
Our wedding coordinator was Renee Prine, we worked by emails back and forth for 6 months in advance. She is very friendly, professional and answered all of our questions in a timely matter. Unfortunately, the day of our wedding I was very disappointed because they promised us they will be by our side for our special day to take care all the details, but that couldn’t be more farther from the truth. The Tradewinds is such a big resort and they are not afraid to book weddings back to back. We decided not to have a real big wedding, so we had about 50 guests and 6 in the bridal party. Maybe because we did not have a BIG wedding the Tradewinds didn’t think it was as important as a 200 person wedding which it was in the next hall. One of the benefits to hosting your wedding at the Treadewinds Island Resort is they will give you a free one night stay in one of their Honeymoon suites. The suites are very nice and the view is beyond spectacular. However, you would think the honeymoon suite would have a king size bed for your special honeymoon night, but if you thought that, you would be wrong. The room was equipped with two queen size beds.
The reception hall Jacaranda was awesome and it was setup exactly how I wanted it. They did a great job on the setup, however they forgot another IMPORTANT aspect to our wedding. As many weddings do, we had wedding favors for each guest that came to our wedding. After the ceremony was over I went into the reception hall to see how everything turned out and noticed the big box with all the wedding favors right next to the seating chart table. I could not believe that the favors where not put out for our guest, or at least be asked what to do with them, instead I had to have two or our attending guest put the favors out on the tables as one of banquet employees just stood and watched us. I felt embarrassed that I had to have two of my guest hand out the wedding favors.
We decided to have a sand ceremony in lure of the traditional candle ceremony which is popular for a beach wedding. You would figure with the amount of money we gave to the Tradewinds that something as simple and important as the sand unity would be taken care of by the staff. The day of wedding my future to be husband had to set up the whole sand ceremony with the Reverend a half hour prior to the Ceremony.
Another issue that we experienced was with the Bartender who couldn’t have had a worse attitude about being working our reception, even though he was making good money with all our very giving guests, we never had a chance to see any smile coming out from the his face.
Overall the resort is beautiful and have very friendly Bell staff and front desk agents. The rooms are renovated and clean. I will def recomend this place for a wedding, simply things happen and happened to us. But we had a good time and the pictures taken at the resort came out great.

Overall we did not have a very good experience. We fell in love with the beautiful view and scenery and made a choice to use them after realizing how quickly everything books in this area. I felt that leading up to the event questions were not easily answered. It was easiest to write emails as long as you followed up to get a response, and didn't ask multiple questions in one email. Renee was very nice each time I spoke with her, but ultimately didn't know how everything ends up working out, like how it works when you block rooms. I lost sleep over how many rooms I blocked off, and in the end I got a different story from the reservation person in charge of my account. I asked questions to clarify my understanding of the contract at least three times, and in the end their protocol is not what I was told it would be. It worked out in my favor but I should not have had to worry about this, they should have been able to explain it to me. Also, booking the rehearsal if you aren't buying dinner there is not possible, only if space allows I was told. We weren't able to get an estimate of the cost like with other venues. We were given a book with meal prices and told to calculate this ourselves, in the end our estimate was close to what we thought it would be but the menu details weren't accurate. We paid a lot of money for bone in dark meat chicken marsala. We were told that after the reception everything had to come out of the room right away, so I paid a fee before hand to have a bellman take our belongings to our room. We waited for the bellman for over an hour which made us late to our after party, after we were asked to tell them earlier in the day what time we would need him to arrive. He then dropped our sand ceremony and a vase with our flowers in it, making the carpet in our room gross. The room we booked for after the wedding, ended up changing because they changed the description of this type of room. Originally we booked a king size bed, and got two queens because of their change description. We were never able to see the room we booked for the reception because the doors were always locked, and it ended up being a little too small for our guest count and the ceilings were a little low. They encouraged 12 people to sit at 72'' round tables, and really 10 is the max for adults. I had a really hard time getting a room layout a couple of days before the wedding so I would know what to expect for the tables I was going to set up for place cards, gift table etc, which ended up meaning that they didn't deliver the right tables and the linen we ordered didn't fit the tables they had to make up for the missing tables. Before I signed a contract I was told there would be no construction going on in the hotel during my wedding, although my ceremony site was under serious construction, with a fake wall blocking the entire bottom of the building complete with sand bags and a scaffolding that reached to the roof. All of the windows had large blue stickers on them with obvious hollow rooms. It made for not very nice pictures. I was told they would place plants in front of the sand bags, and due to the weather the wind they could not be placed. Like everyone who has an outdoor ceremony we had an alternate site if it rained and the day of realized that the room they booked as our alternate did not have a covered walkway so our guests would get soaked walking from the indoor ceremony site to the reception. You would think they would have encountered this issue before. Therefore, they recommended we hold the ceremony in the reception room and have the guest sit at the tables like they would at the reception. They threw out a large portion of my cake that was left over. I ordered extra cake on purpose and was then told there was none left, which we even had the name of the server that took our cake to the kitchen to be boxed up. I feel like we spent a lot of money at this facility and they acted like their main purpose isn't weddings and if we chose to hold a wedding at their site they weren't going to make sure it went smoothly. There really should be someone that can answer all questions about the wedding process, not just a catering manager as a main contact. Also many of my guest came to breakfast the next morning at Bermudas, and the service was terrible. I called to set this up with the restaurant in advance and they treated us like we had no business there, and the servers were very rude and wouldn't refill our drinks. It is irritating once you have signed a contract and then realize that you aren't getting the service you expected, and in the end you feel like you and your whole family that stayed at the hotel spent a lot of money to be treated like they were doing us a favor letting us have our wedding there. Again, Renee was very nice but just didn't seem to know how things really work when it gets close and you need answers.

We had our ceremony and reception completely outside at the Tradewinds Island Grand. We worked with Renee Prine. She was nice, professional, and honest. We chose the venue because it offered the outside venue, food, lodging, and cost we were looking for. They have a great resort. It's directly on the beach, lots of restaurants on-site, activities for the kids, and friendly staff. Our day was great! Everyone was helpful. Our guests commented on how lovely everything was. The food was excellent. Most people said it was the best wedding meal they had ever eaten. We didn't know it until after-the-fact but they made a special accommodation. One of our guests had a food allergy that did not allow him to eat ANYTHING on the buffet. The chef made him a special plate. No questions aksed, no bothering the bride and groom. Great!! The only small problem was how busy Renee was leading up to the event. Really, it wasn't an issue. She has so much to do that emails took a litlle longer for a response. But it never caused a problem. I made sure to always ask questions early. I am a planner so, emailing was best. It was a way to have it in writing to remember. Her answers were always thorough and helpful. I definately say, go with Tradewinds!

I thought my wedding was a dream and I love how beautiful the Trade Winds property is. Dealing with Renee up until the wedding day was wonderful and I thought she did a fantastic job. On the day of the wedding however, she arrived late to take us to the ceremony site, did not have a holding location where we could get a bite to eat, drink or anywhere to bustle my dress (I had to use the bathroom) and never came back to pick the bridal party up to have us introduced into the reception. She is a sweet woman and a very nice lady, but I was disappointed that she was nowhere to be found on the actual wedding day.

The Tradewinds Island Grande was a perfect place to have our wedding. It is a sprawling space that has several different areas for you to have your ceremony. They have space to have the ceremony inside or outside. They also have a lot of space for receptions, and the spaces vary in size to accommodate your wedding guests.
Tradewinds caters the event as well and they have several different packages that you can choose from that range in price. Everything was absolutely delish!!

For our wedding, we had our ceremony out on the Breck Deck. We had about 150 guests and the space was wonderful. We wanted to have the ceremony outside but not on the sand because the wedding was more formal. The space had beautiful tile flooring and it looked out on the water and sunset!!
For the cocktail hour we were in the Portico which is an elegant space right in front of the pavilion. It was set up with appetizers and cocktails. The guests could chat with each other and had great high cocktail tables to use.
The reception was inside the pavilion which is a beautiful space! It really comes alive with your vision!
You will not be disappointed!!

We were treated like royalty the minute we drove up. Free valet parking, free champagne and strawberries in our room, we got free drinks everywhere….everywhere we walked they just asked us what they could do for us. The staff was invaluable at the reception when my DOC was getting nervous about setting everything up in time. Renee was my contact and was always very responsive, understanding and helpful. We came for a tasting many months before our wedding date. We were so nervous about the food because we didn't really have a great experience and ended up changing the entire menu. It was AMAZING! Every filet mignon was cooked wonderfully. The food was outstanding. I was so happy we chose them.

My only little complaints would be about the rooms. Most all of them come with 2 double beds and you can't get a king size almost ever. Our honeymoon suite didn't even have a king size bed. Also we had quite a few drunk wedding crashers because our reception was outside next to the pool. We had some crashers come steal cupcakes. It would be nice if they had some extra security next to the adult pool.

TradeWinds was absolutely amazing! Besides being huge and gorgeous I was never once bored or having to look for something to do. We had my wedding and a huge family reunion the same weekend and Tradewinds was extremely accomodating and a perfect venue for both events. I would absolutely recommend this resort to anyone looking for a venue for any type of event and I will definately be going back here for future vacations!

This venue was perfect and made our wedding truly meaningful. The food was fantastic but make sure you taste all food on your menu during the tasting. We had Grouper as a selection and changed it to Mahi due to the freshness. The chef was fantastic and very flexible. Our suite was very comfortable and the location worked perfectly with the Gazebo wedding

We had our ceremony at the South Lawn and our reception in the main Ballroom. The service at the wedding was perfect. Renee the wedding planner was great, they were just a few times where it took a while to get a response. Make sure you specifically ask for a queen/king size bes for your honeymoon suite or else you'll get a twin size bed.

The wedding planners were great and the reception was beautiful but we had some major issues with the hotel itself. The night before the wedding there were drunk guests (not with our party) that actually hurled a chair at me from the 5th floor... narrowly missing me. The security at the hotel was VERY slow to respond and not only that... they were not very good at doing anything about it. My dad had to call 911 and file a police report. During the ceremony which was held in their garden courtyard they had assurred us that there would be a security presence to make sure that nobody that was watching from their room balconies would interfere... Needless to say there was no security presence and there was a group of drunk fraternity aged idiots screaming boos and other obscenities during my ceremony. My guests were appalled and I was heartbroken that they ruined MY special moment. And the hotel did nothing to compensate me for any of this... I will NEVER stay there again or recommend it to anyone.

The Tradewinds Resort is beautiful and there are a lot of positive thing about the actual venue. Having a wedding there is a completely different then staying there on vacation! They nickel and dime you to death!! They had over 30 weddings during the month of October, so basically I was just another wedding and there is nothing personable about the experience. The Catering Manager was extremely rude to me and I did not appreciate that because we spent a lot of money there! Overall, I would not reccommend to get married there!!

The Tradewinds is a GREAT facility. Its great for a wedding with out of town guests because it is on a beautiful beach and has lots to do without having to get in the car. I had many issues with the staff however, including being misled about certain aspects of our event. The resort also overbooked for the weekend of my wedding, so a lot of the guests who had rooms that I had personally blocked (and had to guarantee with our credit card had they not booked) were actually moved to a different resort. The guests who arrived the day of were moved to the Sirata. This really bothered me because I had out of town bags for everyone with bottles of wine, which they never recieved, yet I was still charged 3$ per room for delivery of the bags.
I also had to fight with their accounting department for weeks after the event because they mistakenly believed that we still owed them money, even though they had the paperwork in front of them to show that I had paid. They even tried to draft the money out of our account without our permission-luckily they had used an old credit card number that was given at the time of booking and was no longer active. When I tried to speak to the catering manager afterwards, he didn't have much to say about it, basically he just said "tough".

I loved the place; the people that work there could use some work.

Julie makes it so easy to produce an event at the Tradewinds...what a joy to find a vendor that understands the special needs of our Brides and goes overboard to make their day special