Palm Beach Brides 2020: Love Is Not Canceled Wellington National Golf Club

At Wellington National Golf Club, the professional staff enjoys helping clients achieve their vision for the event, and that includes creating unique menus, proposals and assisting with making arrangements on the client’s behalf, such as hiring entertainment and arranging for rentals. They make sure that all last-minute details, including the coordination of timelines, floor plans and staffing, are complete in order to execute the event exactly the same way that the client has envisioned it.

Wellington National has many great characteristics for all types of events, including weddings, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners and more, and they are a large venue that in normal times can accommodate up to 400 guests. The ballroom has beautiful ceiling draping, as well as plank-style flooring, in addition to picturesque natural light, as it opens up onto a beautiful piazza, which is tropically landscaped and perfect for an outdoor ceremony.

While the pandemic has made some couples take a detour in tying the knot, love is most certainly not canceled. “Our team has complied with the national, state and local mandates, including reducing room capacities to allow for social distancing,” General Manager Ted Strelec said, adding that some people have chosen to postpone their wedding. “We had to cancel a bunch when we first went into the closure, but people seem to have taken it in stride. If they were dead set on having 150 people, they’re just waiting with the hope that everything is clear by 2021 and back to normal. The people calling us right now, they have already reduced their number of guests — there are no groups larger than 50. People have concerns. The new normal is to have tables of 10 or less. Here, we’ve also adopted a new thing. We ask the bride and groom to group families together at tables, so we have tightknit groups who know each other rather than seating strangers together.”

The team at Wellington National aims to be flexible with the couples who choose to plan an event with them to create a special day, unique to the bride and groom. They are happy to customize menus and cocktails and encourage them to outline their vision of that perfect day — then the Wellington National team makes that vision come to fruition.

Some changes due to the pandemic include no longer offering walk-up, self-serve buffet service. “That’s something new that we never had to worry about before,” Strelec said. “In lieu of buffets, we are creating manned action stations where our food and beverage team members serve the guests in a common area to eliminate contamination. This could become the new norm.”

Wellington National’s clubhouse and surrounding areas suit this pandemic era perfectly. “We have vast courtyard areas for open-air requests, and our grand ballroom is large enough to responsibly social-distance the tables while hosting an indoor wedding with space for a dance floor,” Strelec said. “It’s large enough to where we can put a party of 50 in there, set up the ceremony and have room for the DJ and the dance floor — all under one roof. We have a wall that divides the room, so we can close that wall for an intimate feeling during the ceremony and then, while the guests turn out to do cocktails, we open the wall and convert to an open space.”

Not only is Wellington National a beautiful venue that is unique and centrally located, but they are there to make things as easy and stress-free as possible, priding themselves on being flexible with almost every detail to ensure that each couple gets the day for which they have been waiting their whole lives.

This includes current adaptations such as Zoom or FaceTime broadcasts that allow family members who are not able to be present to see the event live.

“This is a good adaptation. It could be the new norm for smaller events,” Strelec said. “It’s great for elderly family members or people in different countries to attend via technology. I think it’s going to become commonplace from now on.”

Strelec hopes that two people who want to get married will find a way to have their special day regardless of what is going on in the world. “That is what we humans do best — adapt!” he said.

The Wellington National Golf Club is located at 400 Binks Forest Drive in Wellington. For more info., call (561) 333-5731 or visit www.wellingtonnationalgolfclub.com.