Hello SoWal-ers,
I am a frequent visitor to your gorgeous towns. The majority of my immediately family lives in Santa Rosa Beach, and has going back over a decade. We have many ties to the area, personally and professionally. I knew as soon as I became engaged that my fianc? and I would marry on Grayton Beach.
We chose to have our ceremony on the beach and the evening reception at one of the two beach houses we had rented for the occasion. My brother, who has lived in Santa Rosa Beach for over 11 years, arranged for Dikki Du and the Zydeco Kru to play at the reception, knowing that since the party started at 6:00 and the noise ordinance doesn’t go into effect until 10:00 we would have four hours to enjoy some great music.
The wedding was on Sunday, October 12 - Columbus Day weekend, and coincidentally the same day as the musician’s march, which we fully supported. We had a small wedding, with only 40 guests.
At 9:20 PM - a full 40 minutes before the noise ordinance goes into effect - a police cruiser pulled up. Without getting out of the vehicle, the cop - who looked like he wasn’t even 21 years old - demanded to talk to the person in charge. My new husband approached the car and the officer yelled “Cops”-style, “You have one minute to shut this thing down or you’re getting arrested.”
To which my husband replied, “Sir, would you mind stepping out of the car so we can discuss this like adults?” (He really said it like that; he’s British and you know how unfailingly polite those Limeys are.)
The cop pounced out of the cruiser, grabbed his handcuffs and tried to drag my husband around the back of the car to handcuff him.
Read that again.
This South Walton Sheriff’s Deputy was going to arrest my husband for asking him to have a conversation. At his own wedding.
When the rest of the family saw this happening a huge “WTF” rose from the crowd, and the officer wisely physically let go of my husband. My father approached to try to diffuse the situation, and the officer was even more aggressive with him. He demanded that the party be shut down, despite the fact that he admitted he had not received a noise complaint, and despite the fact that it was still 40 minutes before the ordinance took effect.
He then threatened to arrest my father for non-compliance. My 67-year-old father. My 67-year-old, retired FDNY, Santa Rosa Beach property-owning father.
Now, my father is a reasonable man. At his age, all he wants to do is spend his days fishing and having a couple beers while watching the sun set over the Gulf with his buddies, and seeing his children have happy days that are not at the expense of other people’s comfort or running afoul of the law.
But this cop threatened the groom, and the bride’s father, with arrest - not for committing any crime (because they hadn’t), but because they had the nerve to stand up for their rights and correct the officer’s mistaken view of the situation.
Eventually the cop figured out that this was not a battle he was going to win and drove off. My brother immediately got on the horn with the Sheriff’s office to lodge a complaint. The band came back to enjoy some drinks with us, and the guitarist treated us to another hour and a half’s worth of solo work. We played tunes off my iPod after that. The party went on until 3 in the morning - and most of the wonderful residents on Defuniak Street joined in the fun at some point during the night.
My father went down to the Sheriff’s office in Grayton the next day to raise a stink, and the guy he spoke with - was extremely apologetic. He said they have had complaints about that officer before and that he was definitely in the wrong. That’s nice and all, but that apology doesn’t take away what happened.
40 of us spent ten days in Grayton. We rented two beach houses on Defuniak Street and pumped a hell of a lot of money into the town’s coffers during that time - every meal was eaten in a locally-owned restaurant, every drink was drank at Red Bar or Jambone, local liquor stores, grocery stores, party supply rentals... hell, I even walked the beach every single night filling in the damn holes dug by children we didn't know so the sea turtles wouldn’t fall in and die. My husband and I are considering buying a place down there because we love the area so much, but almost reconsidered because of the treatment we received. Needless to say we were relieved to hear of the complete overhaul the Sheriff’s department is about to get.
I understand that this noise ordinance is a touchy issue, as demonstrated by the unfortunate events at the Salty Dog. But for crying out loud, we bent over backwards to make sure that we were within the law - let all the neighbors know what was going on, scheduled within the time frame, etc. - and we still were treated like we were raping and pillaging the town.
I hope this issue is figured out soon, because it is absolutely ruining an otherwise idyllic place.
PS - I have a photo of all of this going down is anyone's interested...
I am a frequent visitor to your gorgeous towns. The majority of my immediately family lives in Santa Rosa Beach, and has going back over a decade. We have many ties to the area, personally and professionally. I knew as soon as I became engaged that my fianc? and I would marry on Grayton Beach.
We chose to have our ceremony on the beach and the evening reception at one of the two beach houses we had rented for the occasion. My brother, who has lived in Santa Rosa Beach for over 11 years, arranged for Dikki Du and the Zydeco Kru to play at the reception, knowing that since the party started at 6:00 and the noise ordinance doesn’t go into effect until 10:00 we would have four hours to enjoy some great music.
The wedding was on Sunday, October 12 - Columbus Day weekend, and coincidentally the same day as the musician’s march, which we fully supported. We had a small wedding, with only 40 guests.
At 9:20 PM - a full 40 minutes before the noise ordinance goes into effect - a police cruiser pulled up. Without getting out of the vehicle, the cop - who looked like he wasn’t even 21 years old - demanded to talk to the person in charge. My new husband approached the car and the officer yelled “Cops”-style, “You have one minute to shut this thing down or you’re getting arrested.”
To which my husband replied, “Sir, would you mind stepping out of the car so we can discuss this like adults?” (He really said it like that; he’s British and you know how unfailingly polite those Limeys are.)
The cop pounced out of the cruiser, grabbed his handcuffs and tried to drag my husband around the back of the car to handcuff him.
Read that again.
This South Walton Sheriff’s Deputy was going to arrest my husband for asking him to have a conversation. At his own wedding.
When the rest of the family saw this happening a huge “WTF” rose from the crowd, and the officer wisely physically let go of my husband. My father approached to try to diffuse the situation, and the officer was even more aggressive with him. He demanded that the party be shut down, despite the fact that he admitted he had not received a noise complaint, and despite the fact that it was still 40 minutes before the ordinance took effect.
He then threatened to arrest my father for non-compliance. My 67-year-old father. My 67-year-old, retired FDNY, Santa Rosa Beach property-owning father.
Now, my father is a reasonable man. At his age, all he wants to do is spend his days fishing and having a couple beers while watching the sun set over the Gulf with his buddies, and seeing his children have happy days that are not at the expense of other people’s comfort or running afoul of the law.
But this cop threatened the groom, and the bride’s father, with arrest - not for committing any crime (because they hadn’t), but because they had the nerve to stand up for their rights and correct the officer’s mistaken view of the situation.
Eventually the cop figured out that this was not a battle he was going to win and drove off. My brother immediately got on the horn with the Sheriff’s office to lodge a complaint. The band came back to enjoy some drinks with us, and the guitarist treated us to another hour and a half’s worth of solo work. We played tunes off my iPod after that. The party went on until 3 in the morning - and most of the wonderful residents on Defuniak Street joined in the fun at some point during the night.
My father went down to the Sheriff’s office in Grayton the next day to raise a stink, and the guy he spoke with - was extremely apologetic. He said they have had complaints about that officer before and that he was definitely in the wrong. That’s nice and all, but that apology doesn’t take away what happened.
40 of us spent ten days in Grayton. We rented two beach houses on Defuniak Street and pumped a hell of a lot of money into the town’s coffers during that time - every meal was eaten in a locally-owned restaurant, every drink was drank at Red Bar or Jambone, local liquor stores, grocery stores, party supply rentals... hell, I even walked the beach every single night filling in the damn holes dug by children we didn't know so the sea turtles wouldn’t fall in and die. My husband and I are considering buying a place down there because we love the area so much, but almost reconsidered because of the treatment we received. Needless to say we were relieved to hear of the complete overhaul the Sheriff’s department is about to get.
I understand that this noise ordinance is a touchy issue, as demonstrated by the unfortunate events at the Salty Dog. But for crying out loud, we bent over backwards to make sure that we were within the law - let all the neighbors know what was going on, scheduled within the time frame, etc. - and we still were treated like we were raping and pillaging the town.
I hope this issue is figured out soon, because it is absolutely ruining an otherwise idyllic place.
PS - I have a photo of all of this going down is anyone's interested...
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