JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville woman said the Casa Marina Hotel and Restaurant cancelled her wedding reservation because the venue is being sold to new owners.
Dara Sweatt shared an email from the venue’s events coordinator to Action News Jax.
Per the message, the hotel and restaurant can’t conduct any business starting in 2026 because the property is under contract for sale.
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The email from the popular wedding venue said the current owners are moving to close on the sale by mid-July, and when the new owners take over in January, the venue will close completely for renovations.
Sweatt said she and her fiancé signed their contract to host their wedding in the venue in January of 2025. Their wedding is in June of 2026.
“The fact that it was old Florida, historic, and then also at the beach, it was just kind of like everything was coming together, so I was really happy to make the decision to do it there,” she told us.
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Sweatt’s reaction to the news was captured on video by her fiancé, Doug. The clip has now been seen hundreds of thousands of times since Sweatt shared it on TikTok.
“Honestly, even though it was crazy that it blew up, I’m really grateful for it because it made me feel a little bit better about my situation that I wasn’t alone in this,” Sweatt said.
Action News Jax reached out to the Casa Marina for comment on the sale of the business, but a person who answered the phone told us they didn’t know anything about a sale, and nothing had been signed or set in stone.
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Sweatt said she and her fiancé are already on the hunt for a new wedding venue.
According to the email sent to the couple, Casa Marina’s business operations will remain as is until December 31st.
The restaurant and hotel have had the same ownership for the last 20 years.
There has been no word yet on who the new owners will be.
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