The bride wanted 100 white chairs. The town allowed 50.

NORTH REDINGTON BEACH — The bride wanted the classic beach wedding photo: the newlywed couple on the pale sand, with an arch and rows of bright white chairs beneath a warm, glowing evening sky.

But there was a problem: too many chairs.

The town’s permit allowed 50. The wedding party wanted about twice as many. And when the extra chairs kept reappearing despite warnings from town officials, Mayor Jay Super called in the law.

A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office incident detail report, obtained through a public records request along with body-camera footage, shows the July 23 call to the Ram Sea Condominiums, 17200 Gulf Blvd., was handled as an ordinance violation.

A dispatcher described the problem succinctly: “TABLES, COOLER OF BEERS, OVER CHAIR LIMIT.” The call log states Super requested a deputy “to enforce this permit.”

By the time Deputy Courtney Palazzolo pulled up shortly before 5:40 p.m., the dispute had apparently been going on for hours.

Body-cam video shows the argument playing out in the Ram Sea parking lot amid the trappings of a beach wedding: An event van sat with its side doors open. Stacks of white folding chairs leaned nearby. Members of the wedding party wandered in and out as Palazzolo, Super and others debated how many chairs could go on the sand.

The wedding party had previously been told about the 50-chair limit and initially removed the extra chairs — only to put them back.

“It wouldn’t be a big deal,” Super tells the deputy. “But the problem is when one person does it, then everybody else goes, ‘Oh, we’re going to do it too.’”

“But it looks pretty,” an unidentified woman says about the extra chairs.

“It is what it is,” Palazzolo tells her.

Eventually the white-shirted groom, Jeremy King of Mulberry, joins the cluster gathered near the event van and begins making his case. He explains that more people had accepted invitations after the permit was obtained.

He is told the wedding party should have submitted a new permit request.

“I apologize. We ran out of time,” King says before the exchange grows more contentious. “This is my wife’s best day of her life and it’s getting ruined.”

He tells Super, “Apparently you’re the one that has an issue.”

“No, we’re not the one,” Super responds. “We’re getting multiple calls up and down the beach about how many chairs you’ve got out here.”

King then proposes replacing the additional white chairs with folding or beach chairs placed behind them.

Super and Palazzolo say that's fine.

But that wasn't the picture the bride, Crystal Gooding, wanted.

“What’s the difference between 50 folding chairs and 50 beach chairs?” King asks. “The difference is the beautiful pictures that my wife wants to have. Over 100 beautiful white chairs.”

King points out that he has been coming to the resort for seven years and that the wedding party rented about 30 condos.

“We would think a good-hearted f---ing person would understand,” he says before others intervene and lead him away from Super and Palazzolo.

Then another member of the wedding party walks into the conversation.

The smiling man in a pink shirt shakes Super's hand before almost immediately challenging him.

"Do you know how to f---ing count?” he asks, still smiling. “You know how to count to 50?”

“It’s pretty easy to count rows, especially when you haven’t been drinking at all,” Palazzolo tells him.

The man has another idea: Why not simply pay for a second permit?

That won't work either. Two nuptials can't be permitted at the same place and time, he's told.

As the debate continues, workers carry stacks of the extra white chairs back to the event van to be loaded up.

“It’s just the rules, man,” Super tells him. “I don’t make them, but we’ve got to enforce them as a city.”

After getting assurances that the extra chairs wouldn’t be put back out, Palazzolo cleared the call at 5:58 p.m. — about a half-hour before the wedding was supposed to start. Records show there were no arrests or other apparent enforcement action.

The wedding went on, but the chair controversy wasn't quite over.

Six days later, town commissioners discussed the episode while reviewing North Redington Beach's ordinances. Meeting minutes say the wedding party “tried numerous times to install items on the beach that was not in their permit” and continued until the Sheriff's Office had to be brought in to ensure compliance.

Commissioners agreed the beach-event policy needs some work. They called for requiring wedding planners or parties to obtain permission from the upland property owner and establishing consequences such as fines or temporary restrictions on beach events.

Town Clerk Mari Campbell was directed to work with the town attorney on possible changes.

For the wedding party that evening, though, the immediate instructions were much simpler:

“Just move the chairs,” the party was told.