tineoak's reviews

I have very mixed feelings about Hilton Santa Clara.

A year before my wedding, I had visited the Hilton Santa Clara and then booked another hotel (which I thought was cheaper) 6 months before the wedding, that other hotel announced renovations and told me to find someplace else. Nele Taufutee at the Hilton Santa Clara was wonderful and honored their prices from when I'd originally looked there. They were really a godsend. Our tasting was nice and Nele is great about e-mails. They were quite accomodating to our requests, but sometimes I had to really ask for what I wanted. They set up the room just as we had requested. Food service was good and there didn't seem to be any lags and all food seemed to be of the right temperature. One dish wasn't really what I remembered from our tasting, but it was still good.

I would have liked more service for us during the reception (I don't know if this would have been different if Nele had been able to stay the evening)...when I wanted more soda, it was sort of hard to find our waiter, but I was busy and it didn't really matter all that much. They did offer to put our entrees in to heat since we were trying to get in table visits, but I was afraid I wouldn't get them back. DH never got to his sorbet until it was all soup, so would have been nice if they'd kept that on ice, but I couldn't see the waiter to make that request. They also never cut our groom's cake. We didn't do a special formal cutting of it since it was the same cake so I guess they didn't know to cut it but they didn't ask. I also don't know if it was needed (it was supposed to add to the slice count of the main cake) but some slices seemed really thin even for wedding cake. Basicly, communication between us and the staff during the reception could have been better.

We should earn Hilton Honors points for the whole reception, but it seems to not be done automatically so I've had to ask Nele to look into that again.

The room block is handled by Dan Romero and I found it difficult to deal with. #1 they don't give a good rate for the room block. It was cheaper to book with your AAA card (and much cheaper to go through travelocity/expedia) than book in our block. He also would only let us block like 5 rooms a night...he was supposed to keep moving more rooms into the block as we booked but I had to keep e-mailing him after guests reported that the block was full and that they'd had to book outside the block. This meant most of our guests booked through expedia, etc because it was much cheaper to go that way. As I was planning our OOT boxes, I realized there were very few people in the block. I ended up e-mailing my guest list to Dan and he went through their whole guest list cross checking names and found most of our guests. Comps have also been difficult to get. #1 you have to have like 20 rooms for a comp room. After the wedding Dan had told us he'd look at the numbers and credit us. We waited. Finally 3 weeks after the wedding I e-mailed and found we qualified for 2 comps. I asked for the credit. So far we've been credited for one night, but not the other. I've put in another e-mail and I'm still waiting.

The bottom line: It's a nice place and the reception was really a good deal, but you have to be a bit of a pest and keep tracking down every detail.

I was so lucky to find Melissa Franco and Kasey Ross! While I had coordination for the ceremony at the church, we weren't allowed to set up the reception until 2pm (when I was walking down the aisle).

I met with Kasey and Melissa a few weeks before my wedding and described my vision. They picked it up right away and helped me think through some of the details. I sent them diagrams of the reception venue and how I wanted things laid out and got everything delivered to the hotel and then went to my wedding. When we arrived at the reception, it was like walking into my dream. Everything was PRECISELY as I had envisioned! (Later I learned that the hotel staff had started to set things up before they got there and had gotten things wrong and Kasey and Melissa had to undo their work...there was also drama about a limit on the number of votives and they had to negotiate with the hotel to put out more candles than the hotel wanted.)

During the receiving line, someone told me they had a large heavy package for us in their car. I told them to talk to Melissa and Kasey...they moved the package to our car. During the reception they also moved all the other wedding gifts into our car. When my MOH stepped on my train and broke one of my bustle loops, Kasey and Melissa fixed it while I chatted with guests. At the end of the night, they packed everything up that needed to be brought home and transported it all to my car. They even took the risers from my cake back to the baker! I didn't have to worry about a thing, everything was just done!

I dreamt up my wedding, but Dream It Events made it a reality!

I shopped wedding dresses here which was ok but the dress I bought (elsewhere) was EXACTLY what I kept describing and the clerk at trudy's didn't show it to me.

I shopped with my 2 local BM's here for their dresses because they have such a good selection and the service was really good. I had to go back 2-3 times to coordinate color because I had 4 different girls in 4 different designers and then I tried to coordinate the colors and they were very helpful with the process. The 2 dresses ordered from here arrived as expected.

They arrived on time and made the runs back and forth. The girls were late to the church but I'm not sure if that's because the guys got late, because I didn't schedule enough drive time, or because there was some delay based on the bus. The Limobus we got was very plush and we got to sip champagne and sodas. The price was very reasonable ($950 everything included) for 5 1/2 hours and the driver was nice.

We reserved about 9 months in advance and every time we called to confirm they seemed initially confused but then would acknowledge that our name was on the reservation list. By the time we were ready to give our final counts and choose our meals, they'd changed their whole system so there was some last minute scurrying to choose a meal and re-negotiate pricing. The person who handles banquets doesn't get in until after 3pm so that makes things sort of difficult.

Service left a bit to be desired. I kept going to the bar for wine glasses and I was going around in my white RD dress and serving wine from the 3 liter chianti bottles we'd bought because the servers were no where to be found. We had 60 people and they only gave us 2 servers.

Another problem is that they don't bring all the food at the same time...pizza for example took about 15 mintues to all be delivered, makes it hard to serve everyone because it doesn't seem like you have enough.

Sodas are included though and you can always go out to the bar and tell them you're with the party and they won't charge you. We had the room behind the bar so it was pretty private, but it takes quite a set of lungs to give speeches from one end of the room.

Oh how blessed I was to find Meg and Michael!!! I had originally booked with Bella Pictures but was not happy with our engagement photo session or the customer service I received (see my Bella review). I was able to hire Meg and Michael for not much more than I would have probably ended up paying Bella for the same coverage (2-3 photographers for 11+ hours) and far less than I would have had to pay Bella to color correct and fix each of my photos. It was such a relief to have Meg and Michael meet with us and get to know them! They worked like hounds from the moment they stepped into the room taking pictures until late at night. They were up on ladders and crawling down in ditches trying to capture just the right shot and my husband and I just had to enjoy ourselves. I HIGHLY recommend them! Some of their pictures are in my bio.

I had booked with Bella based solely on their price. It seemed like a great deal and this was the first vendor I booked (at the beginning of our 2 1/4 year engagement). I got a free engagement session for meeting with the consultant. They wouldn't tell us when the date for the session would be, I confirmed it would not be a particular weekend less than a month away and they assured me it would not. I made travel plans for that weekend and then they booked it for that weekend (this was to be a large group shoot with lots of couples and photographers so we could sort of shop our photographer). We were told we'd be booked on the next large session and then several months later they decided they wouldn't do other large sessions. We were given a free 1-on-1 (great for us since it was free) They booked us with a photographer who was new to the area and only knew the east bay. Looking at her portfolio you could see her first weddings were crap but that she was improving. We spoke with her and asked her for recommendations about where to go for the e-pics. We told her we were thinking Stanford since 1) we live close 2) DH's an alum. She told us Stanford wouldn't be good since the architecture wouldn't show up...total BS. She recommended Tilden park in Berkeley and we drove the hour to get there. The session was fine but she'd booked another couple after us not remembering there was a time change. We got good light but the next couple would have been ending in near dark. When I got the e-pics, there were a few that were ok, but not much that really popped. We selected one. I did some photoshop and we used it for our STD and people liked it...but I was disappointed by the number that weren't good. There were no close-ups of our faces, there were a number where she'd positioned me on higher ground than him or where we were akward or that were too far away to tell who we were. We also had hair in our faces that had to be photoshopped out...I would have expected her to tell us to fix our hair. The pics were OK, but not great.

I asked our consultant at Bella how to assure we didn't have similar problems on the wedding day and he said to have a family member watch out for all those problems because it was too much to ask the photographer to do. Um, too much to ask the photographer to make sure we didn't have hair in our faces or that we looked odd? Isn't that why we're hiring PROFESSIONAL photographers? My cousin Lisa can take normal snapshots, I'm PAYING for something extra!

As finances fell into place, I realized we could afford a little more and came online looking for recommendations. We hired Meg and Michael about 2 months before our wedding and after our wedding I'm so glad we did! Their care for the day was exceptional and they'll touch up and color correct the photos so I don't have to! They got there as I was getting ready and stayed all the way until the end of the reception (an 11 hour day) In the end since I was thinking of an extra photographer and extra time through Bella anyway, it wasn't that big of a price difference and I knew I was getting seasoned professionals. I didn't have to come up with a long list of must take photos because they knew. I didn't have to tell them what to do because they could see what needed to be done. It was such a relief to not have to direct the photographer. They were great and you can see some of their pictures in my bio.

We made our selections in the store from a catalog and took the groom's measurements. I do wish they had samples of the tuxes in the store because it's hard to tell from the pictures...make sure you ask to see the swatches for the vests, it made things much easier. I had a special deal from a bridal show over a year before and they were very good about figuring out how to handle it since they don't offer it anymore. They did a great job keeping me informed about which guys had gotten fitted as we drew close to the deadline. When we went to get the tuxes, the groom's needed an alteration but they were good about doing that quickly. Another groomsman dealt with the Moutain View store. He needed a rush order since his size had changed since he was measured and they did that efficiently although his vest was not a full vest. The tux and shoes were in much better shape than rentals from other companies I've seen.

FYI-to get any replacements, they need to know by 3pm to have them the next morning. I would have made that more explicit to the groomsmen had I known that, but all turned out well.

Jim was very good! I had a wonderful trial with him at his house in SF where we sipped tea and chatted. He came to our hotel at 7:30 and by noon had done hair and make-up for the mothers, 4 bridesmaids, me, helped me get into my dress, and done a little something for the flowergirl and jr. bridesmaid.

His calm and self assuredness was exactly what we needed on our wedding day. He was very professional (even as drama was occurring around him) best of all, he kept to a tight schedule so we were all ready to go when the photographers got there.

He did not do my hair and makeup the same as my trial and didn't discuss the changes with me. Everyone agreed that the half-up he did was even better than the all-up trial, but my hair doesn't hold curl and by the ceremony, the part that was down was straight and after the first dance, it was hot and uncomfortable and I had to put it up. He also didn't use the same make-up as the trial and I'm not sure how it held up since I didn't keep looking in the mirror all night but just trusted it. Follow up: Some of my photos show the red marks on my face. My normal make-up covers better than that.

He has everyone come in their normal hair and make-up so he knows where they're starting point is so they still look like themselves but I know that at least one of my maids would have really liked to have more input into her style. I first met him at a bridal fair and he talked all about putting hair up so it looks nice and doesn't get in your way and then he styled all of us with our hair down.

My mom loved him, he made her feel like a queen and really brightened her up and made her look great. I think Jim was her favorite vendor in a very crowded field.

Jim is also VERY expensive. I paid $1750 including $250 for him to travel to Santa Clara but having someone I could really trust for hair and makeup was REALLY important to me (and that included my trial and 5+me on the day of...AT the hotel). I also needed someone to tell me what would look good, I'm no good with picking hairstyles from magazines that will be flattering and work on me. If I had it to do all over again though, I may have looked at some of the cheaper options who still have really great reviews.

Jim Glass has been a great financial advisor. We've been meeting with him every month or two and he's helped us organize our financial lives so we can pay down our debt and save for the wedding. I highly recommend making a financial advisor part of your wedding planning, it's foundational!