Sheraton Universal Hotel

I am writing this letter on behalf of my new wife and myself. We wanted to express our sincere gratitude to Catherine Hairabedian, Captain Felipe, and the Starview Room staff for the Universal Sheraton on 3-6-2011. We would like to especially thank Catherine for everything that she did for us. As you know, planning a wedding is supposed to be a joyous time but eventually ends up being a stressful time. We had met with several possible vendors for our wedding and when we met with Catherine, it was a different type of meeting. I, personally, could tell that Catherine was very passionate and knowledgeable about her work. She went over every detail with us and answered all our questions with ease, leaving no doubt in our minds that we wanted to work with her. I specifically remember a time, speaking with my then fiancee after a meeting with one of our other wedding vendors. I was telling her that it seemed as if the vendors' attitudes had changed once they had secured our business and were harder to get a hold of for questions,etc. This was definitely not the case with Catherine, in fact it was the complete opposite. She was very accessible and extremely quick to respond to all our questions/ last minute changes, etc. She did this with genuine kindness, patience, and professionalism. We feel that Catherine went above and beyond her duties, and that this was not just another "event" for her, she assisted as if it was her own wedding. We were also pleasantly surprised when we saw Catherine on the evening of our wedding because it was her day off, but there she was, making sure everything was going great, and more importantly, asking us how we were doing or if there was anything else that we needed. Then again we weren't that surprised. Catherine really is great at her job, takes pride in her work, and is an even greater person. She was even able to put my "bride to be" at ease and that was not an easy task to do before our wedding.

Captain Felipe and the staff of the Starview Room that night were great. We saw them all working very hard and catered to all our needs. We have been receiving many compliments of the service and the great tasting food that evening.

If you knew me personally, I can be very critical of services that we purchase. It is very hard to find great service and people are always complaining of bad service. So we wanted to give recognition to great service. Catherine will most certainly be recommended to family/friends in the future.

Catherine Hairabedian was a terrific Catering Manager to work with. She was very responsive to all our emails, friendly, professional and accommodated us on weekends and after hours for onsite visits and our food tasting. Rain was in the forecast on our wedding day, but Catherine went above and beyond to work out a Plan B for our cocktail hour, which was scheduled to be outdoors. She even surprised us in our huge, luxurious bridal suite on our wedding night with a bottle of wine, chocolate covered strawberries, and a nice note. A special touch that didn’t go unnoticed.

The Sheraton Hotel in Universal City is classy and the panoramic view from the Starview Ballroom is breathtaking. Our guests were impressed by the twinkling stars and crystal balls hanging from the ceiling. Setup was executed on point and exactly to my requirements, thanks to Catherine. We had a 3 course meal and chocolate fountain catered by the hotel. My husband and I were quite delighted that the flavors and temperature exceeded our experience from our initial food tasting. Guests are still raving about the Tomato Bisque Soup!

We could not have imagined having our wedding reception anywhere else. It was the perfect location to host our wedding day. From the Catering Manager, to the Banquet Captain, to the servers, and bellman, our experience was nothing but positive.

Catherine Hairabedian was our catering manager. She was very attentive and quick to answer emails and schedule appointments. I always had questions and she answered each and every one of them and also greatly accommodated us. She knows what she is doing. The ceremony site was outside, it needs a lot of doctoring up to look pretty, but it cleans up well. We had cocktail hour by the pool, it was a hit. The tray passed appetizers were excellent. The Starview room is mind-blowing, it is MAGIC in that room. Our reception was so romantic and beautiful. Everyone loved the panoramic view of the city. The food and service was top notch. If you are willing to have a 4 course meal for your wedding, go with the place. High ambiance and great food!The only thing that I would ask for them to include in the contract, is transporting the gifts, they charged us $50 for the cart to move gifts to the room. It is rather outrageous, especially after paying top dollar for the food.

Catherine Hairabedian was one of the best vendors I had. Before booking with Catherine I would ask about different options and she was so accommodating. She was so accommodating in fact, I thought once we signed the contract and gave her the deposit it would all stop. Boy was I wrong! Catherine continued to accommodate me with all my requests. She was also prompt with emailing me changes and what not regarding changes to our dinner menu, floor layout, and additional tables. Catherine was really organized and a true professional. I still can't believe the unbelievable package we got for our reception. I know people are going to think we spent way more than what we spent on our reception. Plus, they have one of the best ballrooms around. Can we say the Starview Room? It's all glass with panoramic views of the valley and the Hollywood Hills. That alone made it stand out from all of the other ballrooms I've visited, and I visited plenty. When our guests walked in, they were blown away by this room. Many of them were speechless. Thanks Catherine for all that you did for us!

Catherine at the Hotel was nice to work with. They allowed us to bring our own catering at the last minute. However whet we ended up paying was too much for what we got. Starview Room is gorgeous, but needs lighting. Love this space and the colors.

Sheraton Universal was another reception venue I checked out, but in the end didn't select. I chose to check it out b/c of the room capacity (150+), view, and privacy of space. Since it was the rooftop garden, I didn't think we had to worry about other people coming into our reception.

The hotel is right off the exit and isn't a hard find. They remodeled recently so the lobby is modern w/clean lines and fun, white chandeliers. The catering manager who I made the appt. with was not there on that day, so they directed me to another manager, who ended up not being the one who showed up. The catering manager that me and my moh met up with was very nice yet very busy. The rooftop garden is an interesting space with a painted black (as if night) concave roof, glass ball type lighting, and floor to ceiling windows pretty much all the way around. Their catering menu is a little confusing, I remember having to ask the catering manager to walk through their menu with me. But she was so easygoing and said 'yes' to much that it sort of scared me.

In the end, it wasn't the venue I was going for, but what really reinforced my thoughts was when the catering manager kept trying to contact me to make a deal or tell me the space was getting taken, to the point where she had the actual catering manager I met with, contact me! I was like wow talk about trying to make a sale. But if you are on a strict budget, I'd recommend checking this place out b/c their menu, once, explained seems pretty reasonable.

we had our wedding here and the place was so gorgeous! Catherine, the catering mgr was very attentive to our needs,and she is very professional. The Starview room was so pretty that night, the set up and tables are so elegant..and the food they serve was so good! i highly recommend this place :)

I reccomend this venue to everyone!! Great food. Great service. The staff really went above and beyond to make me happy. They also had surprisingly good prices. I thought they would be much more expensive. I did a lot of searching around for a venue and am glad I decided to have it here. The only part I didnt like is that the guests still had to pay for parking.

We had our reception in the Roof Garden, top floor. The view is amazing. The food was EXCELLENT and the service was the best. We had a buffett with four different stations and our guests ate their fill (the staff kept bringing more food). The staff was extremely polite and attentive. The decorations I chose for the cake table blended in with the table cloth and so one of the staff re-did the table and added fresh flowers. The staff also set up the centerpieces and favors and decoration I brought.

During the plannin stage, Mr. Ciccarelli was very attentive to our needs, meeting in person as many times as we wanted. He returned our phone calls or emails in a timely manner. His staff was also very helpful. He was quick to work out any minor issues that came up, such as opening rooms at a discounted rate for our guests as we needed them. He began our reception a half hour early to flow with the ceremony time better.

The prices were very reasonable. Except it is paid parking even when attending an event. Couples can choose to validate their guests parking.
I was very, very happy with Sheraton and have become a lifelong customers. They sold themselves on many of our guests also.

My wedding day was beautiful. The Sheraton had a beautiful set up and the people I worked with were very professional.