University Club at UCI

My husband and I had our wedding here on 10-6-12. Everything turned out perfectly thanks to our wonderful coordinator, Cindy @ UCI University Club. Cindy takes time to make sure that everything is well thought out and coordinated. She has the best referrals for vendors. The food was amazing and very affordable; we received many complements on how delicious the food was. My husband and I made the best decision by have our wedding at The University Club at UCI. Cindy is the best

We had our wedding this past August at the Uclub and would definitely recommend it. The site itself is beautiful--we had an outdoor ceremony and indoor reception and were pleased with how it all turned out on the wedding day. The food was great and plentiful and everyone enjoyed it. Cindy Lee the coordinator is amazing as she helps you plan and setup all the details prior to the wedding. Day of she kept on top of everything we didn't have to lift a finger! The vendor list Cindy provided for us was also extremely helpful and we followed most of her suggestions. Level of service I would say the Uclub is definitely top notch and with Cindy and her staff running the show there you will not be disappointed. In terms of value, we got so much 'extras' that came with the package that other venues would otherwise charge or charge much more. I highly recommend the UClub to any future bride and groom!

The food and service here was great!!! Everyone is still telling me about how much they enjoyed the food. It was well prepared and the servers were very professional.

Cindy was great to work with. Any questions we had about our wedding were answered quickly. The venue was perfect for our wedding!

Our wedding at UCI was absolutely awesome. it was so much better than we had ever imagined. Cindy, the wedding coordinator, was the BEST!!!! There wasn't one thing she didn't handle with energy and grace. She made the day run beautifully. The staff for our event was also top notch. Could not have been more helpful and pleasant. The food was terrific. Had many compliments from our guests. We selected the Chicken Marsala and we were delighted. We used many of the vendors recommended by Cindy and were extremely pleased with all of them. They were all a great value and extremely professional. Everything looked terrific----the banquet room, the flowers, the fruit/cheese/ hor d'oeurves, the gazebo area. Cindy carried out all the details that we had pre-arranged----right down to a "sparkler send-off. We could not have even happier. Having never been to an event at the University Club, we were skeptical, but it was the perfect venue for an intimate reception (140 guests). It was just beautiful!

I had my wedding there this past weekend and it was awesome!! I highly recommend the UCI University Club. We received so many compliments on the food, atmosphere and service (and we had a tough crowd!). Cindy Lee (site coordinator) went above and beyond in helping us plan the ceremony, helping with the schedule, setting up for the day, and recommending vendors. I have no regrets with choosing this site. Do keep in mind that you have to get chair covers since you will not like that their chairs are green color.

Part I Review from 2/5/12 before my wedding:

This is going to be the site for my wedding in 1 month from now! :)

What I liked most about this venue is that...

(1) This wedding venue may be one of the more inexpensive venues to book with because you can get discounts!! And I love discounts of any kind! They include...

A. Discounts of $500 to $1500 apply when you book on certain days during their non-seasonal months (January through April I think)

B. If you're a UC Irvine alumni, you get a 1% discount off of service charges.

(2) This venue comes with a wedding coordinator Cindy Lee who very pleasant to work with and will provide you with a listed of suggested vendors that she has worked with previously. This comes in very handy especially when you don't want to manage everyone at every moment for every thing on your special wedding day. Cindy has been the wedding coordinator working at the University Club for a number of years. So she knows she she's doing.

(3) She is usually pretty good about responding back to you by email, but sometimes not by phone.

The only cons were that...

(1) To meet with Cindy required meeting her on week nights, but then that makes sense because she probably has wedding and other events to attend to on the weekends that she needs to focus on coordinating.

(2) She has assistants who book her weekday meetings back to back. This was actually bad because then the appointment that came before my fiance and I was cutting into the time for our meeting with Cindy. So we were waiting around for Cindy to be done with her previous meeting with another couple.

(3) Contacting Cindy can sometimes be difficult if you're trying to get a hold of her immediately because she doesn't pick up her phone very often. However, she will usually try to get back to you within 1-2 days.

However, overall, so far, working with Cindy for this venue has been great! I'll give you an update how things go after my wedding! ;)

Part II Review after my wedding: 3/4/12:

After seeing my friend Joe Y.'s Yelp review from 4/19/11 and attending his wedding at the University Club, my husband and I strongly considered this venue for our wedding, and everything turned out great for our wedding day just yesterday!

Cindy did an amazing job as my wedding day coordinator! She always kept me & my groom updated on the timeline. I highly recommend this venue as a wedding ceremony & reception location because when you book this place, you automatically get Cindy as your awesome wedding day coordinator! =)

University Club staff/servers were awesome - When I accidentally made a spill at the sweetheart table, the servers took care of it immediately.

Dressing rooms to get ready in were spacious.

The only unfortunate thing though was that when we had 13 circular tables seating between 8-9 people each for just over 100 guests total, going around to greet tables was difficult since the tables were so close together. So I would actually recommend this place to anyone who plans on having a smaller wedding guest count.

Other than that, my husband & I enjoyed our wedding day, and all went well...

I had my wedding at the University Club in January 2012 and everything turned out perfectly. Cindy, the coordinator, is kind of hyper and talks really fast, but she gets the job done. Rain was forecast for my wedding day and she let me decide last minute whether or not to move it inside. Fortunately, a couple hours before the wedding, the clouds parted and the sun came out! This venue is more than I could ask for for the more than reasonable price. I would recommend it to anyone who wants the ceremony and reception in the same place and is on a budget.

SUCH a great venue! We had our wedding there on 8/7/11 and it was perfect! CINDY is amazing! she made sure everything went smoothly. usually you hear about SOMETHING going wrong, but I can honestly say Cindy put on a great wedding for us and made sure NOTHING went wrong. Everyone told me how much they LOVED the food!! and how beautiful the ceremony was. If you are looking for a venue that looks like you spent 40,000... but only spent 8,000- this is the place for you! I honestly cant say enough positive things. Good luck!

Our reception at the UCI University Club was perfect! We had the ceremony at a nearby chapel, and had the reception here. We had nearly 300 guests so we opted to have the cocktail hour inside and the dinner outside on the lawn. Let me tell you, the outdoor reception was absolutely beautiful!!!! Throughout the planning and during the event, the UCI planner - Cindy, was awesome! She gave us so much good advice and catered to our every need. Isaac was also fantastic as he organized everything the day of! The food was really good too, we had several compliments on how good the food was! The service was top notch, the decorations were beautiful, and we couldn't have had a better reception.

Cindy ROCKS!! She gets 5+ stars!! Cindy is incredibly responsive, bubbly, helpful , patient, and happy. What a joy to work with her. We originally had booked a different place, but it was so miserable working with that venue (e.g. they were unresponsive to phone calls or emails, shady as to what the costs would be, kept on changing their minds on what we could bring in, etc.), that we decided to go with the UClub kindof last minute (6 months before our event).

We can't say enough good things about Cindy. She was extremely patient in helping us figure out the best deal for us. She also was good about giving us suggestions for vendors. For any issues that we had, Cindy was quick to fix or help.

The UClub is seriously the best deal in OC. For someone on a budget, you can't beat it. And for someone who doesn't want their wedding to look like it was on a budget, you can't beat it either!

The UCI campus is not particularly near or dear to our hearts (i.e. we weren't students there). But, the architecture makes for some really awesome photos. We met with our photographer a month or two before our wedding to walk around campus and come up with some cool backgrounds, etc. There are also lots of trees and nature-y type shots available for the more traditional photos.

The UClub food is middle of the road. No one will remember it (for being either stellar or horrible). There is a lot to choose from, and it all tastes good. (We're a bit foodie, so most people probably don't care about food as much as we do).

Overall, the UClub (and especially Cindy) is great. We definitely recommend it!

We had our wedding reception at the UCI Club in August 2010. We're glad we went with the UCI club, and we've given it great ratings (4.3/5.0), but just go in knowing that there are a lot of details you'll have to work out on your own, and the relatively low cost of the venue will not mean that your overall budget will stay low.

Overall, we had a great wedding. We planned our wedding from across the country in D.C., so the challenges we faced were very unique. Overall, the wedding turned out gorgeous, and the UCI Club was very accommodating of our needs. The venue looked nice in our professional pictures, and there are lots of great trees and benches outside to take great pictures in front of. The gazebo was really nice, too, but there was a puddle on the ground from when the lawn was watered that morning, and that showed up in our pictures. Although the price of the venue seems low, we had to pay a few thousand dollars dressing the place up for our wedding. Since the dining hall is a bit plain, we spent $2000 dressing it up a lot with fancy table cloths and centerpieces, and it looked stunning on the wedding day. The chairs HAVE to be covered with chair covers, and that was another $600 added to our costs. Some venues include chiavari chairs or fancy tablecloths in their up front price, so it's good to ask up front when you're comparing prices. That said, we got a discount on the venue because we had a Sunday wedding. Also, if you're a UCI alum, there's a discount, but it can't be combined with the Sunday discount.

The food was amazing, and everyone raved about it. The one problem we had was that they charge for food tastings, so my sister in law had to go to the venue during regular business hours (it's a restaurant on campus) and pay for a dish herself. That annoyed us, since every other venue we've seen will give complementary food tastings. But the food itself was DELICIOUS. The portions were generous, and every single course was delicious. We got the chicken marsala blush and STILL rave about it and are tempted to ask them for the recipe :) The staff worked very hard to serve all the courses efficiently. The UCI Club accommodated our dietary needs and was very flexible. Cindy Lee is the wedding coordinator at the venue and she is very helpful during the planning process. Since we were planning from DC, we couldn't meet her in person until the day of our wedding. During the day of the event, she is the master behind the scenes, keeping everything moving smoothly. We were SO lucky to have her coordinating everything, and all we had to do was have fun. She even worked with my sister in law, who contacted her to secretly plan a slide show on the day of our wedding!

Overall, if I had it to do again, I probably would have been more careful about comparing overall costs up front. Some venues include chair covers or chiavari chairs, the cake, etc in the cost, which would make it seem more costly up-front. UCI does not, and it seemed less expensive at first, but we ended up having to plan and pay for all of the other details separately. This resulted in a very personalized wedding, but since we're both busy professionals, it was time consuming.

Beautiful place if you're looking for a garden type setting :) We chose this venue b/c of the gazebo and loved all of it!! The trees outside the dining room were covered with twinkle lights and definitely gave the wedding a romantic and classy atmosphere. The price is the BEST out there and Cindy, the wedding coordinator, is wonderful to work with. She is beyond helpful, the service is great overall. Your guests will love the food!!

This was for a June wedding. The ceremony site was beautiful, green and well maintained. The seating area was large enough (180 guests planned), yet the ceremony felt intimate. The gazebo was just big enough to add to the ceremony without being an overpowering factor; and when lightly decorated it was just perfect. The distance from the building where the reception was held to the gazebo where the ceremony was held was the perfect distance to separate the two, yet no too far so that it was an inconvenience to guests. It felt like two separate places. And the distance was perfect distance for the grand entrance of the wedding party to the ceremony site. It allowed the wedding party to be comforably spaced without being too close to the next couple or rushed to the site.

The reception site was adequate and when nicely decorated it looked beautiful and was comfortable. It did overlook a well maintained garden area that added to the overall ambience.

The wedding coordinator, Cindy Lee was excellent! She was very responsive and went out of her way to make sure everything was perfect. She listened and made every effort to accommodate requests that we made. On the day of the wedding she was definitely a working coordinator. She ran around and made sure everything worked out as expected and then some! She was amiable and very professional.

Overall, The UCI University Club was an excellent place for the wedding.

I have soo much positive feedback I don't know where to begin! We held just our reception at the UClub (as our ceremony was at a church). The venue was wonderful, easy and ample parking for guests. Staff was extremely professional, from the bartender to the men and women who cleared the dishes from the tables. The room decorates beautifully and creates a great atmosphere for a wedding reception. Although the venue was great, most definitely the best part of holding your wedding here is Cindy the wedding coordinator. I can't praise her work enough. She supervised the entire set up of the wedding on the day of, as well as stayed throughout the entire reception to ensure the entire event went smoothly. In addition to her services on the day of the wedding, she was my greatest help in planning. Almost every vendor I used was recommended by her and they all were excellent. She went waay above and beyond her duties and because of her I would highly highly recommend having your wedding here because of the ease of and joy in planning you experience while working with her.

University Club at UCI should received 6 stars not 5. Cindy Lee is AMAZING. She responds quickly every time you email her or call her. She brings so much enthusiasm to planning your wedding. She is whiling to go above what is needed to make your day special. The day of the wedding she worked her butt off. She kept the wedding going smoothly and starting close to on time as possible. She is very professional throughout the entire processes.

The value of cost is unbelievable...I was able to have a "country club" wedding at a fraction of the price. I got everything I wanted for my wedding that I would not have been able to if I went to another venue. I LOVED the ceremony site. It was everything I have ever wanted. My husband loved the reception area. I was amazed how beautiful the room looked once all decorated. UCI also recently installed ceiling swag which makes the room look very elegant. I was just lucky that they installed in a few months before my wedding. I will be telling everyone I know and don't know about UCI! Very affordable and turns out beautiful.

I got married in April, and UCI was the perfect location for my future husband and I! In Orange County, it is tough to have a "budget wedding" without opting for a "budget location", but UCI enabled us to have both -- a budget wedding at a non-budget location. The inside of UCI is GORGEOUS and definitely has a Yale Club feel to it. It has a separate room for the cocktail hour and huge ballroom for the reception. Not only that, but the outside is beautiful with its picturesque gazeebo. And he food... THE FOOD! All of our guests raved about it, and they especially liked the cocktail hour appetizers. As for coordinators, Cindy is seriously a gift from above. She is the most calming, wonderful wedding coordinator that you could ever possibly dream up! She did anything and everything to make our special day memorable and easy, and everything turned out beautifully. She will give you ladies recommendations for vendors, advice on wedding details if you ask, and treat you like you are a top priority. Do I highly recommend UCI? ABSOLUTELY!!!

I got married in April, and UCI was the perfect location for my future husband and I! In Orange County, it is tough to have a "budget wedding" without opting for a "budget location", but UCI enabled us to have both -- a budget wedding at a non-budget location. The inside of UCI is GORGEOUS and definitely has a Yale Club feel to it. It has a separate room for the cocktail hour and huge ballroom for the reception. Not only that, but the outside is beautiful with its picturesque gazeebo. And he food... THE FOOD! All of our guests raved about it, and they especially liked the cocktail hour appetizers. As for coordinators, Cindy is seriously a gift from above. She is the most calming, wonderful wedding coordinator that you could ever possibly dream up! She did anything and everything to make our special day memorable and easy, and everything turned out beautifully. She will give you ladies recommendations for vendors, advice on wedding details if you ask, and treat you like you are a top priority. Do I highly recommend UCI? ABSOLUTELY!!!

The staff at UCI University was extraordinary, especially the coordinator Cindy. Thank you.

No regrets here! They did everything well. They set up for the ceremony, reception, served the food, broke everything down and basically ran a great event. We didn't worry about anything.

Cindy and the team at the club were so wonderful! The prices were so great that when Cindy quoted us my mom hugged her! The food is delicious and the venue really cleans up to dazzle you, it was truly beautiful. It was awesome that they had their own kitchen and staff, so it becomes your one stop shop for food, service, alcohol, venue, ceremony location, and wedding coordinator.

The University Club at UCI was wonderful for our reception. It fit exactly what my husband and I were looking for in a reception location. The food was amazing. Cindy was great! She was knowledgable and patient. We even hired one of the student staff members to play the piano for our cocktail hour. Our guests thoroughly enjoyed his talent. I would highly recommend the University Club!

Ok let me first say that, as a bride, I am a self-professed wedding hater. The entire engagement (one year) I complained to my fiance that I didn't want a wedding, I wanted to just go to City Hall and sign papers. I figured for the price of a wedding we could travel the world.
But my fiance insisted that we do a proper wedding, so we went to find a venue. After searching and searching and coming up waaaaaay too expensive, we found UCI club. It was like a weight was lifted off our shoulders. Cindy, the wedding coordinator there, was so helpful and sweet, I couldn't have imagined doing this without her.
Our wedding was November 7, 2009......and it was the greatest night of my life. I, the one who hates weddings, now realize that City Hall would be a mistake. The UCI club put on a wonderful wedding for us, and Cindy is such a perfectionist that everything was impeccable. Even when we ran into problems with our other vendors (our DJ was a nightmare), Cindy had the attitude of "I got this, don't worry, go take your pictures and have fun." It was such a relief.
Everyone said it was the best wedding they had ever been to. And it was the greatest time my fiance and I have ever had. When we think about that day, we become sad that it's over. Thank you Cindy and Club staff for everything!

My venue at the UCI Club was great and I was so happy that I chose this place. The price for the food were reasonable. The services from the chefs, waiters, and catering manager/wedding coordinator were awesome. Even though the waitors were college students, they performed perfessionally well. The food was good, especially the filet mignon. Many of my guests loved the filet mignon. Cindy Lee's services were better than excellent. She was like WOW! If I have to rate her, I would give her 110 out of 100%. This lady knows what she is doing and I would definitely recommend her to my friends and families without any hestitation. If I didn't have my venue at UCI club, I would try to hire her as my wedding coordinator. I was so happy that she was my wedding coordinator and helped me out from the start and 'til the end of my wedding. I was so happy that Cindy could handle my attitude because I was a tough person to work with when it came to wedding (I was under a lot of stress =( ). She was there for me whenever I needed help. She helped out with my wedding schedule, setup of my wedding decorations, and food service. Big thanks to Cindy and her staff because my wedding turned out great!!!

If you are considering the UClub as a wedding site, I suggest you look no further. We paid about 1/3rd of what most weddings cost and we could not have been more pleased. My brother is a chef and he along with our guests kept raving about the food, not to mention the breathtaking site. They even let us bring in our own plants and spruce up the garden in front and in back. The entire place was absolutely transformed with every detail being met. The staff was extremely attentive, and caring, too.

Prior to meeting with Cindy (the UClub wedding coordinator) to establish a timeline and finalize arrangements for the event, my daughter and I were in a tizzy. We had just attended my cousin�s wedding and were overwhelmed with the details we still needed to accomplish. Cindy was there with the answers. We met with her for over three hours and knew that we were in extremely capable hands. She calmed our nerves and reassured us that her expert handling and experience would save the day for us. Boy, was she right!


On the day of the wedding, every detail was handled with expertise. Cindy insisted on perfection and decorated with a keen sense of style, taking the things we gave her to transform the room into what my daughter called a �magical fairyland�. She kept an eye on the clock so we could just relax. She watched our budget and offered suggestions from her vast experience. Suffice it to say that the wedding never would have been as perfect as it was without her. I received innumerable compliments from my friends and family. The best comment came from the bride herself when she was leaving. She said, �Thank you, Mom. This wedding was beyond my wildest dreams."

I remain one very happy and proud Mother-of-the-Bride!

My husband went to this University and it meant a lot to him to get married here. We loved it! Everyone was great! I reallyed liked the wedding planner that the UCI Club provides when you book with them....she was great! The only thing I didnt like was that we had the 11am-4pm time slot and the couple who had the 6pm-11pm time slot had their family come and start to set up at about 3:30pm...and my wedding was not yet over. My husband and his father were changing out of their tux's when a few people from the next party just walked right in to start dropping stuff off in the Groom's room! That was the only bad thing...other than that, I thought everything was great!

The University Club was amazing. I could not have asked for a better venue to host my wedding and reception. The outdoor garden area was beautiful, the space for the reception was perfect and the staff could not have been more gracious and helpful.

Further, the value for the cost was unbelievable. I have gone to other weddings recently where the couple paid 3 times as much as my husband and I did and our food and service was better. Everything was perfect!

We loved the coordinator Cindi she went out of her way to make our day perfect! Everything we wished for happened and even more!

Catering, wait staff, and wedding planners are professional and courteous. Jacqui and Cindy are knowledgeable, experienced, organized, flexible, and willing to work with your vision for your wedding day. There are lots of delicious menu options for appetizers and entrees, all at a reasonable price. Irvine weather is moderate and beautiful year-round, making the University Club a bright and airy space for outdoor and indoor receptions. We held our cocktail hour outdoors and lunch reception indoors.

My husband and I had our wedding there about a year ago. As we look back on our memories of that evening at the University Club, we are amazed at how beautiful it was. Everything was set up exactly as we wanted it, such as where the 2 bars would be, having my cake placed in a unique location and placement of our sweethart table in a central location. They were very accomidating to our wants and needs above and beyond what we expected. Cindy Lee was exceptional and we were so grateful to have her make our dream wedding come true! The staff was very friendly. The food was delicious! The wait staff service was wonderful! The location was beautiful! We could not have asked for anything better!

We loved them! Great setting, attentive staff.

OK These people ARE THE BEST.

The UClub's Service is ABOVE and BEYOND wonderful. Also, the UClub is PRIVATE. When we had our wedding, every parkings space, room, and garden was exclusive for my wedding that day. My guests felt comfortable, safe, and accommodated. I could tell that every employee took great pride in caring for the set up of my day. The bartender, servers, cooks, and management, were all kind, professional, and hospitable.

The price is the BEST in TOWN. It included the faciltity, outdoor arrangments, and food and bar!

Each guest was treated like the bride that day. A+++++++++++++++++++

The club is great. It has been newly remodeled. The club is private, the food was great and the staff was attentive and professional.

After looking at MANY so cal sites for a wedding, this had everything we could have asked for. It was the PERFECT place for a wedding. The location was private and the garden was beautiful. (we got married about 2 yrs ago now, and there was a litttle bit of construction going on at the time, but I think thats all gone now, and it wasn't even a problem when we were there). We could not have asked for a better location. And the food!!!! Some of the best food you could ask for at wedding!

I've worked with the University Club for years & have always found the staff to be professional. Cindy is wonderful & treats each wedding like they were family. Her events run seamlessly & guests are always very impressed with hold well organized the entire event unfolds.

Great food, services.