Dwelling in Tucson, my now-husband and I love camping and snowboarding in Northern AZ, and we chose Snowbowl because we love the area and Flagstaff has enough restaurants/hotels/Ubers for guests. We chose a prime leaf-peeping October weekend fo...r our wedding. The bright Aspens were an absolutely stunning backdrop for photos. Everything ran smoothly and we had an amazing day. Because the mountain is open to the public for scenic lift rides during this season, there was a lot of traffic on the road, which caused our ceremony to start late, but it was no big deal.
I did experience frustration with the responsiveness of the coordinator, Lauren. We wanted to pay for our wedding in installments to make it easier on us financially. Every single time I wanted to make a payment, including our initial deposit, it was a strange, multi-day game of email/phone tag to get it done. One time I couldn't get a hold of Lauren at all, something about her phone being down? An online payment gateway would be helpful. Also, note the contract is purposefully vague, so they may adjust your pricing. We ended up being okay as we changed our bar service to a tab, but we initially had asked for an open bar of wine and beer (all the beers they offered on tap plus bottles), and we were told a month or so before that the only beer they could give us for that price was Coors Light. We also did a custom menu and didn't realize a dessert wasn't included with that option. If you want anything extra, it seemingly costs $5 per person. I wanted a hot chocolate/cider bar, which I ended up canceling when I realized it was going to cost more than $600 with tax and a service fee. I literally could have taken every one of our 80 guests to Starbucks and bought them hot chocolate for less. Snowbowl will charge a 22% service fee, but that is all your staff gratuity, so that is one less thing to worry about. I'd advise couples to not pay their balance in full until it's due. If your guest count and/or costs are lower than you expected and you overpay, I'd imagine you'd have a hard time getting any money back.
Despite being very lax the entire planning process, Lauren flipped a switch and became very Type A on our wedding day, and she was more on the ball than I expected. We were told drinks would be brought to the bridal party, which didn't happen until shortly before our ceremony and I had to ask. But Lauren was good at organizing the bridal party and making announcements to our guests.
Snowbowl doesn't do tastings so I had no idea what our food would be like, and I must say I was impressed. We had them do a custom bbq-style dinner for us, and we had chicken and pulled pork, truffle mac 'n' cheese, salad, and rolls. Many guests commented on how good the food was. I was told in our initial communication they would also include grilled veggies, which were not present, but I honestly didn't even miss them. As the bride, you have little time to eat, and Lauren made sure we got the chance, which was nice. But I wish I had gone back for seconds!