Berkeley City Club

My family and I had such a lovely experience with the Berkeley City Club. I decided to go through with a small wedding this August despite all the limitations of Covid-19. The BCC events coordinator, Heather, really pulled out all the stops to make it a special day for us out on their terrace. Delicious food and drinks were served in a safe and thoughtful way. My guests were able to sit outside with the right amount of distance between us but an atmosphere that brought us together. We even got to dance! Thanks to BCC for making it happen.

BCC went above and beyond expectations for my small elopement wedding. Their courtyard was the perfect setting for us, the food was delicious from beginning to end, and the service was top notch. The staff communicated extremely well with us before and during the event and worked with us through COVID issues. I highly recommend this venue.

Fantastic doesn’t begin to describe our wedding. Victoria made it so easy to have all the “I”s dotted and “T”s crossed. Plus the club sparkled with Christmas decorations adding a lovely touch to the flowers by Biden and Lilly. Chef Fabrice out did himself with a delicious Tapas lunch. We were surrounded by love and celebration from family and friends in the lovely ambience of the City Club. Thank you! Anne and Steve

We couldn't be more grateful to the Berkeley City Club team for providing us such a beautiful venue for our ceremony and reception and helping us bring our wedding vision to life! When we first saw the venue, we immediately fell in love. The architecture and classic, romantic atmosphere matched perfectly with our vision. Victoria was incredible to work with and so flexible; ensuring every detail was exactly what we wanted and how we wanted it. The team the day of from catering, to hospitality, executed flawlessly. This venue and the team are the very best and we will be back often to visit and will be reliving our special day over and over for years to come!

We had our wedding ceremony and reception at the Berkeley City Club this past June. While the wedding was beautiful and we loved spending the day with our friends and family, the 1.5+ year journey leading up to our wedding working with the BCC was less than smooth. The good things first: The venue is stunning. The terrace was the perfect spot for the ceremony (when you cover the side opening with curtains to block views of the parking lot and free clinic) - it allows you to have an outdoor ceremony while still being covered from the sun. The library for cocktail hour is gorgeous. The reception hall was the perfect size for a wedding of 135 with a dance floor in the middle. It was so nice to have separate spaces for each part, but all of them flowed so well into each other and made for easy transitions. There are also so many hidden gardens and spots for pictures around the club. The venue also being a hotel was a HUGE plus. Being able to celebrate all evening and then just take the elevator to your room was perfect for us and our guests. Catering / Bartenders - the food was delicious! The zucchini ravioli was a big hit and the flat iron stake with chimichurri was delicious. Lots of compliments from our guests on the food! The bartenders were also amazing - despite serving the wrong beer, they poured generously and were on top of serving our guests and also making sure that myself and the groom always had a drink when we needed one! And then the bad: Events Management Turnover - in the time since we signed our contract to when we had our wedding we went through 5 different events managers. There was also a time when there was no events manager and we were concerned that our wedding might not even take place. None of the events managers kept good notes, we had to repeat information multiple times, things were promised to us that ended up not happening as each person had a different opinion of what was offered. The last management change happened just over 3 weeks out from our wedding - it was incredibly frustrating starting from scratch with a new contact so close to the wedding day. Over promised, under delivered - throughout working with our 5 events managers, one of them told us we could have our choice of colored linens. Our final events manager (the one that came in 3 weeks before the wedding) came in and tried to take that away from us, saying it was something that was not offered. We pushed back since we were so close to the wedding date and they finally agreed to bring in colored linens for us at no extra charge....BUT on our wedding day the colored linens (we had asked for white tablecloths and navy napkins) weren't there. Instead it was their standard off-white / cream linens. While this isn't a HUGE deal, it did change the look of the room and what we had been hoping for. We also picked from their menu all of the alcohol that we would want at the wedding. We confirmed our choices with them the week before the wedding and made bar signage that listed each item. On our wedding day, the BCC changed all the beer types that they served at our wedding (without informing us) so what we had listed for our guests was incorrect. The types of beers weren't even close or comparable to what we had asked (if we ask for an IPA at least switch it out for another IPA). Overall, the wedding was a success and the venue was beautiful. Just beware of the high turnover and attention to detail.

This venue is gorgeous. Our wedding went very smoothly and the staff were very kind and accommodating. Victoria K, the new events coordinator, is very detail-oriented (in the best way!) and was more than prepared for the demands of our multi-part ceremony and reception. Our guests loved the history and smooth transitions between each room. The event had a good flow, and we credit that to the close proximity of kitchen, ballroom, ceremony space (terrace), and cocktail lounge (library). A great find for the money we paid.

Sarah Williams and BCC was better than I could have ever imagined. From start to finish she answered every question I had, made suggestions when I was unsure of something, and even steered me in a better direction when I was making questionable decisions regarding table arrangements. Over the course of 8 months, we exchanged countless emails (my now husband and I did not want a cookie cutter wedding - so Sarah helped tremendously with logistics), with all of her responses usually occurring by the end of that business day. The staff was incredible. So many things happened behind the scenes to ensure the day went smoothly - things that I hadn’t even considered to coordinate. For example, rented dishware and chargers were rinsed, dried, and placed in our suite for us. Rented linens were shaken out and stored safely for the vendor to pick up. There was nothing that we had to think about; we dealt with professionals who are obviously experts in their field. With the benefit of hindsight, we would chose BCC all over again. Happily.

The Berkeley City Club was the perfect venue and felt like a dream. The architecture is beyond stunning and had exactly the historic feel I dreamt about for so many years. It really lives up to its name "the little castle" and provided so many beautiful spots for pictures. Dancing was my #1 priority for our reception and the dance floor was large and inviting with the band on the stage. The staff was great to work with and responded to emails quickly which was appreciated in the wedding process! I'd highly recommend this venue.

We had our wedding and reception at the Berkeley City Club (BCC) in April 2016, and stayed in their hotel rooms that weekend. We had a wonderful wedding experience with the BCC, and highly recommend them! Our wedding planning process with the BCC started around a year in advance after we toured the space and fell in love with it. Sarah was our point of contact for most of the process, and she was great to work with: she was always super responsive and helpful (even when I barraged her with long lists of questions by email), did a great job, and seemed genuinely interested in making sure we had a great wedding experience. The planning process was fairly painless and was mostly handled by email, though we visited in person a few times for tours, tastings, and vendor walkthroughs. Note that the BCC requires couples to hire a day-of coordinator for weddings, but that ended up being a blessing (the coordinator was a big help). The BCC's prices also compared really favorably with other places we looked (still expensive, but so is everything nice in the Bay). Our wedding turned out incredibly well, and we got so many compliments about how everything looked -- including the BCC's beautiful spaces! We did portrait sessions all over the building (including the pool in the basement!) and had our "first look" in the courtyard. We held the ceremony on the covered, open-air Terrace, which was a great spot, especially after the BCC added white draping to the ceiling at some point (pro-tip: add sheer draping to the back of the Terrace to block out views of the parking lot and free clinic). Our cocktail hour was in the Member's Lounge (a super-cool room -- great place for portraits as well), and our reception was in the Ballroom. The Ballroom was a great size for our ~110 guests (plenty of room for dancing!) and was a great reception space -- especially once we added a few subtle uplights and replaced the default chairs (which aren't the best) with rental chiavari chairs. We mostly stuck with the BCC-provided plates and linens, though we added a few extra things (rental napkins). And all of the food we had was great! We were worried at first about being locked in to the BCC's food service (no outside caterers allowed), but it was all super tasty, and the service was great throughout the evening. The hotel experience at the BCC was also nice and full of vintage charm. I can't speak to how the other rooms were, but the two suites I saw (including the wedding suite) were spacious and had fantastic views of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges! The building itself is also full of great touches -- especially the magical pool in the basement. That said, the hotel won't be a perfect fit for everyone: the rooms and furniture can be a bit worn out in places, the rooms don't have TVs (a concern for some of our guests), the elevator broke while we were there, it was tough for guests to request rooms with our block, and the hotel parking lot fills up quickly. But if those things aren't deal breakers for you, the hotel experience at the BCC can be a special one. Overall, we were really happy with the Berkeley City Club for our wedding venue. We had the wedding of our dreams, and we can't imagine having had it anywhere else!

We picked the venue because of our personal connections to the location & it's architecture, we had no idea how unprofessional the staff would be. From the beginning the coordinator assigned to our event appeared incompetent for the position and anything but organized. Our interactions with her became more & more terse as the months and only got slightly better when we requested that the General Manager become involved. Although he seemed capable & professional he seemed determined to stay out of the situation and continued to allow his coordinator

My husband and I absolutely adore the Berkeley City Club! Gregory and Ellyn are absolutely fabulous people who will hold your hand until that special day arrives! They graciously answered all my multiple questions and even met with my in-laws to discuss pricing options! The food is also excellent and their wine list will make anyone a wine lover! Also, because the architecture is varied and beautiful, it makes a wonderful location to get married inside or outside, and with lots of fun spots for the photographer to take pictures. One word of caution though: The only downside is that there is ZERO parking for guests, so you need to find a parking lot. And if the Cal Bears are in town, all bets are off! But don't let that stop you from using this location. My day was unforgettable, and the main reason was because of the City Club's staff.

My husband and I really wanted to have our wedding reception in the Berkeley/Oakland area and ended up choosing Berkeley City Club because of its beautiful, castle-like atmosphere and its capacity to hold our group of around 200. The price was great for our budget, but from the beginning, planning was rough. The events staff had very high turnover and we worked with three different people, none of whom could reply to an email. We were very patient and reluctant to complain but as the event came closer, it was impossible not to. Everything we requested was somehow not noted or passed on to the right person. I will say that my guests thought the event was beautiful and the food delicious, but if I had not had friends and family around to help, it would have been a disaster. The photo booth area had not been cleared as planned and my husband had to go down to direct staff; tables were not set up according to the diagram submitted and approved (some guests were not able to sit at their assigned tables because there weren't enough seats!); our musicians (who we loved!) were not served their lunches (when we told the event director this he simply said, "They didn't ask"); lunch service was slow; our sheet cake that was to be precut was brought out in front of the guests to be cut; and our event coordinator who said he would be around was MIA for almost the entire event. I will say that Norman, the banquet manager, was very attentive. My last great annoyance was that shortly before the event, the coordinator offered to move the lunch wine to the cash bar after lunch service and to just bill us on consumption. When I emailed after the event (and waited an unreasonably long time for a response) he said that our account was settled and we had paid in full. I had to remind him about the wine moving to the cash bar and we were reluctantly issued a significant check with my name misspelled and with my husband's last name (which I didn't take). I would only recommend Berkeley City Club if you are absolutely in love with the structure, you have a large group, need to have your reception in the area, and have LOTS of people to help you the day of.

My husband instantly fell in love with BCC when we first walked in. It has the classic and elegant decor we were looking for our wedding. The food was amazing too! I cannot recommend the butternut squash ravioli with pumpkin sauce highly enough. There is a perfect space for the cocktail reception and the photo booth if you are using one. And the coordinator, Ellyn was very responsive and addressed all our concerns.above all, you really get a very good deal for what you are getting. Place looks like a mini castle at a fraction of the price and we also got a complimentary bridal suite where I got ready and spentthe night.

I chose the Berkeley City Club because of the history and beauty of the building. I first started working with Christina who was awful and never returned my emails or phone calls. She was let go and Crystal took over the planning of my wedding. Crystal was a gem to work with- responses to emails/phone inquiries were still a little slow but to be fair she was the only person planning weddings. The day of was great! Crystal took care of everything!

I can't say enough good things about the Berkeley City Club. Many of my guests say it was one of the nicest weddings they have ever been to. The food is also a nice touch as you don't have to use an outside vendor. 5 stars!

My wife and I had our wedding at the Berkeley City Club in October 2010. When it comes to the look and feel of a venue, the Berkeley City Club is certainly among one of the most dynamic sites in the Bay Area. Its everyday decoration and design really lend themselves to a romantic environment, and the rooms are all distinct and graceful. The wedding itself went off without problems, and the staff was very courteous and helpful from the beginning of the event until after the guests left. All the food was well presented and tasted good, and many of the guests commented that they were really impressed that the catering was so accessible, given that we served an all-vegetarian menu. The problems we had were in the planning and communication stages, basically from the point at which we asked for a contract until the day before the wedding. The event management, catering, and sales staff all proved very difficult to work with throughout the process. The biggest problem was that they were extremely non-responsive. The second big problem was inconsistency in messaging. We had some problems with things like menu selection and food service options, and we were told several conflicting things by several different people without much clarity on what our actual options would be in the end. A low point was asking for revisions to the contract prior to signing, which they refused to make, then having to deal with the possibility that the City Club would breach its own contract due to its initial unwillingness to make changes. To the staff's credit, they made good on some of the key commitments in the end, but it felt like pulling teeth in the process. Last, and most important, was the renovation that started about eight weeks prior to our event and about which we were not notified until after it had already begun. This turn of events was initially handled terribly, and the staff was not consistent, thorough, coordinated, or transparent about its process or response. In the end, the wedding turned out beautifully, and the management and staff made good on several key commitments. However, dealing with the City Club during the six months leading up to the wedding was incredibly stressful and filled with uncertainty and anxiety. Looking back, I'm impressed at how well everything was executed on the day of the actual event, but I don't think I had a moment's peace or confidence in the interim between signing the contract and getting married. I enjoyed my wedding immensely, largely because the Berkeley City Club is such a beautiful space and the details were just right. However, I can't recommend that another couple plan a wedding at the City Club because my experience working with the management staff was just far too stressful and unreliable.