Embassy Suites by Hilton Des Moines Downtown

My husband and I immediately fell in love with the Embassy when we went on a tour. We were pretty set right then and there. Originally, we started working with Jessica. She was fantastic. She answered emails extremely quickly, and she was very pleasant to work with. Around February, I began working with Sheri. She wasn't very prompt with answering emails, and didn't seem to know how to answer my questions. We did not work with her for long, when she was replaced with Abby. Abby is very friendly, and nice. She was new, so I understood why she needed to get back to me on a few things. Our initial meeting, she was very pleasant to work with, and we covered almost everything needed for our reception. She said she would email answers to a few questions that needed to be answered. I waited 10 days, and finally decided I should send a follow up email. This seemed to be an ongoing thing. As much as Abby was great in person, at times it was a little frustrating to not hear back for a week at a time. On a couple separate occasions, I did sent follow up emails, to make sure my original went through. That essentially is my only complaint about the service Abby provided. I hope in the future she works on her communication better, and even just sends a quick "I've received your email, I will look into that", etc. Another large issue that we had was with the block room system. This resulted in some of our family not being able to block rooms off, double booking, etc. We were also told we could add block rooms. Two weeks after this discussion, we were told we weren't allowed to add any rooms to our block. There was never a true solution to this issue, after a few times of talking about it. They now have a new block system, which I hope is better. The day of, the service was great. Our food tasted delicious, and all of our guests were very impressed. They were very flexible with our vendors, and worked hand in hand with my day of coordinator to make sure everything went smoothly. The night of our wedding we stayed in the governor's suite, and had chocolate covered strawberries and champagne waiting for us. It was a nice little treat to have. The following night we were in the Presidential suite. It was simply amazing, and I would recommend it to anyone. We used Scotts Landing the next morning to open gifts. We were told we could have it starting at 10:00 am, and someone would unlock it for us. My family went down at 8:00 am, and the door was wide open with our gifts just sitting in the room unattended. Luckily, we think nothing was taken. The next morning, my mom went to collect our belongings (extra cake, champagne flutes, etc). They brought out our cake, and said that was all we had. We had to make them go back and find our our serving set (which they claimed they couldn't find, until my mom offered to go back and help look), along with a couple of items. Yet, a few things were still left behind. After a week or so of waiting for a response, Abby was kind enough to mail them so we didn't have to make an extra stop at the Embassy. Ultimately, our wedding day was amazing, and the Embassy did a great job on the actual event. I am happy with the actual day of, which is why I rated the Embassy at 4 stars, instead of 3. I wish their was a better response time from the Embassy coordinator, and more organization from the day after our wedding. I wanted to try and share our entire experience, the good and the not so good.

My husband and I were married May 4th 2013 at the Embassy Suites, Downtown Des Moines, IA. I could not have asked for a more perfect day, event, venue and most of all wedding coordinator. Jessica Johnson went far above and beyond her duties in making this the perfect day. From day one, Jessica remained in contact with me monthly, if not weekly to assist in anything from DJ's, flowers, photographers, officiants, cake vendors...anything that I needed assistance with for that matter. Our ceremony was to be outdoors, and happened to snow the day prior to our wedding. We had to move everything indoors last minute. Jessica quickly arranged the ceremony to be held in an alternate ballroom, everything went flawless and I didnt have to worry about a thing. I couldnt have done all of this with out Jessica. She is an amazing asset to your company and I will forever recommend her as well as the Embassy to host any event! Thank you!!

I recently had my rehearsal, wedding, and reception at the Embassy Suites Des Moines Downtown. We had a great experience from our first meeting with Jessica until the check-out the next day. Jessica is great to work with and will go above and beyond to make sure you have your dream day - without a lot of the stress that comes along with planning, set-up, etc. We had our rehearsal in the atrium the Friday before the ceremony. Everything was set-up so we could get a feel for everything. Jessica and other staff members were there and available to answer any last minute questions. Our guests and wedding party were able to indulge in the free cocktail hour and snacks provided by the hotel, which was an added bonus. Everybody had a great time! The day of we had our ceremony in the atrium, cocktail hour on the patio area, and reception in the ballroom. Everything flowed perfectly! The staff did a great job at transitioning with no interruption to our guests. When the wedding party arrived back to the hotel, the guests were already seated and we were able to make our grand entrance. Once we were seated, the food was immediately served. The food was great and we actually received quite a few compliments on the meal. I do not have one complaint about the entire day. I acutally could go on and on about how perfect everything was. All of the staff was friendly and accomodating. We went with the hotel's decorations, (linens, centerpieces, uplighting, staging, etc) and everything looked great. You could modify as you wished at no extra charge as long as the hotel had what you requested on hand. We were able to get our color of candles and uplighting to match. As I mentioned before, everything was perfect. Jessica and the rest of the staff will go above and beyond to make sure your needs are met and to make your big day as simple as possible!

We are so happy with our decision to do our reception at Embassy! Jessica and her team were great to work with! We made it a "wedding weekend" by checking in on Thursday. It was so convenient, we loved the atrium with the waterfall for cocktail hour, we received compliments on the food, the hotel staff handled so much of the details. The only hard part was estimating the number of hotel rooms we would need and our block filled up, but I imagine you would have that problem any where! Jessica was extremely helpful working through any of the small kinks that did arise.

Jessica, wedding coordinator, at the Embassy was awesome and was pleasant to work with. The hotel did a fantastic job with our reception. The food was perfect and the staff very professional.

We got married on May 12, 2012 at the Simon Estes Amphitheater and then held our reception at the Embassy Suites. Our day was absolutely perfect and everything went exactly as planned! Working with Jessica at the Embassy was so easy and fun! They thought of everything and where so great to work with. Every detail was planned out and if we had a question about something Jessica was always quick to respond and there was no such thing a stupid question!! The food was amazing! Our guests all commented on how gorgeous the room was and how delicious the food was. My husband and I stayed in the Presidential Suite and we did not want to leave! I wish we could do it all over again!!