Hilton University of Florida Conference Center

We recently held our big, fat Indian wedding at the Hilton UF -- 300 guests, a full day of events, and so much food. And everything was amazing! If you are Type A super organized kinda bride - Alisa is is your girl. She was so thoughtful and took great care in all of the details, big and small. I was contributing from Chicago and my parents in Florida, so clearly it wasn't the easiest planning process for our family. She was so accommodating, incredibly respectful/willing to learn about our own traditions, and was able to keep us moving despite the distance. She managed the banquet staff communications so I only had to speak with 1 individual to ensure our needs were met. On a personal note, Alisa''s also just very pleasant to work with (and totally a client-advocate; if you're unhappy, she'll do her best to fix the problem). My husband and I enjoyed speaking with her throughout the process and my parents only had positive things to say about Alisa's work style and communications. Speaking candidly, as an Indian bride, I am well aware that several vendors are not responsive and/or thorough in their work with clients. Together Alisa and I were able to get all the information to and from the different vendors to make the event successful. We would have been lost without her. Now the venue and logistics - the Century Ballroom is a great size for wedding of 300. We also used the pre-function area and outside courtyard during the reception -- both were a hit with the guests. The banquet staff was very helpful; I was told later that a few times the buffet trays needed to be refreshed faster, but I believe in the end, it all worked out (something to be sure to ask Alisa so she can keep this on her radar). They have a preferred vendor for Indian food - Andaaz, food was great but a little on the expensive end for the amount we purchased. We had minimal AV requests, but I will say it's a little pricey so be sure to work with your DJ, Alisa, and Hilton AV to get yourself the best set-up. The Hilton is well-kept; rooms are comfortable, clean, etc; there are great photo opps outside with huge live oak trees and across the street at the Baughman Center. All in all, I'd say if you're looking for a wedding in North Florida - this is a super venue. It's really hard to find much above the 250 capacity, so Hilton UF is a little bit of a gem. We got lucky that it wasn't a home game day - make sure you look into that before setting your date :).

Wow, how disappointing. So, I had a block of rooms that I needed for my wedding, and was thinking about having my rehearsal dinner here. Thank goodness they never got back to me about the rehearsal dinner. It went fantastically - elsewhere. If you are busy, and need to do anything out of the ordinary with your hotel (and I mean room blocks, groups, weddings, dinners, receptions) you might try ANY OTHER hotel in the area. This is the closest one to campus other than the Reitz Hotel (which was my justification) but it's still not worth it. Issues: 1. The person setting up my room block spelled my husband's name wrong, and never fixed it, even when corrected. 2. The rate was higher than others, and they make you sign a contract if you want a room block which they don't even abide by (I was supposed to have a larger block for our wedding day than the rehearsal day, and they neglected to reserve the rooms. I had to get in contact with as many of my guests as I could to get the rooms set up. I still think it was purposeful, because it was parents' weekend at UF (they were charging 3x as much for the same rooms for the month prior to our wedding). 3. No one can provide you any information about group reservations unless you contact them Monday-Friday 9 AM to 5 PM. There is no other way to find out how many rooms are reserved in your group. 4. The catering manager is awful. She is rude, and disrespectful. I was promised breakfast in my suite (which was on my contract), but they "forgot" and no one was available with info on the morning of my wedding. After all of the issues, I had a bit of a bridezilla moment and told the poor girl on the line how many issues I'd had with the hotel, and requested that she fix it. She finally advised that they would go ahead and bring us breakfast. I even said I would pay for those not staying in our room, and I would call back with the order. When Amy (the catering manager) arrived she advised her to call me back and refuse the request. After all of the difficulty I had with the hotel because of her own poor organization, she still refused to allow the staff to fix the problem, even telling them to call me back and refuse me the solution they had just agreed to prior to her arrival. I generously tipped everyone who helped us. It would have cost them almost nothing to just do this since it was already agreed upon. Horrible customer relations. 5. A number of my husband's family members speak only Spanish and were not able to complete their room block reservations because of the hotel's error, and how the group rate info was set up. Due to the parents' weekend at UF, they were not able to find reasonable rates in Gainesville, so did not attend our wedding. I didn't find this out until later because his family didn't want to worry us about it, and they thought it was their fault for waiting until last minute. Our day was amazing despite the complete lack of assistance and concern demonstrated by this hotel. It felt like we didn't matter because it's a college town, and the hotel will get business regardless. Well, at the very least, I will make certain they never again get ours.