Villa Christina was an amazing wedding venue and hotel (Hyatt) for our 200 guest. We compared 7 venues before selecting Villa Christina. We agreed on a scoring system and individually scored each venue based on location, hotel accommodations,... indoor/outdoor options for the ceremony & reception, ease of doing business, and the best overall value (not the cheapest). We discussed our individual scores, aggregated them and Villa Christina had the highest overall score.
The criteria that we valued the most was the accommodations, accessibility, and overall cost for us and our guests. We highly considered the experience and cost of our out-of-town guest because both of our families are from other cities. Villa Christina scored high because it is accessible to public transportation, restaurants, shopping and freeways and, it provides free parking for our guest who stayed at the hotel and the day of our wedding. Villa Christina has a quality restaurant and bar onsite as well. Many of our local guest stayed at the Hyatt the night of the wedding. They loved being able to get ready at the hotel, go downstairs for the festivities, and then retire to their room afterwards. We met hotel guest for breakfast in the restaurant the morning after our wedding.
The outdoor space for the ceremony, and being able to easily transition indoors for inclement weather, was important to us as well. Villa Christina has 2 beautiful outdoor spaces for wedding ceremonies. We chose a round outdoor space that looks and feels very private and intimate because of the lush gardens & trees. Also, it is strategically nestled next to the Hyatt, a beautiful backdrop with a contemporary rustic stone façade. The venue allows for all kinds of setups, customs and traditions. During our ceremony, there was light rain. We delayed part of the ceremony, a Nairobi tradition called the “taste of love”, and completed it indoors. This indoor space easily accommodated us and was used for some of our formal pictures, while the other guest transitions upstairs for the cocktail hour and reception. Although this indoor space was not part of our package, Villa Christina allowed us to us it at no additional cost. Also, the staff served us appetizers and drinks while we were taking formal photos. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
The ease of doing business was important to us because we wanted to use vendors that we trusted; many venues make it mandatory to use their preferred list of vendors. The vendors were important to us because gay marriage had only been the law of the land for 6 months. We wanted to ensure that we were surrounded by vendors with good intentions and energy. Villa Christina allowed us to use our vendors, although they have a preferred list of vendors. Also, they offered packages to meet different price points and experiences, but allowed us to change our package for our unique taste. One of the major concessions Villa Christina made was switching out the bridal suite for 2 well-appointed groom’s suites. Many of the venues still offer the bridal suite as part of the rented venue space.
Villa Christina totally exceeded all our expectations. I would highly recommend this venue to those who care about the details. Villa Christiana responded perfectly to every unexpected moment. This day will forever be special to us because of a perfect venue, a perfect staff, and a perfect experience.