What we loved: Beautiful, nice reception facilities, great to have everything in one place where everyone is staying the night, lovely grounds for pictures, good price compared to ...other places in the area – and it was truly all inclusive – no surprises, lots of help from a professional staff, let us bring in cupcakes from a licensed outside vendor.
Helpful hints: Check on all of the rooms (for the block and bridal party prep) a week or so ahead to be sure everything is reserved as expected. Go through a time line of reception events that require staff assistance (e.g., cake) so that everything is happening when expected – and include your DJ in that. If you have quirky or different DIY details that need setup, have a helper go down during the day and help set up so that you can be sure everything is right. If you have anyone with special dietary needs (e.g., gluten free), they will prepare the meal exactly as you want for no extra charge.
Review: Our ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception were at the DoubleTree, and we had our block of rooms there for out of town guests. The ceremony was in Paine, cocktail hour in Hamilton, and reception in the Junior Ballroom, 118 people. Ceremony setup was lovely, and we had the sheer curtains down, which created a nice backdrop with the sun coming in (5:30pm wedding in April). Photos are wonderful. The grounds and hotel bar were great for posed pictures. Reception setup was perfect, plenty of room for dining and dancing. Our guests were happy with the food – chicken, salmon, and vegetarian - mushroom ravioli with mixed grilled vegetables. We did have a couple of problems pop up, mostly with the reservations of rooms for guests and the bridal party getting ready. The room that was supposed to be set aside for me and the bridesmaids to get ready was not available at 8am as scheduled and had been booked to someone else, and they had a lot of confusion with the room that was booked to the best man for the two nights he stayed. Multiple different issues around rooms. That being said, Angela, the coordinator, cleared up the problems as quickly as she could, with no impact to us or the wedding in the end. We had a place to get ready, and all of the guests had a room. They comped the best man for his troubles as well. As every bride finds out, there is no perfect wedding day, but Angela responded as well as we could have asked for. The only other negative was that they were pretty late in setting us up to “cut” our cupcakes (we had cupcakes instead of cake, and we cut one in half and fed it to each other) – that was significantly later than we had anticipated and people just stared taking cupcakes because it was getting so late. In all, even with issues, I’d still recommend the DoubleTree – we wanted our venue to take care of everything as much as possible, and they really did. Angela was good to work with, and she made some very good recommendations. She was there all day, and we were her only focus – we were well taken care of. Nelson Olivares was excellent. We met him at our tasting and found out how meticulous and professional he was at that time. The day of the wedding, he helped decide the layout for the reception to set us up for the best candid photos of the sweetheart table – it was perfect. During the reception, it seemed like he was there every time the groom or I turned around, with a beer or water or anything we needed. We felt very pampered. Overall, a very good experience.