Question for those who had a reception at a hotel

[codex57]

Did they try and nickel and dime you to death? I''m being asked to pay for some ridiculous items. I think the wedding coordinator gets a cut of all of this. I''m thinking she''s pulling a bunch of these extra charge items out of her nether regions.

For example: ceremony is held at the same place. If we want the white chairs that match with everything, then it''s $2/chair. We said, "You never said chairs would be extra charge." She replied that the white ones are extra, but if you want free ones, they bring up the peach stacking ones from the dining hall.

Example 2: We wanted chair covers. We''re pretty sure she gets a kickback from her "preferred vendors." We found another one that was $2.50 instead of $5 like her vendors. But, she said she had to approve the vendor and the chair covers since the Hilton has an image to uphold. When she talked to the vendor, she told the vendor she was gonna charge them $2/chair service fee cuz they were using her chairs to make money. We were like, "What the hell? The chairs are included for us to use already. How can you charge for stuff we''ve already paid for?"

Argghhh. Thanks for letting me vent. There''s more crap too. Did you guys get nickel and dimed too? If not, I''ll make do until after the wedding, then I''m gonna raise bloody hell and contact everyone and everything to complain about her.

 

[AChiOAlumna]

We got married/reception at a hotel years ago. Although my parents paid for the wedding, I don''t remember them "nickel/diming us to death." And my mother (who mainly dealt with all the contracts) never said anything bad about the hotel (now the florist....she had a bone to pick with them!!!).

 

[jellybean]

I didn't have my reception/ceremony at a hotel but one of my best friends did a couple of years ago and they did the exact same thing to her. It wasn't a Hilton hotel, but they all probably act very similarly.

They wanted to charge her extra for the chair covers - she said no thanks, then they went ahead and put them on anyway and tried to stiff her with the bill. Luckily she got out of paying for that one.

She reserved a block of rooms for guests and the per room charge came out to be MORE than what it would cost to get a room that night! When she inquired about it they told her they have to charge more b/c they can't rent out those rooms until the last minute in case she reserved more than she needed.

She got the "honeymoon suite" for free for having the reception there, however, they charged her an arm and a leg extra for champagne and strawberries, special robes for the bride and groom (which they weren't allowed to keep), and a couple of other extras I can't remember right now.

She also had her own sweet table. Instead of getting the food from the hotel, she was going to have her relatives make various desserts (tradition in her family). Well, they were going to charge her a fee for bringing in "outside vendors"

and I don't remember how much they were going to charge her to actually "rent" the table! She wound up bringing in her own desserts at a "reduced" fee.

I remember all of this b/c I was one of the bridesmaids and called one day pretending to be planning my own wedding there and was asking these questions to see if they had these charges with everyone or if it was just her that they were trying to scam. It seemed as those these charges applied to everyone but some were "negotiable".

It was beautiful but she warned all her friends never to have their wedding at this particular hotel. So, unfortunately it sounds like you weren't alone. When vendors hear "wedding" all of a sudden the extra fees and charges come up.

Edited to add that the hotel also wanted to charge extra for colored napkins and tablecloths instead of the standard white ones, but the country club I had my reception at did that too. Charging extra for white chairs though - that takes the cake!

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Oh no! We were planning on having our ceremony and reception at a hotel as well! I hope that doesn''t happen to us. I know what to ask now when we look for a place though. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[njc]

Date: 6/23/2005 1:35:46 PM
Author: jellybean

She reserved a block of rooms for guests and the per room charge came out to be MORE than what it would cost to get a room that night! When she inquired about it they told her they have to charge more b/c they can''t rent out those rooms until the last minute in case she reserved more than she needed.

This has happened to us. I reserved a block of rooms at 2 hotels, one is cheaper, the other is more expensive! So i told the guests about the block of rooms that are cheaper, and wrote that if that block was gone when they made reservations, to call the other hotel but didnt mention we had a block of rooms, so they wouldnt pay the extra money!

Also, if we wanted colored table linens and napkins, it would cost extra. We have gone with the white and have small squares of organza in the wedding colors to lay over all the tables as part of the centerpieces to throw in a little color.

 

[codex57]

Date: 6/23/2005 1:35:46 PM
Author: jellybean

Edited to add that the hotel also wanted to charge extra for colored napkins and tablecloths instead of the standard white ones, but the country club I had my reception at did that too. Charging extra for white chairs though - that takes the cake!

You think that''s bad, my wedding lady said table cloths/napkins are included. They even have colored ones we can choose from. However, our theme color is mysteriously not included in the list of available colors. They''ve got almost every other color, but not our theme color. Hmmm.