The Bay Bride

We met with the director of catering at Silver Creek Valley Country Club in San Jose, CA.  She was very professional and took the time to go over all the details of the wedding package including menus and site fees.  She also got her date book out and showed us which dates were still available for the following year which some vendors aren’t always willing to do.  She gave us a lovely tour of the reception area and outdoor ceremony area.  Luckily, we toured the place while a wedding was being set up so we could envision of how the place would look once it was all set up.  You can request this when booking an appointment.

Here’s the lowdown:

Maximum Capacity: Accommodates up to 300 seated guests for indoor reception and outdoor ceremony.
Site Fees: I received an initial quote for $10,000 for a summer/fall Saturday wedding and $7,000 for a winter/spring Saturday wedding.  This fee can be cut down by $3K to 2K if the wedding is held on a Friday or Sunday.  This cost includes cake from Bijan Bakery which is probably a value of $500-$1000.
Catering: You must use the Club’s catering which requires a $15,000 food and beverage minimum for Summer/Fall Saturday weddings and $12,000 min for a Winter/Spring wedding.  This is a few thousand dollars cheaper for Friday and Sunday weddings.
Address: 5460 Country Club Parkway, San Jose, CA 95138
Phone Number: (408) 239-5364
Website: http://www.scvcc.com/weddings.html

The Good: Convenient location and convenient packages.  A wedding coordinator will be provided by the Club (fee is included in the site fee) to assist with details, customized wedding binder, onsite ceremony rehearsal and wedding day management.

The Not-So Good: Valet parking services is mandatory for Saturday weddings which could range from $800 to $1000.  Though some could consider this a very nice touch and added convenience for guests, I wish this were optional.  Outside food and beverages can not be brought into or removed from the Club.

Pictures: (please excuse my amateur photos)

Photo of Silver Creek Valley Country Club – Wedding Reception Area.  You can see the banquet area has a full panoramic view with floor to ceiling windows.  The marble dance floor is in the center – a good view from each table for the bride and groom’s first dance.

Entrance into the Main Dining Room.

Pre-function area where guests can enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

Entrance to the main building.

View of the main building from the golf course.

The waterfall ceremony site.

Front entrance where guests can valet park.

So out of 188 guests that RSVP’d yes, we had 5 people not show up for various reasons.  This means we had to pay for 5 dinners even though the 5 plates of food were not served.  That is over $550 spent on empty seats.  I asked the banquet manager if they could wrap up the food and bring it up to our hotel rooms but they said for food safety/health reasons they didn’t allow this.  (Sadness because I could totally see myself happily pigging out the next day with these 5 plates of food…I heart leftovers!)

Anyway, I had a friend underestimate her final head count by 4-5 guests and little did she know 4 guests ended up not attending the wedding.  Her logic is that she could always ask the caterer to provide 5 additional meals if she did have 100% attendance and the caterer will have no problem adding the cost to the final bill, but if guests don’t show then caterers won’t deduct the cost of meals to the final bill.  Is this smart? or just plain risky?  This could have seriously saved us some serious cash.

Maybe discuss your options with your banquet/catering manager before finalizing the head count.  See if leftovers can be bagged up to go and I’m sure it’ll be enjoyed by either you or your hungover buddies the next morning.

Darn it!  Just found out that the 20% service fee which most venues charge for food and beverages is taxed.  That is a few hundred extra dollars to take into consideration when calculating your wedding budget.  This is of course dependent on where your wedding is so you should double check with your venue and local tax board.

Basically for our Northern California wedding, our total for food was $15,436 with an additional $3,087 for the required 20% service charge.  But instead of getting taxed on just $15,436, we got taxed on both the $15,436 and the $3,087.  OUCH!!!!

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Current Sales Tax % = 8.25%

Cost of Food = $15,436

Sales Tax for Food = 15,436 x 0.825 = $1273

20% Service Charge for Food = 15,436 x 0.20 = $3087

SALES TAX on Service Charge = $3087 x 0.825 = $255

A GRAND TOTAL OF $1528 on SALES TAX for FOOD & SERVICE CHARGE!!!!   INSANE!!!!

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Here’s a link to a forum post with some helpful information on this matter:

http://www.projectwedding.com/post/list/service-charge-and-sales-tax

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We ended up getting married in Monterey so the sales tax is 1.25% lower which probably saved us a few hundred bucks, but it probably evens out with all the parking/gas/travel costs.

The thing that stood out most about the Four Seasons was the excellent customer service.  We spoke to Steve Torres since the catering manager was out of town that weekend.  Steve was so pleasant to deal with.  He gave us a complete tour of the hotel and really took the time to go through all the details with us.  He was truly a breath of fresh air and so friendly compared to some of the people we’ve toured with at other venues.

Customer service is definitely one of our top priorities when picking a venue and Four Seasons jumped up to one of our top spots.  One main reason was because of Steve’s excellent service and two because of the competitive rates for the reception and ceremony area.  Oh yes, and it definitely helped that they were offering 3 complimentary (YES! FREE!!!) nights at the Four Seasons in Bora Bora, Whistler or The Lodget at Koele on Lanai.  This bonus was definitely the best perk I’ve seen offered with any wedding package.

Here’s the lowdown:

Maximum Capacity: 200 seated guests for reception and ceremony
Site Fees: I received a quote for $3,200 for a summer wedding 6pm-12pm.  This varies depending on time of year and time of day.
Catering: You must use hotel catering with a $18,000 food and beverage minimum.
Address: 2050 University Avenue, East Palo Alto, CA 94303
Phone Number: (650) 566-1200
Website: FourSeasons.com

The Good: Very convenient and easy to find – its right off the 101.  Clean, new, modern decor on the inside and nice spacious rooms and bathrooms if you have overnight guests.  Did I mention excellent service and super friendly staff?  Competitive wedding packages.  Awesome promotion – a 3 free night stay in luxurious accommodations in your choice of Bora Bora, Whistler or Hawaii.  Wedding package includes a complimentary executive suite for Bride and Groom on wedding night.  Easy & convenient parking.

The Not-So Good: If you really want a view, this isn’t the place for you.   The hotel serves a lot of business travelers and it shows (this could be a plus since weekend rates could cost less??).  The ballroom looks like a conference room plus there are no views or windows.  I did see a few pictures of previous weddings they had in that ballroom and they did an AMAZING transformation of the place with lighting, decor and flowers.  It looked beautiful and elegant.  Also, the outdoor ceremony area isn’t ideal since its surrounded by tall business buildings.  If this bothers you (like it did me) then I’d suggest booking a church since there are plenty of beautiful churches nearby.

Pictures:

The ballroom where the reception would take place.  It’s kind of hard to tell what the space would look like for a wedding.  You can ask the catering manager to send you pictures from past weddings and you can see the potential of how beautiful the space can be. I included an image I grabbed from their website which can give you a better idea of what the place would look like with decor, flowers and good lighting.

The bar and lounge area near the restaurant.

Cute little lounge area where guests can get drinks or hang out before the reception.

Pre-function area where you can set up cocktail hour, guest book signing etc. I’ve added an image below which will give you a better idea of what you could do with the area.

Guest room in case guests want to stay over night.

Lawn area where outdoor ceremony takes place.

Cute pool area with cabanas.

Please take this review with a grain of salt.  This is solely based on my one-time personal experience and my photos are not the greatest.  I recommend researching on websites such as WeddingWire.com, ProjectWedding.com and HereComestheGuide.com in addition to any other reviews you find online.

[Photos 1,4,8 and 11 borrowed from Four Seasons.com]