Mission San Juan Capistrano cere & St Regis reception

Posted on: Friday, December 9th, 2011

Well I had the honor of working with Michelle to ensure the vision that her and her mother had created and planned for, came off as planned.  What made this celebration even more heartfelt and special, was that Michelle’s mother passed away before the wedding day and was not physically able to be there, but we know she was there smiling down, don’t we Michelle.

It was a full day for this couple, starting with a cultural ceremony/traditions in another city at a home early morning, then heading to the St Regis to get ready for the ceremony at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, a grand  cathedral style church that we just don’t have enough of anymore.  Then they had time in between the ceremony and the Reception/dinner start time at the St Regis, to come back, have lots of photos taken around the grounds of the hotel, go to their room and have a nice meal, then join their guests at cocktails and just party the night away.

We always enjoy a wedding event using the Pacific Ballroom at the St Regis, your guests enter through down the icon ‘rotunda staircase’ or if they use the elevator still walk through the rotunda and do a wow when they see the staircase/ceiling.  You feel quite separate from the rest of the hotel even though you are in the main building, and even though there are small meeting rooms close by the restrooms seem to be there just for your event.  There are two balconies,  one overlooks the ceremony site where if you get married there guests can watch your after ceremony photos being taken from during cocktails, and the other is a great area to open up during the event for cigars/lounging/crepe stations etc, it looks right into the ballroom so guests can be outside and see what is going on and not feel like they have ‘left’ the event.

For Michelle’s celebration brown linens and candles, along with white florals, created a really beautiful atmosphere.  There were lots of gasps from the guests when they entered the ballroom and saw it for the first time.

My bride & groom were the very last to leave their reception.  In fact they didn’t want to leave and sat out in the foyer for a long time  just chatting with me, until I told them they had way more important business to be handling instead of  hanging with me!!!  Finally they got the hint.  LOL.

As always Fusion Linens did what we needed them to do/provide at the designated times and did their job professionally from setup to tear down at the end.  So many linen/chair/rental companies give a bride a basic quote in order to get the business/deposit paid then the poor bride finds out there is a setup charge to have rental company put out ‘their’ items, extra fee to have it delivered and setup within a certain time frame/window (limited setup time is very normal, hotels should be using their rooms twice a day unless you are paying a hefty fee to have exclusivity where you are celebrating), same night pickup fee (very important, if anything is missing/damaged before they pick it up – and most hotels do not have/provide storage due to liability issues, you are going to be charged anyway, so pay for the same night pickup fee and there will be no issue), and this year we all came across a company that even charged to have their own guys stack their own chairs before they took them away.  Hotels don’t stack rental chairs, so be careful.  None of these suprises ever with Fusion.  Also, always nice to see and work with Jim Vita/guitarist (so many of my brides booked him this year for cocktail or cere music), and Peter/Vive Entertainment providing his always fab djing style, I am so lucky to get to work with him so often, thank you brides for letting  me guide you to the right people to create the wedding you want with the least frustration.    But I digress, back to Michelle’s wedding …..

Such a lovely dad, parents, group of family and friends, and a really lovely couple who had put a lot of thought and love into everything that was a part of their celebration.  Thanks to Michelle for getting me these photos to post.

And of course, it goes without saying but I will, thanks to the great team at the St Regis both in the sales/catering dept and on the floor with the banquet captain and servers & beverage team.  Always a pleasure to drive to the hotel knowing everything will be flawless and we all enjoy working together so much and as a team, which in turn shows to the guests and maximises their experience at the celebration.

Till next time

Lisa

www.lisasimpsonweddings.com

714 305 7112

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