Wedding Venues
 

As I dropped the question late last year to a Bay Area native I am going to be having a wedding in San Francisco around Easter 2009.

Ceremony side will be church based so looking for locations to hold the reception.

We are trying to solicit as much opinion as possible on venues, so if you have been to any weddings recently (or even banquets, large dinners etc), would appreciate comments on food, ambiance etc... We are totally open to Hotels/Not Hotels (although I like the idea of a hotel so we could get miles for the thing ;))

All opinions gratefully received! This will really help us draw up a shortlist for our next visit to check out venues.

First of all, congratulations on the impending nuptials.

I have been to numerous receptions in the City. This list is not comprehensive by any means, but here are a few thoughts.

The Presidio log cabin is a nice spot for a reception: intimate and peaceful with nice views; weather shouldn't be too foggy at Easter. Catering will be up to you. Not suitable for a large gathering but nice for a smaller reception. I like this spot. I got married at Presidio Chapel but was received at the Carnelian room on California St (see below)

I have been to several wedding receptions in the Green Room at San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center. It's centrally located and can host functions from small to big, but the venue doesn't thrill me. Little ambience IMO.

The Carnelian Room (top of the BoA building) has (or at least tries to have--and for the most part succeeds) an upscale ambience and the views are truly magnificent sans fog (again likely to be ok at Easter). The food is ok, but not great. I think this spot is nice for a day reception/luncheon; less ideal for an evening reception IMO. This is a pretty common reception spot also.

I've never been to a wedding reception at the Hyatt Embarcadero although I've hosted a couple of big meetings there so I've used their catering and venues. It's not unusual to see receptions taking place there. Their food is pretty good and the location is prime; pricey and bustling atmosphere; not what I'd want for my wedding reception but YMMV--nothing wrong with the venue.

I've been to one reception at the SF MOMA (museum of modern art) downtown; catering is up to you there but the location is fun and funky.

I've seen one reception taking place on the safari deck at the zoo. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a very serious animal lover. It's way out in the avenues so the weather can be blustery and awful even when its nice in other regions on the western side--besides, a tiger or polar bear might eat you.

There are many other spots in restaurants and hotels in the Union Square area as well as other parts of the city. Give a few more details on size, price, day/night, alcohol or no; full meal or hors d'oeuvres, and maybe we can give a few more refined suggestions.

Congrats as well. A handful of key questions...

1. how many guests are you expecting
2. if you feel free posting, what sort of budgetary constraints are you working with, if any (inexpensive? break the bank? what do I care, I'm not paying? etc)
3. what's important to you about the reception spot (view, bringing in your own caterer, location, close to wedding spot, must be in SF, or surroundings areas ok? etc).

Mrs. HSaxa and I got married in SF, and we were blown away by the reception costs (and we live here!). We used Here Comes The Guide as our universe of possible locations and narrowed down from there.

http://www.herecomestheguide.com/loc.../San-Francisco

We visited tons of places, but it wasn't until we decided on the key criteria, that we were able to narrow it down. (FYI, our key criteria in rough order... 100 people, relatively inexpensive, bring in our own catering and wine/bubbly selection, play loud music and dance until 1am, in the City.)

There are literally hundreds of spots, so fixing some guideposts will be helpful for everyone involved. Best of luck!

Thanks for the good wishes guys.

OK...

Numbers should be around 110.

Location should be the city..

Looking for a 3 course dinner starting around 5pm with beer/wine service till maybe 11. DJ/Band will be in the mix I am sure.

We are open to both options but I wonder if the hotel option will be less stress given we are going to be running the show remotely a lot of the time so to speak...

Budget is still being framed but 20-30K USD is a rough idea.

Other half spends her nights on herecomestheguide.com etc as well, I prefer to spend my night on flyertalk.com though ;) But this way I am still researching :)

I think you're on to something important here. Hotels have experience with this sort of thing. It might be more difficult to put a reception together remotely using a location with less experience in this.

That said, I've been to a beautiful reception out at the Leigion of Honor. I would also consider City Hall, if it's available for that sort of thing.

Palm Court
 

Been to several BIG affairs at the Palm Court at the Palace

on lower Market Street and they were FABULOUS

Likely to be big bucks but FABULOUS

It might be tough to pull all of that off for 250 bucks a head; I'm not saying impossible, but it could be tight.

How about the Legion of Honor? I've seen a couple wedding receptions take place there. Very unique, easy parking!

And of course, the mother of all wedding sites, The Knot (Northern California edition). This has all the venues you can handle. Mrs. Par8thed is a big fan.

there's a consortium of SF restaurants with private dining
 

for parties, weddings..

http://www.sfpdv.com/view_all_rooms.html

of these places I have been to several and can HIGHLY recommend the City Club - gorgeous room, exquisite California cuisine and extremely attentive to detail. Probably the priciest of the lot but worth it - amazing building, Diego Rivera murals..true San Francisco

I can also highly recommend Absinthe if you want to do a buyout - great food and lovely room, excellent wine list.Contact Vanessa there if you are interested.

and Cosmopolitan Cafe - probably the most "California cuisine" i.e. inventive dishes with fresh organic/local ingredients. not the most romantic place but with a private room I think they'd do very well.

If you're thinking of hotels the Parc 55 on Powell/Market has a great catering department, very friendly and helpful and very good food. The hotel has recently been revamped so even the rooms are nice.\

Re the Green Room at War memorial - I concur , it's not exciting, no ambiance and you have to find your own caterer. I was just at event there and it felt like a High School gym...

Congratulations!

There's also the morgue....sorry....j/k...happily married here and wish you all the greatest!

In all honesty, the Intercontinental Hotel is magnificent as well. Just another option among many...

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/1/en/hotel/sfoha

The City Club would be a fantastic venue! ^^

Thanks for all the help and suggestions, the other half is even reading the thread (her first time on flyertalk)..

Please keep more coming though and I will let you know how our review process is going..

Our friends and family still talk about how amazing it was to rent out Greens Restaurant, and that was over 12 years ago.

http://www.greensrestaurant.com/events.html
http://www.greensrestaurant.com/

Greens is great location and views
 

but the food has been up and down a bit in recent years

also FYI it is a vegetarian restaurant if that matters.

My mother, who lives in Wisconsin, was concerned about that. "Vegetarian?" she questioned, "there are lots of Midwesterners coming in for this!" She tried to offset the damage by having steak for the rehearsal dinner at the Carnelian Room. http://carnelianroom.com/dining.asp