Mara, quick question...

[Kim N]

Mara, in a thread last week, you described your engagement party location, and it sounds exactly what I was looking for for my wedding. I would love to have mine at an outdoor courtyard that looks as you described. It sounds lovely and as if it wouldn''t need much decoration at all, and it sounds affordable. Could you share the name and location of the hotel? Also, how many people did they accommodate for your party?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mara]

Date: 1/29/2007 12:54:06 PM
Author:Kim N

Mara, in a thread last week, you described your engagement party location, and it sounds exactly what I was looking for for my wedding. I would love to have mine at an outdoor courtyard that looks as you described. It sounds lovely and as if it wouldn''t need much decoration at all, and it sounds affordable. Could you share the name and location of the hotel? Also, how many people did they accommodate for your party?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Kim...

We had our engagement party at the Hotel De Anza...in San Jose. I actually have a bunch of pictures online that I can post for you from our party...I just have to go dig them out. We didn''t have to do anything for decoration, the hotel did everything and had everything...it was pretty simple but beautiful. Honestly it would have made a fabulous ''small'' wedding !

Their outdoor courtyard can accommodate a lot more than we had, but we only had like 35. The event planner was super helpful and sweet, I don''t recall her name but it was a few years ago so who knows if she is even still there, we rented it for I think 4-5 hours on a Sunday afternoon. Honestly I don''t know how much they ''jack up'' the price for weddings since it seems like that is always what happens, but if you stuck with a Sunday or similar you''d probably be able to minimize costs. The cool thing also is that this outdoor courtyard opens up into their bar/lounge area of the hotel which they could probably close off for your event....they didn''t for ours but it was totally not crowded at all, we saw like 2 people who were not part of our party in there. So people could float between the indoor bar/lounge area and the outdoor courtyard setup. It was pretty cool.

http://www.hoteldeanza.com/meetings.asp#palm
The Palm Court Terrace is seen at the bottom there, that''s the outdoor courtyard.

Here''s another link...La Pastaia is their onsite restaurant (fabulous) and I think they do the catering for the events there.
http://www.lapastaia.com/catering/rooms.html

Anyhow hope this helps. I will go dig out a few pictures of us at our party and post them for you!!

The other suggestion if you are considering an outdoor venue that is kind of different is Zibbibo in Palo Alto, we go there for dinner and they have this great outdoor terraced courtyard...depending on how large your event is you could rent it out and maybe supplement with the bar and restaurant area. We considered that too but I think it ended up being a bit more $$ and not really as ''accommodating'' as the hotel was. Working with the hotel was SUPER easy...we only met with the planner once and they arranged everything else over the phone and fax.

 

[Kim N]

Thanks so much for the info and links, Mara! The Hotel de Anza sounds perfect. I especially like that I wouldn''t need to do decorations and that they''re accommodating and easy to work with. I''m looking for a good balance of affordability and least-stress planning.

The indoor bar/lounge area sounds great too. It would give flexibility for what the guests want to do.

I just looked up Zibbibo online as well, and I saw photos of the inside but not the courtyard, so I might just go visit to take a look. I''ll definitely compare prices and accommodations for both places. Do you think either place would be able to accommodate about 100 people? And would they be good locations for both a ceremony and a reception, or just a reception? I''m looking for an all-in-one location if possible.

I''d love to see pictures from your party. Thanks again!!

 

[Mara]

Kim...the website for Hotel De Anza says that the terrace holds up to 170...i think it would depend on how they do it. one thought i had considered while we were there was that you could have the wedding in the terrace area...and then have evereyone move into the lounge area for cocktails and apps, while they set up the reception in the terrace...but not sure if that works for 100 people. but call and ask for sure...they do a ton of events there so they''d know!!

i have a few pictures but most of them just show kind of the same setup as the picture does on that page, let me see if i have anything else.

re: zibbibo, it''s not THAT large....but if you did all fit it IS a restaurant so they could definitely do the wedding in the courtyard then have evereyone move into the restaurant area and close off a room for apps and drinks while they setup the reception kinda thing as well.

 

[Kim N]

Mara, thanks for the idea of having people move to the lounge or restaurant area after the ceremony while they set up for a reception, and thanks for letting me know the 170 capacity of the terrace. I missed that on the website. I''ll check with Zibbibo about its size accommodation. Would you say that either place has noticeably better food than the other? If you have any pictures that show other angles, I''d appreciate seeing them!

 

[Mara]

well zibbibo is a fabulous mediterranean restaurant, we love going there. la pastaia is an italian place that is very good as well. might just depend on what you like...but the buffet was very good food especially considering how well it was priced. we had new years eve dinner at zibbibo, we love their stuff. so i think both are good!