Hilton Bride Info

Hey all!

 

Our wedding is one month away, at the Hilton, and I just wanted to find out if anyone out there who's gotten married there has any advice or "warnings"? I've read a few posts about the WCs, but so far everything is going fine in that area. We're getting married on the Black Marlin Terrace and having the cocktails and reception on the Blue Marlin Terrace. There will be about 30 people. Any information we should know about is welcome. Here are a few specific questions:

 

1. Can anyone confirm whether 6pm in June is a good time to get married? I looked into it previously, but wondering if anyone's actually done it.

2. Can anyone tell me what direction the Black Marlin Terrace faces at this time of year? Will the sun be directly in front of us? Will we be in the shade?

3. We're having an "On Comsumption" bar. Any tips on this front? I've heard that sometimes this is shady because things end up on your tab that you're pretty sure your guests didn't order. Does anyone have experience in this area at the Hilton?

4. Anything else!!??! So worried I'm going to miss something.

 

Hope everyone's doing great.

 

Kelly

Ooooh, I have lots of advice for you.

 

You will be in the shade. Both terraces are right outside the resort so it's not like you have to walk far towards the beach or anything to get to them. The sun should be going behind you at that point.

 

As for drinks, we went with the open bar. As expensive as it was, we knew we would make out on this end of it. We have VERY HEAVY drinkers and if we paid on consumption, we would be broke. The prices per drink are expensive. One other thing, be sure to tell them NOT to just open wine and pour it unless someone asks for it. I can't remember who it was that said they had that problem, so you may want to make that clear.

 

Also, sign up for Hilton Honors Points and make sure it's in your contract that you'll receive points for the $$ spent on the wedding. This adds up and can then be used for another vacation somewhere. If this is not in your contract, they won't honor it. And make sure whatever name the HH points is in, is who the room is booked under. You'll get points for that too.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hey Jen,

 

Thanks for the post and info on shade/sun. Quick clarification on the drinks, what do you mean about the wine? We'd planned on picking 5 bottles of red and 5 of white for everyone to drink during the night and if they want more they would order a glass. Not sure what you mean about them opening a bottle without someone asking.

 

Also, we DON'T have heavy drinkers (well, maybe one or two), so we figured the open bar would be more than most would drink. What do you think?

 

Thanks again!

Someone (and I can't remember who - I think it may have been Kashmira) said that she was paying for drinks on consumption yet the waiters just went ahead and opened bottles of wine and started pouring glasses for everyone when the guests didn't order it. And the wine wasn't bought ahead of time, it was also included in the "pay on consumption" part.

We paid $89 a person for 6 hours of Premium Open Bar. I know that sounds like a lot but it works out to about $14 a person an hour. I don't remember the drink prices but some drinks were $10 and up. And we knew our friends were going to be dinking more than one drink an hour. They were POUNDING the drinks, shots, you name it. I KNOW it worked in our favor to pay for it this way. Our bill would have been more than double if we paid on comsumption.

Are you at least getting bottled water and soda for free?

Hmmm...I feel safe on the On Consumption, but I'll be sure to confirm that no wine or drinks will be served if they're not ordered.

 

I'd say half of our guests don't drink alcohol period, so I don't think open bar would be best for us.

 

I had not arranged for free soda/water. Should I!?!? What's an easy way to "negotiate" that? Maybe they won't since we're on consumption?

 

Great info, by the way. Thank you for replying.

Just remember, even non-alcoholic drinks are expensive too. Go over the drink price list they gave you and try to get an idea of how many drinks someone will have an hour and compare that to the Open Bar rate. I think there are less expensive open bar options too.

As for the comped bottled water and soda, tell Jaira that you are a member of BDW and that other Hilton brides have said that they had free bottled water and soda included with their dinners. See what she says. One thing about the Hilton, they have all these things they are willing to do for you, but only if you ask for them. The hard part is knowing what to ask for.

We were married their about a year ago, and we had a problem with the wine. They opened many bottles that nobody drank and we had to pay for them. Just double check with them. We paid on consumption and it wasn't too bad. I wish I would have known about the water, we negotiated and brought our own water from Costco. Good luck! They do a fabulous job.