Reception Site Visit: Hilton San Diego Resort (Mission Bay)

This past Saturday, Jon and I had our first Wedding Site visit. We checked out the Hilton San Diego Resort and Spa (Mission Bay). The reason why this place was on the top of my list was because this was where Jon proposed!! That is why I absolutely love this place! The thing is: once you fall in love with a place, it's kinda hard to look anywhere else. But I have to compare it with other venues, so we have a few more places to visit.

The Hilton Mission Bay just completed an $8 million make-over back in May 2008, so this place looks brand new! It's a landmark hotel you can easily see as you drive up and down the I-5 freeway. Since Jon and I were born and raised in San Diego, we definitely wanted a venue that had views of the bay/Pacific Ocean. A large number of our family is from out of town, so want to capture the beauty of San Diego in our reception site.

Jon and I were able to take a look at the International Ballroom and the adjacent Foyer where Cocktail Hour would take place. Can you believe we could easily fill up the entire 9,600 square feet of space the Hilton has to offer?? Yes. Just in case you didn't know, we are expecting about 350 guests. Trust me, there is no way around it...unless we have a destination wedding, but I'll talk more about that later. We read through the menu and had some numbers put together. It was just mind-boggling. My stomach starts to hurt just a little when I think about food and beverage minimums, service charges and adding tax!! But in San Diego, you get what you pay for. Simple as that. I am so impressed with this place. It will always have a special place in our hearts... so that's why I would love to have our wedding reception here. We do have about 2-3 more places to check out. I feel like I'm cheating but it's definitely necessary just to have peace of mind that we are getting the best deal.

I forgot to bring my camera during this visit, so the only pictures I have are from Jon's phone.

Below: Main entrance to the foyer.

Below: We LOVE the space for the cocktail area! Lots of elbow room!

We had a lot of fun visiting the Hilton. It was very informative and now we have a good idea on what to expect when it comes to the reception (especially for 350 people).

A lot of LOVE goes out to Ellen at the Hilton. She is just awesome!! I haven't met any other Catering Directors/Managers (from the Bride-to-be planning perspective) but I sure hope the rest of them are like HER!

{ Thank you, Ellen Saepoff | Director of Catering | Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa }