| Product: |
Hilton Dundee |
| Date: |
10/06/08 (38 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fabulous service
Disadvantages: Having to leave!
==The Planning==
What we were looking for...
When making plans for our wedding, we were looking for a venue that would fit into our tight budget. We did not want to go overboard with our wedding, and were cutting back everywhere we could - within reason. I visited the websites for all the local hotels among other venues, and thought I may as well fill in the form on the Hilton website - never imagining that it would ever fir in with our budget - how wrong I was. I very nearly didn't fill in the form - I'm so glad I did.
The Hiltons Reply...
A few days after filling in the form I received a phone call from one of the events organisers at the Hilton, who was lovely, and went through the details on the form to check she had got it right - the form is American and is a bit confusing. She sent out their wedding information pack for us to view and told us to come down for a visit.
The Information Pack...
This was well laid out, with information on prices, meals, drinks packages, evening buffets, and all the extras you could ask for. We were very impressed with the prices, being the cheapest hotel for meals, the meal packages started at £19.50 per head (very reasonable). There were also special deals available, for instance if you were looking for a Friday wedding and were having more than 50 day guests, you could get 20% discount on the meals, a Sunday wedding with over 20 guests would give you a 10% discount, both of these packages also included an overnight stay at the hotel for the bride and groom. They cater for wedding parties from just 4 -500 guests. Complimentary accommodation for the bride and groom are offered on all weddings with over 50 guests. So they can cater for all sorts of wedding, to suit all tastes.
The ceremony can also be held at the hotel for a fee of £100 (under 50 people) or £250 (over 50 guests).
Our First Visit..
I was very keen on this venue, it ticked all the right boxes from what I could gather from the information pack, so we organised a visit. My mum and I went and met with one of the events co-ordinators, and discussed our requirements over a lovely coffee and biscuit (complimentary). We were then shown round the Earl Grey Suite (where our wedding would be held), this is really quite ingenious - it is a very large room that has room dividers to allow it to be split into 4 sections. The far end has windows along one wall - this is where the ceremony would be held, it's lovely with lots of natural light. This would then be opened up to incorporate the next section of the suite for the reception. The whole suite (or 3 sections depending on numbers) could then be opened up for the evening reception.
We were also shown one of the rooms, over looking the Tay and newly refurbished, for an extra £100 we could upgrade to the MacDonald Suite.
The Decision...
It wasn't difficult, we were sold! The venue inside is lovely, there are beautiful views over the Tay where photos could be taken. We paid the £200 deposit (that was in October) and got planning the rest of the wedding.
The Co-ordinators
They were fantastic, phone calls and emails were going back and forward regularly particularly towards the end, I also went back down to the hotel several times to discuss the fine details. I kept adding and changing details, but here was never a problem, they were very accommodating to all my needs. The set menu for the cheapest was not perfect for us, so we were given a list of options and were able to choose from this, it was then re-costed (although it stayed the same price for us). We were also able to choose from a lovely selection of children's meals for the kids that were coming to the wedding. We went for a menu tasting (free for the bride and groom and 50% discount for others (up to 10)), the meal was lovely!
The Day
The ceremony ran very smoothly and some of my senior girls that I teach dancing to had organised a guard of honour for us leaving the ceremony - lovely surprise. The senior co-ordinator and an assistant were on hand the whole day catering for all our needs. In addition to this she acted as toast master, and made a superb job of it. The venue was laid out exactly as I had specified with my balloon table decorations and confetti, it was perfect. The rooms were very quickly transformed at each stage of the day, the staff were all brilliant, and perfectly co-ordinated when serving the meals. The meals were fantastic, many of our guests commented on how nice the meals was.
Again, after the meal the room was once more quickly transformed into the evening venue and the ceilidh was ready to start, the buffet was wonderful (again it was the cheapest choice), and more guests commented on how nice it was. During the whole day the staff took care of all our gifts and cards, delivering them to our room which I found to be a lovely touch.
My new husband had booked the MacDonald Suite as a surprise for me, when we went up to the room all our gifts had been laid out, there were flowers and gifts all nicely placed in the room.
The Room
Wow!!!
The suite had fantastic panoramic views across the Tay, The bedroom even had a telescope so you could get a really good view!! The bed was huge, and very comfortable, with lovely crisp white cotton bed linen. The bathroom had a huge corner bath, 2 sinks, bidet, and toilet (I think the bathroom was bigger than our sitting room at home!), there were lovely toiletries available and fresh white towels. The sitting room again had views across the river, TV, internet access, and playstation. In addition there was a full sized fridge, iron and ironing board (although there was no way I was going to make use of them!).
The Breakfast
It was a buffet breakfast, a huge selection of cereals, fresh fruit, yoghurt, cheese, cold meats, rolls, fruit juice, coffee, tea, toast, cooked breakfast items including bacon, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, sausages, potato scones, tomatoes, beans, in fact most things you could want. We had several helpings, at one point while dishing up some of my breakfast I spoke to the chef, who was lovely (like all the staff) after sitting back down he came over and wished us luck on our future, our wedding co-ordinator was back in while we were at breakfast which was lovely.
My Opinion
We had a fantastic day, I know that many aspects of the day were definitely down to the work by the hotel staff, I really cannot thank them enough! The prices were fantastic for the wonderful meal, the only thing I would say about the prices - the bar prices were very high (like most hotels) and the bar staff unlike the waiting staff were not the best. I was impressed by the smooth running of the whole day, and would definitely recommend the Hilton for any event. :o)
(c) Catw0man 2008
Summary: A great wedding day, with lots of help from the great staff
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Last comment:
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senga53 - 10/06/08 Sounds wonderful - hope you are both very happy together........ |
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