Wedding Planning Update #6E - Reception Sites
7) The Wilshire Grand Hotel is my absolute favorite place so far! I loved the luxury of the place. My favorite part was the “side area” of the ballroom, which is a few stairs up to the right, and basically a small intimate area, where people can go talk, but not leave the room.
Again, it was totally inclusive, with the best honeymoon room I’ve seem so far. 
I know it seems silly, but the bathrooms are really important to me. Kris has been teasing me, because I’m sending him pictures of all these places, and there’s always at least a couple of the bathrooms. “There’s the toilet again.” LOL
8) The Highlawn Pavilion has a beautiful view of New York City, which I’m sure all my guests, whether from New Jersey, New England, or California, would enjoy. It also has the prettiest ground I’ve seen so far, and would definately be “The Place” if I was having a ceremony on-site and outdoors.
However, the room is shaped very weirdly (like a “T”), I guess so all your guests can enjoy the view of NYC, along the windows, so it would be hard to get from the corners to the dance floor. But there’s these ugly wood-paneled dividers that aren’t hidden, and the room had a strange “burning” smell to it. Plus, the cocktail hour would be IN the same room, unlike every other place we’ve been to.
Yes, it’s all inclusive, WITH THE EXCEPTION of an overnight room for the bride and groom. 
Additionally, the room is a bit small, better suited to a smaller crowd, with a maximum capacity at just what we think our guest list will be - and at that size it would definately be crowded.
9) The Palace is just that - a palace. I barely took any pictures, except for the entrance, both because my camera ran out of memory, but also because their minumun guarentee and price was a lot higher than we expected. I’m not going to talk too much about the place, because we decided right away that it was just too much. For their price, which was more than every other place we’ve seen, it was NOT all-inclusive, and you would pay extra for things you get everywhere else, like an ice sculpture. I’m defiantely not saying I NEED an ice sculpture, but if it’s already included, and for less money, then what the hell! The room was also set up weird, with two different height ceilings, making for an obvious awkward look. So the last thing I’ll say is that the original email I got was that the pricing would be what she said it was, then I got a later email that said it would be significantly less, and that the date was available. It turned out that the orginal quote was the true price. Now, if they had been honest with their numbers (especially because they checked the date!!!), we wouldn’t have wasted our time and theirs going out there. Definately NOT worth the extra $$$ in my opinion.
10) The Sheraton at Woodbridge Place was our last stop of the evening. We didn’t actually go for an appointment, but for a bridal show. Once again, all inclusive, but this time a bit too large for us. We got some information, and it was a reasonable price, but decided against making an appointment. See next post for the bridal show.
