Please note: all prices are as of late 1999/early 2000 and have probably increased since.

Site and Catering ~ DJ ~ Photography ~ Flowers ~ Cake ~ Invitations ~ Bride's Gown ~ Groom's Tartan ~ Limo ~ String Quartet ~ Tablecloths

• The Corinthian Room is a huge ballroom with soaring ceilings, dark wood contrasted with pale marble everywhere, and tiny white-light covered palm trees.
• The Cocktail Lounge is spacious and has with a long wood bar and huge marble fireplace.
• The Gold/Silver/Bronze Rooms are three rather plain, hotel-style conference rooms that can be connected into one long narrow room.

Room rental price was $1500 for both the Corinthian Room and the Gold/Silver/Bronze Room, and there was a $500 fee for wedding ceremony setup. A large room on the second level was also made available for the wedding party to dress, store stuff, etc. (there may be two rooms available, if you want the men and women separated, but it wasn't necessary for us).

The club required that all catering and beverages be done in-house. We didn't get a tasting until October (we booked in March, a year before our wedding), but everything was fabulous. Very tasty food, presented beautifully. I still dream of the lime cream pesto sauce! Their menu had lots of vegetarian options (not necessarily vegan though), which was very important for us as many of our friends don't eat meat. A pleasing amount of variety on the menu too.

Meal prices were around $34 per person, which included appetizers (both displayed and passed by staff), salads, two entrees, pasta bar with two sauces, and breads, all presented buffet-style. Plated meals are priced per course and seem to be just a wee bit more expensive. A beverage package including sodas, wine, beer, and champagne served throughout the event was about $17 per person. Their house wines were quite nice, but it is possible to request specific labels.

We dealt with four different catering representatives during the year between when we first visited the place and the wedding. We adored the first person, Luke, and were pretty disappointed when he moved to their other property. The second person, Adrianna, was a clueless assistant, and after a couple frustrating phone calls, we asked to deal with the catering manager only. The manager was okay, but a little too stuck on the "traditional" ways of doing things. Finally, about two months before the wedding, she left and the new catering director, Kevin, took over. He was very professional and handled all our unusual requests with aplomb.

The rest of the staff on our wedding day was excellent. Everyone was very courteous and efficient. Only two relatively minor complaints -- Kevin allowed a group of people to look at our wedding setup that morning, and these people got in the way of our pictures and were a nuisance until we yelled at them to leave. We weren't warned that this would happen. Also, we told the staff we did not want to save the top layer of the wedding cake. We wanted it served to our guests. I even reminded the staff right after our cake cutting -- don't save the top layer! But they did anyways.

Other than those pretty trivial issues, the staff was great. They set up everything to our exacting specifications. The place looked amazingly beautiful, and we had a fabulous time! Highly recommended. (See also our menu page, plus photos of the Capital Club around the site.)

At the wedding, he announced our entry and gave instructions to the guests about the buffet (everyone was to remain seated until Capital Club staff released tables one by one). His introductions of everything (toasts, cake cutting) were simple and direct, no cheese or chattiness what so ever. He'll make sure to do everything in a way that fits your style, and he doesn't dominate a wedding like some MCs do.

We got massive raves about the dance music! The dance floor was always busy, which is the highest praise any DJ can get, IMO. He played most everything on our request list, did the dedications we'd asked, and took requests from guests (he even ran a few of the potentially downer music requests by us, since we'd said everything should have a positive mood). People loved the music and danced like crazy. Raffi really knows how to get a crowd on it's feet. Super-mega-ultra highly recommended! (See also our reception music page.)

Her prices were based on time spent, and she guaranteed a minimum number of photos per time block. We booked her for eight hours (at a cost of $2400 total), which guaranteed us 300 pictures -- she ended up taking nearly 600! We did the formal pictures before the ceremony, then Erica roamed the reception snapping pictures left and right. The only time I saw her stop moving was when we were all eating (including Erica and her assistant). She had no problem with other people taking pictures too, and she let people take pictures she'd set up and even took pictures for people with their cameras or our disposable cameras.

Exactly one month after the wedding, we received our proof books. These contained 5x5 prints of all the formal, posed pictures and 4x6 prints of all the other photos she took at our entire wedding. The 5x5 prints were in a small boxed album, and 4x6s were in three lovely albums. These were ours to keep, included in the original fees we paid her. If we wanted enlargements or an album, those were priced separately. Her enlargement prices were about a third less than that of the other three photographers we looked at. On our one-year anniversary, we could buy the negatives from our wedding (which we did).

The actual pictures are breath-taking! There were shots that we both teared up just looking at. These are *such* beautiful pictures, they're everything we wanted. Erica really is a master at capturing little details -- the pictures of our wedding props (the rings on our hands, the bouquets, Thomas' cane, the programs, the table cards, etc.) are straight out of the most artsy Martha Stewart magazine layout. The pictures of us together are this fabulous combination of dramatic, artistic lighting, and tender emotions bubbling over. So many pictures were framed wonderfully, making great use of the Capital Club's dramatic columns, stairs, and other architecture. We are really, really happy with our photos!

It was very hard to pick out ones for enlargements and copies -- so hard, it took us over a year to do it! And even though it took forever to get our order in, Erica handled it all happily and efficiently. Even nearly two years later, she was thrilled to be working with us. We can't recommend Erica highly enough!!! (See also our ceremony photo and reception photo pages.)

• 1 bride's bouquet of dark red Cara Mia roses, surrounded by dark green galax leaves, tied with ivory ribbon. Not a hand-tied bouquet (flowers were wired into an oasis-filled plastic bouquet holder), but had the look of one. Medium-size, tight nosegay style.

• 3 brideswomen bouquets of the same flowers and leaves as bride's bouquet, tied with burgundy ribbon. Smaller, tight nosegay style.

• 1 groom's boutonniere of two dark red Cara Mia roses with a touch of baby's breath and fern.

• 3 groomsmen boutonnieres, one rose each.

• Ceremony room decorations consisting of two wood lattice screens decorated with white tulle, dark green ivy tendrils, dark red roses, and silver beads, plus two faux-marble pillars holding giant live ferns.

• Setup of aisle bows made by me.

• Reception table centerpiece flowers and setup. We provided six pillar candles and one taper candle, plus holders, for each table. Marilyn surrounded the base of the candles with greenery, roses, and silver leaves (the latter were a surprise touch she added, and it looked fabulous!).

• Head table decorations. She provided clips to hold three of the bouquets to the edge of the table and draped a greenery and rose garland along the edge. The Capital Club staff put the remaining bouquet on the cake table.

All the additional things she added -- like all the dramatic silver touches -- made everything look extra wonderful. She doesn't do trendy flowers; her style is very traditional, but she's very open to new ideas. Plus, she's a really nice person who takes a genuine interest in the weddings she works on. Highly recommended! (See also our flowers, ceremony decor, and reception decor pages.)

My family has gotten Prolific Oven cakes for birthdays and other special-occasion cakes for probably 20 years and counting. My mom and stepdad got their wedding cakes from Prolific Oven (a lemon-poppyseed bridal cake and a dark chocolate groom's cake; the latter disappeared withing seconds of being sliced!). We love the Prolific Oven! Their cakes are truly delicious, always moist, and beautiful to look at. All their frostings are dark chocolate, cream cheese, or buttercream based. And nobody does better chocolate cakes!

Our wedding cake was a three-tier, double-chocolate confection decked with deep red roses. The cost was $3.50 per serving, which included the fresh flower decorations, champagne glasses between tiers, and delivery and setup. Service was excellent, and the cake tasted and looked divine. Not a piece was left over, except the top tier (which I didn't want saved -- see above. Because it did get saved, we gave it to my mom since we knew she'd happily devour it ;-). Because the Prolific Oven is also a coffeehouse, you can go in anytime for a tasting, and we'll have to get mini cakes there for future anniversaries. Very highly recommended! (See also our cake page.)

A different driver picked us up at the airport after the honeymoon. We had the same type of limo, but this time they gave us a bottle of Asti Spumante and a long-stemmed red rose. Thomas said he did not request this, but it was a really great touch!

The price for the service was very reasonable -- the least expensive price we found for a stretch limo for just an airport trip. Other limo companies either wanted to charge the same for a Lincoln Town Car (which we really did not want), or they wanted to charge double. C&C was great and worth the price. Recommended!

However, after the honeymoon, we watched the videotape of the ceremony, which included all of the prelude music. We were *not* impressed. The quartet was sometimes out of tune or missed notes entirely. No, it wasn't due to the quality of our video camera either -- voices and the pre-recorded part of the processional played off of CD sounded fine. The quartet's mistakes were obvious even to me, and I'm not that picky about music. It just about killed Thomas to hear them murdering his beautiful compositions!

I thought it might be because they're not used to paying new works. They'd probably played traditional wedding music tons of times, but hadn't practiced these three new pieces enough. But then we heard the rest of the recessional, which was Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik -- hardly an unfamiliar piece, yet they still mucked it up (at least they saved their worst for *after* most people had left the ceremony room).

Of the total 30 minutes of music, maybe half of it was good. The rest was fair to extremely average. We could have gotten the same quality for half the price from SJSU student musicians (which was our first idea, but then Thomas wanted to hear his work performed by pros). Not recommended. (See also our ceremony music page.)

The linens themselves were excellent and really made the look of the reception. The Capital Club had no complaints about the linens delivery or pickup either. But I did not enjoy working with Linens Express and would not recommend them. (See also our reception decor page.)