California-Orange County

what are your reviews on memories?

I have a very small wedding budget, and I want to know what your reviews are on memories? Do you have to use their catering? If  your having a wedding there let me know how much it cost and any pointers in booking this venue. I don't want to spend anymore than 4000, please give me advice.

If you have anymore ideas on wedding venues for less than $5000 please let me know. We want a dj and good food nothing else really matters.

Re: what are your reviews on memories?

  • edited December 2011
    We have not gotten married there yet, but our good friend has (she got married before our friendship started, so I  didn't get the opportunity to go to her wedding).
    I have booked/given the deposit for our November wedding and I'm super excited.
    If you have a chance, go check out the venue. The downstairs isn't that great, but the upstairs is awesome. It has a great vintage/swing vibe and TONS of character!
    Pros:
    Very inexpensive. We are doing the Mexican buffet. They make everything from scratch in their kitchen! For 100 people on a Friday night (wich cut the cost of renting the hall in half!), we are paying about $3200. We opted to pay the $2 per person for unlimited soda and $2 per person for champagne toast.
    John, the owner, is super easy to work with.
    The womens restroom can double as a place to get ready. It has a nice vintage lounge area that is seperated by a shoji screen -esq divider.
    It is located in a neat are of uptown whittier (great for artistic wedding pictures).

    Cons:
    They wanted to charge us a $2 per person cake cutting fee. This was to have their chef come out and "professionally cut" our cake and serve it on their plates using their utensils. It we wanted to have "Aunt Sally" cut the cake, we would have had to provide our own plates and untensils for the cake. We decided to just go with cupcakes. They're super cute and we don't have to pay extra to serve them to our guests! :)
    You have to pay $100 for the security gaurd to stand at the entrance of the hall. It's in a "bar-hopping" area of uptown Whittier and the security guard is their to make sure that random people don't come into your reception.
    For me, one of the cons was having the ceremony and reception in the same room. I got over it and just figured that this was the way it had to be. In the end, it doesn't seem so bad.

    Some things to consider if you decided to use Memories is that you can definitely talk them down in price on some things... especially linens. On thier website it says that the linen rental is for up to 200 people or so. We are only going to have around 100 guests, so I asked John to cut down the price of linens and he took $200 off.

    Our friend who got married here a few years ago said that it was a great experience and that she wouldn't have had it any other way! She also said that the food and service were great.

    Bottom line, I would just go in and have John give you a tour of the venue and see for yourself if this is the right place for you.

    Hope this helps a bit! :)
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