Portofino Bay

SadieGirl412 · May 2010

Hello! I'm new to the boards. Wondering if anyone is getting married at Portofino Bay at Universal?

Theresa626 · May 2010

I'm having my reception there! What can I help you with?

jln555 · May 2010

Can you guys give me a round about idea for what portofino would charge for a sit down 70 person wedding? We may have just had a fall through with our dream venue.

vedika · May 2010

A past knottie got married there last summer and had a wonderful ceremony and great service (she didn't speak too highly of their coordination service - they screwed up quite a few things..it worked out fine in the end because she hired an outside wedding coordinator)..Other than that, she had a beautiful wedding there!

Theresa626 · May 2010

Sure. Be prepared because the price is steep.

The wedding package includes full bar for two hours, wine service with dinner, five butler passed hors d oevres, soup or salad, main entree and dessert option of an elegant plated dessert or a round tired basic wedding cake. Also, champagne toast, white, ivory or mint linens, mirror and votive candle centerpieces, tables and dance floor. The price minimum is 15,000 dollars before gratuity but they waived that for me and lowered it to ten thousand. Entrees start at 125 per person for pesto crusted free range chicken or pennsylvanian farm raised chicken stuffed with asiago cheese and roasted baby artichoke. They have a wide list of cake flavors and fillings you can choose from or a list of fancy plated desserts. Buttercream frosting is included on the cake. If you want extra bar hours, it's eleven dollars per person per hour. Self parking for your guests is ten dollars per car. Gratuity is a mandatory 22%.

I'm having about one hundred guests and the cost for a beef tenderloin entree and five hours of open bar plus the parking, gratuity and tax will be about 205 dollars per person.

Theresa626 · May 2010

You're looking at 11,243 dollars bare minimum for seventy people if you only do two hours of bar plus the hour of wine service with dinner and don't pay for their parking and get the chicken entree. But, I would never ever recommend moving to a cash bar or not paying for their parking.

If you add on two hours of open bar and pay for their parking, the total cost will be more around 13,572$ with tip and tax.

SadieGirl412 · May 2010

Yey, thanks for writing back to me everyone! I have about 75-85 people at my wedding, and so far our costs are far above 11k! Theresa, how has everything been going for you with them? Which ballroom is your reception in?

-Stephanie

Theresa626 · May 2010

So far, everything has been going well. They usually do all the weddings in the Venetian Ballroom and mine will be there as well. Things have been going well. We had our food tasting recently and it was amazing. The food and presentation of it blew me away and their cake was incredible too. I am really looking forward to the food at the wedding. Also, of course, the picture opportunities will be stunning. I think they are a responsible wedding vendor that will take care of you. The only thing I'd warn you about is that absolutely nothing about the Portofino Bay is cheap or even reasonably priced. We wanted to do a gap reception and just to serve everybody a coke was over six dollars per glass of coke! We wanted to stay an extra night in the free room they give you but that is 750$ per night discounted. We thought about adding a gelato cart at the end of the night but they don't permit outside food vendors and they charge ten dollars a person for gelato. The upside is that most of my relatives are very excited to get the discounted rates there. I even have a lot of locals who will be staying in the hotel the night of the wedding so they can go to Universal the next day and not have to wait in any lines. When you stay at the hotel, you get unlimited express pass at Universal. So, I'd say lots of things are wonderful about the Portofino Bay except the price.

SadieGirl412 · May 2010

bumblebee,

So far in my interactions with the hotel, it doesn't seem like they are very negotiable on the food offerings. I wanted to switch from the salad they offered to a caesar salad (not ADD, but switch for a different salad) and they said it would be $9 additional! Per person! When I first began my plans, I had 75 people in my guest count (it has gone up since then) and we were looking at around $20,000 (just for food and drinks, not including the site fee for ceremony or anything else) with food, open bar and taxes. Eep! I hope you are able to talk to them and work out a food offering within your budget! Just so you know, the reception space IS included in the price of the food - there is no additional cost for the space. Hope this helps!

Theresa626 · May 2010

bumbblebee, honestly, when I first went to the Portofino Bay, my budget was 15,000 too and I only had 85 guests. I asked Bonnie straight up if we could do it there for that amount and she said "honestly, no". I took my parents there and they said book it, we'll pay the extra. Then they added on 25 more guests to the guest list after we booked it. So, our costs went up about 5,000 dollars. You're not going to get a buffet for the price range you want. You'll have to do a plated dinner. But, their plated dinners are fabulous and you can offer people a choice if you want ahead of time on the RSVP card. (you still have to pay for the highest priced meal for everyone though so it doesn't save you any money). The cost does include the room but the ceremony site is an extra rental fee.

If you want to have your reception there for 15,000, you're going to have to cut your guest list. I doubt they will lower the prices of their food to fit your budget. If there's one thing they're not, it's cheap. They don't really negotiate on prices and everything is expensive. The cheapest package you can get is chicken for 125 per person. my post above details what that includes. After mandatory tax and tip, it comes out to about 160 per person. so you're looking at about 16,000 dollars. But, you'll spend more than that because you need to pay 10 dollars per car for parking and you won't want to go to a cash bar after three hours so you'll have to add on more alcohol too at 11 per person per hour. I'd say that if you add on the alcohol and parking, you would need to have no more than 80 guests in order to meet your budget if you choose the plated chicken. If I were you, I'd try to find a way to cut the guest list or find a cheaper venue.

Theresa626 · May 2010

I'm not sure if they would allow changes at all. I don't get the impression that they do but if they don't have a lot of weddings booked on the date you want, they might be more flexible. They didn't tell me that prices were different for time of year or time of day so I'm not sure that they are. I really suggest that you meet with Bonnie and offer all of your different suggestions for changes and see what she comes up with. If she won't work with you, the lady at the Renaissance Hotel at Sea World is super nice and very flexible and they have a nice ballroom close to a theme park so that could work too.

I'm totally shocked by your friend having a reception at disney for 42 a person. I met with disney before any other vendor. But, they have a very very firm 25,000 dollar minimum expenditure and they don't budge on that. So, even if you get your food costs down, you still have to spend the money elsewhere. I'm also totally shocked that they would give you twenty percent off on a wedding. They were way more inflexible with me than the portofino Bay was and they didn't really work with my budget very much. They seemed to not care which disappointed me because originally my dream wedding would've always been a Disney wedding.

Theresa626 · May 2010

Bonnie's email address is bgarfield@loewshotels.com if you want to contact her. But, I would suggest meeting in person. You might be able to get more out of it then a simple email.

Portofino Bay

Re: Portofino Bay

Choose Another Board

Search Boards