Beth
Wedding: 7/23/11
My husband and I chose Mountain View Grand for our wedding because the location is unbelievable. The hotel is so romantic and the views are incredible. We had our ceremony on the overlook lawn and it was spectacular. Then we had the reception in the presidential ballroom which was also very nice. The foyer area is a very large space and the guests can have their cocktail hour on the deck outside. They also opened the doors after the sun went down (our wedding was in July) and many of the men enjoyed cigars out there.
Overall, we had a great wedding; however, it was not easy to work with our wedding coordinator. We had Angela, and she had a snooty personality and was very rigid and at times unprofessional. Her answer to every question we asked her was "for an extra charge." And the extra charges didn't seem reasonable to us...if they were, we would have gladly accepted them. For example, in order to rent out the club house for our rehearsal dinner, she wanted to charge us a room fee of $1500. We asked her to waive this fee several times but she refused. Our view was that we had a budget that we knew we were going to spend, but we didn't want to spend it on a room fee, we wanted to spend it on food and alcohol. If Angela was a little more flexible on the room fee, they would have received our business. Instead, we ended up taking our money to a restaurant (Bailiwicks) in Littleton because they didn't charge us at all to rent out their place and Mountain View didn't get any money from us that night.
It got to the point where Angela's inflexibility was the only part of the wedding that was stressing us out (it's supposed to be the complete opposite!) So we decided to talk to Angela's boss and ask for a new wedding coordinator. She was very nice and listened to us explain that we felt like we were constantly being nickel-and-dimed. Her boss assured us that that is not how they run a business and Angela should be clearly explaining why each fee is the amount that it is (and the work involved) so that we are clear on the value we are getting from that fee. However, she did admit that Angela should have waived the clubhouse fee as soon as we became persistent about it. She said that if we stuck it out with Angela, this behavior would not continue.
After that, Angela seemed a little more flexible about working out the details and was better about explaining the fees. But she regularly answered private calls on her cell phone during meetings which I'm pretty sure is completely unprofessional to everyone in America. Then she told me a story about one couple she previously worked with that somehow had their entree numbers completely switched (the number of beef entrees and fish entrees was reversed) but insisted that it wasn't her fault and the groom messed up. Why she was telling a future bride that story I cannot say but it definitely didn't ease my mind about how well she could handle her job...and to blame it on the groom is also unprofessional. (Mind you, these two happened AFTER our conversation with her boss).
The good news is that we were one of the last weddings that Angela coordinated, and she has since left Mountain View. Her replacements were at my wedding (two ladies who I'd say were probably in their mid-20s) and seemed excited to share in my wedding and eager to take on their new job. When Angela mentioned an hour before our rehearsal that our seating cards had to be arranged in alphabetical order and that she wouldn't do it, my bridesmaids and I began to panic because we didn't have time to do that and get ready. However, when my sister went back to the ballroom, Angela's replacements had already done it for her. To me, that is exactly what a wedding coordinator should do: take care of those little details so that the bride is NOT stressed. And from what I saw, future brides will not have to worry if they have these two replacements.
Finally, I must say that despite Angela's lack of professionalism, it did not get to us on the day of the wedding. We had an amazing day and our guests are still talking about how amazing this resort is and what a wonderful time they had. Also, I would have to say that going through the stress with Angela was actually worth it because the resort is just that amazing. I hoped this helped and let me know if you have any questions.
HarperWalker
Wedding: 7/16/11
We just our wedding at the MVG in July, and it was amazing! Angela Poulin, our coordinator, did a fantastic job with every aspect. Not a single complaint; thank you MVG for making our day so special!
ecasey
Wedding: 5/9/11
We had a perfect wedding at a perfect place! It is such a beautiful location, it's hard to not want to get married here! We booked the venue two years in advance, so the wedding planners did change throughout the planning process, which wasn't great, but our planner we had the last year (Rachel!) was FANTASTIC! She was so sweet and worked so hard to make everything just the way we wanted. The downfall for guests is that it has a two night minimum in the summer months, so it was hard for people to afford to come for the whole weekend. A number of guests stayed at other accommodations and just came to the wedding. We did have a number of one night rooms for the wedding party, but it would be helpful if they did not have the 2 night minimum. The rooms are pricey anyways, and it is an old hotel so they are not anything fancy, but clean and comfortable. The staff was very helpful, especially the kitchen staff during the reception and cocktail hour, they were so nice, very friendly! The reservations desk was a little disorganized, we were told a few different things from different people, so it made it confusing when it came to the end when we had to check out. But they were polite and tried their best to help us out. The staff at the clubhouse were fantastic as well, they kept it open wayyy past the normal hours on the night of our rehearsal dinner for all of our guests and we had a great time! One thing I did not like was that we never even got to experience the spa because the other bride getting married that weekend booked all of the spa appointments, so we had to go elsewhere for mani/pedis and bring in an outside vendor for hair. I am not sure why if they have two brides getting married the same weekend, they cannot accommodate two brides in the spa. All in all, great weekend, great venue, great staff made our wedding perfect!
Review for DJ service: We had our DJ through the Mountain View Grand, Joey Bertin. He is a great musician, plays acoustic guitar and has an impressive resume including Berkley School of Music. They gave us a great deal to have the in-house DJ, so we couldn't pass it up. He played the acoustic guitar for our rehearsal dinner which was a great touch. We were a little disappointed in the actual DJ service he provided for the reception, however. We gave him a list of songs we wanted played for both dinner and dancing, and he said he would play a few of the songs at dinner on the guitar, which we agreed would be nice during dinner to switch it up a bit. But he ended up played during the whole dinner on the guitar, so we didn't get to hear any of the songs we wanted to hear actually played. Also during the dancing he played a "game" where all the couples dance and get eliminated by anniversary, and the last couple standing gives us advice on a good marriage. I guess this could be a cute idea, but we had not discussed doing this at all and it was something we really did not want to do. It was boring and took way too long (two whole songs!) and was just really not our style. Really wish they had asked us if we wanted to do anything like that before just doing it. Otherwise, he did a good job with the announcements and playing requests from the guests. So I guess for DJ service I would rate a 2.5 or 3 out of 5, and if I could do it again I would probably have picked a bigger DJ company like Main Event or Peak DJ.
Leah
Wedding: 9/24/10
We had our wedding here in september and all I can say is everyone was amazing. We had Lisa Tetreault as our planner from the resort and anything we wanted she made come true for us.
haileygirl and Benjamin
Wedding: 5/22/10
We had the wedding of our dreams! The setting was absolutely beautiful, the food was delicious, there were tons of activities on site for our guests, the staff was wonderful...we just can't say enough about the MVG and would highly recommend it for anyone looking for a fairytale wedding that will keep your friends and family talking for weeks!
Vanessa
Wedding: 2/13/10
I had a private wedding at the Mountain View Grand, which at most big hotels is not possible!! (you must have a minimum amount of guests). Lisa Tetreult was my coordinator and she was so wonderful, she gave us a little room with a great view that isn't even typically used for weddings, and made sure throughout the day that everything was going smoothly. The view was beautiful (I got married in the winter) and all my guests loved their stay!!
A&K
Wedding: 12/5/09
Our wedding was like a dream come true. We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful day. We felt so blessed to have our wedding in such an amazing venue. Staff was wonderful, hotel is beautiful and food is delicious...
scully71
Wedding: 7/26/08
Everything that I wanted I was given. We had amazing flowers, beautiful decor, great views and awesome food
ehunzy
Wedding: 6/14/08
Everything was wonderful. The director of catering at the MVG is absolutly wonderful, she is there for you the whole process of planning and on the day itself. My wedding day went off without any problems. The entire weekend was fantastic!