My name is Steven Jackson. I’m the Director of Catering and Sales here at the Ritz-Carlton at Marina Del Ray. The biggest part of my job is really selling the wedding market, overseeing a big sales department to really kind of sell the uniqueness and style of the hotel.
The hotel is actually situated in the West Hollywood area. We are still Los Angeles proper, but we’re sort of a destination. We’re sort of that “get out of the city for the weekend”, “get out of the city and do something a little different along the water”.
It’s a four star five diamond hotel. What is really unique about it is just all the various different kinds of even space that we have from outside the Marina courtyard to the pool to the rose garden, which features 77 different varieties of roses which is one of the most popular places for ceremonies and then just various indoor space anywhere from 80 people up to 500. We can accommodate just about any size event you would think.
Annually we do anywhere between 36 and 48 weddings a year. We don’t like to position ourselves as a wedding factory. We really try and take care of the brides that are in the hotel because after all it is their day, so we really want them to feel special, we don’t want four other brides running around at the same time. So we really try and keep that for them and make it unique and special.
We actually have all certified wedding planners on property, so you do have someone on property that is here to make sure that every step of the way is taken care of from the moment you sign your contract to the moment that you are walking out the door to your honeymoon. You have someone here to have the venders in place, photographers where they’re supposed to be, decorators where they’re supposed to be. The whole evening is planned and ready to go, so you don’t have to worry about it and you know that there’s someone in the hotel that will provided that service for you at no additional charge. It’s actually a service that we provide.
It’s from the first meeting when they come in the door we really take some time with them—with the bride, her mother, the groom and whoever else may be there and really walk through and really kind of go through a process of finding out what it is that they see, what is their vision of their wedding day and get that feel of what they want. And then from there, it’s sort of it’s the beginning of the planning process with the decorators, with the proper venders make sure the personalities are right, make sure that everything is working right for that bride and her mother.
We do provide a tasting with your menus. So about a month and a half out, you’ll be able to come in and taste the menu and look at the décor and see how your tables are going to look that evening. And then about the day before, it’s dropping off—the place cards, the gifts. Everything that you need to be taken care of you know there’s someone here on the hotel to take care of that for you and kind of walk you through the rehearsal, getting everything ready to go for the next day. And then day of, it’s really starting in the morning making sure that the brides makeup people are here and making sure that the photographers are here, the florist is where they are supposed to be, any decorating is being done. All these while the bride and the families are getting ready, you have complete comfort knowing that there is someone here on property making sure that everything is set for you from the ceremony rite through to the dinner. There are two to three people to make sure that everything is set for you throughout that evening that everything taste the way its suppose to, everything is served the way it’s supposed to be, so that you’re really having that experience that people are going to remember for many years to come.
We do have suites here in the hotel for the bridal parties. We also have some bridal ready rooms so that they can have some additional space should they need it. The most unique thing about the hotel is it’s like I said it’s LA, it is sort of what we want to look at is elegantly hip. So you’re still getting that elegant experience but you’re getting some of that LA hip mixed in. With the uniqueness of three outdoor areas that you can have ceremonies, cocktail receptions beginning with the beautiful rose garden which features 77 different varieties of roses. So it has got such a beautiful setting, you don’t need to do a whole lot to make it even more beautiful to the Marina court which we have right next to the hotel which can seat up to 500 people and you’ll be right outside on the Marina, and then into a smaller ballroom that will—it’s a little bit more traditional. We can do about 150 very elegant room that has surround view of the Marina and the sun setting in the background to a ballroom which is a little bit more in the contemporary side, which also features a promenade area where your guest can enjoy cocktails and be able to sit right outside on the marina and then going into to ballroom which will also seat about 500.
We really kind of—can do just about anything from the most contemporary to the very, very, very traditional from the Marina court with the straight view for your guest right out the ocean to having cocktails or an even around the pool. We’ve had trapeze artist over the pool. We kind of set in the background you see behind me with lounging and very modern furnishings and all white with lights into a ballroom that can be ultra modern or very, very traditional. Ballroom is very designed to make it so it’s the look that you want to look. It’s not designed to be that it’s so ornate and everything is there, but its designed so that you can make it your own.
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