I must say when Rob and I started planning our wedding, we did not expect that the venue would be the hardest part. We searched high and low for a venue for about a year! We couldn't find an agreeable wedding venue that we both wanted at a price we would not regret later. In fact we almost got married at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Manteca. Which would have been great except for the heat. In the middle of July all of our guests would be near a heat stroke in formal wear. We were very grateful for the offer though, we knew we would just have to change the attire. However shortly after telling my in-laws, Rob's Grand Mom sent us a nice donation in the mail for our wedding. It was a blessing but also we felt we owed it to her to find a venue and do things a little bigger. So we were on the hunt again.
At first we had wanted a venue outdoors but we couldn't decide if we wanted it by the beach or in a forest and there were quite a lot of other possibilities. We also had to think about a location all of our family could get to and find accommodations. We had a lot of family that would be driving from Nevada and Los Angeles and Sacramento. That just wasn't okay to have our family come to our wedding and have to drive back without having anything to drink and leaving right after the ceremony. So we came to the conclusion we wanted it at a hotel and nearby our home in the bay area.
After my web search of dead end hotels with outrageous pricing and crazy locations we came to the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose. I fell in love in the pictures however they do not do that hotel justice.I emailed and asked for an information packet as well as a list of available dates. Rob and I had really wanted to have our wedding on July 18th because it was our original anniversary date. Unfortunately they did not have that date available, but after discussing it we agreed we would be okay with that for the right venue. So we agreed to go look.
When we went to see it they were in the process of renovating this historic hotel which was both great and worrisome. I was worried about the noise during the wedding and room availability. Luckily after inquiring I was informed that the construction was going to be completed before the date of our wedding!! I was very relieved. One of the small details I liked about the hotel was the name, “The Hotel Sainte Claire.” They had informed me that the name would soon be changing to The Westin San Jose, which doesn't sound as historic or prestigious as the old name but what can you do? I was pretty excited about the historic part of the hotel. It was built in 1929 and had an italian renaissance feel to it. The hotel also came complete with a couple of awesome ghost stories :D if you are like me that was quite an appealing aspect because it added to the mystic of the hotel.My mother and my now husband went with me to see it and we all loved it.
For more information and history on the Westin San Jose please go to: http://www.westinsanjose.com/hotel-history
To our amazement the hotel was in our price range and the coordinator was extremely helpful and accommodating, even creating a custom tailored package for us so we didn't have to do any of the unnecessary things. We also got the package to include a custom wedding cake from a local bakery and a day of coordinator with getting ready rooms and snacks!
The wedding venue was the hardest thing to find but it definitely made our wedding perfect :)
Photo Credits for all Sainte Claire/The Westin San Jose Photos on this post are from http://www.westinsanjose.com/
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