Empress Events Reviews

Reviews

• Dave Sent on 07/07/2019
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Impress your Guests with a best SF Bay Cruise Wedding Available

  Some background to this review: We got married 8 years ago this September. I was not aware you could review on Wedding Wire, until I just reviewed a digital invite site (Greenenvelope). We are celebrating my wive's 40th birthday on the same cruise company we used for our wedding (bing bing bing!) Hence, my 8 year delayed review.
  
  Empress Events which takes you underway on the San Francisco Bay aboard their two deck (not including the pilot house) amazingly outfitted yacht, was just a fairytale come true. Here is the difference: Deborah the coordinator, and Captain Gerry. We screened two other companies in SF: Hornblower and Commodore. While they were very nice, they were very "corporate." Package deals were just that - no flexibility. At Empress, they will totally tailor your event and make it just the way you want. The chef is top notch (they have a different one from 2011), and again will design a menu that fits your budget and still looks/tastes like a Four Seasons banquet. For several years after our wedding in 2011, we had people still talking about how it was the most fabulous wedding they had attended. And I think it was the novelty of being on a bay cruise that was less novelty, and more of an experience that left all our guests with those memories. Thank you Deborah and Gerry! See you later this month for our 40th Birthday Bash!

  Some background to this review: We got married 8 years ago this September. I was not aware you could review on Wedding Wire, until I just reviewed a digital invite site (Greenenvelope). We are celebrating my wive's 40th birthday on the same cruise company we used for our wedding (bing bing bing!) Hence, my 8 year delayed review.
  
  Empress Events which takes you underway on the San Francisco Bay aboard their two deck (not including the pilot house) amazingly outfitted yacht, was just a fairytale come true. Here is the difference: Deborah the coordinator, and Captain Gerry. We screened two other companies in SF: Hornblower and Commodore. While they were very nice, they were very "corporate." Package deals were just that - no flexibility. At Empress, they will totally tailor your event and make it just the way you want. The chef is top notch (they have a different one from 2011), and again will design a menu that fits your budget and still looks/tastes like a Four Seasons banquet. For several years after our wedding in 2011, we had people still talking about how it was the most fabulous wedding they had attended. And I think it was the novelty of being on a bay cruise that was less novelty, and more of an experience that left all our guests with those memories. Thank you Deborah and Gerry! See you later this month for our 40th Birthday Bash!
• Tammie Sent on 07/25/2009
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  My husband and I wanted a different kind of wedding, not your normal everyday wedding, so we started looking into Yachts to Charter. At first we thought we had found the "one" but boy where we mistaken. (BOYCOTT HORNBLOWER) They were horrible so we decided to look into another company and sure enough that is when we found THE ONE. Empress Events is by far the #1 venue place, not only to us but to just about 99% of our guest would agree. It is a company owed by a Father/Daughter and they are the sweetest people ever. On top of them you get all the extras as well like Tinka (AMAZING) and Ed (WONDERFUL). The Father (Gerry) can also be your officiant which was amazing because he is a funny and likeable guy. The whole crew on the wedding day was amazing as well. I would HIGHLY recommend them to just about anyone. Our wedding was far one of the best weddings ever, we even got the firework show right in front of us on the yacht for getting hitched on 7/4/09

  My husband and I wanted a different kind of wedding, not your normal everyday wedding, so we started looking into Yachts to Charter. At first we thought we had found the "one" but boy where we mistaken. (BOYCOTT HORNBLOWER) They were horrible so we decided to look into another company and sure enough that is when we found THE ONE. Empress Events is by far the #1 venue place, not only to us but to just about 99% of our guest would agree. It is a company owed by a Father/Daughter and they are the sweetest people ever. On top of them you get all the extras as well like Tinka (AMAZING) and Ed (WONDERFUL). The Father (Gerry) can also be your officiant which was amazing because he is a funny and likeable guy. The whole crew on the wedding day was amazing as well. I would HIGHLY recommend them to just about anyone. Our wedding was far one of the best weddings ever, we even got the firework show right in front of us on the yacht for getting hitched on 7/4/09
• Danya Sent on 03/21/2011
  4.4 out of 5 rating

  4.4
  • Quality of service
    4.5 out of 5 rating
    4.5
  • Average response time
    3.5 out of 5 rating
    3.5
  • Professionalism
    4.5 out of 5 rating
    4.5
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    4.5 out of 5 rating
    4.5

  We stumbled across Empress while trying to find alternatives to the "other" yacht business, and I'm so glad we did! Planning from TX for a wedding in CA was a challenge, but the Empress team helped us pull it off! They provided us with a competitive quote including cake, DJ, flowers, catering/bar, and venue. They were flexible to let us pick and choose the services we wished to keep that were provided by them, and those we prefered to search for ourselves. They accomodated for 2 food tastings for us (one in the summer and one in December) to "tweak" the EXCELLENT food Chef Jared prepares to fit our personal taste.
  All in all, it was a good experience. Like all weddings, there were some hiccups and miscommunication, but nothing that could have potentially ruined the event. Communication before the wedding (answering emails/phone calls in a timely manner) could have been a little better. During the wedding, the coordinator stuck to the timeline and kept everything running as smoothly as she could (the DJ, although he had the same timeline as her, kind of played it by ear and veered off it causing a bit of tension between them and made parts of the event feel "rushed"). The wait staff was great! A glass never went dry, and all guests were served in a timely manner. Everyone wore a smile the whole evening :) By the time the evening ended, all decorations we took with us were packed and ready for us, as well as the left over cake.
  They took very good care of us, the bride and groom. We got complimetary champagne after the ceremony and during dinner, they served us both entrees (chicken and steak) for us to try, and made sure we got some cake!
  I would recommend this venue if anyone is in doubt. Good value for the investment. Just make sure you are persistent when trying to get an answer during the planning stages (phone works better), and triple check everything with them and the DJ/Chef/baker/florist (timelines, deliveries, decor set up, menu choices) to make sure everyone is on the same page.

  We stumbled across Empress while trying to find alternatives to the "other" yacht business, and I'm so glad we did! Planning from TX for a wedding in CA was a challenge, but the Empress team helped us pull it off! They provided us with a competitive quote including cake, DJ, flowers, catering/bar, and venue. They were flexible to let us pick and choose the services we wished to keep that were provided by them, and those we prefered to search for ourselves. They accomodated for 2 food tastings for us (one in the summer and one in December) to "tweak" the EXCELLENT food Chef Jared prepares to fit our personal taste.
  All in all, it was a good experience. Like all weddings, there were some hiccups and miscommunication, but nothing that could have potentially ruined the event. Communication before the wedding (answering emails/phone calls in a timely manner) could have been a little better. During the wedding, the coordinator stuck to the timeline and kept everything running as smoothly as she could (the DJ, although he had the same timeline as her, kind of played it by ear and veered off it causing a bit of tension between them and made parts of the event feel "rushed"). The wait staff was great! A glass never went dry, and all guests were served in a timely manner. Everyone wore a smile the whole evening :) By the time the evening ended, all decorations we took with us were packed and ready for us, as well as the left over cake.
  They took very good care of us, the bride and groom. We got complimetary champagne after the ceremony and during dinner, they served us both entrees (chicken and steak) for us to try, and made sure we got some cake!
  I would recommend this venue if anyone is in doubt. Good value for the investment. Just make sure you are persistent when trying to get an answer during the planning stages (phone works better), and triple check everything with them and the DJ/Chef/baker/florist (timelines, deliveries, decor set up, menu choices) to make sure everyone is on the same page.
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  User1087619 Sent on 02/08/2013
  3.7 out of 5 rating

  3.7
  • Quality of service
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Average response time
    2.0 out of 5 rating
    2.0
  • Professionalism
    3.5 out of 5 rating
    3.5
  • Value
    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  We knew we wanted to get married on a yacht and shopped around quite a bit before deciding on Empress. Really, no one else compares. Their yacht is beautifully maintained, they are incredibly flexible, and they have great prices. Our wedding aboard the Empress was absolutely beautiful. As others have alluded, the Empress staff wasn’t always the most communicative. Their strength appears to be event execution, not event planning. For the Empress staff, it was no big deal to wait until 4 days before the wedding to figure out ceremony logistics. For brides, that is incredibly stressful. I felt unnecessarily stressed out as a result of their lack of communication. Sometimes it was hard to even get them to call me back. Communication really needs to be improved. However, our wedding day was PERFECT. Everyone had a fantastic time! The views were stunning, the DJ was great, the service was superb, our guests loved the staff, the food was delicious, and my (now) husband and I didn’t have to worry about a thing! Deborah took care of everything. If I had it to do all over again, I would use Empress again in a heartbeat. They stressed me out leading up to the wedding, but it was all worth it. If I wasn’t stressed out about them, I probably would have found something else to stress out about.

  We knew we wanted to get married on a yacht and shopped around quite a bit before deciding on Empress. Really, no one else compares. Their yacht is beautifully maintained, they are incredibly flexible, and they have great prices. Our wedding aboard the Empress was absolutely beautiful. As others have alluded, the Empress staff wasn’t always the most communicative. Their strength appears to be event execution, not event planning. For the Empress staff, it was no big deal to wait until 4 days before the wedding to figure out ceremony logistics. For brides, that is incredibly stressful. I felt unnecessarily stressed out as a result of their lack of communication. Sometimes it was hard to even get them to call me back. Communication really needs to be improved. However, our wedding day was PERFECT. Everyone had a fantastic time! The views were stunning, the DJ was great, the service was superb, our guests loved the staff, the food was delicious, and my (now) husband and I didn’t have to worry about a thing! Deborah took care of everything. If I had it to do all over again, I would use Empress again in a heartbeat. They stressed me out leading up to the wedding, but it was all worth it. If I wasn’t stressed out about them, I probably would have found something else to stress out about.