University Club of Palo Alto

I could not recommend the UC Palo Alto more highly! Pamela as well as the rest of the University Club made all of the preparation a breeze for our wedding day reception. In addition we had our flowers done by Jessica and Pamela Fields (
).
Pre-​consultation and tour:
Pamela responded immediately with package information as well as an offer of a tour. Book early – University Club of Palo Alto fills up quickly (you can reserve up to 2 years in advance). We wanted to get married in 2015, so in January we reserved the next available date, which was in November. Booking the main dining room also gives you the bar as well as the access to the board room — Pamela went above and beyond, setting up the board room as a kids room for the wedding day even with games and a projector, as we had many children in attendance.
Tasting & room setup:
Pamela was great with our table assignments and additions to table sizes, providing us with a diagram that helped us plan our setup. The tasting was also a great chance to not only try the different dishes but also some of the wines that they have available. The chef was even accommodating for our desire to put small hors d’oeuvres at the tables as an appetizer course after happy hour – they looked adorable on the plates and tasted great too (the crab cakes and artichoke tempura were especially tasty). Pamela is extremely organized and responsive.
Wedding day:
The staff at the club was fantastic – quickly adapting to the schedule as our guests arrived early. Everyone was attentive as well as organized – we actually had ample time to enjoy our dinner and cake! My sea bass was delicious — the chef did a great job, and we had many comments from guests afterwards. The seasonal berries with crème anglaise was great, and came in cute champagne saucers as well.
Flowers:
Our flowers were beautiful – Pamela and Jessica surprised us and were able to get peonies in November! My bouquet lasted for many days afterwards. Pamela was also very knowledgeable about types of flowers – I also did not realize that red orchids were a possibility. The submerged red orchids with candles on top allowed our guests to talk with each other but still have a pretty centerpiece.
In summary — everyone at UC Palo Alto is professional and they are very used to doing weddings. They’re very mindful of your budget and we never felt any pressure to spend more – a lot of their suggestions were to help us keep our budget in check and set up the event with our best interests in mind.

We had our wedding reception at the University Club of Palo Alto back in May. Even though I am not a member, I am happy that the University Club of Palo Alto allows for non-​member to use their venue. Food was really good. My family only complained that the beef tenderloin was a tad bit under-​cooked (however I must say our families tend to like their beef well-​done. …probably my fault for not mentioning that!). It is a beautiful space with awesome people to work with. Pamela was our even coordinator. We were running a tad late and she was soo nice to save us some of the appetizers. This bride was starving so I was really grateful she did that! Again, Pamela and Jessica (our florist) were professional and easy to work with. They were very accommodating to my ideas and helped make it perfect!
Thanks UCPA for everything :)

Bridal shower success!
Great staff! Great people to work with! We had a beautiful shower Thanks to our event planners: Jessica, Pam, & Aubrey! Thank you all so much for helping us make this event memorable! Our bar tender Cassia was AMAZING as well also a big Thank you to the chef Anthony for making us some great brunch food!!! Everyone was very pleased with the venue & loved all that it had to offer! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

We cannot say enough good things about holding our wedding ceremony and reception at the University Club of Palo Alto. We worked with Aubree to plan our wedding, and she did such a phenomenal job, were were blown away. She was so responsive, knowledgeable, helpful, kind, and generally awesome. She, and all of the events team at the UCPA, went so far above and beyond our expectations, and everything went off without a hitch. Even though we are not club members, they treated us like royalty, and the pricing was a really good deal.
The UCPA space is beautiful. The ceremony lawn was really a great backdrop, and even though it is near their tennis courts, we had absolutely no issues (sound, stray tennis balls, etc.) The cocktail hour and reception space were also amazing. They did such a great job decorating it, it was really perfect, and it made our special day feel that much more special. We even were able to use a side room off of the main ballroom at the UCPA as a space especially for some hired babysitters and kids to play and watch movies on a DVD player /​projector (provided by the club!). Parents loved it, kids loved it.
We got rave reviews about the food from our guests, and the kitchen did a fantastic job with special restrictions and requests. The bar did a great job making our special his/​hers cocktails. I could go on and on…

I love this venue, and I’m super happy that we held our wedding here. I did so much research on venues through

etc., that I thought that no perfect venue existed. Yes, it was dramatic. Until I switched my searching to Unilocal,and then I found University Club of Palo Alto. Since this is a private club, it wasn’t listed on the wedding sites, and after meeting Pamela for 10 – 15 minutes (the events coordinator) and getting a tour, I just asked her, ‘Where do I sign?“
If you are the type of person that loves natural scenery, open space, and lots of trees… then this is your venue. Then on top of that, if you want an awesome coordinator (Pamela) and a staff team to support you on your big day to make things run smoothly as possible? Then look no further. Pamela is really great, she’s flexible, open to changes, willing to give insight and advice and is just there to help you.
Also, if you know a member, it’s cheaper to rent this place! However, I didn’t know a member, but this place is worth every penny. It’s actually cheaper than a hotel or a private golf course. And I haven’t even gotten into the food yet. As many of you know, San Franciscans are food snobs, and being from the area, I had many food critics at my wedding. This was the type of response I received, «The truffle goat cheese appetizer was amazing!» and «That was the most tender steak I have ever eaten» and «That was one juicy chicken!» and for my alcoholics, «That wine slid down my throat like butter!» Convinced yet? I was surprised myself, because I haven’t tasted wedding food as good as this place, and I’m not saying that because it was my wedding!
All in all, I loved working with the staff and having my wedding here. I wouldn’t have changed one single detail about this venue. Excellent place to have a fall wedding, as the leaves were changing color. We all had a great time here!

This is a review for events I have thrown here, not the private club.
I’ve thrown several events here for the company that I work for and the experience has been pleasurable every time. The setting is beautiful. The spaces we rent are very neutral and allow for us to set up a variety of events easily. The pricing is very reasonable and the staff knowledgable. Food is always good: the risotto bar was especially popular at our last event.
We’ve thrown Holiday parties, BBQs, and Corporate Events here. Pamela helps us get everything organized and always provides stellar service. I plan on continuing to host parties here next year.

My now-​husband and I are living on the East Coast, but wanted to get married at home on the Peninsula. We wanted a reasonably-​priced venue that could accommodate 200 guests and where we could get married and have a party in the same place, with a band, open bar, and signature cocktail. Our #1 goal was for our guests to be comfortable, and because of the distance, we wanted a one-​stop shop with the caterer, bar, etc. all there and ready to go.
UCPA fit our expectations and went above and beyond!!!
The price was reasonable. The venue is beautiful. All our guests were comfortable. The food is good and the portion sizes very generous. There is plenty of room for a band and dance floor, plus a kind of separate bar area and beautiful outside area for people who want to chat comfortably. And the service was EXCELLENT!
Aubree was our coordinator, and she was an absolute pleasure and went above and beyond. She coordinated everything — rented linens (they can provide them, but we wanted a different color), setting up everything with an eye to detail that satisfied my «healthy level» of OCD, making sure the bartenders understood how to make and tell guests about our signature cocktail, holding our hand through tastings and wine choices, greeting the band (there is room!), making sure the servers kept wine glasses full, etc., etc., etc. Thank you, Aubree!
Our guests will not stop raving about our wedding, and I think that the UCPA is the reason why. It was comfortable, beautiful, and the service is WONDERFUL. Plus, the price is right. I recommend it without hesitation!

A close family member of mine lives in Southern California but wanted to get married in the Bay Area. I was making initial contacts for a wedding venue. I contacted the University Club and from the very first call was impressed with what they had to offer. The minute the bride and groom saw the club, they agreed it was a special place!
They got married outdoors under the majestic oak trees. Decorations were minimal because the natural location was so incredibly gorgeous! At the end of the ceremony, the employees had set up a table with some beverages. They also brought some hor d’oeurves while we were having pictures taken. It was a nice gesture for some of the family just sitting around waiting.
The reception area was incredibly lovely! We had the indoor space as well as the beautiful deck surrounding the dining room. The wedding coordinator worked with us to create a beautiful effect. And it was really magical for a night wedding!
We had done a menu tasting months before the wedding. Our guests mentioned how nice the plated dinner was. I had the salmon and it was delicious!
We had hired a wedding coordinator for the day of the wedding. In retrospect, we could have just had her do the pre-​planning because the University Club wedding coordinator, Jessica, was so on top of things.
Two of our vendors which we would highly recommend were:
Photographer — Dave Medal, San Francisco
Florist — Pico Soriano, Redwood Shores
This was truly a beautiful wedding! We all have wonderful memories that we will carry for a lifetime.

We really couldn’t have asked for a better place to hold our wedding reception than the University Club. Throughout the whole process, Pamela Fields and her fine team at the UCPA were wonderful to work with. They were extremely organized, responsive, and fair. Pamela practically acted as our entire wedding coordinator, working with all of our hired help, friends and family who wanted to help with decorations, and helped organize the overall flow of the entire reception. She is amazing and I can’t recommend this place enough because of her.
The University Club is also a lovely place. The seating, dance floor, and main hall were beautiful. The cocktail hour was hosted in their bar area, which was also really beautiful. There is an outdoor area that our guests loved, since it gave them an area to relax away from the music if they wanted to converse.
I’d also like to highly recommend Flowers by Jess. They not only provided every centerpiece for our wedding, but also the brides bouquet, the men’s corsages, and many of the other decorations throughout the reception site. The flowers were really high quality, and now look beautiful as a centerpiece on our kitchen table.

We recently had our wedding at the university club and while some things went well (décor), A LOT didn’t and most importantly the venue did not take responsibility for the things that did go wrong. and came up with a zillion reasons of why things were the way the were… including pretty much saying we were lying. The coordinator NEVER responded to our calls or texts after the wedding. We wrote them a letter after we got the bill 2 weeks later to which they finally responded. I rarely write negative reviews (As you can see from my history) so brides please BE AWARE of what your getting into. I would not recommend using this venue as they can not be trusted to handle details, or own up to their mistakes.
Venue person Pamela left at 11pm. our wedding was until 1 am. She told us this a week before the wedding, saying there another team member would step in. This person was NOT trained and had no idea how to coordinate a wedding. But he was nice, and did try, but it was obvious he was never prepared. Pam presented her self as a coordinator and when we asked if we needed a day of coordinator she said no she was going to do it it was part of the service they provide. When she left at 11 i ended up coordinating my own wedding. instead of dancing with my friends i was worried about telling the team when cake cutting was, and when the tossing were, organizing the sparklers and when games started. and so on. the last 2 hours of my wedding were HORRIBLY stressful. I would have been glad to hire a coordinator… but Pam explicitly told me she would handle it. In the emails with the venue after the wedding, they wrote …“Additionally, a wedding «coordinator» is not included in any part of the banquet package and is nowhere in the contract. Pam worked with you for months on this event and acted as a coordinator would free of any extra charge to you. «PLEASE BE AWARE. As a bride i grantee you i asked a zillion times what exactly she would be handling during the wedding. if i wasn’t 100% she was going to coordinate the night of i would have hired a separate coordinator. Ultimately if you say you are going to do something and then don’t do it, you are still liable, even if its not explicitly in the contract (i.e even in their response UC called pam the coordinator!.. coordinators coordinate wedding the full length of time.)
Clean up meeting — we discussed with the guy who stepped in after Pam left that we would see him the next day at 3pm to pick up our stuff. no one showed up until 4:30. Venue claims there was never such a discussion… 6 people from my family heard me have the conversation… our rentals weren’t packed up right we ended up packing them up ourselves while we waited. the venue claimed that packing and unpacking the rentals was NOT THEIR JOB and they were doing it to be nice… they told us they would do it. if they said it wasn’t their job we would have figured it out. Its not cool to say your going to do something and then not do it…
Some rentals went missing. The UC received the shipment. we counted everything day after wedding with Dustin and he confirmed everything was there. When rentals place said things were missing, the UC club blamed our guests for taking things home. it is not possible since Dustin (the guy they left in charge) confirmed to us everything was there the following day. UC lost the stuff and refused to take responsibility.
Flowers– DO NOT USE– yes they are cheap. my first bouquet had wilting flowers and was smaller than most bridesmaids bouquets… i sent it back and they gave me a new one– which was much better. When i saw the rest of the flowers it was obvious they pulled roses out for my new bouquet from the rest of my arrangements. The flowers were okay but it was 99% filler and 3 roses per centerpiece and none in my chuppah flowers. UC said i told them it was okay to use more filler than flowers and never specified i wanted «substantially» roses vs filler. Yes — more filler is okay but it was excessive. I also never received my tossing bouquet and had to toss my real one. UC claims they told one of my bridesmaids to tell me where they left it. since the coordinator LEFT.
Food — Not enough food. Served family style. We agreed to have smaller portions in exchange for servings of 10. We watched people share and were told by numerous tables that their table of 10 only had 8 servings… They also burned one and never served other challah (Religious bread). we accidentally found it in the kitchen the next day burnt to crisp… no one told us or apologized. They had to be forcefully asked to put out the outside desserts how we wanted them and pre plated them. Plates and dishes were taken away before people had a chance to eat
Overall carelessness:
the aisle was too small… i started walking with both parents and had to pick only one in front of everyone. it was humiliating and led to A lot of hurt feelings.

We had our wedding, both ceremony and reception, at the UCPA last summer. I actually found and discovered the UCPA through Unilocal,as we were searching for wedding venues the year before. We’re so happy that we did.
First and foremost, Jessica Fields, Pamela Fields, and the UCPA team are fantastic. They took care of everything, from the decorations to the flowers to the operation of the day. For the most part, we didn’t have to worry about anything.
The UCPA, as a space, comes with everything that you would need for your wedding: easy access from main roads, plenty of parking for guests, clean modern bathrooms, chairs for the ceremony (they even included drinks like water, lemonade, and tea during the ceremony), vases for flowers, tables, glass/​table/​silverware, and linens — the list goes on and on.
While we aren’t members of the UCPA, the cost is incredibly reasonable for everything they do and take care of for you. We also felt that the UCPA was incredibly fair and honest with the pricing and cost, which we really appreciated. We got plenty of feedback that folks enjoyed the venue space and the food.
The only small change we would make is that the vegetarian portions looked significantly smaller than the meat portions. Before the wedding, we had asked that a side veggie option be added, but it looked like that got missed/​forgotten on the day of the wedding. I recommend asking a member of the wedding party to check with the UCPA team, especially if you have several guests who are vegetarian.
Other than that, we absolutely and highly recommend the UCPA as an wedding/​event space, coordinator, florist, caterer, etc. We are so grateful to Jessica and everyone at UCPA; they helped to make our wedding as hassle-​free and stress-​free as possible. Thank you so much!

It’s an absolute pleasure to do business with Pamela and the other staff members here. A membership is much more affordable than you might think and the experience is well worth it. The venue itself is relaxing and beautiful.

Gorgeous venue for a private function. While I’m not a member, I’m a board member of a group that meets here frequently, and there are a variety of spaces for a variety of functions.
The main bar area, usually a members-​only dining room, can be converted for a working session at a roundtable over lunch or dinner, while the main hall also welcomes in lots of natural light and can also be converted in a variety of ways, whether large audiences listening to speakers, medium-​sized groups sitting at tables, or smaller roundtables. There’s also a smaller, private meeting room in back. Service has always been the sweetest from all the staff here and, despite the fact I’m not a member, I’m a familiar face to them now.
For members, there’s a large, glorious pool, a private fitness room, and several tennis courts. The outdoor grounds are beautifully landscaped and apparently get a lot of use for wedding functions.
Again, a beautiful venue that can be customized for private events large and small.

I don’t know why more people don’t know about this amazing GEM!!!
We just had our wedding this past weekend and it was PERFECT! It exceeded our expectations! The venue was beautiful and very photographic. The food was excellent– many of our guests said it was the BEST STEAK they ever had (wow!). Service and decoration were amazing! LOVE IT. I’m so glad we went with University Club Palo Alto.
What we asked for when choosing our venue:
1) simple and elegant
2) everyone has a good time
3) stress-​free
What we ended up getting
1) AMAZING MEMORIES
2) WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE
3) STRESS FREE — we had time to eat all the food!
4) BEAUTIFUL VENUE– outdoor ceremony, cocktail lounge, indoor reception space
5) GORGEOUS FLOWERS– omg I loved the flowers!!!
6) BUDGET FRIENDLY!!!
We had our ceremony and reception at this location, they also provided 2 separate spaces for the bridal party and groomsmen to get ready in (awesome!!), they also decorated the place for us (we got paper lanterns), and they were in charge of all the flowers as well. It was amazing! I really recommend them!
And now the glue: JESSICA FIELDS, AWESOME VENUE/​FLOWER/​WEDDING COORDINATOR !
Jessica was my main contact for the University Club Palo Alto, and we also hired her as our wedding planner since I was planning it from out of state. She made everything go wonderfully smoothly! I definitely recommend hiring her along with the venue for your special event!

We had our wedding reception here almost a year ago; and it will forever hold some of my most cherished memories. I am VERY analytical, and don’t mind putting in hours of intensive research figuring out what product is best – and this place ended up being THE best.
Pamela was sooo very kind. She was honest and attentive from the first time she met with Bryan & me. She listened to our wants and needs, and kept us within budget!!! Both of our families were happy about that. (We had 150 people on our special day.) It feels tucked away from the world, but is literally only a few minutes from great freeways/​expressways. What REALLY sold us though were the floor to ceiling windows… it wasn’t some stuffy boring room. This place has character.
Customer Service: 5 stars
Location: 5 stars
Venue: 5 stars (dinging room, cocktail room, and an expansive outdoor patio)
Price: A million stars! Seriously, it can’t be beat.
Memories: Priceless :)
This place is the complete package. I’ll try and upload a few photos from the night. Joe Homsy was our photographer. He’s fabulous. These photos don’t do our album justice. Best of luck future brides & party-​goers!

I cannot say enough about Pamela, the wedding coordinator here. She was so competent and chill, it really put me at ease planning our wedding. The location is BEAUTIFUL (outdoor ceremony/​indoor lunch reception the end of September), very good food with a broad menu to choose from, the service gracious, and Pamela’s sister, Jessica made BEAUTIFUL flower arrangements: both bouquets and for the tree we got married under– see pic.
I found this place on Unilocal,clicking on it almost as a joke, because I never thought anything named the «University Club of Palo Alto» was something that would fit in our budget– but it’s a total gem and the moment we parked and were walking toward the Club House for the first time, we knew we’d found the right place. It feels casual, elegant, and hidden. It really was our perfect wedding and I can’t imagine having held it any where else. We really can’t say enough about UCPA and the staff there.

Very lovely venue.
I recently volunteered at an annual VABANC event that was held here at the banquet area. I would say the venue is perfect for about 100 people. There’s a bar, patio with a decent view (but if you look down there’s a swimming pool that’s not so attractive), and a spacious banquet area. Several weddings are held year every month and is very affordable, according to the employees working the event that day. Although decorations were sparse at the event, I could definitely see how the space could be turned into something magical. Great space!

My best friend’s wedding!
What a beautiful location for a wedding! The ceremony was held under a tree out doors. There was a separate room for the cocktail hour and a small ballroom for the reception. Lots of parking for guests.

This was the *best* decision we made for our entire wedding. It saved us so much time, money, and stress in the long run. A+, would marry again.
This was actually the first venue we toured in February when we were looking for venues for our August wedding, though we also considered wineries and golf courses. It took a couple hours and one spreadsheet to determine that while the Thomas Fogarty winery is lovely, using Fogarty for our wedding would cost *at least* $ 10,000 more for our 85-​person wedding than the University Club, and the Club was a lot more convenient in terms of location and all the services they offered. For us that was no contest.
Major points in this place’s favor:
* Site is ludicrously affordable: $ 1800 reception, $ 500 ceremony, including chair rental for the site. Most places in Silicon Valley with fees in this range are tiny and cramped. This place has a lovely air-​conditioned room for the reception with floor-​to-​ceiling windows and a nice wraparound patio (we got some of our best pics out there), and a little grassy area surrounded by oak trees for the ceremony. It’s next to a tennis court but you will not notice it on the day of.
* The food is good and VERY reasonable — after site fees, this is where we saved the most money. They have their own kitchen and charge restaurant-​level entrée prices BUT service and setup are included. To put this in perspective, when we were considering Fogarty we figured out that their least expensive approved caterer charged minimum $ 100 a head for food and service. At the Club we paid about $ 40-​$ 45 per person overall to feed 75 adults and ten kids a sitdown meal with passed appetizers and a fruit/​antipasto display.
Our food was way better than most wedding food I’ve had. If you’re looking for 5-​star gourmet wedding catering from a famous chef this might not be your place, but really, guests’ expectations for wedding food are not high. You can exceed their expectations here without spending $ 150 per plate. Definite win.
* The club has a full bar, and they bill you based on actual booze consumption at reasonable rates. Some other places require you to purchase X amount of alcohol up front, but we knew our crowd aren’t big drinkers and spending $ 3k on a «bar package» at one of those places would be a big waste. Our final bar bill was only about 60% of the initial quote (which we had also estimated conservatively). Huge win again!
* They take care of renting stuff for you. I may be detail-​oriented but I had zero interest in juggling rental company info and table measurements for ceremony site stuff and tablecloths and whatever. Instead, we dropped by Stuart Rental one weekend and picked out a napkin and a tablecloth color, I sent our coordinator Jessica a quick email, and she rented all the tablecloths and napkins plus umbrellas and the chairs for the ceremony site. They deal with delivery and pickup and timing and addresses, not you. I *loved* not having to worry about little fiddly stuff like that.
* Even though they do plenty of weddings, we never for a second felt like we were getting married in a «wedding factory». This place isn’t listed on Here Comes the Guide (it’s a nonprofit) so it kind of felt like a secret find.
They are so laid-​back here my husband and I both had varying levels of trepidation about «what’s the catch?» towards the end, because doesn’t everyone say you have to micromanage a wedding (and pay out the nose) to get a wedding right? But the coordinators (Jessica and Pam) have thirteen years of wedding and event experience and their vibe suited us really well, and everything went swimmingly. The extent of our micromanaging was I typed up a big Word doc of reception details (table 6 is 5 people, they ordered 3 beef and 2 vegetarian, blah blah) and sent it to Jessica, we dropped in for a quick meeting the Thursday before our wedding, and that was that.
It was really a fantastic place for our casual grown-​up non-​fussy wedding. We’re still talking about how we feel like we lucked out.
In case you’re wondering, the club is open to members during the wedding, but we barely noticed them. We were having so much fun we didn’t care if other people were also having fun in the pool. The reception room is well above pool level so you really won’t notice.
Anyway: If you have a really large wedding or want to get married on a beach at sunset or have a specific caterer you must must must use, this might not be your space. If you want a nice place to get married and want it to suit your non-​fussy nature, I recommend this place highly.

Winner, winner; Chicken Dinner!!! We found this place just by chance for our wedding and felt lucky to do so.
There are so many variables when looking for a venue (both ceremony and reception) so deciding what was important to you is key.
This is what was important to us and what we found at UCPA.
1) a venue that can accommodate 150 or more without feeling too crowded or looking too empty;
2) great value for our money, and flexible in working with us to meet our budget needs; suggestions of how to make things work were AWESOME;
3) nothing about this place feels cheap, this is a well maintained facility and grounds but NOT stuffy;
4) the staff, especially event planner Jessica make everything EASY and made the our wedding «vision» happen.
5) NO hidden extras. They didn’t nickel and dime us about little stuff, no crazy extras for this or that… very upfront on pricing… our final bill was within $ 200 of our original estimate.
We did our ceremony outdoors, cocktail hour on the veranda and dinner/​dancing in the ballroom. I would highly recommend this place to anyone. All the feed back from our peeps that attended gave us glowing reviews on the venue and food.