Hilton Long Beach Hotel in Downtown

Wedding Service: 5 stars Caterer: 5 stars Room Block: 1 star (details below) We had a Chinese/American wedding (tea ceremony in the morning, American ceremony in the afternoon, American reception with a Chinese 10 course banquet dinner. 200 guests. Venue and Staff: Li-ling was our manager and go-to contact for our wedding needs. Professional, but easy going - and willing to reasonably work with you to get you what you need. We ended up paying a little more for Hilton Long Beach (HLB) simply because Li-ling was easier to work with. On the day of, all the managers and the staff made sure everything went smoothly. Peace of mind is imperative (especially on the wedding day), and we didn't have to worry about them one bit throughout the day. Caterer: We catered through HLB's partner, Furiwa. Vivian was the point of contact. If you're looking for a Chinese banquet caterer in Los Angeles, you probably learned the two main options are Furiwa and Grace Catering. We tasted both, and while Grace Catering seems more popular, Furiwa tasted better in almost every way. This is coming from the Chinese groom born and raised in the SGV. We had one dietary restriction, and several small tweaks to make for the dishes. All of these things were met and exceeded. The one issue to point out is that neither HLB nor Furiwa had tables big enough for a Chinese banquet dinner. Their biggest table (72inch round) seats 10 comfortably and 12 uncomfortably - not accounting for the lazy susan. Your own expectations may vary - we are comparing this to Chinese banquet restaurants that also hosts weddings. Just something to note. Room block: Very unpleasant experience! Even if you don't go with this venue, please take this lesson wherever you go. The room block contract will state "x amount of 'run of house' rooms", aka whatever rooms they have at the time. I highly recommend you clarify on paper exactly how many double queens/single kings you want to reserve. We blocked out approximately 80 room nights of "run of house" rooms, and after literally 3 people booked double queens, there were no more double queens available through our discount link. I contacted our room block manager, and was told none was available (which was not true because I checked the public booking link). Long story short, I had to raise hell to get an additional 3 rooms, and raise more hell to get another 6 rooms. Several guests who couldn't get double queens rooms ended up going with other hotels or AirBnB. As a result, we barely met our attrition. Second, many mistakes were made in general, when changes had to be made to reservations. Even after clear instructions were provided in writing, guests either didn't get the correct type of room, or dates were incorrect. Example: we reserved a suite+connecting room for the groomsmen, and even though we had written confirmation for the specific room numbers they'd be assigned to, the staff still somehow gave the connecting room to someone else. This oversight caused a huge delay checking in the night before the wedding. The worst part was that the staff didn't seem to care - they offered no alternatives and the groom had to literally troubleshoot for them. Despite this, the whole wedding staff made the experience amazing and unforgettable. Hopefully, the rooming department will be much improved for future weddings. We don't regret going with HLB, and we hope it brings as much, if not more joy that it brought us. Happy planning!