Hilton Minneapolis - Bloomington

Overview:

From our DJs Jason H. back in 2012:

We were in a difficult situation in a room that was absolutely packed. This was our dinner set up. I’ve got one speaker flying high in order to project across the room and not blow out the guests sitting 3 feet away. You can just see the edge of a chair on the right side of the picture. The other speaker was across the room on the other side of the head table (thanks to a long cord provided by the Hilton staff).

I’ve got the lights in a pre-set up configuration behind us.

After the dance floor and adjacent table were removed, we had to move everything towards the dance floor and set up lights.

A few thoughts on this venue… with guests anything over 250,280 I’d expect to have to contend with this at this venue. I did not think to ask this on my venue call as I’ve worked there many times and had always had the same set up – a traditional set up right off the dance floor with no additional movement.

This venue was more than willing to assist with an extra long speaker cord and help in moving the DJ table into place after dinner. Jake was the technical contact and he was fantastic. Kelly was the venue contact and was a huge help as well.

A few other notes: cocktail happens in the hall/bar area and the banquet room is closed off until dinner. The Hilton can provide house sound in this area so a mini is not needed. Make sure you advise the client to request this and confirm on the venue call. We can use a luggage cart to wheel in our gear and they prefer us to go all the way around through the staff catering hallway as they keep the banquet hall doors locked.

Load In:

I'm not entirely sure which door you'll use to load in, but according to Jason's overview, you will have to use the catering hallway rather than straight through the banquet hall. You'll have to cover this in the venue call.

Challenges:

Cocktail hour is in a different location than dinner/dance, but it sounds like they have a house system you can plug an iPod/laptop into. Ask about this.

Extra Venue Call Questions:

Where do I load in from?

Do you have a cart?

Where is cocktail hour taking place?

Do you have a house system where I can plug in an iPod/laptop for cocktail hour?

Do you have a venue microphone for speeches?

Website:

http://www.bloomingtonhilton.com/weddings/

The Knot:

https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/hilton-minneapolisbloomington-bloomington-mn-536937