sd wedding venue hunt

This entry is for future brides-to-be who are hunting for a wedding ceremony & reception venue in the San Diego area (and for anyone else who may be interested). All in all, my fiance and I have visited ~10 sites over 3 weekends, and I think we're finally coming to a close on the search (crosses fingers). In my hunting I ran across a blog entry that showed some pictures and descriptions of venues and found it very helpful, so I thought I should share too. =)

Background: We are both PhD students at UCSD and have become used to living a decently frugal life. However, we like nice things and love yummy food, and we are willing to indulge a little for the wedding "of our dreams" (whatever that may mean). That being said, we want the wedding to reflect who we are and feel natural and personal, and we want our guests to feel relaxed and comfortable hanging out with us and just having fun. =D

What we were looking for: a venue that can hold ~200 guests (we have a lot of family), with a pretty outdoor ceremony area and outdoor or indoor reception all in one location. good food with the capacity to accommodate vegetarian guests. someplace not too pricey and not logistically difficult, particularly for out-of-town guests. and finally, someplace that is "us" (definitely the most difficult thing to pinpoint).

What we were surprised by: For many venues, 200 is considered a lot of people! Most "smaller" venues will accommodate up to 180 as an upper limit. Many places have time limits of 10pm due to noise level restrictions. Also, the logistics and flow of the event is important and needs to be considered during site visits- where will people arrive and park, how will they know where to go for the ceremony and what to do afterwards, quality of restroom facilities, etc.

On to the venues! (in chronological order of our visits)

1) Balboa Park (San Diego)
1a) Japanese Friendship Garden

+natural setting with asian heritage, great garden entrance for guests to explore
+moonlight deck and koi pond is very pretty as cocktail reception area
-small space and very long layout of the dinner reception area
-bathroom facilities are minimal, single stall only
-ceremony site at the gate is awkward, requiring a crooked bridal walk and majority of guest seating behind a tree (shown in right panel).

1b) Casa Del Prado A/B

+nice architecture (pretty arches), big rectangular space that could be dressed up
-too public, basically anyone walking past could watch and potentially crash the festivities

1c) The Prado

+pretty outdoor courtyard with fountain and nice ballroom for indoor banquet
-ceremony site is below where the guests would sit, which feels a little detached, and the bridal walk requires going down a split staircase


1d) Spreckels Organ Pavilion

We briefly considered this as we walked by because of the big open space and great architecture, but never seriously looked into it. It's pretty though. =)

2) Grand Tradition Estate (Fallbrook)

+They do weddings exclusively, so their space is laid out very logically and everything is set up nicely for the flow of a wedding. This includes their heart-shaped lake and gazebo ceremony site, their beautiful ballroom with grand staircase entrance, grand piano, spacious dressing rooms, etc. They have two sites but we liked the beverly mansion better than the arbor terrace (no AC, no plated dinner, in a tent).
+good hosted bar options where you pay for just what is consumed
+package includes everything, making logistics and planning easier
-in fallbrook (1hr drive from san diego, can be deathly hot in the summer)
-on the pricier side ($120 per person as base price for plated dinner)
-feels fabricated (At the arbor terrace site, they have a waterfall that they can "turn down the volume" on during the ceremony, haha! clever and useful for weddings, but...unnatural)

3) Elfin Forest Estate (Escondido)
+private estate with big backyard, bbq pit and pool. feels intimate and offers lots of flexibility, including bringing own alcohol and food.
+bbq pit has a natural gazebo-like look which makes for a nice ceremonial setup
-in the middle of nowhere, with narrow, steep, rough road leading up to the house which is not well sign-posted
-backyard space is divided into sections, so the space is not very open. great for a large backyard party, not ideal for a wedding reception. plans to remodel, but not done when we visited.
-no real bridal dressing rooms yet (remodeling is planned)

4) La Jolla Cove Suites Rooftop (La Jolla)

+GREAT location in la jolla just across from ellen browning scripps park, panoramic view of the ocean, would be gorgeous at sunset
+could go down to la jolla cove wedding bowl for pictures
+hotel venue = convenient for guests to stay there and after-party in their rooms
-time limit of 9pm, could pay extra to extend to 10pm. requires reserving out ~20 rooms on the 4th floor.
-turquoise lamps are not super attractive, nor are the big skylight humps
-the indoor area where the AV setup is would be too small for everyone to see the slideshow

5) La Valencia (La Jolla)
+beautiful hotel with villa style and hand-painted tiles and homey warm feeling
+separate cocktail reception area and gorgeous ballroom that can open out to the patio for an indoor/outdoor reception
+hotel venue = convenient for guests
-lawn for the ceremony is tiny tiny so people would have to watch from balcony of the next building
-requires a certain minimum of rooms, with 2 night minimum stay over weekend and 3 night minimum over holiday
-pricey

6) Quail Botanical Gardens (Encinitas)

+natural setting, quirky and cute
+reservation would rent out the entire garden with lots of flora for guests to explore
+pretty gazebo reception site and very private walled garden for ceremony up to 180
-bathroom facilities are not the greatest


7) The Crosby (Rancho Santa Fe)

+country club gated entrance feels super nice and "exclusive"
+pretty pretty clubhouse with spanish style arches and decor, all facilites have upscale feeling
+separate but nearby spaces for ceremony, cocktail reception, and plated dinner
+no time limits
-lakeside ceremony requires a small trek up a hill
-no bridal dressing rooms


8) Darlington House (La Jolla)

+beautiful charming interior, 4 bathrooms, library, living/dining room, etc.. everything is old but really well-maintained and intimate-feeling
+gorgeous steinway grand piano in living room
+beautiful exterior patios- hand-painted spanish tiles, rose garden, fountain
+beautiful dressing rooms upstairs, with cute furniture
-no parking, would need to hire valet service
-time limit of 10pm (last dance 9:30pm)