My Wedding Report

Are you tired of all these “Searching” posts? Well maybe it is a glimpse of how we were feeling that weekend. We were all tired and starting to wonder when we would find what we loved. There were locations we liked, but something did not seem right in one way or another.

So our last location to check out that weekend was the Estancia La Jolla. The hotel is on the Torrey Pines Golf Course which is right by the coast and also home to the Lodge at Torrey Pines and the Del Mar Hilton, which are 2 other beautiful locations (out of our budget). When we drove up the Estancia it was basically love at first site. We loved everything about the place. It had its own unique rustic feel, a gorgeous ceremony site, didn’t feel touristy and we liked the ballroom. We basically were ready to declare it “the one.” It seemed from the menu pricing we could even squeeze it into our budget. However, after talking to the catering manager the next day we discovered the minimum was way higher than we thought. Even if we did the event on a Friday or Sunday it would be a stretch to meet the food and beverage minimum. We were sooo sad!!! We tried negotiating something to work out but it just was not destined to be. However, I’ll share with you some pictures from the location.

Photos from Here Comes the Guide

Photo from Jules Bianchi

So the Estancia La Jolla was not meant to be, that’s okay I still recommend it for anyone that is looking for an awesome location. After moving on from the Estancia La Jolla I continued onward in my venue search. Don’t worry…pretty quickly after I found the perfect location and I can’t wait to share it with you!

I wanted to go through some helpful questions that helped us narrow down our venues and get important information:

• What are your minimums for events? Is it different for different days of the week?
• May I see your catering menu?
• Do you have a fee for the location on top of catering costs?
• Do you have facilities for the wedding party to get ready in?
• Can I bring in my own vendors? Do you have any limitations?
• Is there handicap access for elderly guests?
• How much does it cost to upgrade linens & chairs?
• What parking is available for our guests? valet? costs? (We were quoted $30 a car at one location!)
• How many weddings do you do in a day?
• How long do we have the venue for? When can we start set up? When do we have to be cleaned up by?
• Do you offer hotel block discounts for wedding guests?

I hope that these few posts have been helpful. I took a lot of time to research ahead of time, but then some of it came down to actually going to the place and seeing it in person.

Alright so continuing on the journey of finding our perfect location from where I left off. ( Be sure to read Part I if you haven’t already.)

Mr. Ducky, my parents and I were touring all over San Diego to find our ideal location for the wedding. It was becoming a little frustrating, but we kept going in the hopes that our search would come to an end. (Note: I would not take everyone on this “outing” if I were to do it again. It started becoming a little stressful with so many opinions)

The Crossings Carlsbad
Another location we really liked was The Crossings Carlsbad. It’s a newer location site in San Diego is actually the clubhouse for a public golf course. Their pricing is super reasonable and they have some great packages. While our group would fit, it would be a tight squeeze and we would have to seat some of our guests in separate room connected to the main reception area. Because we didn’t want to have to “separate” a portion of our guests we had to keep looking. (Photos are from their website)

Inn at Rancho Santa Fe
Inn at Rancho Santa Fe is another beautiful location in San Diego. A few years ago some close friends got married here and I loved it. It’s kind of quaint and just really personal. As a personal preference Mr. Ducky really wanted an indoor reception. They have a ballroom, but it is on the smaller size and would not fit a group of our size. So that is our main reasoning for not choosing this location. Also, I have some friends/acquaintances that are getting married here in the next year and for a few of my guests I’d be the 3rd/4th wedding of the year in this location and I thought that was weird. They have a beautiful outdoor reception area and if you are looking for more of a garden wedding I’d recommend looking here. There is big tree that many of the ceremonies take place under and the surroundings are so sweet. I think it is also important to note that the catering managers here seem really great to work with.




Photos from The Knot

The Prado Balboa
The Prado in Balboa, was a little further south in San Diego than we originally wanted. However, weddings there looked so beautiful in the pictures that I just had to look. I really liked that the ballroom was unique and didn’t look like a standard hotel ballroom. When we arrived the location was filled with people and despite the beautiful pictures it did not seem at all private. Above the ceremony location is a restaurant where people would be sitting which took away from the beauty of it. Also, they do several weddings a day here and are on a pretty tight schedule of cycling them through. I really did not like this idea of packing them in (although I am sure it is efficient) so we crossed this location off our list. But you can see in the pictures how pretty it is.

Pictures from Here Comes the Guide

Coming next: Part III and the location that we thought was “the one”