need advice on Powerhouse (in Del Mar) as reception site

jazzqueenjessie

Hi all -
I've lived in Del Mar for my entire life and would love to have my wedding in Del Mar, but on somewhat of a budget so L'Auberge is probably out of the picture. I really want the ceremony and cocktail hour at Sea Grove Park, and I'd really like to to the reception at Powerhouse Community Center. But two things worry me:
1) Some people left bad reviews on yelp about the management/rules at Powerhouse, and I don't want to deal with that!
2) We're expecting about 110 guests, and I know the limit at Powerhouse is 120. I don't want to seat people upstairs or make people feel left out if they are seated outside. And I definitely don't want to cram everyone in. Will my vision of Powerhouse work with 110 people??

If you have any thoughts or know of anyone who has had a wedding here I would love to hear from you about your experience! Thanks so much
- Jessie

kay136

Hi Jessie!!
    That is the exact plan that I started out with for my wedding!!! I love love love Seagrove Park. It's beautiful and I love when I see wedding's there. L'Auberge was out of my budget range too even though I loved it there. It was a minumum of $45,000 for food and beverage alone for a Friday in July. I suppose it may be in a more reasonable range if you were willing to get married off season but that's not what I wanted.
Anyway- I have never been to a wedding at Powerhouse park but I had also heard bad things about it. It's hard to say reading reviews- you sometimes have to take things with a grain of salt. People tend to write reviews much more on bad experiences than on good ones. What turned me off to Powerhouse park was the inside. Have you seen it? It is pretty small and I believe with 110 people you would definetly need to seat some people upstairs or outside to be able to fit everyone. I really didn't like the idea of seating guests in different areas so I nixed this place right away. If you haven't visited it yet you definetly should and then talk to someone there about how you could seat that many people. Maybe they have an idea of how to make it work.

Another idea would be to have the ceremony and cocktail hour at Seagrove park and then have the reception at a hotel in the area. One of my friends did that. The reception was at the Hilton by the race track and it worked out  nice. I'm sure you could find a hotel even closer.

Good luck planning it all!!

kdutcher0725

I am in the same situation as you... I loved L'Auberge but it is way to expensive...Have you looked into Hotel Indigo or Clarion Del Mar? I haven't yet but am going to. Let me know what you decide on or are thiking of!!