venue help! Anyone want to chime in about any of these five locations?

copperdogma

The five I love via pictures/websites are:Japanese Friendship GardenQuail Botanical GardensParadise Gardens Twin Oaks House and Garden (I'm noticing a theme... )Falkner Winery(I previously posted with Paradise Point...which I adore...but it's too pricey for us)We are from out of town so need a place that will definitely be helpful for destination weddings. Hoping for about 100 people, next summer. We 're looking for something elegant, classic, and relatively simple. Does anyone have any advice about these places? horrible or wonderful experiences? We have to fly out there to see them all and can only afford to do the trip once so we have to make it count!I would really appreciate any and all help. If I can return the favour, I will gladly.Cheers to allNicole

wendysandiego

I'm not sure about the others, but I do know that Quail Botanical Gardens is VERY labor-intensive. Meaning that you have to hire people to bring EVERYTHING in--tables, all food, beverages, utensils, decor, etc, and that can be hard from out of town. If you are planning from out of town, I highly suggest a wedding coordinator. Also, check out this website: bridalinsider.com It's a fantastic forum just for San Diego. Go to the discussion section, then the "Review My Wedding" and you will find HUNDREDS of reviews of weddings--and many of your list above. Sign in, and ask a million questions! I never could have planned my wedding without that site. Good luck!

Just_Ali

I absolutely LOVE the Japanese Friendship Garden, sadly it was out of budget for us.  I've been to Falkner Winery as well and didn't really like it (but other brides adore it, I guess it's personal preference).  If your thinking of a winery I really loved Weins as well, in fact it was *almost* our location, but we've made several budget cut backs.

Marick

We went to a wedding at Quail Botanical Gardens and it was beautiful! When we were looking for a venue, we were considering them for a while, but it look them 2 weeks to respond to our email, so we decided not to use them. HTH

copperdogma

Thank you so much for the feedback.  Marick: the event planner at Quail got back to me right away.  Weird.  I wonder if it's someone new or just someone having a better day.  Worth being cautious about, I guess.WendySandiego: thanks for that advice too.  I found a couple of their caterers who seem to do more than just bring the food: event help, decorating, food, drinks...that should help. but it is something that we'd rather avoid.  Just_Ali:  I love the JFG too!  Every picture I see of it.  I'm wondering what it was about Falkner you didn't like...if you don't mind sharing.Thanks again.  This really helps and I really appreciate it. 

kellikb17

I was looking at Twin Oaks too and was told that they book 18 months in advance since they only host one wedding per day. Some places have several. The Japanese Friendship Garden would depend on the date and what is going on at Balboa Park that weekend. I had to rule it out because my date was the same weekend as Gay Pride festival. The whole area is a mess with the festival and parade. Definitely ask each venue if they have your date available before making any plans to fly out here. And if they do, you may want to ask about any events going on in the area because that would impact several things such as travel, rental car availability, and hotel accomodations. I ended up having to move my date to avoid these problems. Good luck!

Just_Ali

Nicole - I just didn't think Falkner was that nice, it's obviously a personal preference, maybe if I had seen it set up for an actual event I would have like it better.  I don't want to discourage you if you really like it!

Luke143Shawna

I have seen pictures form The Thursday Club in La Jolla. I dont know anything about it but it is really pretty. I think it's a relatively small venue but Im not sure.

chavezknight

This may confuse you even more, but I loved Falkner, but didnt like the Friendship Garden.  The friendship Garden looked like too much work becuase you had to bring so much in and it was small.   Good Luck!!!

heatherwhitten

Hi Nicole, We got married at Quail Botanical Gardens in April and had a great experience.  The wedding person at the garden only works two days a week, so sometimes, there was a lag in response but I never had a problem.  I am also from out of town as were the majority of our guests.  We had them stay at the Best Western and a Beach House that we rented through VRBO (I'd be happy to email that to you, just let me know).  And then we rented a shuttle from Cloud 9 to transport everyone who wanted to use it - the cost on that was $240 with tip.  We had just under 100 guests.  As far as being labor intensive - I was able to use chairs and tables at the venueOur caterer, Personal Touch, handled all of the rentals and we didn't have any issuesWe also hired a day of coordinator, Kasey Shephard and she did a great jobI LOVED getting married there and all of our guests loved it, in fact they are still talking about it.  If you have any other questions, let me know.  Everything with the venue and the caterer and the planner went really good.  And we would totally recommend it!

sallythatgirl

I loved the JFG but it ended up being just too pricy for us as we were having our reception elsewhere. I would be careful as to what might be going on in the Organ Pavillion (it's right next to it) during your wedding weekend. If you are considering the koi pond for your ceremony site, it probably won't hold more than 80 comfortably (if that). The JFG wouldn't need to much decor because the gardens are kept really nicely. But you would need to rent everything for the reception (chairs, tables, tents, generators). I believe you are also required to hire a security guard. The Quail Botancial Gardens were nice, but I don't know if it was the time of year we were visiting or what but the grass was pretty much dead at the main reception location. That area is also sloped so you will have to watch out for that. I went to a wedding at Falkner Winery in May of this year and it was pretty nice. The walk down to the ceremony site is long though so be aware that you have to walk down a long sloped pathway. The guests walked through the barrel room to get down to the ceremony site and back up to the reception, so that was pretty cool. The reception site has glass windows and overlooks the vineyards so that was nice. It is in Temecula though, so depending on when your wedding is, it can be pretty hot.Have you thought about looking at the Rancho Bernardo Inn? We loved the location and your OOT guests can stay onsite. If you get married there, you get a lot of perks too. It is on the pricier side though. We looked at a lot of other locations, but ended up going a different route (beach wedding, traditional Vietnamese reception) so none of these spots worked for us. If we weren't doing the traditional Vietamese reception, I think we would have gone with RBI or JFG. Hope this helps and good luck!

Hollie27

Hi!We got married at The Twin Oaks House and Gardens last October, and had a wonderful experience.  One of the reasons we chose it was because it had more of an "all-inclusive" deal.  The other reason we chose it is because it was "ours" for the whole day.  No other wedding is held there and no one else is allowed on the grounds.  If you need more details just feel free to email me.Hollie27@cox.net

daniellepanda

Just throwing in my cents We really wanted to have our wedding at the japanese friendship gardens, however once we visited the locationwe realized quickly some not so good things. #1 the cost. you have to pay by hour including set up and break down times and they had a minimum amount of hours you had to at least book. #2 the parking situation there on a saturday or sunday is a complete nightmare. there is a public parking lot adjacent to the friendship gardens but anybody can park there and depending on the time of the year balboa park parking can take up to 30 minutes to find a spot. #3 the area for the ceremony was very very small. i had a friend attend a wedding there last summer and although is was beautiful she said the ceremony was very cramped due to the lack of area for guests to stand near the pond. #4 you have to choose a caterer on their list and for us we where not into any of them, as they really lacked in vegetarian options and we are vegetarian as well a a bug chunk of our friends. #5 you have to rent everything, as nothing is included. And if you have the reception at night time you also have to pay to have somebody do lighting which was over $1500 minimum for the 2 quotes i got online. We ended up booking the quail botanical gardens. Carla responds in a pretty timely manner, i know she only works a couple days a week. The really good things we found for us #1 you can use the chairs and tables they have there, which are whit folding chairs and 48" rounds or 6' banquets, all you have to do is ask! This saved us a few hundred $ in rentals. #2 You get the whole garden to yourself if you do the evening slot, which means only you and your guests and 1 garden employee is there from 5pm-11pm. The daytime slot is cheaper however the garden will not be only for you if you do that time slot. #3 you have alot more freedom with your choice of vendors, including the caterer. They have a list of "pre approved" caterers they often work with, but as long as the caterer is licensed in CA and the garden see's fit that they are able to do catering you can choose any caterer you want. this saved us thousands of dollars and let us choose one of owners of our favorite restaurants do the catering for under $25 per person! #4 They allow you to bring your own booze (this also depends on what caterer you choose) which saves you lots of $ on alcohol and drinks. #5 You have use to the bridal suit to get ready which is included in your contract. #6 it has outdoor electricity all ready set up so you do not need to rent a generator for lights, or your caterer if this is needed. #6 there is TONS of free parking for your guests and you can have the ceremony and reception all in one location which is much easier for you and guests! The downside so far: its kind expensive. But depends on what your budget is, for us it was $1000 over our venue budget but we decided to book it anyway and save more money. A note about the gazebo lawn is the grass. When we booked it we where concerned because it looked burned from the sun and trampled on.I talked to carla about this and she told me that they have a couple big events there each year and they re-do the grass a few times a year to keep it looking better. If your event is before september you will have pretty good grass that is still green. the lawn does slightly sloop but honestly it does not affect the tables or chairs at all. And honestly when all the tables, chairs and dance-floor or laid you can hardly even see the ground anymore. Also you may want to check out the Water Conservation Gardens:http://www.thegarden.org/ It is pretty affordable and it is pretty there as well. only thing we did not like was all the signage up about conservation would be in almost any of your photos i think, because they are on 50% of the grounds. this is a great place if you are planning a "green" wedding theme though! good luck! danielle

dpepple

Twin Oaks is fabulous!!