Nothing makes coming back to work on Monday feel a worse than having the best weekend ever! Jeff and I headed down to San Diego early Saturday morning to look at wedding venues. We woke up, packed and headed down by about 8 am. We got to there a little early, so first we went by the church that we are having the ceremony at beforehand. I can't believe I am getting married here!! This is The Immaculata on campus at USD. It is absolutely breathtaking.
After we checked out the church, we were STILL early for our appointment. We weren't sure if we were going to hit traffic or not, so we left super early. Thankfully, it was such a smooth drive, there was barely any. We stopped in at the hotel bar for a couple bloody mary's. :)
We then met with three different venues. Two in downtown San Diego in the Gaslamp and one on Coronado Island. The first was the Manchester Grand Hyatt. This is where my entire family stayed when I graduated from college, so it is a little special to me. Brings me back to how excited I was to start real life. :) (Little did I know!) But, I do have to say we were really disappointed there. The sales manager that I had been working with was unavailable so we had to meet with a different woman, who was nice, but not great. The spaces that she showed us were TINY, there was absolutely no way were fitting 200 people in there for a seated dinner. The ball rooms were so narrow, had hideous carpet, and had absolutely no view of the water. One of them didn't even have any windows. I wasn't happy about that, as the one thing (besides the number of people that we were inviting) that I said was very important to me, I wanted a view of the water. I decided not to make a pros and cons list for this one, because I knew that we would not be getting married there.
We left the Hyatt a little disappointed and headed to the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa. I was a little nervous for this one, my mom "doesn't love" the idea of having everyone drive over the bridge. The second that we valeted the car, everything turned around. The attendant was so nice and as soon as Jeff told him what were there for he congratulated us and gave us directions as to what to next. Unlike the Hyatt where the guy took 10 minutes to spell my name on the valet ticket and was not helpful. You can see the ocean from the time you walk in through the front doors! It was definitely more laid back than the Hyatt, with a very resort-y feel to the place. We were early (we didn't stay long at the previous venue) so we found some chairs out by the water and sat out there for about 45 minutes. I can't count how many times I said "This is the life!"
We had a great tour of outdoor space where the tent would be constructed. I loved how close it is to the water. We met with Kristina and she was SO helpful, answering most of our questions before we were even able to ask! It was an awesome experience that completely changed the day!
PROS
- Beautiful tent included in per head cost
- One hour of hosted bar included
- They offer a variety of table sizes/shaped (included)
- Proximity to water
- View from reception space- bridge, and all of downtown San Diego
- Resort feel
- All guest rooms are currently being renovated
CONS
- Location--Coronado is beautiful, but this is the furthest from the church
- Cocktail hour is on the lawn in front of the tent; I don't love that for a couple of reasons -- first of all, it is completely uneven and almost tilts downward. Secondly, it is a wedding, people are going to be wearing heels and I don't want them getting stuck in grass.
- The cocktail area is also very small; it can be upgraded, but we don't think that is something that we want to spend extra money on.
- Tent draping is not included in per head cost.
Other Notes
- Event can run until 11 pm
- Flooring under the tent is concrete. They will power wash it prior. It was filled with bird poop when we looked (kinda gross).
- This is the only venue that would include a tent that was not there for us to view.
- White folding chairs included.
- Can provide cost-effective ways to do piece-y drapery.
We left this Marriott and headed to their sister property, the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. This was another beautiful property. We found out that we definitely want a tent. The tent on this property was on the fourth floor on a private terrace. There was an outdoor space to have the cocktail hour, which also included a couple of sets of outdoor furniture, which were cute. The tent was already set up here, so it was great to see more of what it would actually look like. We met with Marianna and she was amazing. She walked us through everything, and went through all of the pricing and packages with us again at the end, which was helpful too.
PROS
- Tent is included
- Tent is ALREADY fully draped, and it is really pretty
- AMAZING view of coronado, bay and harbor
- Variety of table sizes/shapes included
- One hour of hosted bar included
- Resort feel, but still in the middle of downtown
- Guests will have a lot of other things to do. This is important to me since everyone will be traveling. I want to make sure that they are able to have a vacation for themselves when they are in San Diego.
CONS
- $3,500 venue fee on top of food & beverage. She told us that it would cost around that much to drape the tent at the other Marriott--I should probably check on the cost for that.
- Event must close down at 10pm. There's a noise ordinance in place for the city, and since it is outside, we can't play music past 10pm here.
Other notes:
- Flooring is like an outdoor tile, nothing spectacular, but good enough
- White folding chairs included
- Includes two "lounge areas"
By the end of the third tour, we were pretty tired. We headed to our hotel, checked in and relaxed for a bit. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina on the 14th floor and had an amazing view.
We sat out on our balcony and then got ready to go to dinner at my FAVORITE restaurant in Pacific Beach, World Famous. Just as we were about to head out the door, I got a call from the restaurant saying that they didn't have electricity and that they weren't going to be able to host any one tonight! At this point we were starving and didn't want to search for somewhere else to eat, so we ordered a cheese plate from room service and FaceTimed with Jeff's family for a bit before heading to Red Marlin, the hotel restaurant. We ended up sitting at a fire pit to eat and it was really fun! The food was good, nothing REALLY great, but we still had a great time.
We headed back up to the room and rented Gone Girl. I read the book about a year ago, and have been dying to see it. I am embarrassed to say that I fell asleep about an hour in-- I didn't realize it was so long! I woke up and tried to stay awake but took a couple cat naps throughout. :) Jeff didn't like it, but I think I will give it another shot when I'm not so tired. We went to bed and I set my alarm, we had two more venues to look at on Sunday!
Sunday we looked at The Ultimate Skybox in Gaslamp, and then had an appointment at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, which is where we stayed. I will post the Pros & Cons of those two properties tomorrow. Saturday went really well, and I went to bed thinking that I already had two options that I really really liked. It was a really good feeling to complete our first real step into this whole "marriage" thing! ha
XO Nicci
