Our team is extremely knowledgeable with venues all over Southern California. By the time our clients start the search for their dream-wedding venue, they have set their wedding budget, concluded their guest list and have a clear idea of the style (beach, city, etc.) of wedding they want to have. If you haven’t done this, we suggest you read our posts Setting a Wedding Budget – What you need to know, Choosing a Wedding Venue in the Southern California’s South Coast Region and Wedding Budget Break Down in Detail.

San Diego, California is one of our favorite areas of Southern California and our team is very familiar with the city. We’ve planned weddings and events all over San Diego from the southern tip of Coronado Island to Carlsbad in North County. San Diego is one of the most popular wedding destinations in the world. It’s the home of venues with ocean, mountain and city views. We provide our clients with a very detailed venue list, making it easy for them to decide which venues they want to consider for their wedding. In this blog post, we will discuss some of our favorite venues on that list.

When it comes to beach weddings, many couples want to have their ceremony directly on the sand. However, even with the hundreds of miles of sand that stretch along the Southern California coast, due to city limitations and permits, finding the perfect venue that will allow you to get married on the sand can be challenging. For this reason, we absolutely love the island of Coronado, as it is the home to a couple of our favorite venues that allow wedding ceremonies directly on the sand. These venues are Hotel del Coronado and Loews Coronado Bay Resort. If the couple is OK with having an ocean view at their ceremony, we love La Valencia Hotel and L’Auberge Del Mar which are located north of the island.

Hotel del Coronado

Loews Coronado Bay Resort

Not every client wants an ocean view or beach wedding. For the city vibe, we love Downtown San Diego. This area is hip, fun and there’s so much for your guests to do. Two of our favorite downtown venues are The US Grant and the El Cortez Don Room. Both have very romantic settings!

The US Grant

Don Room at El Cortez

Last but not least, and probably our favorite area of San Diego, is North County. The resorts in North County are some of the most beautiful in all of Southern California. This area is the perfect location for a black-tie event. The Fairmont Grand Del Mar is breathtaking. One of our favorite weddings we’ve ever planned was at this resort. You can view that wedding here. The Grand Del Mar has a stunning chapel on site that creates the most romantic setting for an indoor ceremony. A few of our other favorite wedding venues in North County San Diego are The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, Rancho Valencia, and Rancho Bernardo Inn.

Fairmont Grand Del Mar

San Diego is the perfect wedding destination as the city has a lot to offer. Your guests can go sailing, play golf on some of the most beautiful golf courses in the world, or attend a major sporting event. There are few people that would turn down attending a wedding in San Diego, California! It’s also very easy to travel to San Diego. The city has a major airport for those traveling afar. There is also a train (Pacific Surfliner) that travels right in to the city, making it very convenient for anyone traveling from the north that wants to avoid the famous Southern California traffic.

We would love to chat further with you about our favorite venues in San Diego. Please contact us to learn more and let us help you find the perfect venue for your event!

Yay, you’re engaged!!! But now what? One of the first issues I have to help a couple with is their wedding budget. Some people have thought a lot about it, some have left out important items and others haven’t thought at all about it by the time they are meeting with the Constance Curtis team. We are here to make sure you think about everything and don’t have to worry about anything.

When a couple begins the wedding planning process, the very first thing they should do is set their wedding budget. As a destination-wedding region, getting married in Southern California can be very expensive and it is important to understand the cost of typical wedding wants and must haves. It is also important to know how to spend your money wisely. Whether you are on a strict budget or have an unlimited budget, every couple wants to know they are spending their money responsibly. While you are focused on one wedding, we have years of wedding planning experience that will enable us to advise you on reasonable vs. unreasonable costs.

It is important to know that when we refer to the budget of a wedding, we are referring to the cost of the entire wedding from the bride’s dress to food, venue, photographer, flowers, invitations, etc. Brace yourself for this next fact… The cost of a well-planned memorable wedding in Southern California can start around $300 per person. Wait, that is nothing. We have planned weddings that cost up to $1,200.00 per person. The two major factors to consider when setting your budget is wedding guest count and venue rental costs. This article will discuss these issues in more detail below.

We understand you have a lot of friends and your fiancé’s family is huge, however, you are going to have to quickly decide how much you love/like all of these great people. Such an unfair choosing of who to invite vs. who not to invite is critical because it is unrealistic to think you can plan a 200-person well-planned wedding for $30,000.00 in Southern California. If you would like to invite 200 guests, it would be reasonable to assume that you likely won’t spend less than $60,000.00 for your wedding. For this reason, you should focus on an agreeable guest count in the initial planning stage of your beautiful day. If you are on a strict budget, I will give you some hints in a future article.

As we mentioned above, the second most important factor to consider when setting your budget is the venue rental cost. There is a reason we are a wedding destination hotspot – there are so many beautiful venues to choose from in sunny Southern California. We’re surrounded by gorgeous venues all along the coast, in the hills and everywhere in between. Many of these venues however, are very expensive. In other articles, we will discuss the nuances of beach weddings vs. weddings right next to the beach, urban venues and resort type venues.

With some exceptions, most venues have what they call “minimums” for food and beverage purchases. This “minimum” is always before tax and service charge. These minimums are exactly what they sound like – the least amount that you MUST spend if you are going to use their space to get married. Importantly, these minimums are always contracted for and you are agreeing to be legally bound to pay these costs. Part of the services we offer is to be right there with you when making decisions prior to signing on the ‘dotted line’.

While there are many ways to look at a budget, we like to suggest a general rule of thumb concerning venue pricing – that is to say that the venue costs never exceed 50% your entire budget. For instance, if you have a wedding budget of $80,000.00 and the venue has a minimum of $30,000.00, we would recommend that the proposed venue is a wise choice. Such a selection will give you room to spend money on other necessities such as your photographer, florist and a professional wedding planner.

Although there are many other things to consider, we hope this article has provided you some points to ponder. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help you, so you don’t have to worry about every little detail that goes into a beautiful Constance Curtis event.

I apologize for the delay in these pictures! Wedding season is in full effect and the past two months have been extremely busy! As seen on Style Me Pretty, our June destination wedding in Cabo San Lucas Mexico! Here are some of my favorite pictures! I love this couple! Enjoy 🙂

Pictures by Aaron Young Photography

XO,