Wedding venue thoughts from the soon to be groom

Tom Ham's:
- affordable for a nice meal and doable with limited financial support
- cozy, but too small to fit 150 and a dance floor comfortably
- great view of the downtown skyline
- a quaint all-in-one place


Kona Kai
- standard ballroom, nothing unique but still spacious enough to have 150 and a dance floor
- the ceremony site wasn't impressive
- nothing special, except that it was by the harbor


The other one
- too small!

Humphrey's
- the fantasy setting for a lush and luxurious wedding
- the ceremony site is something out of a fairytale, breathtaking
- outdoor concert area is odd at first because of the huge stage. If we decorated the stage it can be to our benefit. The outdoor area is spacious, can take advantage of San Diego weather
- pricey

Overall, these four places represent only a fraction of what's possible. I'm curious to check out other places and compare the sizes of their ballrooms, the views (if any), the customer service and the overall vibe of the venue.

08-08-08?

So THE date to get married this summer seems to be 07-07-07 (777) which on a slot machine could mean big bucks! I'm sure you've all heard about how Eva Longoria is marrying Tony Parker in France tomorrow.

For Chinese people, however, the numbers 888 is considered to be very lucky because the number 8 sounds a lot like the same character for "fortune" or "lucky." Eight in Cantonese is "baat" and being prosperous or fortunate is "faat." The "aa" sound sounds like an "AH" like when you open your mouth for the doctor. That's why you see so many eight's in Chinese culture. For example, in LA (San Gabriel Valley to be exact) where my parents live, there are tons of restaurants with the number 8 in the name. I remember there's a 168 Restaurant because the numbers 1, 6, and 8 sound a lot like, "Keep on being lucky."

Chinese people can be quite superstitious to say the least.

I bring this up because August 8, 2008 does so happen to fall on a Saturday. Hmm? My school schedule has been rumored to MOST LIKELY to change to a modified year round in 08-09, which means I'll no longer have my lovely 3+ week breaks four times a year. I am quite attached to year round though and would put up a fight to keep it if I could. What it could mean is that it is possible my summer break next year will run longer than it has in previous years... making it POSSIBLE to have our wedding on 08/08/08.

Now I'm not a very superstitious person myself and I don't quite believe in all the Chinese traditions and what not... however, I do believe it would make several members of our Chinese families quite happy if we had an opportunity to get married on that date.

Also, maybe August dates are not as competitive as June/July dates?

I guess we'll see what God says...

Wedding Site #4 - Humphrey's Half Moon Inn

In the middle of Shelter Island is Humphrey's Half Moon Inn. At this point, we had spent a good couple of hours looking at the previous three sites. It was also a pretty humid day in San Diego, so we were hot and a bit tired. I thought grumpy Adam was ready to call it a day, but when I asked him if he wanted to see this last location, he agreed to go see it since we were already there.

I can't believe we almost didn't see this place!!!

We had been praying that God would guide us and help us with our wedding decisions. I'm so glad that He nudged just a little further to go see this location because we just fell in love with it. And I think it's pretty safe to say that Adam fell head over heels for it. (And for the first time in this whole planning process, I think Adam was actually *FINALLY* excited about this wedding! You can see in the pictures that he's finally smiling and no longer grumpy pants.)

I also think God had a hand in this especially because for the past year, I've been receiving flyers from this location. (I got onto some wedding list somehow.) The dork that I am, I totally thought this location was in Half Moon Bay up in the bay area. Shows you how little I know. Surprisingly though, this is the only place in San Diego that's snail-mailed me something. Hmm?

On our way to the lobby, we passed by the concert area. Apparently, Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay is located here. They have this huge circular concert area that sits right by the water. The stage is huge! However, it is a very open space. (More on this later. *wink*)

We walked towards the ballrooms and poked around the Marina Ballroom. Again, we thought it'd be tight for 150 people. 150 COULD fit, but there'd be a pretty tight dance floor if we put 15 round tables in there. We walked over to the other ballroom and some of the catering staff were cleaning up what looked like the leftovers from an earlier function that day.

The head houseman (sp?) came over and introduced himself to us. His name is Anastacio (sp?). Remember how first impressions speak volumes? Well, Anastacio not only introduced himself but also genuinely congratulated us on our engagement. He was the ONLY person to do that today, by the way. It was nice. He walked us back to the Marina ballroom and he asked how many people we were planning on having and we said 150. And get this, he was HONEST with us and said that 150 would be tight in that room. He said it was doable, but real tight. I appreciate a man with honesty! Instead of trying to sell us the room, he was truthful. Love it. He showed us where he would put the cake table, the gifts table and what not. It really showed us that he had a great handle (and loads of experience) on running events.

We were talking outside of the room and Adam asked about the concert area. And these were his words (magically ingrained in my memory hehe), "Let me paint you a picture... two buffet tables back here, cocktail tables for guests to hand out next to the buffet tables, dance floor in the middle, cake table by the stage and your head table or sweetheart's table by the water so you can see everything that's going on."

Oh man, we were floored! :) He "painted" the picture beautifully in our minds and we just fell in love with the place. He mentioned that there'd be a wedding there next weekend with 300+ guests if we wanted to peek at it. (300 guests?! Wow! Maybe I should remind Adam of this number in comparison to ours when he has his next freak out moment about the number of people we're inviting. Hehe. I love you!)

The space is beautiful! It's right by the water. It could easily fit 150 people with space to spare. The DJ can play from the stage. And, a big plus, it'll be OUTDOORS! An outdoor reception! Of course it's not as spectacular as Mike and Kelly's outdoor reception that was written right out of a movie, but we love it. It's all enclosed in the circular area so it can feel intimate and not incredibly spaced too far out. Plus, it means we can have a large dance floor.

We continued to have a great conversation with Anastacio about his family and two daughters. He was such a pleasure to chat with. The first real person all day. I can see how it'd be a pleasure working with him too.

So with our mouths wide open, we walked over to the ceremony garden area. And I think this was what sealed the deal for Adam. :) It was so pretty. Very intimate. It sits in the middle of an area surrounded by rooms. All covered with grass. It has an archway with flowers and plants all over it. (Very nice because we can save money on decorating it!) There's actually an area that people can practice putting on. :) Too cute. Adam and I stood under the altar and everything just felt so right. The garden can easily fit 150 people with room to spare. And att that point of the day (close to 5ish) there's enough shade for people to not roast in the sun.

We were in love.

Moment of truth: we walked into the lobby to get some wedding info. We sat down and looked at the brochure and it is pricier than we were hoping for. It's not quite as expensive as Kona Kai, but not by much. There are options for different buffets (Italian, Seafood, Polynesian, and Asian). But it IS pretty expensive per person. There are entrees that are a little cheaper per person, but I think a buffet would be nicer. People can eat as much as they want... AND I don't have to deal with meal choices on the RSVP cards and what not. (Always a planner at heart, aren't I?)

We actually went back out to see the garden area again. :) Adam was so smitten at this point. I hadn't seen him with that much excitement about this whole wedding thing ever. I think he thinks it's a conspiracy against him or something. Men, gotta love 'em. From the garden, we took the short walk past the pool back towards the concert area for one more look. And we found something else we liked about the place... the short walk opens up to a space by the concert area that really lends itself to a grand entrance into the reception area - not only for us, but for our guests! Wow... absolutely breathtaking.

It was hard to keep our excitement to ourselves when we left this place. I could totally envision our wedding there. I tried to revel in Adam's excitement because it made me so happy to just see how giddy he was. Now if we can figure out a way to afford it, we'd be sold!




My overall impressions...

Pro's:

• Another great location
• OUTDOOR ceremony AND reception!
• Enclosed area = intimate space
• Our guests can stay there
• Reception space is right by the water
• Great customer service from Anastacio who really didn't have to take the time to talk to us like he did
• Beautiful altar in the garden area
• Enough room for 150+ people
• We LOVE it. :)

Con's

• The only con I can think of is that it's expensive

You know what I think, now what about you?

Photo credits:

• Slideshow photos by: Jasmine Marie Photography
• All other photos from Half Moon Inn website
  

Wedding Site #3 - Island Palms Marina Hotel

People say a first impression says a lot. I should have went with my gut feeling when we went to the Island Palms Hotel. (It wasn't a good one.) However, people say never judge a book by it's cover. In this case though, I think I should have trusted my intuition. It's so rarely wrong. ;)

It was quite confusing to figure out where the lobby was exactly because it looked like two completely different hotels. So we walked down, glanced at a map and finally found the lobby. When we talked with the front desk, a lady handed us some papers and said the person in charge wasn't here today. And that was it. The other places didn't have their main catering person there either, but at least they led us in the general direction of places to look at. Not a very good first impression in my opinion. Adam on the other hand, is a lot more forgiving than I am. :) I love that about him.


We sat and looked at the papers that gave us "directions" to the different places. (Directions in lieu of actually having to talk to us, perhaps? note the sarcasm.) We headed off towards the ballrooms. The lobby itself is very exotic, polynesian-looking. We followed the information that described the maximum number of people for each venue. We walked downstairs past the restaurant and into a ballroom with the wall up in between the two separate rooms. Supposedly, according to the information sheet, the Grand Marina Room is supposed to seat 150 max. Both of us just kind of laughed because there's no way 150 seated people can fit into that room. Granted the wall partition WAS up, but really? I tried to picture 75 people in each half and just couldn't. SECOND bad impression.


We walked out to find the Grand Marina Garden. The picture above is the picture from their website. Very nice looking, right?

Well, the sheet says it can fit 150 people. If you look at my picture in the slideshow, I seriously cannot see how 150 chairs are going to fit in that small area. Are people expected to stand? Or are they going to watch from their guest room windows and balconies, perhaps?

THIRD bad impression.

At this point, we were very disappointed by their lack of being able to accurately measure the maximum capacities of their venues. I mean, we're no "measuring geniuses" that know exactly how 150 people look like, but I think they might have stretched their numbers in order to squeeze people in (uncomfortably at best).

We were not very impressed at this point. We decided to go see the final ballroom on the list, called Water's Edge Ballroom. Now what image comes into YOUR mind when you hear "water's edge ballroom"? A lovely ballroom on the edge of the water, maybe? Oh man. We walked down past the Casa Del Mar part of the complex. This is what you see when you first open their website. Very lovely looking, but it did NOT match the first part of the hotel (the Polynesian themed part). Adam made an observation that it almost appeared like this company just bought these areas to add to their land.

So imagine our surprise when we finally walked down to the end of the complex to where the Water's Edge Ballroom is located and it looks like an old lodge (and that's coming from Adam)! I didn't even bother to take a photo of it. It was too disappointing to even photograph, honestly. I wasn't impressed by it when we approached it, but kept that opinion to myself until Adam finally said something. I have to say I was relieved that we both had similar opinions about it. :)

Fourth and FINAL bad impression.



My overall impressions... (just to be consistent with the other posts)

Needless to say, we did NOT like this place. The prices are little higher than Tom Ham's, but lower than Kona Kai's. However, it just didn't sit right with us so... thanks, but no thanks!



Photo credits:

• Slideshow photos by: Jasmine Marie Photography
• All other photos: Island Palms Hotel website
  

Wedding Site #2 - Kona Kai Resort and Spa

From Harbor Island, we drove down back towards Shelter Island about a mile or two. The rest of the sites we wanted to look at today were all on Shelter Island. We decided to go all the way down to the end and then make our way back. At the tip is the Kona Kai Resort and Spa (formerly known as the Shelter Pointe Hotel).

Driving in, it was absolutely beautiful. There is a large fountain in the front. When you actually walk in, there's a strong feeling of being on vacation... like an escape from the world. To me, it felt weird that we were still in San Diego. We parked down the street and walked by some of the guest rooms that reminded me of villas. We spoke with a concierge who gave us a wedding folder with info and a map that was very helpful!


We walked over to the Cabo Courtyard. There was shower there earlier so tables were still set up. You could hold a ceremony there. It could seat over 150 people easily. However, it was right by the pool. Behind the courtyard was a place for a bar and a open area that I thought would be nice for cocktail hour if we had our ceremony here.

From here, we walked over the hotel restaurant. The concierge mentioned that they could close it off and we could have our reception in there. It was a very circular room with a huge pillar in the middle. Nice view of the marina though. However, we thought it'd be a oddly-sized space for a reception. Not sure if it'd fit 150 people either.

Onto the ballrooms! We walked back out of the lobby and back towards the ballrooms that sit by the marina. I took tons of pictures of the corridors because I loved the arches and the way the shadows were hitting the ground. Grumpy pants Adam, on the other hand, was trying his best to avoid being in any of my photos. From my photos, you can see from his facial expression and the fact that in most of the photos, his back is facing me or he's just way far ahead of where I am. In addition, he wasn't too thrilled about the fact that I was taking a lot of photos either. Grumpy, indeed! (I do love my Adam though.. grumpy pants and all.)

Well, I was busy taking photos because what I love most about this place is that there are so many spots that lend itself to a beautiful backdrop for wedding photos. The photographer in me couldn't help but notice all the little nooks and crannies, corridors and arches, flowers on the walls, fountain, etc. It would be a wonderful place just for photographs! :)

Okay, back to the search for a wedding site...

There is a foyer in the back that leads into three ballrooms. These have walls that can be put away to lead into one big ballroom. On this particular day, that had two ballrooms connected into one big room. This room could definitely seat all 150 guests easily without it being crowded. Adam counted 12 tables and they were all seated around a huge dance floor. I loved what Adam mentioned about the room about how there is not a "bad" seat in the house because every table was relatively close to the dance floor. I loved how it was more of a square-ish sized room instead of a long rectangle. (I included some photos of the ballroom in the slideshow.)

Outside of the foyer and the ballrooms is the marina. The rooms sit parallel to the water. Since it's on the tip of the Shelter Island, it's actually on the tip that does not face the bay so there's no SD skyline view in the room. A nice view of the boats though.

Next to the marina and the ballrooms is a open area for a ceremony. It's spacious enough to seat 150 people comfortably. It is outside. With some flowers and decorations, it could look pretty nice. It is kind of drab without anything though.

However, right above that open area is a circular area directly outside the foyer that can hold ceremonies. I believe the first picture on the right is taken in that area. It is small for 150 though.

While walking around a little more, I got a nice shot of the resort's private beach. The concierge mentioned how a couple had gotten married on their beach and it was very casual. I thought it'd be a nice place for our guests to relax if they wanted, but not a suitable place for our ceremony. I always thought I'd get married on the beach because of my affinity for beaches, but I think the traditionalist inside of me couldn't live down wearing a casual white dress with flip flops for my wedding.


The resort also has their own privately owned marina. Anyone own a boat? :)

My overall impression...

I think we could both easily see having our wedding here. It has everything that we want - a place for a ceremony, reception and even a place for our guests to stay. They can walk from their guest room to our wedding in their bathrobes! (Just kidding... well they COULD if they truly desired so.) It does feel very much like a resort on a small scale. The location is spectacular. For photographs, we could easily walk across the street to get some with the SD skyline as a backdrop. You can see from the aerial shots that there's a strip of walkways leading down the island. Lots of green grass for picnic areas. Again, places to take photographs really tops my list. I'm sure it's at the bottom of Adam's list. :) The place feels classy and elegant, but not so lavish and extravagant like a Grand Hyatt Hotel would feel. It'd be a good compromise actually... simple but elegant. HOWEVER (and this is a big BUT), it is quite pricey and almost double Tom Ham's. Lastly, like what Adam said, it'd be a very "predictable" place to have a wedding... like it's been done before.

Pro's:

• Great location
  
• A really nice place for our guests to stay
• Wonderful spots for photographs! :) - this weighs so much heavier for me than it does for Adam. I hope he'll post his own pro's and con's.
  
• Can easily fit our number of guests
• Secluded feeling because it's at the end of the island
• It does have a spa (pre-wedding couple's massage, perhaps?) hehe one can dream...
  

Con's

• A lot more pricey than we were expecting
• Not as unique as maybe Adam was hoping for?
  

Your thoughts?

Photo credits:

• Slideshow photos: Jasmine Marie Photography
• All other photos: Kona Kai Resort and Spa's website

Wedding Site #1 - Tom Ham's Lighthouse

Adam and I went to visit several ceremony sites on Harbor Island and Shelter Island right by the SD Airport this past Sunday. We searched online on Saturday for sites that had reasonable prices. It was quite fun to look at pictures online with Adam and just see what we wanted and what we didn't want. San Diego is such a great place to get married, but also such a PRICEY one too! I can't imagine having a wedding that costs over $100 per person. Adam and I both don't want a lavish extravaganza for our wedding because that wouldn't be "US," but I think we both agree that we want it to be nice and intimate.


We first visited Tom Ham's Lighthouse on Harbor Island. Harbor Island is directly across from the SD Airport and right on the bay. My coworker Joanne (who will be celebrating her 1 year anniversary this August) highly recommended having our wedding here because of the reasonable prices and great location.


Tom Ham's is actually a restaurant that serves lunch and dinner. It's at one of the tips of Harbor Island so it's a bit secluded. What I like the most about this place was how it felt intimate. It didn't feel huge and impersonal. Cute little lighthouse.

The building itself is two stories high. When you walk in, there is a foyer that leads to some banquet rooms and a big staircase that leads to the restaurant located on the 2nd story. We noticed that there were a couple of events going on and we peeked into the rooms. There was a wedding in the California Room (which is the one that we would be renting out if we were having our reception here). It was a rectangular room that looked very intimate and we think we could fit about 150 people in there. What I loved the most about that room was the huge windows so you had a great view of the bay and the downtown skyline standing from anywhere in the room. I didn't get any photos of it because there was an actual wedding going on inside, but we did like the room at least from what we saw while we were nosy peekers.



We went upstairs to the restaurant and saw the view from the huge windows. Gorgeous view. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful city. The view from the 2nd story is directly about the outside patio area where the ceremony would be held. The patio area is actually above the water. Very beautiful. However, when we talked to a manager, he said that the maximum capacity for the outside area is 120. Adam and I are trying to aim for 150 (an ideal number) so we won't be able to fit our guests in their ceremony area.

The menu prices are VERY reasonable though. After we poked around, we went outside and down the road a little bit to get a side view of the place. It sits over the water. Absolutely breathtaking.



My overall impression...

We both like this place. The location is wonderful and it has a great view of the bay. It's a lot space-ier than Bali Hai (where we went to a wedding last Saturday). I love that it's intimate and reasonably priced. However, we don't think we'll be able to fit more than 120 people in our ceremony. Maybe we can put 30 people on a boat and they can watch from there? hehe.

Pro's:

• Great location and beautiful view
• Very reasonable prices (highest price for dinner is about $50 per person with taxes and gratuity)
  
• Intimate

Con's

• Won't be able to fit more than 120 people in the ceremony area
• Can be considered "small"

What's your opinion?

Photo credits:

• Slideshow photos: Jasmine Marie Photography (that's me!)
• All other photos: Tom Ham's Lighthouse website
  

Our wedding colors...

You can probably guess what our wedding colors are from the colors of this website. In the past two years, I have fallen in love with pink/brown color coordinates. Those of you that have visited my bedroom will probably notice right away my brown bed with pink Roxy pillow and my super PINK bathroom. You can only imagine how happy Adam was when he moved in last October to have to share my super duper pink bathroom. His Auntie Denise bought us a pink plant to match! It's happily living in my bathroom window that gets great sunlight.

Our wedding colors are:

• pink: not pale pink, but a rosier pink; not HOT pink either. (I don't think Adam would like a "hot pink wedding".)
  
• brown: a chocolate/espresso brown
  
• cream: and cream as an accent color (a very neopolitan ice cream wedding)

Apparently, pink/brown is very trendy right now. Anything with brown is real trendy. I don't care, I love it!

Welcome to our wedding blog!

Greetings!

Welcome to our new wedding blog! This will be a website where Adam and I can post blogs about our journey through planning our wedding. This will NOT be the site that has information for our actual wedding. We're in search for a good site that'll host wedding websites for free, but from what I've seen... they're very limited in their options for the "free" ones.

This site will be a place for us to just post updates on what's going on with our wedding planning. We've been engaged for almost two months now. Time sure does fly by fast!

I've always been an avid magazine reader. I honestly don't know how many subscriptions I currently have. :-) Now that I'm engaged, I have a whole new realm of bridal magazines available to read at my leisure. Adam gets overwhelmed by the growing pile of wedding magazines in my room, but I am enjoying everything about being engaged. It's fun to tab ideas in the magazines and try to envision what our actual wedding day will look like.

I am also a very avid blog reader. I have two other current blogs (xanga and a photography one that I haven't really added anything to yet). I thought I'd give blogger a shot again since you can have multiple authors on blogger and not on xanga. I do have to say that I feel very restricted by the few options on blogger. I don't like how the menus work. Maybe because I'm used to xanga. If anyone can tell me how to get multiple authors on xanga, I'd happily move this blog over there. I kind of like the new xanga themes. I really wanted to go with .mac, but I have yet to purchase a mac.

Anyhoo, I read lots of blogs on a daily basis... and I've found this wedding blog that I absolutely adore! It's weddingbee.com. Women who are currently planning their wedding apply to be a "bee" on their site and they post about their adventures in wedding planning! I have gotten a lot of diy (do it yourself) ideas from this site so I highly recommend it to my currently engaged friends.

Teachers are planners by nature and I am incredibly excited about getting the whole planning process started. I have all my supplies ready to start my wedding binder (pink, brown and cream paper; dividers, sheet protectors, etc.) I have plans to cut costs by doing projects on my own (with the help of my lovely friends and fiance of course!). For example, I have ideas for creating our invitations, programs, table settings and centerpieces. I am also becoming a huge fan of Martha Stewart because she has these great diy projects with detailed instructions. It is my hope to post these projects on this site with PHOTOS!

It is such a blessing to be able to share this journey with you! Please comment often!
Jas