San Diego, CA, USA < change city >

Best spot is Cuvier Park, aka the Wedding Bowl, in La Jolla. It's on the corner of Coast Blvd and Cuvier Street. You have to try and get it early and by lottery since it's so popular but it's great. You may not be able to fit your entire guest list there if all 150 attend.

La jolla Bridge club.

Marina Village is inexpensive and you're right on the water (marina), the problem with that place is that it's a bit dated but it's clean, easy to get to, and has plenty of free parking.

Coronado Community Center. Ceremony is on a lawn and the reception is indoors in a newish building. Lot's of free parking and you can get your photos at the Hotel Del if you want.

Del Mar Pump house. On the beach, great views. The down side is that parking there is bad.

Hill Street park in Sunset Cliffs. You're on the cliffs overlooking the water. You're also on dirt...

UCSD Faculty Club. Costs around $2K and you're somewhat close to the beach for your photos.

Got any base connections?? the Point Loma Sub Base has the nicest facility for weddings and reception and it's cheap. It's also really hard to get your date since it's so popular. The Admrl Kidd Club is probably #2.

Harbor Island Hilton

Japanese Friendship Bell park on Shelter Island.

Try the Nautilus Banquet Room at the Coronado Community Center. Just a few years old and great ocean views for a great price. Books up quickly.
http://www.welcometocoronado.com/Specials/communitycenter.html

Also Admiral Kidd Club is great. You can get military personel to sponser you. Also a long waiting list however. http://www.sdbg.com/admiralkidd.php

Enjoy the planning.

For the San Diego Parks- you will need to get a permit, but with that, you will need to provide all the chairs, decorations and clean up. So keep that in mind if you are thinking about the wedding bowl, etc. Also, there are size restrictions when it comes to parks as well. So, there might only be a couple that would apply for your 150 guest limit. Here's the link: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/parks/Weddings/index.html
Also, if you want to get married during the summer months (June, July, or August), it is done through lottery, so if you live in SD, I would recommend showing up at the first of June and get a number. Cause those months are the most coveted in San Diego and I had to do that for the wedding bowl.

Check out: Ocean View Villas: http://www.watermarkvacations.com/Ocean_View_Villas.html
I hear they let you bring in outside catering, which can be cool.

I would also check out http://www.bridalinsider.com for more info. Those ladies are amazing at saving money in SD.

ZLAK rowing club and the PB Womens' club are great.

Mission Beach Women's Club too.

The Thursday Club worked really well for us and not a lot of people know about it. It is up on a hill and overlooks Sunset Cliffs, parking was not a problem. You can do both your ceremony and reception there. We used Ranch Catering and did a small buffet. It was really beautiful. It has vaulted ceilings, all white inside, big windows to look out over the ocean, a beautiful garden surrounding the building, hardwood floors. You can use an ipod instead of a DJ and link it to their sound system, we did background music and a dance. Hope you find something that works!

The venue was $2,500 for six hours, extra hours are $100. We used ten hours from noon until 10pm, so total we paid $2,900, plus $150 rehearsal fee. We did our ceremony inside because it saved us the extra $500 that it costs to have the reception in the garden (but that is really beautiful). If you do the ceremony inside, you need to warn your photographer because of the light coming in the windows.

We paid $4,500 for the caterer and I said the wrong company above, it was Abbey Catering for the food, we used Ranch Catering for the cake only, it was $600. $500 for flowers (I want to say Michael's Flower Girl was the company). $1000 for dress and veils (Alfred Angelo). $500 for invitations and stamps (India Ink for materials, made our own). Photographer $1050 (two friends, very good). Decorations $1000. $400 for harpist for ceremony and cocktail hour in the garden. $100 for the officient. $100 for rental convertible get-away car. Those were most of the big things, our budget started at $12,000.

The total of the above mentioned was $12,650. We probably spent closer to $14,000 depending on what you consider part of the wedding budget (bachelorette party, I paid for the bridesmaids dresses, etc.) but I'm sure you could cut some of those costs and still have a beautiful wedding, probably for $10,000. If you cut the buffet and just did cake or hors d'oeuvres, it could probably be $5000. My maid of honor and I got married within a year of each other here in SD (I was her maid of honor too). We worked and worked and worked on wedding stuff for about 2 years in total, there are cheap ways to do just about everything. I had saved about $10,000 for our wedding so I didn't do absolutely everything the cheapest way.

How about Bali Hai? My BFF had a wedding ceremony and reception at that place for 150 guests last summer.

Try the inn at sunset cliffs...its a cute place and you can rent out the whole place so your family can stay there too. Over looks the water. It only can hold 105 though i think

Hi Pwalker!

My fiancee and I just stumbled across your budget breakdown for your wedding at the Thursday Club. We have a small budget as well (right around $12,000 as well) and we would love to see some photos from your wedding and talk to you about some of your choices (if you would be ok with that!). You can send me an email to [email protected] or reply to me here--I am excited to hear more about your wedding!

Kristin