Are You My Venue? #3: Ponte Winery

[Images from Ponte Winery]

I think today was the first day I have encountered in which wedding planning was not fun. I suppose it had to happen at some point.

Where to begin? First, we missed our site visit appointment at Ponte Winery. Due to poor planning on my part and the boy sleeping in later, we missed our appointment time. I called the venue several times asking if 30 minutes later would be a-okay, but unfortunately no one had checked their voicemail. So when I arrived, I was out of luck. The coordinator at Ponte was very nice about it and told me she was very sorry that they couldn't squeeze me in, but that I would have to look around the venue myself.

This normally would not have given me the headache that it did, but Ponte Winery is in Temecula, a good hour away from La Jolla. So we spent 2 hours driving today for a quick 15 minute walk-around the vineyard. I did my best "it's cool, we're totally fine, totally" face when the coordinator gently told me that no one could meet with us.

At this point I was kicking myself about not planning better, and getting increasingly frustrated with the boy. $%^&*#!!!

Anyway, enough of my silly trivial drama--despite the fact that we didn't get to meet with a coordinator, I am still glad we got to see Ponte Winery in person...because it is not the right match for us. BUT I can see how its benefits--an all inclusive package (WITH chiavari chairs,) on-site coordinators, ample parking, an outdoor ceremony and permanent tent--would make a great wedding.

We're taking it out of the running for the following reasons:

1. The drive is way too far. For some reason, a one hour drive in the Bay Area doesn't seem like much, but when you're driving in North County San Diego, all of the sudden that drive seems super.duper.long. Since a majority of our guests will be coming from out of town, the extra one hour drive just seems totally inconvenient. We wouldn't want them to fly and then have to drive another hour to our wedding.

2. It costs a bit more $$$ in comparison to other venues.

3. It just felt too big and commercial, and I was hoping for a more secluded, intimate ceremony and reception. There were a ton of people there, including two tour buses, and I just didn't envision a whole gaggle of people on site during my wedding day. We're quiet people who enjoy quiet places.

Three down, five to go. We have a whole half week planned in March in which we'll be parading around the SF Bay Area looking at venues, so I'm pretty sure I'll be all venued out by the time I roll around the last place, probably going crazy and babbling about bar options, chairs, and the earliest time we can arrive to set up.