San Ysidro Ranch

d reception because the price was right and Suzi, the event coordinator, offered us some creative ideas for our not-so-traditional reception. We had our ceremony outdoors, on the patio, overlooking the golf course. We had a cocktail-style reception, with a heavy hors d'oeuvres package. After putting down the deposit, Suzi was hard to reach until approximately a month before the wedding, when my wedding coordinator got involved. Anyone who works with brides on a regular basis should know to be more responsive. Fortunately, I was a pretty Zen bride. She gave me some great recommendations for my cake and flowers, though. I rented lounge furniture for the reception through some un-named rental company that Suzi uses (part of the contract). She coordinated with this company and quoted me a price for x-number of couches and chairs and 10 "cubes," little black wooden cubes that are hollow and could be used as cocktail tables. I asked several times for the measurements of these cubes. The only answer I got was, "I think they're 18 inches, but I'll check." I never got the actual measurements. I had my mom make square-shaped placemats to sit under my centerpieces, designed with these cube tables in mind. On the day of the wedding, my coordinator was told that the rental company only has six cubes, despite the fact that I was quoted a price and paid for ten, but they had 12 of some other cherry-colored rectangular cocktail tables and substitued them without further consulting any of us. They looked okay, but I was totally irritated with the way the whole transaction went down. Los Robles also failed to order enough white plastic chairs for my ceremony, so they had to use their burgundy chairs with white linen chair covers for the first row. The only reason they had white chair covers available to them is that there was a big wedding anniversary party earlier in the day that had been using those covers. I shudder to think what would have happened if there had been a bat mitzvah that day where the young lady had chosen hot pink covers! Half of the hors d'oeuvres were supposed to be tray-passed for three hours, but we never saw them being passed. Our guests said that the food was very good, as they had been able to enjoy them for an hour while we were finishing our photos. Luckily, we had some stations with food sitting out. I will say that my guests had no idea of any of these hitches. The venue was able to solve the problems that came up and the staff who were onsite during the event were very friendly and professional.