Market California state parks as wedding venues, don’t close them

I’ve been reading with dismay about the imminent closure of more than 200 state parks and beaches in California because of our budget crisis. Below is a picture of Cabrillo State Beach, which is on the list.

The move may result in savings as much as $70 million, according to an LA Times blog post. I keep wondering where all that federal stimulus money went. Anyway, California is rich in beautiful parks and beaches, and to shut them down seems like a sinful waste. Here’s an idea — why don’t we keep them open and maybe work a little harder to promote them to the people and, oh, how about marketing them as wedding venues?

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Have a candy bar at your wedding, not an open bar

One of the more expensive aspects of a wedding reception can be whether you decide shell out for an open bar. For some couples, this is a must have. For others, alcohol is not important at all — and this includes my husband and I. However, I have an idea for you — how about drowning your wedding guests in sugar, instead of alcohol?

I took this photo at a bridal show last year. This used to be the only way you’d see candy at a wedding reception — in small, bite-sized servings as a fancy giveaway. No, no, no. I’m talking about major servings of chocolate and candy. And really — who doesn’t love candy?

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Wedding Venue: CBS Radford Lot in Studio City

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, or even read the About page, you already know I’m neither a full-time wedding decorator or wedding blogger. My day job (so to speak, since I work the night shift) is online news production for CBS 2 / KCAL 9. So I happen to work at the Studio City Broadcast Center, which is located on CBS’ Radford Lot, where it so happened a reception was happening one recent Saturday.

Of course, being as nosy as I am, I had to peek in, see how it was done, and of course, take pictures. It happened to be a somewhat slow news day, so I was able to use my breaks to indulge my nosiness….er, I mean, curiosity. FYI, I just want to make it clear these are not my decorations or flowers. I’ll give you the florist’s information at the end of this post.

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Budget-friendly venues in Southern California

It amuses me that my friends now come to me as a sort of sounding board for upcoming wedding planning. One of those friends includes Bryan Frank, a news photographer for my station and a fellow blogger. Turns out his oldest daughter is engaged and is turning to mom and dad for help finding a wedding venue that only an economist (the daughter) could love.

So he stopped by my desk the other day and picked my brain about which, in my experience, wedding venues in Southern California give you the most bang for the buck. Now, seeing as how I didn’t exactly get married in a traditional manner, I don’t exactly have a bride’s experience with shopping wedding venues. But I do have secondary experience with brides on a budget. My mom’s clientele was in general all budget minded, but they all liked things to look nice, too. So, I’m going to share with you an alphabetical list of the venues I’ve decorated at least four times or more, which indicates to me all these venues are budget-friendly.

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Ocean-view wedding venues

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My browser’s homepage is Yahoo, so as I perused the morning’s headlines, I noticed something interesting. One of Yahoo’s top searches this morning was Beach Weddings. Beach Weddings! They’re great in theory, in my opinion.

But if you ask me, the whole point of a beach wedding — being near the serenity and beauty of the ocean — would be better accomplished with an ocean-view venue. (The idea of sand and bridal gowns, oh, and wedding cake? Lord. Not a good mix in my opinion.) The above photo, by the way, was taken many years ago — maybe 10! — at La Venta Inn in Palos Verdes Estates. I have some more recent photos of the venue here.

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Get married at home

It has occurred to me recently that so many people have really beautiful homes, so why are hotels and other venues the only places we think of when planning a wedding? The thought didn’t come completely out of the blue — a friend of mine is getting married in April and will be doing it at a Malibu home. More on that later. Anyway, having a wedding at home used to be the standard, not the exception, unlike today. When scouring Flickr — and I mean clicking through the hundreds of pages of thumbnails tagged “home wedding” — I found very few pictures that actually fit the keywords. One photo I definitely wanted to share was this one from the ’30s. It was a simpler time…

Photo by Flickr’s Dan Kroesbergen

I don’t think I’ve ever decorated someone’s home — a house someone was actually living in at the time — for a wedding. Not even my old house in Hacienda Heights, which was gorgeous and beautifully landscaped and probably had the room for such an event. I have decorated venues that were homes but are now dedicated event facilities, like La Venta Inn on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and The Palace in Hancock Park (which inexplicably has no website address!).

But as with all things, there are many things to consider when having a wedding at home.

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Wedding venue no more? Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City

When you drive down Ventura Boulevard, the sight of the Sportsmen’s Lodge is a bit jarring. Amid all the slick stores and restaurants that now flank Ventura Boulevard, seeing what looks like a log cabin in a jungle (for all of the flora on the property is pretty wild) after passing the swanky Sherman Oaks Galleria, then the slick strip malls with Coffee Bean is like saying, “which one doesn’t fit?

Photo by Flickr’s ftfesz71

I’ve done maybe a handful of weddings — 5 or 6, in all the time I worked with my mom — at the Sportsmen’s Lodge. I liked two things about the place — the spiraling staircase in the banquet center (and I cannot, for the life of me, find a picture of the staircase; I’d probably have to dig into my mom’s printed pictures for one) and the swan ponds. Other than that, it was not my favorite venue — it’s in a busy area, the parking lots are kind of hard to get to, the facilities were old, the ballrooms were dark and low-ceilinged. But it had its charm, and we worked with it.

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