Our ceremony took place at La Jolla Bridge Club, which sits right on La Jolla Cove. It offered a beautiful view of San Diego for our guests, though there were also many issues we didn’t anticipate.
It’s actually a far cry from what I had originally imagined for my wedding. I won’t go into the details of the original plan. The idea for having it at La Jolla Bridge Club came to me during a discussion with a colleague who was planning her wedding. She informed me that they were doing a destination wedding. And then it hit me. Here I was, lucky enough to live in a beautiful city that many people would go to for a destination wedding. And since I was making all our friends and relatives travel to San Diego, why not make it sort of a destination wedding spot?
So we looked for beaches, places with ocean views. The first spot that actually popped in my mind was La Jolla Cove Bridge Club, having seen many weddings there before. In the end, while we found other options as well, this one had meaning. DH had actually proposed at La Jolla Cove, so it seemed like the perfect place to get married.
But like I mentioned above, having your wedding at a beautiful, popular, outdoor attraction, in the middle of summer, does have its issues.
We had been warned that parking would be difficult. So in turn, we warned all our guests. We wrote detail instructions of where to park and to leave with plenty of time to account for traffic during the busy tourist season. Apparently no one listened. Fifteen minutes after the scheduled start time, and only about thirty percent of our guests had arrived.
Then, finally, when we decided we would wait no more, DH’s dad went MIA. He had gone to his car to go get something and decided it was a great time to try to move his car as well… He was unfamiliar with the area and I guess he must have gotten lost. This caused further delay and quite a bit of stress.
All morning, little problems had occurred, which always happens with weddings. I think I had handled all the issues pretty well, much more calmly than I usually would. But when DH’s dad went missing, that was the moment I did not handle well. The days leading up to the wedding had been so much pressure, and the entire time, I had envisioned when it all would be over. And then to suddenly have this delay, it was really just too much. DH was equally upset and frazzled, as I could see him from the window, frantically trying to reach his dad.
Finally, after about a forty minute delay, we were ready to begin. Even though I knew we were in a public space, and I knew there would be tourists, I didn’t expect so many strangers watching. I’ve walked by weddings before. I usually look and keep walking. But apparently most people stay. They stay, watch, and even record and take pictures of strangers’ weddings. By the time we were halfway through the ceremony, I took a peek around and there were actually more strangers watching our wedding than guests invited.
Another issue we didn’t anticipate was noise. During the crucial vows, a helicopter with a huge advertisement for single people took the massive crowd as a great opportunity to fly over and show their banner. It completely drowned out my portion of the vows and no one could hear anything.
I’d like to say that the ceremony was magical and everything. But honestly, it was just such a relief when it was all over. During the ceremony, I was just trying to concentrate on the priest and wondering why everything seemed so long, when it seemed so much shorter when we had met with the priest previously. Once it was over though, it was like a huge weight had been lifted and we did have a really good time at the reception.
Congratulations! The cove really is a gorgeous site. A little late seeing your news, but just to mention, I was married at The Thursday Club in Pt Loma (um, 20 years ago) and it was also an amazing site/venue. It might be worth mentioning to others as another option, to avoid the traffic and gawker issues at least. Enjoy!
Thanks! And thanks for the suggestion of alternatives. I do plan on doing a write-up about suggestions/tips from my experience so that’s a good one to suggest to other people.
Excellent spot. Love the cove!
It is such a pretty spot. Just wish there weren’t so many gawkers!
so why did DH’s dad disappear?? why do all asian parents do crazy things such as that before something HUGE is about to happen? lol
He went to go get his checkbook from his car because DH forgot to bring his. And when he went to his car, he thought he might be parked in a wrong spot so he decided to try to move his car…I don’t know why his parents have no sense of time…
What the ceremony looked like to most guests:
https://tomorrowspaper.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/how-to-avoid-traffic-jams-35319_2.jpg
🙂
Oh boo. All of that stress! At least it’s all over now and it was still such a pretty spot!
I do regret though, that we completely forgot to take any pictures next to the water! heh. I hope the guests at least got to enjoy the ocean view.
So sorry that the wedding ceremony was so stressful! But your photos turned out beautiful. And it’s done! 🙂
Yup, so relieved it’s over!
OMG, that helicopter! The nerve! At least it wasn’t for anything nasty.
Despite all the stress you went through, you guys survived and one day you and your husband will be able to look back on this and smile
I often have moments when I think of what we should have done differently to avoid all the problems. DH just says forget it, it’s all over. I might write them all down somewhere as advice for others. Heh.
Congratulations! I’ve been totally MIA from blogland all summer (blame my baby – no sleep, lol) but I’m slowly coming back into it. I’ve missed reading your blog…sorry to hear about all the stress but the Chinese banquet looked fabulous!
Hey! Welcome back! I was wondering what happened to you! Sorry your baby is causing you no sleep. I’m glad you are back and hopefully getting more rest.
Gosh – that must have been so stressful for you 🙁 I’ve ALWAYS wondered what how ppl get married at this location: b/c where in the world do ppl park? Was there an option to hire a valet service or someone to help guests park? There’s another location where ppl get married there – it’s towards where the seals are? And I wondered how guest would get there on time due to parking.
I’m sorry it was stressful for you – but glad the reception was great!
The only option was for guests to park at the Financial Building, which is a few blocks walking distance. They are open all day and have a ton of parking, but it’s a little farther walk than some of the other small parking lots near the beach. we told all our guests to park there but no one listened! Yeah there is another spot to get married and another wedding was happening there, so I think some people might have gotten confused too.
I’m sorry to hear about all the concerns involved on your wedding day! I can relate, the wedding day is so stressful, especially about the family members missing in action. That has to be the worst! But, it looked like a beautiful ceremony 🙂
Heh, I didn’t mean to whine and complain in this post. Mostly trying to point out the issues we didn’t see happening for anyone else considering getting married here so they are prepared. I did think it was a beautiful spot though and I love going back and visiting and saying I got married here. I wonder if I should have hired a wedding planner. I keep thinking then maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with all the problems and someone else would have been handling them and I could have been blissfully ignorant.
at least there was some humorous irony with the helicopter’s message. I would have said it was planned 😀
Haha. yeah. I wish the photographer had a pic of the helicopter banner. Only one of my friends captured it. I had no idea what was happening.
@___@ aw I’m sorry to hear about all the stress on your wedding day! Especially the thing with strangers at the ceremony… how odd. I’m glad that there was such a great wedding banquet afterwards for you, though!
Haha, yeah. Well I’m glad it’s over. Not sure if I would have it there again. There was this lake right next to Pearl and we had considered having it there and now in hindsight, that would have been so much easier. Plus no traveling between to the places. And yes, the reception was a lot of fun. hehe!