Weddingbee boards

Bees = I need your help!  Please, your advice would be such a help.  Sorry this is long, but its a big choice!

I need help deciding between 2 venues.  There are pros and cons to each, and they cost relatively about the same.  Here is the rundown:

Contender 1 - winery in suburban san diego:

Its rustic and charming.  Its sweet and warm.  Its also 25 miles outside of San Diego proper, with no excitement in the neighborhood.  Most of our guests will be either coming down from LA or flying from otherwheres, so we'd hoped for a more happening destination.  Here's the details:

1. You must use their beverage package, only their wine, domestic beers and pepsi soft drinks and water.  Kinda pricey and their wine is so-so.  

2. You must be done by 9pm because of noise-ordinances.  Kinda lame.  Especially when the most exciting place we can sort out for an afterparty is the Marriott hotel bar....

3. The whole thing will only be 5 hours.  

4. Its so cute and sweet, and requires very little in the way of decorations.

5. They have tables and chairs available, so its 2 less things to worry about bringing in.

Then, there's the other contender...

Famous and exclusive estate in the Hollywood Hills:

Its elegant and exciting, even stunning, with tons of terraces and gardens, many levels of terraces throughout the property.  Its got a lovely waterfall and spring pond, and a house with rooms for people to stay in, a pool and jacuzzi.

1. Convenient and local for the in-town guests.  Exciting location for OOT guests.

2. Unusual location which is just recently available to the public.  We're getting it for a fraction of the cost because of advance booking.

3. More complicated because of all the levels to the estate.  We'd have maps or signs directing people to different areas... dining, cocktails, dancing this way.... but its possible it would be more "scattered" and less "focused".

4. We could get more friends to do us favors locally and make it more personal.

5. More work would go into setup and cleanup.

6. We get the place for the next full day and could do the day-after brunch/pool party thing.

7. There's no time restriction, and no bar package.  We can do our own liquor and save money.  We could party until 2am if that is how it goes. 

I think that's enough info... Its a lot, I know.  But based on experience, what do you think?  Is it better to do something completely unique and exciting, which no one has ever done before the way you'll do it, for a more convenient location, but maybe more complicated execution? Or better to stick to an old staple which would be beautiful and sweet, but done before and less conveniently located but easy to execute?

I thank you in advance for your input! 

One thing I forgot to mention is that Option 2 is right off a main road, so its kind of got a lot of traffic noise on the lower terraces, and you can see cars from many spots.  So, during the ceremony, there might be lots of traffic noise in the background....

I love #2, no time limits, bringing your own liquor could save you alot of money, and it sounds really fun!! 

Its not crazy expensive for us - it is for future brides but we got in early.  The thing is there's not a "perfect" ceremony spot.  There's lots of good spots but there's also traffic noise from a major street right there.  But its not the end of the world....

Thanks for all the input!  You gals are great. 

#2 would be my choice. It sounds FABULOUS!

#2 Hands Down!!