Weddingbee boards

So we have spent so many months trying to figure out where we want to have our wedding, we've visited tons of places and called even more places. I finally find a place that I'm like dead set on, the FH loves it too. After a few days of waiting we FINALLY were contacted by the person in charge of events. The conversation did not go anything like I could have imagined. I'll start off by saying it was soooo loud in the background I could barely understand what this woman was saying or asking. Ontop of that she didn't speak very loudly so I had to ask her to repeat herself when she said who she was. I explained nicely "Oh I'm sorry, it's just very loud where you are and I can hardly hear you." and she's like "Um alright. Soo you called? What is it you need to know?" ........*deep breathe* EXCUUUUUSE ME??? Aren't you supposed to be the person brides to be and anyone else wanting to have an event at your establishment, go to?? Yes, so I'm terrible sorry I caused you an inconvience! But I digress. Back to the story I was caught off guard and didn't exactly know how to react to that. Not to give out TMI but I'm on my period AND incredibly stressed over picking a place because our relatives really need to know details (it's partly a destination wedding). So I kept my cool maybe only getting a little stern a few times because she was NO HELP. She kept saying "Soooo..?"  "Uh ok annnd?" WHICH I F***IN hate!!! She talked to me like I was some peon or better yet like I was a child and I had no business considering having my wedding at their venue.  The whole conversation was unprofessional on her part. I asked when we should make an appointment to come down there and she said "Uhh well just come down when you want. You don't need to make an appointment, you can take a look at the place for yourselves." WOW. Alright so at that point I had to end the conversation before I ripped her a new one.

After I hung up the phone, FH was asking me "what was that about?!" "are you ok?!" and I couldn't even say anything because I knew I would break down...of course when I finally spoke I did break down. It was so upsetting to me because I was already emotional that evening and stressed and I thought for sure this would be THEE PLACE for us but all of a sudden I was back at square one. So I reopened the email I got about a day before she called me. It was an email from another staff member sort of answering my questions about having our wedding there. He wasn't very helpful but insisted I contact Mrs. **** Gallant. Here is an excerpt from the email.

We are expecting between 15 and 20 guests:

Great, with your quest list in mind in mind, I think the Sala Del Rey room would be a good match. This room is private. It is serviced and operated by the restaurant.

My husband is a Marine so we are wondering if you offer military discounts:

We offer you a great value 365 days a year so with that in mind, we do not have military discounts I am sorry to say.

Could you send me a package of prices?

We would love to share our information with you. Please feel free to contact Mrs. **** Gallant at (619) 557-944X ext 210 for more information about this room and menus. It is location on the second floor and can accommodate up to 28pp for a private event. To get information about ceremony locations within the park, please call The City of San Diego at (619) 235-1100 or 235-1169.

Can we just come down there this weekend to look at the place and speak to someone or do we need an appointment?

I really would suggest an appointment since weekends tend to be very busy in the park. Please have a great day and thank you for considering The ***** for your special day.

So that's interesting considering, he told me I could go to her for ANY INFORMATION I NEEDED. He also said I should make an appointment. She didn't give me any information except what I already knew (I knew about the room they thought would be best for us) and she said I didn't need an appointment. Things that were the exact opposite of what I expected to hear. I got the impression because we are having a small wedding and it's military, she was kind of against that. Maybe it's because I'm 24 and as far as I know my voice doesn't sound very young but maybe she has some age issue. Whatever it is there is NO REASON AT ALL to speak to me the way she did. I don't care if she was having a bad day or it was busy, if that was the case then she should have waited to call me at a better time when she was more composed. I don't know what to do now because this place is soo pretty from pictures online (and the brief time I saw it in person from a distance)but she is the only person we have to deal with and I do not want to deal with her. 

So I need more suggestions again on wedding venues in San Diego. If anyone has any I'd really appreciate it. Thanks girls.

Yikes; the Prado was my dream venue, but a.) They're out of our price range, and b.) by the time we got around to planning they were already booked up on our date. Sigh. Good luck finding some other places-- have you checked out other venues in Balboa? They have a TON of gardens you can get married in, and you could have the reception elsewhere (downtown, or close by). There's also Heritage Park in Old Town, which was my second dream venue, but we were pretty dead-set on having the reception in the same location as the ceremony (along with a few other factors). It's now run by the people who own the Hacienda Hotel across the street, though, and they can do the reception. Here's the page for Heritage Park-- gorgeous old Victorian homes re-located from across San Diego to save them from being torn down.

http://www.heritageparksd.com/

thank you girls. yes i contacted him and he just wrote me this.

Good Morning Erin,

I am sorry for the misunderstanding and I assure you it was not intended in any way,

Mrs. **** Gallant is responsible for the entire property and it may have been during our rush hour. So that we can assist you best.

Are you looking to hold a nice lunch or dinner event here or looking to wed within the park with those close to you present?

Please call me when you get a moment. Thank you once again for considering our location. 

I did ask for another person I could speak to so I can "complain" about her, you never know if there are other people having issues with this wench. I already told him in my first initial email what I wanted for my wedding and he's asking again. A "nice lunch"? No this is a wedding not a gathering with people from work. Grr! I suppose I could call him but I'll wait until FI gets home and I'll let him call. I want her to email me and apologize, not him.

Bunny thank you for the other suggestions!

Oh I'm sorry crebre lol You obviously know that what I call a nice lunch and how I took it is obviously different from what you're having. It'd be one thing to have sandwiches and soda's and another to have a nice wedding during lunch time and serving food that isn't quite considered dinner entre's but more lunch entre's. I'd have an afternoon wedding depending on where we get married nothing wrong with that but I didn't like the way he called it a "nice lunch" because we're having a small wedding. Maybe we want a fancy lunch or fancy dinner. lol Idk anyway, I meant no offense to you!

@ Girlwitharing that's a very good point. That's what my mom said too. I guess that's what we may have to do. :( I'll never have a wedding at this rate.

You're welcome, and good luck with the search! Also, if your FI is military, there's venues on the navy bases on Point Loma, too-- the Admiral Kidd club is the first one that leaps to mind. I've been in a wedding there but I don't know where to find info.

The Presidio (the actual mission/ fort on the hill overlooking Old Town/ Mission Valley-- very historic! Can you tell I like old things? Haha) has a couple wedding venues, too, and you can rent out the Junipero Serra Museum for your reception! Here's another link, this is just to the San Diego Historical Society site, which has several other options for historical sites, too:

https://www.sandiegohistory.org/renting_our_sites.html

I'll add any if I think of more. Keep us posted :)

Wow thank you thank you thank you bunny!! Yes I was just saying, I looooooooove beautiful artsy historic buildings and venues. I have a vision in my head that I just can't shake. Those all sound like gorgeous places. I was going to check out the first place you told me about in Old Town but I'd like to have my ceremony and reception in the same place.

No problem :) I'm just glad all my unused research might do someone else some good, haha. And since we share similar taste, I hope it works out for you!

It's worth a trip to Heritage Park to check it out-- the hotel where you could have your reception is right across the street, and they have this cute little temple (not what we were looking for, but it's still cute) or this gorgeous tree up in the middle of all the houses and you can have a small ceremony under it. We just went a different direction that had some meaning to us, otherwise we'd be doing it there! We're getting married at the college where we met and got engaged, instead :)