Wedding Blog

I just flew back to LA tonight to work on our wedding, which is coming up in less than 30 days! It’s freaking me out a little bit, but some deep breathing, Coffee Bean and So Cal sunshine should help.

I am going on a site visit/inspection tomorrow with our wedding coordinator, the fabulous Mary Sushinski from Occasions To Remember and a team of our vendors (DJ, caterer, elephant person (ha), photographer, videographer, etc). With this appointment coming up, I realized that I never told the hive about our wedding venue.

Our hunt for a venue was long and full of struggles. A lot of options were crossed off our list right away because we had certain restrictions:

1.) Had to hold at least 350 people
2.) Allowed outside catering (Mr. Marg insisted on Indian food)

We made a ton of appointments all over Southern California. The Hyatt in Huntington Beach was the first hotel that we considered seriously. It had gorgeous Spanish-inspired decor, was close to the beach and fit our two main criteria. Though for some reason, I just wasn’t feeling it. I wanted that feeling you are supposed to get when you find the wedding dress but for our venue instead. Although the Hyatt was gorgeous, we wanted a location that was unique and would be something our guests would remember.

The Hyatt

I stumbled upon Saddlerock’s website when I was looking up winery venues in Southern California. I wasn’t totally sold from the pictures so after a slew of emails, the site coordinator wrote me and said “You really do need to see the location in person! It’s breathtaking!”

She couldn’t have been more right. My best friend from high school, my Mom and I drove the hour from my house in Orange County to Malibu and were floored. Well actually, at first we were a little weirded out. The gates to the property opened and the first thing we saw was a small pack of bison roaming around. Seriously, bison. We kept driving, passed some horses and then got to some zebra. Horses are sort of normal but zebra? Then we finally got to the garden setting we were considering for our wedding location. Once I saw the huge willow trees, the sprawling lawn, the pool and the wooden bench swing I was sold. It was so beautiful and unique. Even though I always thought I wanted to be married near the beach, I couldn’t walk away from Saddlerock.

The Semler family owns the entire 1000-acre ranch and have lived on the property for over 27 years. The ranch has 65-acres of vineyards and is home to dozens of horses and many exotic animals (zebras, peacocks, etc). I can’t really explain the exotic animals but it fits in with Mr. Margarita riding in on an elephant, so we’regoing with it.

One of the Zebras courtesy of Elizabeth Messina

A wedding couple with one of the horses courtesy of Elizabeth Messina

Pics from Saddlerock’s website

The tree we are getting married under

I can’t wait to recreate this picture!

Saddlerock has been an ideal location for us because it gives us the freedom to pretty much do anything we want. Our blank canvas is definitely a lot more work than a hotel because we literally have to bring everything in from napkins to a kitchen. I think/hope in in the end all this work will be worth it.

Has anyone else chosen an unsual location for their wedding?