My husband and I had our wedding here in September 2009. This was a great opportunity to have a beautiful wedding in a gorgeous setting at an affordable price. Whereas some wedding venues will nickle-and-dime you for table linens, chairs, lighting, etc, all of these things are included in the event package at Shadow Mountain. Pam does the catering (and our food was excellent) and helps to act as a wedding coordinator. She and her husband Alex really went above and beyond the call of duty to help us out when our photographer canceled at the last minute. Shadow Mountain is a great option for a couple who want a smaller (less than 75 people) wedding/reception in a gorgeous mountain winery setting with great wine.

I grew up down the street from Edelweiss bakery and always loved their desserts, so when I got engaged, they were my first choice to make my wedding cake. Tasting a few other too-sweet cakes at a bridal expo confirmed that thought. My fiance, mother, and I met at Edelweiss for a tasting appointment on a Saturday morning and were given the opportunity to taste every available cake/filling combo.

We went with a 3-tier/100 serving cake and given how tasty the samples were, had a heck of a time deciding on the flavors for the tiers. Not nearly as difficult was picking out how the cake would be decorated--the bakery had an extensive portfolio, and "the one" design jumped out at all of us immediately.

The cake itself was quite affordable (for a wedding cake) and ran about $2.75/slice, if I remember correctly. I knocked off a star because the bakery had originally told us that they'd deliver the cake (for a charge) up to my wedding at a winery in Warner Springs (in far northern San Diego county). A few days later, they called us back and told us that the distance was too far, and in exchange for canceling the delivery on us, knocked 10% off the cost of the cake and agreed to construct several cake boxes so that my dad could transport the cake himself and assemble it at our venue.

The cake tasted wonderful and looked great. Other than the glitch with the delivery/transportation, we were very happy with Edelweiss providing our wedding cake.

(Cost includes both the cost of the dress and alterations).

I love my wedding gown from Aria Bridal! I came into this store with a bad attitude (I'm very curvy and a larger size and was convinced that I wouldn't find anything that would fit or flatter me). Abby, the wonderful salesgirl, quickly changed my mind by selecting numerous gowns in various styles that flattered my figure. Whereas some stores only stock smaller sample sizes, Aria had a huge variety of dresses in all sizes, so that even as a size 16, I could try on a dress and see how it would actually look on me. Abby was great about showing me dresses in my price range and not trying to upsell me. My mom loved the service in the shop so much that she would up scrapping her original mother-of-the-bride dress and buying a new one here.

I dropped one star from the store because my alterations cost twice as much as the original estimate that we were given when it came time to fit my dress (even though the actual alterations made didn't differ much from the estimate). However, the seamstress who did the alterations did a wonderful job, so I was only annoyed rather than being too upset.

This is a great store that will give you a positive experience, even if you don't have a stick-thin model figure type.

I had no idea that planning and working on our informal wedding ceremony itself would be fun and romantic, but working with Bethel, it was! She performed an absolutely beautiful ceremony that we received many compliments on. She didn't put together a pre-packaged ceremony and really worked with us to get to know us as a couple and prepare something that was completely "us". Bethel was extremely flexible and created something unique for us that far exceeded any expectations that I had for our ceremony. I would highly recommend her to any couple looking to get married in San Diego.