Strawberry Farms Golf Club

Just wanted to say that I considered this venue for my wedding. I love the uniqueness of the barn and all the backdrops for photos is awesome. There is a long winding road going into the club that is extremely well manicured with flowers and white fence line, lots of trees, open grass and of course the big red barn. Heather and Stacy (the on-site coordinators) are super helpful and uber-friendly. If you are getting married in Orange County but want a rustic feel, with barn etc., then check out this place.

Amazing food, gorgeous setting, a big barn that nicely held our 200 guests with room to spare – so why the B-plus? Tim and I were not totally pleased with the service. We paid $2 extra per person to have wine service at the tables, assuming servers would be constantly circling the guests. However, they only went around once (so if, like my MIL, you were in the restroom, you didn’t get wine during dinner) and when people got up to dance afterward, they returned to their tables to find that their wine glasses had disappeared. Also, they only had one bar instead of the two we had been promised, meaning there were huge lines for drinks during the cocktail hour.

I was also very unhappy with the service we received from their events manager, Deborah Lew (not the manager we had originally signed the contract with in 2005, who is currently out on pregnancy leave). We paid an extra $250 for her to be our site coordinator, but that seemed to get us very little beyond what we’d expect for paying over $100/person. I had to go to her during the night to ask her to bring me wine so I wouldn’t have to stand in line at the bar, she didn’t allow my day-of coordinators to start setting up until two hours later than she had promised (so my bridesmaids were forced to go around lighting votives as my DOCs vacuumed cherry blossoms around them), and she locked my day-of coordinators (and my reception dress) out of the conference room they were lending me for the evening.

That said, we got so many raves for the food, and I loved this site more than any other we considered. Feel free to e-mail me if you’re considering this site and I can provide more details…

Little known venue in the heart of Orange County. Looks like you are in the midwest on a farm! Beautiful scenery and the reception in the barn is great. The staff was very helpful throughout.

I have worked as a professional photographer at the Strawberry Farms Golf Club on 5 separate events over the last few years. The on-site coordinator has been Heather each time, always with an additional 2nd coordinator working alongside. Heather has been extremely helpful, professional and accomodating on each occasion. She understands the importance of bride comfortability, timing and efficiency on the wedding day. The site itself offers MANY MANY backdrops for photos - winding road, long white fences, well manicured rose and flower gardens, lots of trees, sprawling lawns, and of course a beautiful red barn! After the sun sets, the barn is filled with LOTS of warm glowing light from twinkle lights and uplights galore. SUCH great warm photos.

I adore the setting. If you've never been, it's stunning and unique for Southern California. We hosted cocktail hour on the veranda and dinner and dancing in the barn. Everyone, including us, had a fabulous time and we are still receiving notes and compliments. My husband and I put 12 months of very detailed planning into making the veranda, the barn and the pathway between exactly what we wanted. We hired a day of coordinator to set everything up. Our preparation paid-off big-time and made the celebration one that was not only stunning, but memorable for everyone. Day-of the wedding, the food we choose to serve was delicious-- both during cocktail hour and dinner. If you want specifics on food, email me. SFGC provided some exceptional backgrounds for photography (their landscaping) and were accommodating to our desire to utilize their space (gave us golf carts to get to the 10th hole lake, let us take photos on the greens, etc). Sometime in late summer, SFGC hired a second coordinator, Summer. She was incredible to work with and ended up working our wedding day because we had a more elaborate set-up than typical, bringing in cocktail tables and such. Summer was awesome and very helpful. SFGC was great with providing any rentals we needed-- linens, glasses, place settings, etc were included in the contract, however we wanted additional stand heaters for the veranda, cocktail tables and cocktail linens, spot lighting, a cake stand, etc. They coordinated all this, which was super helpful. The barn comes with a pre-decorated ceiling- the twinkle lights you see in the photos. They are even more stunning in person. In terms of decorations, SFGC was very open to anything, as long as nothing damaged the property. We had rose petals everywhere, more candles than one can count, bathrooms full of candles and rose petals, lanterns everywhere, etc.

A Few Cons

In comparison to other events I've hosted and coordinated, SFGC significantly under staffs their weddings (basically 1 server per 45-50 people, plus 1 bartender per 100 people). It showed significantly in their service at the reception. It took about 20-25 minutes to get water glasses refilled. The SFGC staff took 50 minutes to have the first piece of cake at a guest's seat once we cut the cake. SFGC disappointed on their tray passed appetizer selection. At our tasting, we were served Costco and Trader Joes frozen appetizers that were marked up to $2-$7 per piece- spinach quiche, bbq beef kabobs, meat balls, egg quiche, Mexican egg rolls, etc.

Although I would agree with some of the comments posted on SFGC, we had a beautiful reception in the big red barn and the staff were great. This is a unique venue and I don't think it's for everyone. SFGC is nothing like a typical banquet hall in most of the major hotels, it has a rustic feel with all the exposed wooden beams, it is a barn after all. The golf course makes for great photos and we were able to use golf carts to get around during our photo shoot.
Oct 21, 2007 was the day that many of the Southern Ca. fires started not to mention it was extremely windy so we had to keep all of the barn doors closed during our reception, that was the only downfall of the day.
www.strawberryfarmsgolf.com

We had our reception here. The best thing about this place was the food. Hands down, it was delicious and all of our guests raved about it. We chose the filet mignon and the salmon, and it was worth every penny. The only thing i didnt love at first was the reception had to be over by 10pm, but i was ready to be done at that time anyway!
The barn is different, and i loved the dance floor with the lights above it. Just what i was looking for.

What a beautiful venue. Everything about this place is classy. The food was incredible and the service was outstanding. My wife and I visited dozens of sites and fell in love with SFGC immediately. Heather Howery was absolutely incredible. She was charming, incredibly friendly and totally accommodating to everyone of our needs. I was shocked to read peanut 88's comments. I don't think she could have it more wrong. Heather made that day extremely enjoyable and was incredibly attentive. I would highly suggest you check out this hidden gem!!!

I loved strawberry farms. Heather was he best coordinator and the location is beautiful. I loved that we were the only wedding going on that night. Our guests loved the location and that we had the reception in a barn. Highly recommend strawberry farms

this place was such the perfect place too have a wedding!!! Great staff and beautiful set up!!!!

Tim and I LOVED our wonderful wedding at Strawberry Farms Golf Club. My husband is an avid golfer and always said that when we got married he wanted it at a golf course. I always said NO!!! When I went hunting around for a reception site I absolutely fell in love with this site and did not mind at all that it was at a golf course. I fell in love with it so much that we had our ceremony there too. Heather Howery was fantastic with us and took wonderful care of us on our wedding night. She made sure that when our wine glasses were empty she had another one waiting in the wings for us. Everything ran so smoothly. I have heard rave reviews about the food and the bartender. Apparently he was serving VERY stiff drinks which our 200 guests greatly appreciated. My only complaint was that anytime a guest got up to go the bathroom when they returned their drinks or and food had been taken away. So be careful of that and maybe mention that to your coordinator if you use their coordination, which I highly reccomend! Good luck with your wedding planning and feel free to email me if you would like to see additional pictures of the site or have any other questions.

I absolutely love this place. I am an Orange County Wedding Photographer and when I shot a wedding here I liked it so much that I thought I have to get married here. And I am :) We are getting married on November 21st, 2009. We have been working with Stacy Emmett who is the sweetest girl ever and will help you out in any way.

When I shot the wedding there I really liked the event flow of it. Its nice that you can go straight from the ceremony over to the barn. Lots of great photo ops as well.

Troy Grover Photography
www.troygrover.com

What a great facility! Mark and I were looking for a location that was unique and fun. Strawberry Farms was the perfect fit. The planning process was great, Heather Howery the wedding coordinator there made so many great suggestions and we found her services to be priceless.
The wedding day was beautiful, we were a little concerened that it might rain but the day was georgous. Everything from the staff to the food to the coffee (yummy!) was perfection. I would highly reccommend this venue to anyone.

I just had my wedding at Strawberry Farms a couple of months ago and my husband and I could not be more pleased with the way it all turned out...it seriously exceeded all our expectations (and they were pretty high to begin with)!

Even though i grew up in orange county i first saw this place while flipping through the "cermony" magazine when looking for a venue. i fell in love with the barn and immediately knew that this was one of the front runners for the wedding venue. i still continued to shop around but Strawberry Farms was by far the prettiest venue (i knew the pictures would come out beautifully), they were very reasonable, and the wedding coordinator that i met with (and she ended up helping me tremendously), Heather Howery, was very professional, organized, and attentive to our ideas, desires, and concerns.

during the plannin process heather was such help - her experience and knowledge, not only of the wedding industry but of Strawberry Farms, was so evident and she helped me so much along the way - reminding me of literally every little detail that i may need (down to the pens for the sign-in-book). she had lists upon lists that she checked off and refreshed after each of our meetings, always sending me a copy.

on the day of the wedding there was absolutely nothing for me to worry about - heather and her assistant, stacy, had taken care of everything!

this venue was perfect for us - our guests enjoyed themselves and my groom and i had a wonderful wedding day which we will cherish in our minds - and beautiful pictures - forever!

we definitely recommend Strawberry Farms and Heather Howery to all couples!

I have to say that in my 30 years I have never ever written a review. That said, I was was SO incredibly DISPLEASED with the service provided at Strawberry Farms, I felt compelled to review this vendor. Heather is absolutely atrocious. I have seen many venues and I have never ever dealt with someone who could honestly not care about you, what you want, and who just all around has no personality. She is one of the first people that couples interact with and simply interacting with her is enough never recommenced this venue to anyone. Other than Heather, the barn overlooks a parking lot and there is no place to have the ceremony other than an open field.