Rating: 5/5
Rancho Sol Del Pacific was the site for our entire wedding, from the ceremony to the cocktail hour and then the reception. It was a gorgeous location and our guests were very impressed, throughout the night.
Al and Barbara, the owners of the house, rent the grounds out almost every weekend for weddings, model/photo shoots, and movie filming. You basically have use to the entire grounds except for the inside of the house. There are two rooms we had access to for the bridal parties to change, which worked perfectly. The grounds consist of a lighthouse, vineyards, horse stables, a tennis court, a smaller wedding ceremony plateau, a huge dirt parking area, a gorgeous pool and patio, and a large courtyard with a fountain. There are plenty of options for making your party unique and Al was very willing to work with us on each part of the wedding.
We got married in the courtyard area, which was decorated fantastically. We had requested to have some overhead lights taken down to be out of the pictures and Al graciously did so. The fountain in the courtyard also served as the smoking area as it was the only place smoking is allowed on site.
The cocktail hour by the pool worked fantastically for us. We planned to have it end right around sunset, however we got a pretty weak sunset on Saturday. However, we did end up with a full moon that popped its head over the mountain right around the same time as sunset. That worked perfectly for the photos and the guests loved it.
Lastly, our reception was on the tennis court. We carpeted and tented the court to make a fantastic party tent. The only downside was that the one side of the tent we left open, the side with the amphitheatre, was also the direction the wind came in from. Fortunately, Al was on the ball and rented us 10-12 space heaters which our coordinator had dispersed throughout the tent in no time.
The site required us to close down the party at midnight. While this seems early to most, it is actually outside of the LA law which calls for these parties to end by 10pm. I think midnight was fine for us, although another hour would have been a blast.
The only major downside to this location is the location itself. It takes about an hour to drive up there from Santa Monica. This isn’t too much of a problem for getting up there, but it is no fun coming back. The hill is windy and steep. We rented out shuttles to drive as many people home as possible, but the drunk driver on PCH risk is very high.
The one other issue to be aware of is that Al is not the most organized person. He initially double booked our wedding date and he often forgot about meetings or requests we had. However, if you stay on top of it, Al will make it worth it to you. He helped out with several random situations on the wedding day and he honored everything we spoke to him about, whether he remembered to do it himself or not.
The location gets a 5/5. The few minor issues are nothing compared to the natural beauty this place provides.
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Where is the married photo?
Coming soon. So far we only have pics that friends have uploaded to Facebook. The official photographer photos will be a few more weeks still, I believe.