At Botanica, a Trademark Venue in Oceanside, California
Weddings are beautiful, fun and magical – right?! Ours totally was one of the most special, best days of my life. Spending a whole weekend with my loved ones was so. much. fun! Our venue, Botanica, was a perfect tropical garden oasis with romantic string lights throughout the lawns and meandering paths.
In all honesty though – wedding venue searching is no joke, and was probably my least favorite part of wedding planning. Every single venue has a different format, different price breakdown, and different feel, and you have to essentially start over each time. Some couples have had a venue in mind for years, or perhaps a family connection makes the choice easy. My family is mostly in Chicago, J’s is in Florida, and our friends are spread out across the states. Living in LA and knowing that we would be managing most of the planning & venue visits, we decided to focus our venue search on Southern California.
The perfect tropical garden setting
From the very beginning, I wanted to get married outside in a gorgeous natural setting. There are a plethora of amazing options of all sizes and price-points here in Southern California. I loved browsing The Knot and Zola looking at gorgeous gardens and outdoor spaces such as Rancho dos Pueblos, Santa Barbara Historic Museum, and The 1909.
Along the way, I discovered Trademark Venues, a premier wedding venue & planning company in Southern California, with six venues across the state. Their venues are beautiful, and built with the sole purpose of being wedding-perfection. A couple in particular have lush corners, beautiful greenery, and are expertly landscaped. There are paths that curve around shaded walkways, over small streams and lead into large turf-covered meadows. Our favorite, Botanica, is just outside of Oceanside, California – a charming surf town on the coast of California and about 30 minutes north of San Diego. This made it a perfect destination wedding for our many guests who were flying in for a long weekend on the West Coast.
Outdoor Ceremony and Reception Sites at Botanica
Botanica has a few location options for a ceremony and reception, but it seems like most couples choose the space right in front of the waterfall and pond for their ceremony, and move into the upper lawn or inside a tent for the reception. The ceremony area easily sat our 120 guests and accommodated a sizable chuppah.
Once Botanica received our signed contract, we were transferred to their planning team who would assist us moving forward. Over the course of the next six months (our timeline after signing) we had a series of meetings with our assigned planner. These meetings covered everything from crafting our wedding day timeline to talking through our design vision to selecting a delicious dinner menu. Since we didn’t have our own wedding planner, it was so helpful to have a wedding coordinator managing all aspects of the venue planning and day-of-coordination. We exchanged a lot of emails with her, and she was absolutely fabulous throughout wedding weekend.
Overall, Botanica was the perfect tropical garden vibe for our wedding! If you are looking at wedding venues in Southern California & want to get married outdoors, I highly recommend going to venues in-person. If you can, go for a tour on a day or time where the venue is setting up for a wedding so you can also get an idea of what it might look and feel like set-up. Happy planning!
Click below to learn more about some of our wedding vendors:
Audrey Hendler 