San Diego Destination Wedding: Where to Start?

San Diego is known as one of the largest wedding destinations in the world. For us, that is no surprise, it's why we live here- almost perfect weather year round, amazing views of the ocean, quick access to the mountains, a healthy lifestyle, vibrant downtown, and numerous recreation opportunities. Have we convinced you to move here yet? If not- no worries, you can still get married here, and we are happy to provide some of the most professional live music services in the area for your wedding ceremony and reception.

That all being said, there is certainly a difference between planning a local San Diego wedding or making it a destination. Our local clients have the opportunity to meet with us in person, check out some shows or performances, get recommendations from friends who have utilized the Left Coast quintet for other functions and weddings. If you're a guest of our city, chances are you won't have those opportunities, so we've provided a brief account of what you can do to make sure that all of your vendors are up to the same standard that we hold ourselves to.

#1-trust your friends. The best way of getting information about a vendor is word of mouth from people who have used them before. Good or bad, reviews from people you trust are the best indicator of a professionals attention to detail, how much stress they will cause, if their billing was correct, how they treated your guests, etc. Yes there are many review sites, the LCQ is featured on quite a few, and those can be a backup- but nothing beats word of mouth recommendations.

#2-trust your other vendors. Once you've found an amazing consultant, planner, or venue coordinator, use them and their local expertise to guide you towards vendors they have worked with before. The San Diego market is filled with a huge amount of businesses all offering the same products, no one will know them better and how they work behind the scenes than a trusted coordinator. The Left Coast Quintet is far from a wedding coordinator or planner, we just provide a small but valuable service and humbly request your patronage- but we've also been around for a long time and have worked in the professional music business in San Diego for years: we know the area, we know the venues, and we know many other vendors. Please don't hesitate to ask for advice if you're making San Diego or Southern California a destination location!

#3-scour your vendors websites, make sure their information is real and accurate. For music clients, we recommend listening to our samples and checking out pictures from past events. It is obviously pretty hard to taste a cake from a computer screen, but if you'd like, we will be happy to go taste some cakes for you and give a review (yum!). Kidding aside, most services have websites displaying their best work, and while it might be a biased source of information, it should give you a hint as to how the vendor and staff see themselves, how proud they are of their business and clients, and what services they will offer.

#4-keep in contact! Either video chat, call on the phone, or keep up regular email communication with your vendors. You want to be in the forefront of their minds, and we don't mind going over details with you. Make sure as the date gets closer, you refine information and nit-pick the details, we want to make sure everything is the way you want it, just as much as you want it to be perfect yourself.

Ultimately, San Diego is a great destination location, and we really look forward to working with you. If there is anything you need, from hotel and venue recommendations to which beach is best, let us know.