Lavender & Olive Reviews

Lavender & Olive is stunning. The grounds look like a fairytale and felt so magical. The venue staff was attentive and made everything so simple for my coordinator. I highly recommend this hidden gem to every couple.

Lavender & Olive is a beautiful wedding venue unlike any other we visited in San Diego. Our top two priorities when searching for a wedding venue was that we wanted to bring in our own caterer and we wanted a house onsite for our bridal party to stay. This narrowed our options down quite a bit, but made Lavender & Olive the most perfect wedding venue. We toured the venue several times during our year and a half engagement and each time we were met with either Carolyn (the owner) or a venue manager who were eager to show us around and answer any questions. We loved the idea of being able to bring in our own caterer because we didn't want typical wedding food. For our wedding we had Fogo de Chao cater and Lavender & Olive made bringing in outside catering so convenient, particularly with the renovation of the garage into a full catering kitchen. We stayed onsite at the venue the day before the wedding until the day after which was incredibly convenient for doing hair and makeup since we didn't have to worry about moving locations before the wedding. The only downside of the venue is that it is in more of a remote location and so ride share options for guests is difficult. The venue did let us know this ahead of time and we were able to book a shuttle service for our guests to and from a hotel in Poway. Overall, I would highly recommend Lavender & Olive for a couple that wants to hand select their vendors to have exactly the day they've been dreaming of.

Perfect venue. We wanted something we could make our very own and not feel stifled or restricted. I can not say enough about the BEAUTY of the location. Our photographer was over the moon with options for photos and we made it into her portfolio because our wedding photos looked like they popped straight out of VOGUE.

You can stay the night in complete privacy and we ended up having a rehearsal the night before and the ceremony the next day. It was like a destination wedding. I've been to so many stressful weddings and I wanted mine to be cozy & personal. Carolyn let us know the sky was the limit - we never heard "no" -- just "we can take care of that." Those are the best words a bride can hear besides, "I DO!"

Lavender and Olive is the perfect outdoor venue nestled right in central Ramona. We had our wedding there in September and were absolutely blown away by the beautiful surroundings- we felt like we were in our own private getaway.

We stayed at the Ranch House which made it so convenient to have everyone on site for the rehearsal dinner and to get ready the day of. It has multiple spaces available for the ceremony and reception and makes it so simple to host your entire wedding in one location.

Robin, Carolyn and Denise are all so wonderful to work with and I would recommend this space to anyone in the market.

Well the most important part of your wedding is the venue and L&O is the most gorgeous outside venue you can find! It is so open and the space is so flexible every wedding can be different!! I think the price is to die for as well compared to some of the other places in or around San diego.

Because I did book the venue so far in advanced i was told about certain amenities that I thought were supposed included but ended up being an extra charge for week of. So just read carefully and double check about any expenses (specifically heaters.) I do think they are still finding their footing and pricing because they are such a new venue so maybe be prepared to hit a few snags on the way.

Overall I would highly recommend this venue for how beautiful it is!! It will surely not disappoint!

We had our wedding in June of 2022. Although the Groom and I have not had any supee bad experiences with Carolyn (owner) during this process, we wanted to make sure our bridal party and parents felt the same before writing reviews. Upon reaching out to them, the stories have remained the same. Multiple parties have alleged that Carolyn was rude and snippy during their few interactions. Below is a quick synopsis of things I was totally unaware of during the wedding but feel VERY disheartened about:

- We were scheduled for rehearsal from 3pm to 5pm. Carolyn had a personal engagement scheduled in the middle of our scheduled rehearsal time and tried to rush our timeline.

-Carolyn was very unorganized. Days leading up to the wedding, she asked for documentation that was already sent. This initially wouldn't have been an issue but her venue manager quit mid-planning and, unfortunately, her constant emails, calls, and texts about changes came at a stressful time (2 days before the wedding).

- Carolyn made comments about not sticking to our timelines to a WEDDING GUEST who later informed me. Unbeknownst to her, my MOH got a flat tire and my hairstylist had a family emergency. We had to make magic happen somewhere.

- I was also informed that by my makeup artist that Carolyn took pictures of the bridal suite during the ceremony. It seems as if she wanted to preemptively collect "evidence" of some sort.

- While the bridal party was packing up to leave, Carolyn basically told my mother to leave while she was holding my sleeping children.

- My catering company left early due to Carolyn trying to make them clean the bathroom which is not their responsibility.

- I'm missing my bridal robe and I'm sure it's at the venue.

Outside of the lack of decorum from the owner/manager there were few issues.

- The Casasita, where the men got dressed, has no air. My husband and the Groomsmen took turns coming in the main house to cool down.

- For almost $10k for 1 day, the venue didn't include much. Just tables, chairs, and a security guard. If I can redo my wedding, I would search for an all-inclusive venue.

Although the day did turn out beautiful overall, these things are very concerning to me and I would hate for another bride to deal with the same issues. Rent at your own risk.