Wedding Venue help ! Los Angeles area ….

Me and my Fiancé canceled our traditional wedding. I felt as though I only wanted to have a big wedding because that’s what our friends and family wanted but going through the process of planning it started to make me feel like it’s a waste of time and money. We decided we are going to elope in California and have a reception on our original scheduled wedding date. The date selected for our elopement is the day we first started dating and the day my fiancé lost his mother which is another reason why we plan to elope in order to keep the date( he made that the day we became official because he lost his mother at a very young age and it was always a day of darkness and pain but he wanted to give it a new sense of happiness , excitement, acceptance love and peace). We were already going to be in California on August 30th because my fiancé birthday is a few days after that. Now that I’ve started researching chapels I’ve become nervous. What if I choose a chapel that’s a scam & we don’t actually get Married on August 30th like we want to. Any tips in finding chapels in a state other than the the one you live in? Also anyone live near Los Angeles and know any chapels trustworthy?