Fairview Laguna Seca - Monterey, California

Brittany Ungari

My husband and I were married at Fairview Laguna Seca on June 16, 2023. We waited awhile to leave this review and we’d like to do it in chunks because that feels like how best to describe this rating.

TLDR: My husband and I absolutely loved our wedding- it was beautiful and filled with so much love and laughter. Anything that went wrong did not at all detract from the overall vibe of our day!

Rehearsal:
went so smooth and we had plenty of time to set up our decorations the night before- which was awesome!

Vendors:
Flor De Monterey- bridal flowers were not included in the elite package and to add them was over $1200. I just did not have the budget and decided to just stick with what my package included (arbor pieces and centerpieces). However, when I received my proposal to add just a few extra flowers they attempted to charge me for the centerpieces and pressured me heavily to pay asap or else my flowers wouldn’t be available. However, when I’d try to adjust the proposal it was days before they’d correct it. When they finally fixed their mistake there was no communication at all. It felt unfriendly and I worried they wouldn’t do the centerpieces, so I ended buying extra flowers from Trader Joe’s just in case. In the end it all worked out and the arbor pieces and centerpieces looked great! It was just uncomfortable feeling like a vendor wouldn’t communicate properly.

DJ Shawn Storm- hands down such an awesome DJ! Played all the music we wanted at each part of our wedding. He even played some OG Bay Area songs towards the end when it was mostly the bridal party and our other friends.

I Do Wedding cakes- I will order every cake for every occasion from Debbie. We upgraded our cake to be marble cake with a tiramisu filling and it was phenomenal! We got so many compliments on our cake.

Venue Coordinator: we started the process with Amber and my husband even left a review for her to show our gratitude and appreciate for all she had done in preparation for our day. Unfortunately, at our rehearsal I was told Amber quit a week prior and my husband and I were not notified. This was really disappointing to not be contacted about this. Tiffany stepped up for rehearsal and the wedding day and she was awesome. However, if I hadn’t hired a separate day of coordinator many things wouldn’t have happened because Tiffany left after my first dance. For instance, my vegans were not given their food and my day of coordinator had to go into the kitchen and figure out what happened. I was having to check in with my vegan guests because I felt so bad they didn’t receive their food when they were suppose too. Eventually some did but I still had 2 vegans not receive their food at all. I had sat down with Tiffany at my rehearsal and mapped out where the vegan dishes go but this fell through. It’s hard to eat at your own wedding when your guest can’t either. The GM and bartender were appointed as people to handle everything after Tiffany left but I had never talked to them about my wedding timeline- so my photographer and other coordinator had to be the people who ran the show. Moral of the story- hire an outside day of coordinator!

Drinks and food: Besides the issues with my vegans, the food was great and drinks were wonderful! Matt and Brandon were so incredibly helpful when it was needed!

Overall, we had a blast. Some hiccups are expected with weddings- it would be foolish to think there would be none. So, I do highly recommend Fairview Laguna Seca because the property is breathtaking and the all inclusive packages are really hard to beat! We thank everyone at FLS for their part in making our day so special!

Love Box Studios

My sister had her wedding her and it was perfect that’s all!!

One thing maybe have more vegan options, I don’t know if there was an option but many people didn’t want meat/dairy (me lol)

S/0 to the wedding planner Amber and the DJ for their wonderful help !

The views were soooooo good !

Kimberly Sutton

5/15/2023
First, let me say this is an absolutely beautiful venue, the low rating is for the quality of service received in the run up to the ceremony. The wedding director for the venue has a great personality and was good at taking us through the paces in the planning stages. However, when the big day arrived, her skills were lacking, she over promised and underdelivered. We asked if we could bring in caviar at a meeting 5 months out, she said yes, after some back and forth she even said they would keep it on ice. However, the Wednesday before the wedding, we were informed that the General Manager had a problem with that (mind you the caviar had already been purchased...5lbs no less). The compromise was that we would sign a waiver, however, with the wedding director's slow communication, it wasn't confirmed that this was ok until the day of when the waiver was signed. We submitted a seating schematic that was similar to the room layout, but when we arrived the day of rehearsal, the tables had been reorganized. While I can understand if the table layout needed to be tweaked due to the actual room dimensions, we weren't informed or consulted ahead of time. Needless to say there were some tables/people that were not where we wanted them, with notification ahead of time, that could've been avoided. The wedding florals that were supposed to be repurposed to the King's table were forgotten outside until I reminded the wedding director, but the most egregious error of all was the wedding director FORGOT to hand the bride her flowers before she walked down the aisle. What makes it worse is that a bridesmaid reminded her right before and I have a photo of the wedding director standing in the doorway with the bride and her father casually watching the festivities like she doesn't have a care in the world. While she rushed down the side to hand off the bouquet during the ceremony, the shot of my daughter carrying her bouquet to the altar is forever lost and can never be recaptured. Also, the meals for the vendors (photographer and videographer, were received much later than everyone else and they were unable to eat since it was time to take more photos) and the hairstylist/makeup artist were never served even though these meals were included in the price. I found that out in a conversation with them days later when they asked how the food was? SMDH!

The cake and floral vendors were great, however, the DJ was curt, unprofessional, overly familiar with the guest even heckling a few of them. If you can use your own DJ, I most definitely would, Shawn Storm Productions is the worst!

Overall, the wedding was beautiful, but there was chaos and snafus behind the scenes that were avoidable with a more seasoned wedding director. There's a lot to to be said for a pleasant disposition and eagerness, but for a once in a lifetime event and for the amount of money you pay for the venue, efficiency and communication under pressure is much more important. I'd definitely advise anyone using this venue to utilize your own wedding planner the day of to make sure these frustrating mistakes aren't an issue.

Brett Ungari

I’m leaving this early review because Amber has been so awesome when it’s come to making the entire wedding process fun and as stress free as possible.

It’s not a question of finding the right place, where nothing goes wrong, it’s more about finding the right place with people who care. We feel that Fairview Leguna Seca and Amber actually care which is why I’m leaving this review.

If you’re making a decision on whether or not to book Fairview Leguna Seca, you will be in good hands as long as Amber or anyone on her team is taking care of you.

Full context:
For us, the whole wedding planning process has been stressful as could be. Once things started to fall apart at our first venue we felt pretty defeated. I felt terrible that my fiancé was going through such a difficult time and wasn’t enjoying anything about the wedding planning process. We ultimately were considering to give up on having the wedding we talked about and started to consider other alternatives. Then we found Fairview Leguna Seca/Amber. Legitimately, the game changed for us when this happened. From that point on, it felt like how I always hoped it would. She hears us out, and keeps things extremely straightforward; what will work, what won’t, what workarounds are possible, and troubleshooting issues as they pop-up. We are extremely thankful.

Victoria Hernandez

As' creations for an event PWN.

Don Nielsen

Was a guest at a wedding. Great venue. Friendly and professional staff. Food and drinks top notch.

Daniel Lightfoot

I attended a wedding reception at the clubhouse.

Jax Marquez