Venue Reviews

Los Verdes Golf Course

7000 W. Los Verdes Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Phone: 310.377.7370

http://www.americangolf.com/weddingevents/losverdes/

Fountain out front of the club house

Overview

This is an upscale golf course (not country club)  located in the prestigious area of Rancho Palos Verdes.   The venue the benefits of a golf course wedding on a course on the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes with a perfect view of the pacific ocean     The cliffs remind me of the Ritz Carlton in Maui with the perfect view of the ocean.  This is a wonderful place for romantic images right at sunset.

With floor-to-ceiling windows offering breathtaking golf course and ocean views and a large oak wood dance floor, the  ballroom is the ideal setting for your next celebration or corporate retreat. Ceremony Site

What Type Of Bridal Couple Would Like This Place?

If you are up for having a golf course wedding Los Verdes Golf Course is a place to defiantly check out.  The venue is nice without being spectacular if you were to not consider it's proximity to the ocean.   In other words if you were to take this golf course in it's entirety and move it the Inland Empire you would have a simple, slightly above average golf course.   So, it's proximity to the ocean and location in the prestigious Rancho Palos Verdes certainly gives this place bragging rights.  Since we don't get into pricing on our reviews you may want to run over to La Venta Inn and check out your wedding reception would cost over there and compare the difference.  We would dare to guess that compared to other golf courses this place would be more expensive, but compared to other venues in the area with ocean views this place is probably a good deal.

Photographic Potential

To really talk about the photographic potential of this place, it's best to break it down into two sections.  The ceremony/reception sites and the golf course by the ocean.   The ceremony site is nice though it looks like many other golf course ceremony sites.  It's a gazebo in a courtyard.  You can see the ocean at a distance and of course lots of greenery from the golf course.  The reception banquet room has this wonderful wood dance floor, which does make for some nice images.   From what I've described already it's enough to make this place worth checking out.   The amenities are nice, but may not blow you over. 

What happens next is what makes the place defiantly worth looking at and probably sells it more than anything else is what I call 20 minutes in heaven. The people at the golf course put the bride, groom and photographer on a golf cart and head west towards the ocean.   There's a certain spot that they like and unfortunately it's not near the reception sites.   Its an edge of a cliff, next to the ocean.  What really got my attention was that about six months after I went to this place I found myself at the Ritz Carlton in Maui for another wedding.  There they also took us on a golf cart trip to the side of a cliff.  I would love to say that the views are identical.  Yes it's the same ocean, but Maui looks so much different.  The water color is perfect, the sky is absolute  blue, and there is no other place on earth that looks exactly like Maui.  However, this place looks pretty darn close.  It's as best you can do in Southern California.

Possible Distractions/ Work Around Ceremony site for portraiture

The thing that jumps to the top of my mind about this place is that it can be hard to find.  That's the problem with Rancho Palos Verdes, it can be difficult to find you way around the area.  Thankfully GPS devices are fairly cheap these days and if you want to drive right up to this golf course, buy one.   The minister of the wedding I did here didn't have a GPS, and got very lost.  The worst part about Rancho Palos Verdes is that cell reception can be almost non-existent in the area.   So, she couldn't call the bride and groom, and the bride and groom couldn't call her.   When she did arrive, the ceremony started 25 minutes late.  That  25 minutes came out of the time allotted for wedding photography,  I did the best I could to catch up.  While cruising out to the special cliff for the sunset portrait session the  sun did set on the way out (it's about a five minute cart ride). 

 The photos after the ceremony could have gone a little faster but the reception was in the same quad ad where the photo session was taking place (the ceremony site with the gazebo )  and the DJ wanted to make sure that everybody could hear his music, so he blasted it so loud that people couldn't hear each other talk.  If you use this place and want to take pictures at the gazebo, do yourself a favor and usher your guests inside for the cocktail hour, or take your photos elsewhere. 

 

Overall Evaluation

American Golf has a standard of excellence, they do a nice job with all the courses they own.  Los Verdes is very nice.  Simple, not opulent, and a good staff with good service and good food.  I like this place and look forward to working at it again.

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Couple by the cliffs
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The Venue Reviews is an subjective  review of  great Southern California wedding venues by a guy who's spent the past decade checking  out all the best venues.  The list of reviews will grow over time,  In the meantime, is the information in the article useful?  What else would you like covered?   Are any of the facts wrong? Any broken links?  Are there spelling and grammar errors?  Would you like to share some of your latest poetry?   If you have anything to share, drop us a note or send us an e-mail to Steve@LifetimeImages.com.   Be sure to mention which venue/page you are referring to in your message. 

Thank you!Sunset