#49: knot boards.

CEREMONY/RECEPTION SITE - Malibu Nature Preserve, grade: A+
We are so glad that we chose this site! We've thought back on the other places we visited and can't imagine having had such a magical day at any of them. Beautiful and spacious and the total opposite of a wedding factory. You get the entire place to yourself for the whole day! Our ceremony was in a sycamore grove, the cocktail hour around the pool, dinner on the ocean view deck, and then we moved inside for the band and the rest of the party - so much better than being confined to a single room and having a time limit! Peter and his guys are great - very helpful and accommodating. The place itself just has a really great vibe.
CATERER - Diana's Creative Catering, grade: A
Diana's kitchen is at the Nature Preserve and she caters the events there, but she also caters off site - I know for sure she does the Adamson House. She is great to work with and our food was delicious! Months later guests are telling us our food was the best they'd ever had at a wedding! Her prices are great, and rentals and staff are very reasonable. No corkage or cake cutting fees. No whopping "service charge" of 20% on the food + rentals like some places do - it is only on the cost of the service staff. Awesome bartender! Towards the end of the night, he was making something called a "chey and scotty love special" - not quite sure what was in it, but it was good! The only slight issue was some miscommunications with Diana's assistant - I had to be really careful about double-checking details and making sure she had the right info. Totally worth the effort! We felt like we got a really great deal for such amazing food!
BOOZE - The Beverage Warehouse, grade: A+
The Nature Preserve is BYOB - a great savings! We decided to have only beer, wine, sodas, juice, bottled water, martinis and cosmos. We got some good deals at TJ's and Costco, but I have to give extra praise to the guys at the Beverage Warehouse (in the Marina del Rey area) where we got our beer and most of our wine along with a few other things. Rick helped me pick out some outstanding wine - guests were raving about a $7/bottle petite syrah we had - and he was super helpful! Delivery to our site in Malibu was FREE! Afterwards, we could have returned any unopened bottles, but we opted not to. The Beverage Warehouse also has a lot of unique and hard to find stuff - definitely worth checking out!

and an awesome, totally applicable thread!...
http://talk.theknot.com/boards/main_frame.aspx?page=ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=68