San Clemente Presbyterian Church

My new husband (!) and I cannot recommend San Clemente Presbyterian Church enough. We wanted to be married in a church but we had some very specific qualifications. After scouring Orange County for churches, we ended up at San Clemente Pres because it is a truly beautiful venue by the ocean with fantastic photo opportunities and a lovely, spacious sanctuary; it has an organ (digital, but hard to find any kind of organ in a non-Catholic venue in SoCal); it offered lots of flexibility in terms of staging and what we wanted to do; and Becky, the coordinator was phenomenal from the start (more on her later!). The church provided us with the entire property ALL day and even let our guests park in the parking lot while they Ubered to our nearby reception venue (the Casino). We so greatly appreciated the flexibility from the staff in allowing our personal pastor to marry us rather than requiring us to use the church’s pastor. My husband and I are professional musicians and wanted to bring in several of our musician friends to play for the ceremony; with some communication of our friends’ professionalism, we were able to do that and it lent such a special quality to our ceremony. The church provided us with candle holders, a few decorative easels to put signage up, and several other amenities. They also moved their drum set from the front of the sanctuary because we didn’t want that in our photos. My husband and I also did a “first prayer” in which we utilized the chapel doors for some glorious photos. We were so grateful to use the entire campus for our pictures and purposes! It was also special for us because my parents were married at the same church almost 28 years prior. Now for Becky, the wedding coordinator. I cannot recommend her highly enough! As a professional harpist, I have worked with many wedding coordinators. Becky was a breath of fresh air. She was so joyful regarding our wedding day, she communicated our desires to the church staff, and she was happy to meet with us multiple times prior to the day to ensure everything we wanted was in place. She also helped guide the process with excellent questions and prompts. When we arrived on wedding day, she had prepared the bridal suite with plenteous snacks, water, supplies for anything we might possibly need (literally, anything!), tall mirrors, a clothing rack, and even a diffuser with essential oils. On the day of, she made sure to communicate with my maid of honor and my husband’s best man rather than with us, and everything flowed remarkably smoothly thanks to her coordination. We were so touched by her commitment to making our day a wonderful and meaningful one!