Personal Touch Dining — Local services in San Diego

If you’re reading this review, then you’re looking for a budget-friendly, all-in-one venue and event coordinator package. You might be wondering what tradeoffs you’ll have to make to save on costs, while also ensuring your big day goes perfectly. Hopefully this review will help you make that decision. Most importantly, our big day went as expected, was beautiful, and our guests all enjoyed themselves. The food and drinks were good, and we didn’t have to worry about much. The leadup to the event, however, did not go as smooth and had its share of stressful moments. Kendra and her team are very busy, a point which she’ll make clear when details are missed or forgotten. At no point will you feel like there is any investment by her or her team in your big day, it’s a business transaction (not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of). Despite my wife taking copious notes at every meeting, we were told that we were mistaken in our recollection whenever there was a discrepancy of any kind. The contract you sign will not always be followed and you’ll be asked for things prior to the agreed upon dates. You’ll also be asked to resubmit information and details multiple times (again, they’re busy…). Details will change last minute, your final invoice will be incorrect, and at no point will you receive any sort of apology from your event coordinator.

Our biggest issue was regarding the final payment date. Our contract stated that it was due at the end of June, so we planned our finances for that. We received an email EOD Thursday, the week before our event, stating that our final payment would be due the following Monday via cashier’s check, two business days. At no time did we receive a phone call to review our final payment and the additional costs that were added. A sentiment we would have appreciated. We would have also appreciated receiving this final number more than a week before our event. When we brought up that this Monday due date did not match our contract, we were told that it was a simple typo and that we’d be given an additional two days to make the payment. To her credit, the CFO, Tracy, was very apologetic and willing to work with us to get a resolution. Still, not the kind of mistake you want to deal with the week before your big day as you’re juggling everything else. A two-month typo in the final payment date is a big deal.

In a nutshell, you’ll get a good, budget-friendly event but at the cost of additional stress. You’ll have to actively manage your event leading up to the big day and double/triple check all your documents and details. Our advice is to make sure that you get everything in writing— email was helpful for us. We were able to refer to previous emails we had sent that contained the information they were requesting again, and agreed upon event details that we discussed early in the planning process. Hopefully this review helps you in your...

We had the most amazing experience having our wedding at Leo Carrillo Ranch! We looked at 8+ wedding venues around the San Diego area and we fell in love with Leo Carrillo Ranch as soon as we set foot on the property. As the majority of our wedding guests would be visiting from the east coast, our goal was to have a wedding that felt very “southern California” and reflect the beauty of the area - and Leo Carrillo could not have been more perfect! The natural beauty of this venue is truly out of this world. We absolutely loved the look of the historic hacienda and the plants and cacti around the property make it so special! And the peacocks are so unique and fun! Besides how much we loved the venue, working with the Leo Carrillo / Personal Touch Dining staff was absolutely incredible. We originally booked our contract with a staff member that was no longer with the company as we got closer to the wedding date, and we were a bit nervous when there was the transition to the new employees as we had not met them yet. But Samantha and Vicki absolutely blew us away! They were both absolute joys to work with and they were so insanely great at communicating with us throughout the entire process. As I was a very anxious bride, they dealt with my many (MANY!) questions and always responded with such kindness and reassurance. Due to their communication, the wedding planning process felt so much easier. The entire team was so accommodating and even made edits to the food menu when requested and helped recommend how many ingredients we would need for our custom signature cocktail recipe. All of our guests gave such great feedback about the food and drinks!!! We really just felt like we were in such good hands and we were so well taken care of throughout the process. And now for our day-of-coordinator - we met Sam the day before the wedding at our rehearsal and we were absolutely blown away! She was incredibly kind, comforting, and knowledgeable and she really helped put me at ease when I was so nervous. On the day of the wedding, she went above and beyond and we were treated like royalty - she always made sure we had fresh drinks in our hand and she had dinner plates made up for us! She also kept us on track with the schedule and she even did things that we were not expecting at all, like helping with the decor and centerpieces. She was such a dream to work with and I felt so grateful for her the entire day! These pictures don’t do the venue enough justice but just go visit and see for yourself if you are looking for a wedding venue! We couldn’t be happier with our experience working with Leo Carrillo Ranch and Personal Touch Dining - thank you SO much Sam, Samantha, and Vicki, we are...

Personal Touch Dining operates Mt Woodson Castle, Leo Carillo Ranch, and several other wedding venues near San Diego. My wife and I originally called them to inquire about Leo Carillo Ranch; the ranch was not available on our wedding date, but Mt Woodson Castle was and so we went to check it out. It took all of a few minutes for us to realize that it was the venue for us, and shortly thereafter we entered into business with Personal Touch Dining.

The package that Personal Touch Dining provided includes access to the venue, catering, and coordination (pre-wedding and day-of.)

Many of our guests described Mt Woodson Castle as "magical;" many of our guests told us that the food was the best they'd ever had at a wedding; my wife and I feel the same way. I'm not really sure what else needs to be said on these fronts.

We loved the inclusion of wedding coordination with our package. Iman was the coordinator who handled most of our pre-event planning. I loved her communication style: she laid out all of the decisions that we needed to make and talked us through everything that we had questions about. Iman actually left the company a week before our wedding, but she transitioned everything to her coworker Leah and our event went off without a hitch.

Our day-of coordinator, Rian, was a pleasure to work with. He helped put my wife and I at ease during the rehearsal by staying late with us and ironing out details. On the day of the wedding, he was in constant communication with our vendors and with us. Our pre-ceremony events and our speeches went longer than expected, but Rian kept us on track and made up time wherever he could. Out guests were very impressed with the flow and with the transitions.

The event staff did a fantastic job of setup, teardown, and serving our guests throughout the day. It was such a whirlwind that my wife and I barely noticed that the staff was there. But looking around, it was abundantly clear that they had been working hard and keeping the event running smoothly. We thank them profoundly.

Personal Touch Dining included pre-event and day-of coordination with their base wedding package. With this taken into account, their pricing was far lower than comparable venues. My wife and I found Personal Touch Dining / Mt Woodson Castle to be an excellent value, considering how expensive weddings can be.

We would both happily work with Personal Touch Dining in the future, but neither of us plans on getting married again so it would have to be in a...