San Diego Woman’s Club

We are particularly a fan of the San Diego Woman’s Club because they came to our rescue! Our wedding venue (a rustic ranch) had to cancel due to the torrential rains that occurred the days prior to our daughter’s wedding. The grounds were a muddy mess. So…2 days before the wedding we were scrambling to find a new, indoor place where we could still use our caterer and be able to dance. My husband dropped by the SDWC that day (it was closed) just to see what it looked like from the outside. No one was there until a woman (Jennifer) walked into the parking lot to save the day! Truly a gift from God. She showed him around then 2 hours later, showed my daughters and me around. We had just seen 2 other venues that were not ideal for a wedding. Jennifer’s attitude was, «Let’s do this!» She is spunky and ready for action. :-)
Now, the SDWC was built in the 1940’s. Remember that when you see it. The building looks stately from the outside but shows wear and tear on the inside. The bathrooms are dated and small and the walls, carpet and décor need updating too. However, adding decorative lighting (rented from Platinum) created a festive atmosphere and the wood floors were awesome for dancing! The high ceilings are nice as well. They supply tables but linens must be rented and the chairs are not wedding worthy (either rent chairs or chair covers). Anthony is a wonderful helper to set up and help in any way. Parking was fine since we could use the bank next door after it closed at 2 pm. We used the parlor initially for the bride and bridesmaids to get ready then later (doors open) for the photo booth which worked well.
We are eternally grateful to God and for Jennifer, Anthony and his other staff for making our daughter’s wedding a fabulous, memorable celebration. (and no mud!).

A professional association I belong to recently held an event at the Woman’s Club. We needed to keep the event low in cost, yet attractive to potential new members because this was to be our annual membership drive as well as an educational/​social event.
Having checked out several venues the previous year, I was pleased to find the Woman’s Club online as a possibility for this year. We expected to have 50 – 75 attendees and a speaker panel of three plus a moderator. We had more than enough room to set up 60 chairs in front of the stage for the panel portion, and tables for mixing and mingling. The space is very configurable for almost any type of event. We hired a catering service who also provided us with a licensed bartender. We brought in our own alcohol which kept costs down. Parking was plentiful and free in this area.
Jennifer, the event coordinator, was very good to work with and answered communications promptly. She was very helpful and accomodating. The event was a success!
The only thing that would have made the event better would be air conditioning. There was an unexpected heat wave and the building doesn’t have air conditioning (it’s 75 years old), just ceiling fans and window fans. Most of the year, that wouldn’t be a problem in San Diego, but this time it was quite toasty. Other than that, the experience was very positive!

We had our wedding reception at the San Diego Woman’s Club and it was perfect!!! We loved having such a big space, which fit our 200 guests perfectly (We had a more ‘cocktail-​style’ reception without assigned seating, so there was plenty of room).
The space is so great for a big party– we loved having the bar outside on the patio so people could mingle outside, the little parlor for people who wanted a quieter space to talk, and the kids space upstairs (both kids and parents really appreciated this). The stage was fantastic for a live band. With market lights strung around the hall, it looked beautiful, warm, and festive.
And it is really great to find a space that is very flexible with regards to catering– it was great to be able to bring in our own food and alcohol (and saved us a lot of money). And, it was in an easy-​to-​get-​to, central location in the city, easy to access via cab and über, and there was plenty of parking for our guests.
Communication with the staff was easy and Jennifer and Anthony were both very helpful and accommodating. Thank you SDWC for making our wedding so great– our guests had a wonderful time and so did we!

I participate in planning and hosting a Fashion show at the club. This place is beautiful, the sound system was just what we needed, the people helping were awesome! The only thing is that if the event had been during the week parking would have been difficult, but on a Sunday afternoon it was not a problem! We would use this venue again in a heart beat.

Had my wedding reception here and was really glad I did.
Pros:
— beautiful historic building
— plenty of space
— really nice wood flooring
— easy to work with
— great, helpful staff
— really good price
— really nice covered patio which serves well as a bar area
— parking was not a problem at all (because of the vacant bank parking lot next door)
Cons:
— the surrounding area is not that spectacular
— the parlor they offer was dusty, had some items stored in it covered in plastic, and the carpets are very old/​not well kept
— some other areas in the building were dusty/​old/​not well kept
One tip is to not use too much lighting. We had some truss towers and string lighting going across the hall and it turned out way too bright because of all the light reflecting from the walls and floor. If you get additional lighting make sure you get something relatively dim.

Few wedding venues have taken my breath away like this place. With hardwood floors, a nearly century old vibe, and traditional features such as reserved parking for members and a huge auditorium, sdwc was a cool venue for my best friend’s nuptials. The staff were awesome and professional in overseeing folks, the space was ample, the outdoor patio was small yet accommodating for the bar and appetizers, and they were flexible on timing and other logistical factors, unlike other venues I’ve been to.

I saw a lecture/​spoken word here. The space is cool and intimate, but get there right when doors open or you will not get a seat! Also, it will be rather hot and stuffy, so leave your sweatshirt in the car. Will go back, but will be better prepared.

I looked at this venue last week for my wedding in October and decided against it. Pros: It is very reasonable priced, it was 1000 for a Friday and 1000 for security deposit. It holds a good amount of people and with my count at 150 we would have plenty of space. It has a room we can rent that is like a bridal room for only like 100 more. We could rent their piano for only 40 bucks extra. It had a projection screen that I believe is included. Its close to Balboa park. They include the takes and chairs. Cons: The music had to be turned off by 10 no exceptions. Everyone has to be out by 11, everything cleaned up. They have a kitchen but only their in house caterer is allowed to use it. You must closed the doors when you have the music playing and the place is not air conditioned so that would suck in the summer. It had a couple celling fans. The curtains for the stage are pink and are very dirty when I went there so I didn’t like that at all. 125 dollars are taken out of your security deposit to pay for the forced security they have. So overall really really think about it if you are having a wedding here.

My husband and I had our reception here in July. Our experience was really positive and we have no complaints. Bobbie, the director, was very flexible, helpful and sweet. She is also very good at answering calls/​emails within 24 hours, which as a busy bride, I really appreciated.
As for the actual venue, our wedding was vintage-​y so the building worked out really well. I think the outside is beautiful and the hard wood floors were great. We had about 120 people at our wedding; we were able to easily fit 16 tables, a photobooth and still had a large dance floor. They also provide the tables and chairs, which is really nice and one less detail/​rental to take care of.
We used the in-​house caterer, Bill Bonds, and we had a great experience with him. He was very flexible with our limited budget and he was available to answer our questions. The food was excellent and the staff was professional and very kind.
We really enjoyed our experience and would recommend the San Diego Woman’s Club for a wedding reception.

I fell in love with this venue the moment I walked in. I booked it without consulting my fiancé (which he didn’t like). This venue is wonderful for a wedding of 100−150ish people. I had 15 tables plus my cake, DJ and a sweetheart table and plenty of room to dance. The parking is good because on weekends you can park in the bank parking lot with is just next door, so my guests had no issues!
The décor is bland so if you plan on decorating I believe that up-​lighting would be most effective and cost conscious.
Bobbie, the coordinator is the biggest sweetheart in the world and so on top of everything! I would recommend this venue for a wedding in a heartbeat, good price, good location and good people.

Plus:
Spacious Hall
Near Hillcrest area if you want to go out after an event
Cons:
Hard to find parking
Décor kind of outdated
Was here for an event. Probably won’t be back ever, but it’s ok. I can totally see weddings and (very) small, intimate concerts held in this venue.

I had a great experience with the San Diego Woman’s Club. The price is right and the location is great. Bobbie was very straight-​forward and helpful throughout the contracting process. I knew exactly what was going on the whole time. I loved that I didn’t feel like SDWC is part of the «wedding industry.» They don’t use any wedding lingo to justify a $ 4,000 price tag, and they don’t charge you anything extra. They also supply tables and chairs, and even set them up for you!
Bobbie gave me recommendations on a bartender who did a great job. You can bring your own alcohol! It saves so much money. Their building and operations manager Anthony was so helpful the whole time. They put up with all of my emails, questions, and phone calls.
I had been to a wedding there before, so I knew that the place had to be aired out so it wouldn’t get stuffy. Obviously, it’s an old building in San Diego, and people should expect that it won’t have AC.
I had no issues bringing in a caterer from outside. I had zero issues with noise level.
Overall, a wonderful experience! I highly recommend it! My only suggestion is to be sure to ask a lot of questions during the contract process and stay organized. Oh, and keep in mind that the room is really high and you can’t really put much on the walls. I used giant party balloons with big ribbons to make the space look decorated. Everyone had a great time at my wedding and I couldn’t be more pleased.

San Diego Woman’s Club = Awesome
Caterer = Awful
Noise Ordinance Issue = A bit of a bummer
The San Diego Woman’s Club was a nice location for our wedding reception. Event Planner, Bobbie Brown, was fabulous during the planning process. We had a horrible experience with Bill Bond (their contracted caterer as of October 2011), the review for his services can be found here:
. We would not recommend his services.
A side note: we had the same issues with San Diego Woman’s Club staff members complaining our music was too loud starting at ~6:30pm (our event was 5pm-​10pm). From what I understand, a neighbor who has been giving them a hard time with event noise. I do feel for the Woman’s Club being in this awkward situation and would suggest investing the money in sound insulation since our music wasn’t even loud enough to hear outside. To give a realistic outlook on how loud the music was… when closing the doors, you could barely hear the music in the lobby. Our parents noted they wanted to dance (we played a lot of oldies), but the music was too low; coming from folks who do not have hearing difficulty. We did not have any police issues or any complaints from the neighbor. I would like to think they actually liked the music we were playing. :-)

Update: I have since went back to this venue to see a concert — the sound and ambiance was perfect. Very intimate environment. A great place to see indie artists or upcoming bands.
The San Diego Woman’s Club was perfect for my event! It wasn’t just the space that made it nice but the staff that contributed to a successful event.
The booking manager assisted in the planning and set-​up of our event. She catered to our needs like meeting with us after-​hours to help with planning and being available when we had questions. It was the little things like that helped make our event great!
I would recommend this place to anyone looking to rent a reception hall for a wedding or medium to large-​sized event!

This is a great place to go if you like to pay $ 40 to see your favorite musical acts perform in oppressive smoky heat.
We saw Joanna Newsom perform here and the concert conditions were abominable. The standing room only space was not exhausted in any way, so the 200 people there heated up the room to a toasty 90 degrees or so (I knew it wasn’t just me because everyone had shiny faces), which was amazing considering it was a very cool 65 degree night. Also, they had a beverage table in the outside patio area that allowed smoking. The smoking patio wasn’t exhausted at all either so the smoke flooded not only the patio but the concert standing space as well. At one point, the band drummer asked that the stage lights be partially turned off because of the heat. I even asked the available concert manager if they could bring some fans in to provide some relief, but she snootily said that it wasn’t that hot, and they couldn’t do anything about it anyways. I went back in to see the show, and noticed that she spent most of the concert time standing by the main front door where there was a nice cool breeze.
This is by far the most atrocious concert venue I’ve ever been to.

Despite what the other reviewer here has said, the San Diego Woman’s Club is actually a good place to have a wedding reception. We had our reception there early this October and guests are still raving about it to us!
When we booked them last fall the prices were the best of all the area Woman’s Clubs we looked at, but I think their prices may have been raised recently so I dont know how they compare anymore. They also allowed us to stay until midnight if we wanted when most other places wouldn’t — but this may also have changed for 2011 because of a neighbor’s noise complaints.
Beyond being relatively inexpensive (price of rental of hall includes tables and chairs), the main hall has nice wooden floors (no need to rent flooring for a dance floor space), a nice looking stage (with a large screen, if you are doing a slideshow), and a high ceiling. You can’t tack anything into the walls to decorate — but we felt that the walls looked great with our amber-​colored uplighting. The hall is also pretty big: we had 14 guest tables + our bridal party table + bar inside and there was still plenty of room for a big dance floor and more guest tables if we had needed them.
We were also pretty lucky because there wasn’t another event going on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, so we could drop off our bar items beforehand on Friday and store them at the hall. A big plus was also our ability to supply our own alcohol for the wedding. We went to Costco and stocked up on beer + wine and were able to return everything we didnt use afterwards.
It isn’t perfect; the entrance room is sort of outdated and the outside covered patio is pretty small — but neither of those were used much for our reception, so it didn’t matter to us. There are also these giant pink curtains around the stage and one wall that we had to figure out how to diminish somehow — our awesome lighting guy managed to tie the ones around the doors up and keep the lighting in the hall low enough that they weren’t too noticeably pink.
The room did get REALLY hot through the course of the evening. I felt bad for all the guys in suits and tuxes, I was in a strapless dress and sweating bullets! It had been in the low 80s earlier that day and a lot of people were dancing that night, but I was really surprised at how ineffective it was at cooling down, even with all the windows and doors open. I dont think they have AC — if they did they certainly didn’t offer to turn it on for us. I can’t imagine what it would have been like during the 100F+ heatwave we had had in San Diego earlier in the month.
My one really negative experience: one of our guests regrettably caused some damage to a bathroom and the manager there left my husband an upset message early the next morning (on Sunday) just to complain. We already had submitted our damage deposit, and while it would be important to contact us about charges to our deposit it seemed unnecessary to call the very next day just to complain about it. What did she want us to do? The manager there had been so nice before and after this so maybe she was just having a bad day, but it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth because it ruined part of the next morning for my husband and I!

So my grad school had a semi-​formal dance here on Friday. It had a prom/​wedding reception vibe going on. The limited age range (all of us were in our 20s) made it feel like prom, but the food factor rang out wedding reception. There weren’t any corny decorations, just a bunch of balloons that I happily popped at the end of the evening.
I thought it was the perfect venue for such an event. That might have been due to the open bar and my 5 hours of drinking. Thanks to that, I was able to scare the ladies with my dance moves, and provide much entertainment for myself. 5 stars for the enormous dance floor. 1 star for the fact you couldn’t have a drink out on the floor. 4 stars for the lack of enforcement of the rule.
Overall, I’d say that if you have an event that will have 150 – 200 people, and want a lot of area to roam and socialize, this place is for you. The interior is a a bit too mundane and stale for a wedding reception, but not bad for any other type of large social gathering.