It’s been 2.5 years since my last post (here goes my typical “hello, I am back again” opening), and I now have a bit of extra time. I decided to come out of hiatus by sharing our experience where we hosted our guests for our mini-destination wedding: The Lakehouse Hotel & Resort in Southern California. 

Now, although it’s been 1.5 years since I’ve been to the Lakehouse Resort, I think it’s still reasonable for me to write a thing or two about it because it was just that damn memorable. After all, if you’re hosting a wedding in the area just as we did, this has to be one of the best hotels to stay at with all things considered, including the price. 

The Lakehouse Hotel & Resort is in San Marcos, CA (located in San Diego County but 35 mins to 1 hour north of San Diego Airport depending on traffic. Typical California thing). I like to think that the hotel can pass as an affordable luxury hotel and a family-friendly resort (check out their adventure suite!). What makes it even better is that it’s also pet-friendly – unfortunately, I hear up to a certain weight, so double check on that. 

However, I am pretty fascinated with the amenities given the location and how busy they kept my guests. Featured amenities included kayaking, bike rentals, paddleboarding, golf, access to two pools, a hotel coffee shop, and even a gym. They also had two restaurants within walking distance – literally next door.

Things to do near the Lakehouse Resort include a one-hour drive to downtown San Diego and enjoying the nightlife in Encinitas. Basically, the world is your oyster. You’ll have enough opportunity to keep your family together, while leaving some room for them to galavant.  To give you an idea of the experience, I’ll share a little taste of how our wedding weekend went:

• Wednesday – Arrival: hubs and I (I used to call him DGB on here, but he has upgraded to hubs!) We settled in and enjoyed the hotel, because best believe that you need the calm before the storm. We organized our room in a way where there was easy flow of traffic. When you’re the host of the party, your room is going to have a ton of visitors. 
• Thursday – bridal party and immediate family start trickling in: We thought we were going to have a pool party relaxing day but when you do your own arts and crafts, that’s a lie. Everyone chimed in to finish wedding things (welcome bags, costco runs, the cricut where I never want to see once again). Then bam, the party with everyone begins. They enjoyed the fire and hung out in our room.
• Friday – this is where it gets crazy in case it hasn’t already. We hosted the welcome party and the guests started coming in! People who have joined in on Thursday start taking advantage of the pool, bike rentals, kayaks.. even enjoy drinks at the restaurant or hotel bar within the vicinity. In the afternoon, we hosted our welcome party 25 mins away at the Camp Store by South Carlsbad Beach. It is a bit foggy on this side, but it was still pretty tight to have everyone chill and have some pizzas. 
• Saturday – the day before the wedding. Rehearsal practice, rehearsal luncheon (at the Amalfi di Cucina), unplanned pool party at the pool right after, then night time with my bridesmaids. More and more people trickled in on this day so we fortunately got to see more people. I’ve felt so much warmth from seeing everyone… it hits different when you’ve felt like you’ve just thrown a huge family vacation and to have everyone at the hotel. The feels really hit when you do that and see everyone you love together. 
• Sunday – bam. Wedding. I’m not going to get into the details of that, but it’s funny when you hear stories about people running into each other at the lobby, calling an uber to the wedding. Now after the wedding? We came back to an after-party in our room.  
• Monday – folks fly back. We hosted our morning after brunch at the golf course, and we packed all the wedding stuff to go back up to the Bay Area. We said our “thank yous” and “see you laters” to everyone else who stuck around, while not believing that we really accomplished such a memorable night with everyone. This was not the day we’d leave though, we had one more night and relaxed. 
• Tuesday – head out. Of course, we had the rest of the week off to ourselves. But we relished the feeling and wished we could do everything all over again lol. 

Although there were plenty of options for hotels in the area of our wedding venue, I honestly chose the Lakehouse at first because I was debating on renting a hall with an after-party (also it was the nicest hotel). I honestly could have done the deed because when you’re at a destination wedding, everyone would take advantage of keeping the night going. I mean, you have no kids, and you’re on a mini vacation. However, even though we passed on it, we still really made the best of it with the cottage. 

Do I plan to go back? Hell yea! If you noticed, we didn’t even get to rent bikes, golf, or even kayak lol, and get this – if you stay there, you at least get a week’s worth of daily rental. I definitely recommend this hotel, they had 3 weddings alone hosted AT the hotel (not counting other wedding parties who booked there). After all, it is not too far from home. 

So there you have it. My Lakehouse Resort Review. Easy. Peazy. Lemon Squeezy. And I’d do it again! By the way, if you’re interested in booking the hotel, use my booking link and follow me on “Plannin”, a travel platform that embraces creators from various categories. I’ve dabbled in it, thought it was pretty neat for a travel-loving person myself, and thought I’d also leave my first plannin.com review with this hotel. You’ll also see a few posts  I’ve uploaded.

And excuse my hiatus (woe is me). I mean, every time I am MIA on my site, I go through some sort of change—at least this time I got married! But if you follow me on instagram, you know I’ll stay updating my travel pics. So hit the follow!     

As always, you can always hit me up and ask any clarifying questions.