Wedding pricing is famously hard to pin down. Most venues in San Diego County ask you to fill out a form before they will tell you a number, which makes it almost impossible to work out whether a small ceremony is within reach. So here are real figures.
The short answer
Ceremony packages at Just Vows by Camille run from $750 to $5,500. The lower end covers a simple ceremony with an officiant. The upper end covers a fuller morning or afternoon in the front garden with more time and more setup. Where you land depends mostly on how long you want the day to be.
What usually sits outside that number
- Your marriage license, issued by San Diego County
- Photography, if you want more than portraits
- Flowers beyond what the garden already gives you
- Hair, makeup, and what you are both wearing
- Dinner afterward, wherever you choose to go
For a lot of couples, the whole day including all of the above lands well under what a single Saturday at a traditional venue would cost before anyone has eaten.
A small wedding is not a smaller version of a real one. It is a place designed to hold the weight of the moment.
Why the venue changes the math
Just Vows is a private home in Carlsbad, steps from the sand and minutes from Carlsbad Village. There is no venue rental stacked on top of a catering minimum, no required vendor list, and no five hour block you have to fill. You are paying for the ceremony and the setting, not for a building.
Is a courthouse wedding cheaper?
Often, yes. A courthouse ceremony is a perfectly good way to get married and plenty of couples are happy with one. The question is whether you want the twenty minutes to feel like paperwork or like a wedding. If it is the second, the gap between the two is smaller than most people expect.