New wedding/events venue in San Clemente aims for a niche in Orange County

Orange County Register (CA)

Dec. 01--People driving by the 2300 block of South El Camino Real may notice a bright, clean-looking, Spanish-style building situated amidst a tire store, a liquor store, a 7-Eleven and Pedro's Tacos.

Unseen from the street is the elegant entrance to La Ventura Event Center. It's the dream of a local insurance broker and San Clemente High School graduate, Don Kappauf.

If it seems a strange place to locate a wedding and events center, walk inside and you may just become a believer.

"It's going to be such a surprise for people to have this kind of a space in San Clemente," said local architect Gary Wiggle, who designed the building. "The whole idea was to make it feel like someone's very private home that you are coming to for an event. As you come up the driveway, it sort of unfolds. You walk in, and there's a tremendous two-story entry that catches your attention, but then it's the grand parlor that is really the whole show ... and that looks out onto the courtyard."

The building is 5,500 square feet, Kappauf said, with the 1,400-square-foot outdoor courtyard, and all of it designed to please the bride -- as opposed to an adaptation of a building from other uses.

La Ventura is set up for parties of up to 150 people, with a kitchen, a bride's room, 30 on-site parking spaces and 22 off-site across the street, served by valets.

Oh, and there's a bacon bar, stocked with an array of bacon appetizers.

People who have driven by the site during construction over the past year may be wondering what's inside. We caught up with Kappauf, who serves as a San Clemente Police Services chaplain when he isn't selling insurance, about his La Ventura plans.

Q. What types of events will you host?

A. It's built for weddings, corporate events, quinceañeras, birthday parties, anniversary parties.

Q. How long has it been in the making?

A. I thought about it eight years ago and was dissuaded. The person I asked, who built an event center in Laguna, said it wouldn't work down here. I trusted his opinion. Then four or five years ago, my friend, who is a plumber, said, "Oh, you should build it for quinceañeras -- you would do great." That got me thinking again.

Q. It does seem out of the way, in a rather sleepy part of town. What about the location?

A. This is San Clemente. Do you want to have your wedding inland, or in San Clemente?

Q. What's your niche?

A. Let's say just weddings. There are 18,000 married couples in Orange County every year. I don't think I'm going to take any business from any other venues. I think there's enough business here for them and I'm just bringing 80 more in.

We have a kitchen on site. Some don't. We are 365 days a year, rain or shine. Some aren't. And we're new. And as far as weddings are concerned, we were designed with the bride in mind.

Q. How will the parking work?

A. We're 14 cars over-parked. Fifty-two (spaces). You can see the valets here. There are no problems at all.

Q. Will it be mostly weddings?

A. I'm thinking probably 80 percent of our revenue will be weddings and 20 percent other types of events.

Q. Who is your caterer?

A. Iva Lee's. It's Eric and Lisa Waggoner. They're the sole caterer. They're the best. They've done 1,000 weddings. For last Christmas they did a company that has 2,500 employees, so this is easy for them. Any kind of food you want, they can do.

Q. Why the name La Ventura?

A. I think it's kind of catchy. It's a Spanish colonial building, and Ventura means luck or venture. And my friend Danny Ventura had just passed away ... a local guy.

Q. How does an insurance agent come up with something like this?

A. I just want a passive income. There's some money invested.

La Ventura Event Center

Where: 2316 S. El Camino Real, San Clemente

Website: laventuraeventcenter.com

Telephone: 949-212-4920

E-mail: [email protected]

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