Sandbox Venue Reviews

I love how customizable this space is and the bones are gorgeous. Love the brick walls and exposed pipes. I'm the owner of Tayler Ashley Photography and I had the pleasure of shooting here. The vibe is SO cool and industrial! Such a magical place to get married

There are a lot of venues in downtown San Diego, and many of them are awesome, but we ultimately chose Sandbox for a few reasons: 1) The design. The building is just gorgeous, and the lighting is incredible. I loved the look and feel of the upstairs loft area, and it was plenty spacious for everyone to hang out and get ready before the event. 2) The outdoor space. It was so awesome to be able to do a cocktail hour outside and to have the option for additional reception space (and extra restrooms). Our guests spent a lot of time on the back patio! We knew we wanted a food truck caterer, and the truck was able to just park and set up out there without a problem. 3) The staff. We were immediately drawn to Alex's calm and organized personality. He was a great communicator throughout the process, and we genuinely enjoyed working with him. 4) The flexibility. We were planning our wedding from out of town, and Alex worked with us and our vendors to make sure drop off, set up, and pick up happened without any stress. Sandbox's price was fair, and the amenities and bonuses made the decision easy for us. We are so glad we were able to get married there!

My wife and I are so thankful we found Sandbox! The interior, size and flexibility it brings made it possible for us to personalize our wedding! Alex is easy to work with! He’s really cool and approachable! We highly recommend Sandbox for it’s wedding-worthy aesthetic that won’t break the bank!

I was the florist for a wedding back in November of 19. The venue is absolutely stunning. If your in the design and decor world, this place is a dream come true. The space is huge. I LOVED the natural light that came in through the sky lights. Its a blank canvas and you can do so many things in this space! Alex was great! So easy to work with. Very accommodating and he was very calm which makes setting up and running a wedding as stress free as it can be! This place is a gem. I would love to do more wedding at the Sandbox.

As someone who is drawn to industrial spaces, Sandbox Venue was a DREAM to find. Brick? Check. Concrete? Check. Exposed Beams? Check.

There are a few other industrial venues in San Diego (you know who you are) that are A.) VERY pricey, and B.) Don't have a bridal suite. The bridal suite was incredibly helpful and helped lower the stress of getting ready so much. It also had beautiful lighting which had our photographer all heart-eyes.

I cannot say enough great things about Alex and the team at Sandbox. Book Sandbox for your dream wedding, a kind team, and the experience of a lifetime

We loved the venue. Alex was responsive and helpful throughout the entire process, and we were thrilled with the flexibility that the venue offered. Everything was easy from start to finish. Great location and space - would recommend!

We had our wedding reception here on May 18, 2018, and the owner, Alex, is so flexible and accommodating! We had 110 guests and they all raved about the space and uniqueness of the venue. This place can easily fit 150-170 guests and still have plenty of space. They allowed me to bring my own vendors which is a major plus and the price is very reasonable compared to other venues ( BRICK, Monikar warehouse, and Luce Loft). Space is very modern with high ceilings, exposed brick, open layout, and has the minimalist elegance than I was looking for. Thank you, Sandbox espceially Alex, for an amazing night! Brides, schedule a tour and book this place now :)

This venue is beautiful. The price is fair. And Alex,the owner, was very attentive in the beginning. This review is not to belittle the venue space itself, it is more of a review of the professionalism displayed. Our event went well and everyone had a great time, the ending unfortunately left a bad taste on our overall experience.
There was two payments, 50% upfront and 50% a few weeks before event. An additional deposit was tacked on to the second payment, but was disclosed it will be returned after the event. We lost all communication with the owner after the event. Not even a simple explanation on why our deposit was not returned. After numerous phone calls and emails sent over the span of two months we decided to write a review. Only then after we finally got a response. The situation has been resolved, but the way everything was handled at the end was very unprofessional. Maybe because he is overwhelmed as a solo operator. This was why our experience ended poorly and I hope Alex takes it into consideration for future clients. The simplest form of communication could have changed this overall review.

I would give it a 0 if possible. The owner Alex completely stopped communication after we submitted our deposit and signed a contract. He worked with PayPal to rob us of over $2,000.

We have other friends who are in this situation with Sandbox also but lost wayyy more money than us.

He’s a terrible person for doing this to so many people, especially during COVID. Honestly disgusted by him and PayPal.

If you’re reading this, Alex. You should truly be ashamed of yourself.

Where do I even begin. My fiance and I toured the beautiful SandBox venue back in 2019 a few months after being engaged. We met with the owner Alex and he seemed like a very accommodating and down to Earth guy. We not only liked the venue itself, but we liked that we could get there as early as we wanted to and stay as late as we wanted to as well. We attended the "big fake wedding" event at this venue back in January, and it was so nice to see our future wedding space all decked out with beautiful decor and vendors. We even said hello to Alex and his wife and let them know how much we were looking forward to getting married there later in the year (October 2020). Our payment of $5000 to him for us to use the venue was already paid off at this point. March came along and COVID hit the USA, Alex then started to have poor communication with us. We sympathized with him, as he had stated that he was dealing with a sick family member down in Mexico. We did everything that we could to keep our wedding going, but with the California state ordinance that came out in early August, we were not able to keep our original planned date for October 2020. He stated that he would work with us on postponing, gave us future available dates to pick from, and then since then has GHOSTED US. We spoke to our coordinator who has close communication with other vendors that have worked with Alex/SandBox in the past and she stated that he has done the same to them, no communication. After looking at other reviews it seems as though this Alex guy has screwed over other couples, as well as a whole high school of kids that put a deposit down for their prom. Overall I would not trust Alex with your money, and look somewhere else. We are highly disappointed and disgusted by Alex and hope that a more reputable owner takes over this venue so that other couples can enjoy it in the future. If 2020 wasn't hard enough for couples already, now we are onto finding a new venue.

I loved this place and so wish I had my wedding here. We had placed a deposit pre-COVID and Alex Georgescu was initially kind enough to allow us to postpone our wedding. He eventually never responded to me, my partner, or my wedding planner/coordinator. It was absolutely terrible how we were treated - no communication at all from his end. We ended up having our wedding outside in downtown, La Jolla. We still have not heard from Alex Georgescu.

I booked Sandbox and the manager asked for a $500 deposit. After our wedding Alex the manager said our check was in the mail. A week later I never received the check and that was the last I ever heard from him. I followed up many times and he's never responded to me.

Check Yelp and Google reviews, there appears to be other people having the same issue of getting their deposit back. At this point it is starting to look like a shady business.