For guests flying to the wedding, here's Beverly's guide to airports in southern California.

Los Angeles International (LAX)
The safe choice -- you can't go wrong with LAX. You can rent a car, get a hotel room, arrange for a shuttle pickup, find plenty of signage ... it is like any other major airport in that it's busy, crowded and has bad traffic surrounding it. But if you are a first-time traveler to LA, and you like having access to a multitude of services, then LAX is your airport. Going to any of the major travel sites or to any rental car company site (www.avis.com, www.budget.com, www.enterprise.com) will allow you to arrange a rental car pick-up. Just follow the signs at the airport to hop a rental car shuttle. It will take you to the rental car parking lot to pick up your car.

LAX is not far from the three hotels we've arranged discounts at -- about a 30 or 40-minute drive, depending upon the traffic (in a city where it takes an hour to get anywhere, that isn't bad!). 

Long Beach Airport (LGB)
This is a municipal airport in Long Beach -- in other words, it's pretty small. It has gained popularity in recent years because it's the only LA-area airport that JetBlue flies into. If you are coming from a city that offers a JetBlue flight to LA, and you find a cheap fare (www.jetblue.com), you may want to consider flying into Long Beach. (Please read the "cons" below before making this decision.) However, you may want to do a little comparison shopping on the major travel booking sites (www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com, www.orbitz.com, www.priceline.com) to see if you find anything cheaper than JetBlue. While JetBlue offers consistently reasonable fares, we have found better deals elsewhere.

Some people prefer Long Beach over LAX because it's not as crowded. Beverly's family rejoices whenever we fly into Long Beach because they don't have to battle traffic. However, please keep in mind that services at Long Beach are somewhat limited. The airport does offer car rental and shuttle services. (Click here for more information.) However, it was built mostly to serve area residents. If you prepare, there shouldn't be a problem, but it depends on your personal comfort level.

As far as distance, there's not too much of a difference. If you are staying in the three hotels we've described on our Web site, in Torrance, then you can fly Long Beach or LAX (might take you longer on the road because of LAX traffic). If you are staying at a location farther north (in LA proper, or Santa Monica), then Long Beach will be really far away for you! In that case, try LAX.

In short, if you find a cheap flight/are familiar with the area/are comfortable with a smaller airport as a first-time traveler to LA, keep Long Beach in mind. 

San Diego or John Wayne airports
This really depends on how much you want to drive. Before a weekend, on a drive from San Diego to the Los Angeles area, this could take you 3 to 4 hours because of traffic. Ideally, it would take you just two hours, maybe less if you drive fast. If I were not familiar with the Southern California road system, I would not do this -- but if you are good with directions (it's a pretty straightforward route), would like to drive and found a really cheap fare to San Diego, then it might be worth it! 

John Wayne airport is in Orange County -- it would take less time to drive from there to LA. I can't really give much information on this because neither I nor anyone in my family has flown there -- with the deals to be found for LAX and Long Beach, it just hasn't been worth it.

Any other airports
We've pretty much covered the major airports within a reasonable distance of the wedding ... if you want to fly into anywhere else, it's probably pretty small or pretty far away, but please feel free to ask about it!