What is your travel/lodging budget and what is the budget for your family? If your family isn't up to much travel (or simply can't afford the travel and the time off from work) then you'll want to look at somewhere a bit cheaper and a bit closer to home than if you all love to travel and can afford to travel further.

I don't know the rules/laws for this sort of thing so I'm just going to suggest a few places to consider. For the legal issues, talk to the office in charge of marriage licenses (it's the county recorder here) and see if they know. Then once you know how it works for California, you can pick a possible destination and see how destination weddings are treated there.

I have to admit that the idea of California being cold in November is making me smile a bit. Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand or Fiji could be nice and have a variety of possible budgets. The Carribbean (when is hurricane season?).

We saw a lovely beach wedding in Maui when we were on vacation there...as we emerged from a scuba dive onto the beach

We waited out in the surf, floating in our scuba gear, until the ceremony was over and then made our way out of the water so we wouldn't disturb them. It looked like a really beautiful wedding with a small group of people. This was on a fairly isolated public beach but you could likely have a fancier wedding at a resort.

You would probably want to avoid the Caribbean in November because it's still the tail end of hurricane season. If you were willing to fly that far, the ABC islands (Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba) are outside of the hurricane belt. They each offer something different. A wedding at Kura Hulanda on Curacao would be lovely or at Harbour Village on Bonaire.

Hawaii

Oops, because Hawaii is an easy plane ride from southern California and has fabulously gorgeous tropical beaches but since it is technically the United States none of the legal hassles of being married out of the country (like most of the other places you might consider... Caribbean, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, etc.).

There are different rules depending on the country - some in some countries you can do a legal ceremony that will be recongnized in the US and some you cannot. And in some you can, but it requires more paperwork. You just have to look into the legal requirements - I'm sure all the info you need is on the web.

The date on your marriage license will be whatever date you legally become married.

First Congrats!

From CA

www.princeresortshawaii.com/hapuna-beach-wedding-venues.php

Hapuna Prince would be awesome for this cheap to get to

direct flights to KON from LAX SFO cheap packages on

www.priceline.com from $1k per person all in...

Big Island awesome beaches golf volcanoes rain forest

Should save you a lot of money and be a magical experience.

Happy Planning,

In CR one super special more intmate place

www.hotelvillacaletas.com/special_events_weddings.html

Would cost lots more harder to get to

probably more risk of rain in CA/CR

so would still opt personally for Hawaii.

Lots of couples are shooting for tha 11/11/11 date

so book your ceremony early wherever you will be.

Will be the biggest wedding day of the century probably.

I'm still voting for Hawaii. But you could also consider the US Virgin Islands, for the same reasons of ease of paperwork. Officially getting married in a foreign country takes a bunch of extra paperwork and planning.

Boca Raton beaches can be sunbathing warm in November (but can also be chilly). Are you wanting to sunbathe or just be able to stand outside for the ceremony etc?

I recommend St. Barth or Anguilla.
You can get more advice from the Sugokuii blog http://www.sugokuii-events.com/blog/ which specialize in Caribbean destination events in winter and Italian island weddings in summer.
We got married 2 years ago, and considered either a winter or summer wedding, and talked to Diana from Sugokuii Events about. However, we finally decided on a summer wedding in Capri. Good luck.
Charlotte