Ben, My advice is take your classes locally and get your handguns there. You will have a relationship developed for a FFL transfer on future purchases of ammo and firearms. You will have a home gun shop then. And may get some good local advice. Here is the link to the 4800+ CA compliant firearms BUDs list-------------budsgunshop.com/search.php/type/Firearms/exclusive/ca

Ben, the firearm I recommend for use by both you and your wife as a first handgun is the CZ-75 Compact 9mm CA approved and can be found here: -- https://gun.deals/search/apachesolr_search/806703011943

Hi,
I am not from CA and there are only a handful of regular community members here who are from CA. So I probably won't have the best answer for you. What I recommend you to do however is to go to Reddit and ask this question while providing the name of the city you are close to. r/CAguns is a great place to start with an extremely knowledgable and active community. I live in IL and I often get by IL gun law through reddit...you will be surprised how many people are in the same position as you. As for Buds, when you are ready to make a purchase, go to (budsgunshop.com/search.php/type/Handguns/exclusive/ca) for list of CA Compliant handgun. I'm not sure experience with handgun you are but don't go buy small gun unless you intend to conceal carry. Small gun recoil a lot compare to large gun of a same caliber. It's hard to recommend CA compliant handgun that is good bc the best out there are often not CA Compliant (ex. S&W Shield EZ). I would say Glock 19 is your best bet (Glock, M&P, Springfield, and Sig are all super common recommendations...they are all pretty good). Get something that you can mount a rail light to it, light is crucial for home defense.