We knew our photographer, Jihan, through another friend and had seen her unique, beautiful style photography before we ever started planning the wedding. In addition to that, Jihan has been the knot.com photography award winner the past 2 years. We did not want the same old boring wedding and her style is very creative. On our wedding day we met her 2 hours before the ceremony so we could take pictures with the wedding party on Main Street in Santa Monica; at one point we recreated the Beatles "Abbey Road" album cover while crossing a busy intersection! She listens to your ideas and then incorporates them with her vision. She was easy to work with when we had to do a few of the typical wedding photos as well. During the reception you did not know she and her talented second photographer, Caroline were even there other than the results of great photos. Jihan is not just a photographer; she is an artist that works in the film industry as well.

Our ceremony is still being talked about in glowing terms! I like to think it is partially due to my new husband and myself, but Alan Katz our officiant (and owner of So Call Officiant) deserves most of the credit. We had no problem setting an in-person appointment with him at his office in Long Beach and immediately we felt like he was an old friend. He also took care of the marriage license, so all we had to do was sign on the dotted line. His personality and style may not be for everyone, but if you are looking for someone who is a genuine nice person, loves what he does and is funny enough to be on SNL, then this is your officiant. He made everything so easy and relaxed that my husband and I were able to add our on “adlibs” during the ceremony. During the reception our guests made a point of telling us that it was one of the best ceremonies they had ever seen; loving, but fun like us!

Renee the sole owner of Blooming Designs is very easy to work with. She listens to your ideas and then helps you make them better. She does not have a shop where you go to look at the flowers, but will meet you somewhere convenient to show you pictures of her past events. This for me was a selling point as she had worked with our venue and had pictures of what it could look like with her flowers. She was great about working with our budget and showed up exactly at the time she was supposed to be there. The final product was beautiful. Our wedding party and our guests had nothing but positive comments on our flowers. She does not currently have a web site, but is in the process of building one so that you can see her gorgeous flower creations online. When she gets that done, I know she is going to be hard to book as she is that good.

The Victorian is an original beautiful historical Victorian home. Despite being on a busy street, the outdoor setting with its many twinkle lit trees, candles lining the stars and brick patio, it is very charming. With the many candles inside, the ambience is classic and romantic. The food and all the accessories provided are good quality. They are very accommodating in the usage of the venue for your outside vendors to come early, as well as coming early to take photos with your wedding party. Joe our original contact (sales person) is great and worked with very well with our budget.
Unfortunately our number one complaint is the poor staffing and with the one owner of the Victorian whom we worked, with Aleta Slayton. The venue was going through some changes about 3 weeks before our wedding. They shut down their cafe/bakery and are now only a venue to rent for events. This means they no longer provide the wedding cake as part of their service, but they do still provide the catering. We started with one wedding planner, and then were told she was no longer with them after we had met with her for 2 hours and discussed our plans in detail. We were then told we would be working with one of the owners Aleta (the Victorian and Calamigos Ranch in Malibu are owned by Aleta and her husband Ray), by the day of our wedding we working with her and some other woman, whom we met that day. We were very nervous when we first spoke to Aleta as it was apparent that she knew none of our details and we were told that everything we had discussed was not going to work as the original wedding planner did not understand the venue. So we had to take time out of our busy schedules to have a second meeting with Aleta. After the meeting we felt better for as she told us “she has owned the Victorian for years and no one knows the place better than her”. We took this to mean that she knew what she was talking about. Our cocktail hour was to be 1 hour, it ended up being 1 1/2 hours as they started dinner late. Dinner finally started, which was a buffet and the food was good, but instead of having multiple servings available, there were only small servings of each item being offered and one staff member serving. This resulted in a very slow buffet line. They continued to bring out food, but it also was done very slowly. At the end of dinner, when there were only a few people left to eat, they brought out a large pan of fresh asparagus, an item that should have been out all along, but that was the first time it was brought out. Dinner ran so long that our dancing could not start until 8:45 p.m.; it was to have started at 8:00 p.m. After cutting the cake, no one served it to our guests; it sat on the table unless our guests found it and got a piece for themselves. We had to cut out the Father/Daughter dance and other planned activities as we were running so behind; in fact many guests said they loved the wedding, but felt that the party had to end just when it was getting started (we had the venue until 10:30 p.m.). At the end of the night, our "wedding coordinator" was suppose to be there to help us prepare to leave (i.e. get our things together and direct people where to go), sadly this person whoever it was suppose to be were nowhere to be found, neither was the owner, Aleta. Overall, we were promised and paid for a certain number of wait staff and there were not enough to take care of our 167 person wedding. The worst part is that after the wedding we called and spoke with the owner Aleta and told her the things we were very happy with and also discussed all the aforementioned problems. We did this as we have been too many events at the Victorian and have many friends who would consider using the Victorian in the future; we would like to have seen this happen. But after speaking with Aleta, we would not recommend the Victorian as a place to hold your event. She told us that the reason dinner went askew was due to our guests not going to the buffet correctly. When we asked her how many wait staffs were on hand she said that "she was not sure". When we told her how unhappy we were with the way the food was served and that the cake was not served she had no apology or explanation for either. This conversation took place prior to our honeymoon and we had hoped that when we returned we would hear back from someone at the Victorian with at least an apology, but none has ever been provided, let alone some kind of compensation for not providing for what we paid for. This is just bad customer service and very bad business, particularly in an area where ourselves and our guests are long time residents (and many also work in the area); this is poor business practice, for word of mouth and internet reviews now make such an impact on a person’s business reputation.