Inn of the Seventh Ray

This is a beautiful venue but not very wedding-friendly for weddings bigger than 50. The layout is just too difficult to plan if you want all your guests to have a clear view of you during dinner. Layout aside, the venue was very responsive and always welcomed me to stop by anytime to do wedding stuff even when the restaurant was running. They are pricey but their food is of really good quality. They could be more flexible on space and pricing however. I was having a huge issue on space and when I asked if I could use a space that wouldn't been unused anyways, I was told it was extra charge. They could improve by providing a clearer cost break-out to present to new clients so we understand what we're signing into. Because of that, I paid about $7k more than I thought I would be paying because I was told that so many items were extra cost. Lucille was amazing to work with. She was very willing to try a layout the restaurant had never done before so all my guests will be able to have a clear view of the head table. It worked perfectly! I couldn't have asked for more! She even decorated my cake (which was gigantic) for me! Thank you for making my wedding dreams come true!

Such a joyous place. We were so glad to have our reception here. The food was incredible and the energy of the place was amazing. The grounds and surrounding location are beautiful.

While our coordinator was a very pleasant person, we loved that she was eco-friendly, and helped with number of items [decorating our cake (which should have been done by our florist), giving us a wine upgrade, offering the use of her numbered table blocks, and substituting last minute canceled guest meals for beverages], we were disappointed by her lack of help in coordinating our wedding. We hope that by leaving our comments here, she might better assist other couples with their weddings.

Our coordinator was mandatory if planning a wedding at the location we picked (a garden restaurant). Frankly, we felt we would have been better off having family or friends coordinate our wedding instead. Below are some of the reasons why.

· Our coordinator wasn't timely with wedding day schedule reminders, so we fell behind time and, as a consequence, were rushed throughout our wedding day.
· Our planned ceremony layout was to have our string trio outside of a nearby gazebo and behind our seated wedding guests. Instead the trio was placed inside the gazebo which muffled the music.
· Our coordinator was also going to give our wedding party (ring bearer and flower girls) a brief rehearsal before the ceremony, but she did not do this. Despite telling us that she would show our photographer and videographer good shooting locations on the restaurant's grounds, she did not do this either.
· Although we paid for the use of the ceremony area, and were promised that we could use it for some time after the ceremony, and could also use it for our full contracted time of 4 hours should it rain, we were rushed out of the area so staff could set up for another wedding. The the staff took down our flowers, and the coordinator rushed us through our wedding party and family photos. The plan was to have our champagne toast in the ceremony area, but that was abruptly changed to make way for the next wedding also.
· Our set-up ran late, so when our guests walked by our reception tables after our ceremony, they were still not completed. Hours after the restaurant opened, and even though our family members came early and helped with a large part of the set-up (our family helped with table decor, AV set-up, memorial table set-up, etc., etc.), our wedding area was still in disarray.
· For our toast, we were told that we could use the restaurant's goblets, but we never received them.
· During our reception meal, our guests asked for champagne, which was specifically noted in prior discussions with our coordinator to only be used for our toast. When our coordinator asked us whether she could serve champagne, we told her "no". Instead of offering the available wine, she stopped all alcohol. This is despite specifically requesting that wine be served on consumption. As a result, our guests went without alcohol until we noticed her error and had to tell her to continue serving wine. Besides this, beer was not included on our planned menu, but it was served to our guests anyways.
· Our wedding cake was to be set out along with the other reception tables, but it was only brought out much later - just before cake cutting - and did not allow our guests to view it or add to our reception area decor. The cake was decorated in the reception area while our guests were at their tables.
· As a part of our wedding, we included a memorial table with deceased family member photos and a large bouquet on it. We gave specific instructions several times to our coordinator to have the table beside us during our ceremony and then moved with us to our reception area. Instead, it was left in the ceremony area for our entire reception while the area was being set up for the next wedding. This didn't allow our guests to view the memorial table or to pay their respects to the deceased. We also specified that we wanted the table draped in white linens - instead it was draped in lavender.
· Lastly, there were personal items accidentally left at the restaurant, including the bride's purse. Instead of calling the bride or groom once they were discovered, our items were left with the restaurant. We had to spend a portion of our wedding night making numerous calls to establish where our missing items were (we had a second reception at a different location as well).

We thought that many of the above issues could have been avoided if our coordinator had paid more attention during our meetings and correspondence. We made great efforts to be a specific and detailed in our communication with her - in creating lists/spreadsheets, giving specific instructions, and filling out her wedding form - but our wedding was still disorganized. Again, our coordinator was pleasant to work with, but we were disappointed by her lack of professionalism and assistance in general. As a result, we were distracted and stressed out on our big day.

overall a great place to have an intimate, outside, romantic wedding.

I think Inn of the Seventh Ray is one of the most beautiful locations in LA, very romantic, outdoor setting, absolutely exquisite food and friendly staff. The food and drinks are very reasonably priced, but you also pay rent, so overall it is not cheap, but I think it is still totally worth it. Our guests were enchanted by the ambiance there.
Our experience with the Inn was overall great except for a bit disappointment that came after I looked at our wedding pictures: our placement cards were shaped as butterflies and were supposed to be set on the edge of champagne flues, instead they put them inside the glasses and entirely ruined my idea and presentation. I thought it was pretty common sense, especially I discussed it in advance with a wedding coordinator Andrea, but.... things happen.

Other than that, everything was great, Andrea was helpful and gave me a few great ideas, Lucile is a doll and was very cooperative all the way.
I highly recommend you order a cake from the Inn, it is one of the best wedding cakes I've ever had! Plus it has no sugar-Agave nectar instead-yum!

We chose Inn of the Seventh Ray because it is such a beautiful location and because they cater to smaller parties. They have two coordinators, Angelica for weddings up to 50 people and Carol for 50+. We're working with Angelica and have had a pretty good experience so far. She was somewhat difficult to get a hold of before we booked them, but has been prompt since we put our deposit down. :) I'll update again after we have our planning/tasting meeting...and of course after the wedding!

Also, the $$$$ indication on this entry is not entirely correct, it's actually less expensive. Check out their website for more accurate numbers.

Post-Wedding Update:
The wedding went off without a hitch, the food was amazing and great drinks too. The only issue was that our rehersal time (right before the wedding) was double booked. We were able to get a quick one in, but it was very stressfull.

I had a beautiful wedding and reception at Inn of the Seventh Ray. You can't ask for a more beautiful place to get married. Pros: We had a very small wedding (30 guests) and had a difficult time finding a site that would accomodate such a small party. The Inn was a perfect fit for us. The food was amazing - the guests still are talking about it. They were very flexible with decorations and let us add numerous chinese lanterns, candles - pretty much whatever we wanted. Cons: Our wedding coordinator was slightly scattered and we had an issue with the rehersal, but overall eveything went well. The bride's room is in the bathroom and is very small. Timing for weddings is not very flexible and revolves around the restaurant's opening/closing times.

We chose this restaurant because it's in a beautiful environment and has several vegan dishes my husband and i like (we're both vegan, so our wedding was a vegan one). Unfortunately, we were VERY disappointed by the treatment we received from our wedding coordinator (she was generally pretty trite and seemed to want to make the restaurant money more than actually help us), by the performance of the DJ (we actually burned cd's for him so he could have the music we liked and he opted to play music of his choosing which we didn't like), by the fact that WE DIDN"T GET TO HAVE A CAKE TASTING (! they made us choose our cake by what sounded good- my stepmother finally had tell them we'd pay for everything if we could just try the one we were interested in...they finally relented and made a small version which we paid for), and by how our cake ultimately turned out (it was a dia de los muertos theme wedding, so my husband had made myriad marzipan skulls and bones for the wedding cake; not only did we have to bug the wedding coordinator REPEATEDLY for the cake's dimensions, but she ultimately gave us the wrong ones and whoever made the cake just opted to place them on wherever was most convenient. a lot of hard work that was for naught.). Obviously, we were pretty frustrated by our overall experience here and wouldn't recommend this restaurant. It's unfortunate, because it really is a beautiful place.

We chose the Inn because we wanted a location for both the ceremony and reception that was outside and naturally very beautiful. The Inn is spectacular, romantic, quaint, and perfect. I would encourage every bride with a smallish wedding that wants to be outside to look at this venue. It's gorgeous and just about everything is included (tables, chairs, linens, flatware, plates, votives, even flowers, if you want them). We worked with Carole on our 80-person wedding and she was great. I really can't say how much I loved this place. Our wedding there just felt magical. And I'm not sure what a previous reviewer was saying about bland food. Our food was absolutely delicious and we are still getting emails about it.

Really good for a more intimate shower, you can sit outside right along a creek.

Beautiful location. Saw a deer drinking from the creek while dining outside. However, for the price the food was really mediocre...even downright bland. I wouldn't suggest doing a large function there unless you get to select (and taste) your menu first.