The Victorian

Every detail that we worked with Mia & Ashia to create our Wedding Reception worked out to absolute perfection! Not only is the house absolutely beautiful, every aspect of our reception was carried out exactly as we dreamed it! Careful attention to every detail was given to our event! The service staff was phenomenal. The venue looked beautiful! The food was delicious! The drinks were outstanding. The absolute most amazing and personalized experience a bride and groom could wish for!

Gorgeous warm venue. Really gets across a sense of family while adding grandeur and grace. Ashia was so terrific and the food was great.

My wedding experience at The Victorian was amazing. It was everything I could have asked for and more. When looking at venues to hold my reception there were a lot of factors that I considered, price, parking, look, wedding coordinators and The Victorian topped the list out of every venue I looked at. From day one the staff was responsive, got back to me on all my needs and helped me step by step to create the perfect reception that I always had wanted. The food was amazing, the location was ideal and the look was exactly what I wanted. The lights, candles and décor added so much character that I saved so much money on bringing in useless decorations that I didn’t need. The venue is so beautiful by itself; it has such a charming comfortable feel. What made my wedding perfect was the staff, from the wedding coordinators, the catering staff and all the waiters. The day of my wedding I had everyone accommodating to all my needs so I felt totally content that everything was being taken care of and my guests were all enjoying themselves. I wouldn’t have done anything different and my husband and I are so happy we chose The Victorian for our special day.

I have to give The Victorian four stars rather than five because, although our event was a fairytale in the making, it was sometimes frustrating to work out details. Everything was lovely, the food was fantastic and our coordinator, Ashia, made our evening so special. One of the feedbacks that I have is that they do not have enough food tastings. We didn't get to taste our entree selections at all prior to the wedding, although we knew the chef had been the same for many years, and we had been to a wedding there before, so we were okay with that in the end. But, keep in mind that the tastings are only every 8 months or so, so plan accordingly. (We only had 6 months to plan our wedding.) Also, there are a lot of little extra costs that pop up along the planning process. It seemed every time I called, we had to add another couple hundred bucks to our bottom line total....or delete a line item to try to keep within budget. But, on the flipside, we complained about the wine and champagne choices (we are, admittedly, wine snobs) and they changed their house wines just in time for our wedding. A definite plus! And the actual wedding night was perfect. They worked so well with our other vendors. And the bridal room where my bridesmaids and I got ready was devine....even serving us champagne to take the edge off before we all walked down the aisle. All of the frustrations of the planning process were tossed out the window the day of the wedding. I credit The Victorian for having such a big part to play in our storybook wedding.

I would like to preface my review with the fact that I have been coming to the Victorian since 2006 and have always loved their atmosphere, food, and service. When I first got engaged, they were the first place that I called and booked my event right away. I am living in Dallas and was a little nervous about planning a wedding long distance, but I was so please with the deal I was getting ($110 per person) because it was the Sunday of Memorial Weekend. I felt completely at ease with having my wedding there and couldn't wait for the day to arrive.....

I first was given Mandy as my wedding coordinator, I spoke to her several times via phone and email and set up a date to meet when I was home for Christmas visiting my family. Mandy was great, walked me through the place, explained where everything would be, answered all of my questions, etc. That was December....

Come February, my sister attended the tasting because I could not fly in from Dallas mid-week for a Thursday evening tasting. She said the food was great, helped me pick my dinner choices, and I excitedly waited until my phone meeting to go over the food that was scheduled for the following week.....

The phone call never came, I called and emailed for the next three weeks, never hearing a response from Mandy or ANYONE at the Victorian. Finally, about a month after my scheduled meeting, I received a phone call from Aleta. She stated that she was the owner of The Victorian and would take over my account from that point on. She didn't seem moved by my frustration that no one had contact me to let me know that Mandy was no longer working there, she simply said that I didn't need to worry, that everything would be great. I got over and decided that since I still had three months until my wedding, that it wouldn't be a big deal. I went over the food plans with her and set up a meeting during my trip home for Easter....

It was now April, about a month and a half til my wedding day. I went to go meet with Aleta at the Victorian. Much to my horror, the place was remodled and rearranged. My original cake room was now their working office, my ceremony was moved to their upstairs lounge, and the dance floor was no longer in the main reception area but off in front of the bar! I didn't understand AGAIN why no one called to inform me that my lay out was being rearranged. More so, what kind of a wedding reception place decides to put their dance floor in another room? Were my guests supposed to "imagine" what we looked like as we did our first dance?? Again, I let this go and decided to contact my florist and order more arrangements for the upstairs location.

It is now May, my wedding is in three weeks....I receive a phone call from a girl names Aishia that says that my credit card was declined for the third payment installment. I call back and learn that now all of sudden, they don't take Discover- as they had two months prior when the second payment went through. I asked her to send me my updated invoice.....it was completely inaccurate! There was NO NOTATION of the food I had ordered, no appetizers, nothing! In addition to this, they had me down for a different rehearsal time, I had a SATURDAY fee on my account, um my wedding was on a Sunday, and they added a 20% service charge that I was originally quoted as being waived. It was then brought to my attention that Aleta was no longer in charge of my account, but now it was Aisha!!!!

Two weeks from the day.....I receive another call from Aisha asking if the payment can be run, I told her that I didn't have the updated invoice and she says....but I sent it to you last week!!! THAT WAS THE INCORRECT ONE!!! Did she not remember the countless emails and phone calls that it took to get it all corrected???

Then, she asks for my seating chart, I told her that I don't know what they lay out was so how could I tell her where people were sitting. She said she would send me a blank layout and to draw in tables- how on earth could I draw in tables when I don't know how big they are, where they can and can't be placed.....etc, etc, etc. During this phone call, I asked her to confirm what both Mandy and Aleta has stated that YES they have a cake stand and an aisle runner. She then says, NO! They don't have either!!! So two weeks til the big day, I have to rush order an aisle runner and cake stand!


Rehearsal day....two days before the wedding. I bring all of the neccessary items to the Victorian, except for the ailse runner. I tell Cindy- yes a NEW GIRL because Aisha wasn't going to be available on my wedding day- that my mom and sister are going to bring the aisle runner Sunday morning. She says, oh okay OR WE CAN USE OURS!!!!

Furious, I tell her just to use theirs because that will alleviate some time my mom and sister would have to spend driving it over. At this point, I am just going to eat the cost of the runner I bought and use theirs that magically appeared!

WEDDING DAY......appetizers are placed in the wrong location-downstairs right where we are taking pictures, instead of uptstairs as we had agreed.....the table settings are incorrect, I asked for a black cloth to be placed in the center of the table, this was never done.

And LASTLY......the aisle runner that they had put down WAS BUTCHER PAPER!!!!!!! No joke, I walked down the aisle to crunching paper under my feet! My wedding video needs to played in silent mode because you can't hear the music over the crunching of butcher paper!!!!!

While the wedding was great because it was filled with laughs, love, friends, and family. I would NEVER, EVER recommend The Victorian to ANYONE, friend or foe!

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. But 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.

The "most beautiful wedding I've ever been to".. "The best salmon I've ever eaten" just a couple of the rave reviews from my guests. We had 150 people for sit down dinner on a cold Sat. evening. Despite having to seat some guests on a covered patio, everyone stayed warm and comfortable. We had an open bar, and were pleased to find they staffed enough bartenders so that everyone who wanted a drink could quickly get one. The whole wedding from arrivals thru the ceremony, cocktail hour dinner, and cake cutting/serving ran like clockwork. Very Very impressive.

Lack of flexibility has to do with the scheduling of planning meetings. They have a very limited schedule for tastings etc.. and we found this difficult to work with our work schedules. But it all turned out magnificently. Not cheap-- roughly $150 per person including appetizers and premium alcohol... plus whatever you spend on the cake, the favors, flowers, music, invites, etc. But still well worth it. It's been almost 2 weeks and my tough to please guests are still raving about the wedding.

Free and easy parking was a HUGE plus... linens are also included, and the the decor is quite nice even before you bring in flowers.

Children as young as a year are charged about $50 per person -- something to keep in mind if you're inviting a lot of kids. And for groups as large as mine its hard for everyone to see/hear the toast makers, and keep up with what's going on.. The design of the room prevents it.

For us, this was the perfect venue. We loved our wedding!

My husband and I were married at the Victorian and it was amazing! The food was amazing. I recommend the mashed potato martini bar. There are yummy and fun for the guests to do and talk about. The goat cheese ravioli is delicious as well. Mandy & Janell made sure that every detail went off without a hitch! We did not have to worry about a thing. The destination is great. Its right by the beach so its great for out-of-towners to visit. I have to say the Victorian's ambiance is romantic and quaint, we could not have done anything different to make it a better day! We were married on the front patio and even though it was 6:30pm on a Friday, the noise from the nearby traffic was not too bad. I would not recommend unless your party is smaller and you are going for that carefree feel. We had 120 and it was just perfect! Thank you for making our day the greatest!

My daughter just had her reception at the Victorian.
I would have to say that I also enjoyed the taste testing even if I had to pay and extra 100.00 for me to attend. The cost of the package included my daughter and fiance but it was good that I was there to make the final choices . We chose to have a sit down dinner rather than the buffet. The choices we made were the tenderloin, salmon and the eggplant for the vegetarians. We received great reviews from everyone on the food, which was wonderful. We also had the appetizers which were all wonderful as well during the cocktail hour which was held in the courtyard and the upstairs.
They Victorian also offers passed appetizers and a martini mashed potato bar, but we could not afford to add those ( I wish we could have)
Our family came from Omaha so we only had a couple of dozen out of town guest from our side.
We ended up with close to two hundred guests. ( I thought we were only going to have 159 but my daughters fiance had other ideas)
The service was excellent. We had both the rehearsal dinner ( which was buffet and the fiance's parents paid for) and the reception after the ceremony at the Victorian. The wedding ceremony took place at St. Monica's Catholic chuch. Janelle from the Victorian was there anytime I had questions or to help me with locating storage for the cakes I made. She was helpful both on Friday night and on Saturday. I also had Brian help me carry things in.
I would say that 150 guests would have been about the right amount. It did seem a little full in the dining room and also made the dance floor upstairs too small for dancing so if dancing is a must then fewer guests would make for more room on the dance floor!
Having a parking lot is great. The Victorian is a beautiful place. It is pricey but the food is great and consistent.

This was a beautiful venue, with wonderful staff. My guests truly enjoyed the setting, the ambiance, the food, the ceremony, and the wonderful service. The only thing lacking in the entire event, sadly, was the taste of the wedding cake. We ordered a red velvet cake after tasting the red velvet cupcakes at the tasting and the cake turned out to be very dry. Sadly, the Victorian is famous for their bakery! However, every other aspect of the wedding was exceptional and I wouldn't change any other factor. We have wonderful memories of the venue and our wedding.

The Victorian was the perfect place for our wedding. The staff was responsive throughout our planning process and on the day of our wedding, everyone complimented us on choosing a venue with such great food and service.

Wedding coordination (Deb) was fabulous to work with. Once I came in to learn more (before I even booked) she never forgot who I was. It was a great experience and all expectations were met.

The Victorian was an amazing place to have our wedding. We live in Santa Monica and really wanted to be able to get married and have our friends and family enjoy Santa Monica and what it has to offer. We decided to get married on a Sunday which made The Victorian a very reasonably priced venue. I loved that everything was done in house (the cake, catering, tables, chairs etc...) They also provide you with a coordinator who is also there the day of. Our coordinator Deb was amazing. She had everything organized leading up to the event and always got back to me right away. The day/night went flawlessly and she took care of everything. All I had to think about that day was enjoying myself. The place itself is beautiful with a lot of character. Not only did my husband and I have a great time, but all of our guests could not stop talking about how great of a time they had. They gave rave reviews to the food and the atmosphere. We could not have asked for a better wedding.

The first time I walked into the Victorian I knew it was were I wanted to have my reception! It is beautifully charming and elegant without being to fancy or uptight. The decor is Victorian chic with a flair of beachy simplicity that is hard to describe but was just perfect for me. With antique looking bookcases and candles and flowers everywhere the Victorian has such a romantic feel about it. The price is alittle on the high side, especially if you rent out both the top and bottom part (we had around 50 guests and just opted for the downstairs) but the food is absolutely delicious (with many options--don't miss out on your tasting it was one of my favorite experiences!)and the staff was so warm and helpful and made me feel like I was the only bride they were dealing with (I worked with Mandy). I love the Victorian b/c other than my centerpieces I didn't need to decorate the venue at all. They provide beautiful linens with your choice of color, the whole inside and out is covered with shimmering twinkle lights and they also put tea lights everywhere! They also have a separate room for the cake cutting that is so beautiful with a fireplace and mantle and windows all around. We got so many compliaments from our guests for choosing the Victorian and my husband and I couldn't be happier with the way things turned out. Oh and they have a parking lot for you and your guests with a valet that is included! In the busy Santa Monica area parking can be a problem, but not at the Victorian! I would recommend The Victorian to anyone!

We had a short three weeks to plan this wedding and it was extraordinary. Our event coordinator, Deb Feldman, was exceptional. The setting wa beautiful and a wonderful ceremony and reception were put together so smoothly that one would have thought we would have had the traditional year and not a rush due to the best man being re-deployed to Iraq for the next 15 months. Every guest came up to me and raved about the location, the food, the service. I would recommend The Victorian to anyone for a wedding or any important event in their life. For those services not provided (such as officiant, DJ (although they do have a sound system) they give you a list of exceptional vendors that they have worked with and feel comfortable recommending. They made this experience a resounding success!. I cannot thank them enough for all their assistance. The bride and groom are both estatic. Thank you again. Linda Ulrich, mother of the bride.

I just recently had my wedding at The Victorian. The staff there is very professional and helpful. They made the planning very easy and the actual wedding beautiful and enjoyable. The food was wonderful. I would highly recomond this place. It has a very cozy and sophisticated feel. I could not imagine having my wedding at any other place.

VERY unique and genuine vintage house approx. 15,000 square feet. Staff is fabulous, food is quite good, decor is lovely. Highly recommend for someone looking for a "different" and more personal venue.

I can't say enough good things about The Vic. We wanted something that was "one stop shopping": ceremony, reception, food, cake booze. We initially wanted The Vic, but we thought it was too pricey. However, after pricing out several hotels for what we wanted...The Vic was a bargain.

Even better, it was 4 blocks from where we met, which made it easy to hit the bar for our afterparty. Our coordinator there, Mandy, was a dream. Since we had to plan the bulk of the wedding from Texas, she was a lifesaver. She was fast on returning my calls and emails, always had an answer for me, and even talked me down when I was freaking out. The location itself is beautiful, and we saved a lot of money on flowers, because The Vic already looks decorated. We were hoping that the food at the wedding would be as good as the food at our tasting, and it was simply divine. We had so many compliments about the location, the food, the decor, everything.

Highly recommend.

We had our ceremony at The Victorian at Heritage Square. It is such an amazing place! It's a huge, vintage house which was was perfect for our special occasion. The staff and coordinators were very helpful and we were very pleased with how they took care of everything, even our special last minute requests. A great atmosphere and the beautiful decor made for a very memorable day. I was very happy, and would recommend this place highly.

The Victorian made the whole process a million times easier for me. They took care of everything and they would help with every little detail if it was requested of them.
The only negative of the entire experience was the fact that some of my guests could not see the table where my husband and I were sitting during the reception.

We had a fairytale wedding at this incredibly wonderful, classy location. It was SO NICE to have both the ceremony & reception in one location. The areas to get ready ahead of time were another selling point for us; my husband was thrilled to have a space, since most places were only offering this for the bride.