Avila's Historic 1929

I had my wedding in this Venue and do not recommend! To make a long story short, I was given a contract that did not include a service charge of about $2,400 but this was of course added to the remaining balance that I was due to pay one week prior to the wedding day. I paid a deposit when the contract was put together and when I received the updated invoice I was confused. When asking her about this charge she apologized for the misunderstanding and let me know service charges are a standard in this industry. It was truly devastating to have to spend this uncounted amount on something that was overlooked by the owner. I had to cancel additional vendors to stay in budget and cut down on items we wanted to spend more money on. Looking back the venue itself was so beautiful and my coordinator really brought everything to life but the stress and loss I had still bothers me. The owner did provide a $500 credit but it still was not right. If I had not had the heavy guest count that I did I truly would have canceled the entire reception based on how she handled this situation.

I do not recommend to book Avila’s Historic 1929 AT ALL. First of all, trying to get in contact with someone to answer questions is near impossible. I received a message about my first inquiry a full month after I had initially reached out. Not to mention their website doesn’t have any information pertaining pricing, services, etc. By that time I had already done detective work to get in touch with Naomi who is in charge of events at this venue. We had set up a showing for mid May of 2021 to see the venue. My parents went to see the venue on our planned viewing day (I live out of state) to find the venue was locked and no one was on site to meet with them. I frantically call Naomi who was supposed to be showing the venue and she said that we hadn’t confirmed our viewing prior to showing up. I thought this was odd as she had never reached out to confirm our scheduled viewing and never mentioned that we had to reach out to reconfirm the scheduled viewing time. This was the first red flag. Naomi ran over from setting up an event elsewhere to let my parents in to take photos. Naomi told us that we would be able to have our wedding ceremony here (as described on the Knot) and that it would be no issue, but couldn’t give us a set price. She said she would send us over a contract. A week later and still no word from her. I had reached out a week after the showing and she reassured me that she would put one together and send it over. I think I sent her my email address 3 times because she kept losing it. Week goes by and still nothing, so I call again. She said she was busy, but that she was thinking about it and could do the ceremony for $4,000 (basic chair and 3 hour space rental with a valet for parking). I said that sounded fair and requested this in writing (as we had never received anything in writing). She said she would send it over that night. Another week goes by and here we are today, a full month later and still no contract. I called again today to follow up on sending the contract over. She said she wouldn’t be able to rent us the space for a wedding as it was “too much facilitating” despite us having hired a wedding planner to run the event. I asked her what part seemed daunting and she said, “the chairs and the water.” I reiterated that we would only really need the space and the chairs that she had on hand, but she insisted it would be a lot of facilitating on her end so she wouldn’t do it for less than $7,000. I had expressed that I was confused because we had been in contacts for a month now and every time we talked I, as the client, had to reach out for more information. Sadly, she didn’t seem very empathetic to my situation and by the end of the conversation she flat out said she wouldn’t be able to do a wedding. Very confusing considering her website advertises weddings and she is listed on The Knot as a wedding venue. I lost a full month of wedding planning betting on being able to rent this venue and in the end wasn’t even able to get anything written down on paper. She changes her story every time you talk to her and never follows through on what she says she will (ie sending over documents, letting you know information about pricing, etc.) I hope this is a insightful for other brides and wedding planners who are considering this venue. I wish I hadn’t put so much energy into a dead end!