The Houdini Estate

(our main contact), often treated us as an annoyance. We never felt any kind of hospitality on par with a venue of this caliber. The beauty of the venue is NOT worth the stress. Some objective information: -Gardens are incredibly well kept and absolutely gorgeous - definitely the reason for booking. -House is dated: A/C didn’t work for some time when we were there, and the two bottom bedrooms still smell STRONGLY of smoke (there was a fire ~2 years ago?). It’s unpleasant enough that we did not want to sleep in the master bedroom or leave my wedding dress there overnight in case it took on the smell. -Logistical challenge: difficult to load in/out rentals, only one street so we had to stage who came when. Also there are truck height limitations that also make rentals a challenge. -Like most of LA, there are severe noise ordinances, and sound is very carefully regulated. Problems: 1. We were told we have full "freedom of choice" for all vendors. Later we were scolded that the houdini needed to "sign off" on vendors. We complied and would send over approval emails. Ella would not respond to these for months (some she NEVER replied to!), making booking vendors very challenging. 2. The Houdini sprung an additional $5k fee if we wanted to have a band, over 7mos after booking with them. We were very up front from day 1 about our intention of having a live band, and nothing was communicated or listed in our original contract. We pushed back on this fee, and then the houdini/ella proclaimed that the band we had booked was banned from the venue. The band manager had _no_ information regarding this status, and houdini never produced any evidence in writing. Clearly there is a lot of hearsay in this conversation, but I feel pretty confident that Ella/the venue lied about our band being banned, because they simply didn't want to allow a band to play on the property. 3. Venue walkthroughs were very difficult to schedule, as the venue refused to hold any of our walkthrough appointments. They stated that they would only confirm our appointment 24 hours before, as they might book something last minute. With travel from SF, work schedules, and vendor schedules, this made walkthroughs incredibly challenging. On one such occasion, the venue cancelled our walk through the day before, only after frantic calls and emails, agreed to move up our walkthrough by an hour. Why that wasn’t suggested initially is beyond me, but clearly indicates an unwillingness to support people who have contracted them as a venue. 4. Communication with Ella (our main contact) was incredibly challenging. She would not respond to emails for weeks or months (she would also ignore or refuse to respond to many follow up requests (via email, phone, AND text), both from us and our wedding planner). When Ella did communicate with us, she also often gave conflicting information, and always with a ton of entitlement. She treated us like gum underneath her shoe that was an irritation, not people who were spending top dollar to rent out their wedding venue.

elpful and supportive. The entire property is also yours, no other events will be happening while you are there. You can even stay at the property which we did for the weekend which made it even more lovely. I recommend staying an extra day if you can to relax and enjoy. We also had our rehearsal dinner here (a last minute decision as the other venue cancelled on us last minute). Be mindful that most things need to be brought in, they have heaters and certain amenities, however if you are looking for a place that has everything ready to go on site, this isn't it. It's not a wedding factory kind of joint. They know what they are doing and handle everything fast and efficiently, but you will need to provide most things yourself (unless you have a great wedding planner familiar with the venue, which we did). We had a very specific vision and feel that we wanted and the Houdini gave us that in spades. If you want an incredibly unique experience, this is the place.

it and knew it would be a unique experience for our friends and family in LA and from out of town, and it did not disappoint. Ella was amazing to work with especially when navigating have to change our dates due to Covid, and we and our guests could not have been happier with the experience that is unique to this venue. We have heard from many of our guests that it was their favorite wedding that they have been to and we hope to go back to Houdini again for up coming anniversaries, parties :) Highly recommend this venue!

ay. My wife and I had toured a few different venues before seeing Houdini and we were immediately blown away. It's huge and there's so much to explore and so many cool little nooks and crannies with sculpture, art pieces etc throughout.. The added bonuses of being able to stay on property and have our dogs with us (who were in the ceremony) made this place so perfect for us. It truly is breathtaking and I cannot think of a better place to have a wedding. We had so many people that told us afterward that it ruined all other weddings for them. I can't say enough good things about The Houdini Estate and Ella, who helped us along the way with our booking and made sure everything at the estate was perfect. Highly, highly recommend.