The Victorian

ding on our colors, or floral decorations, and even the floorplan. As a working bride, it really helped a lot that their office is open on Saturdays. Other venues we considered were not available to visit on weekends, even after booking, which would have really hindered our planning. Our wedding was very intimate, and the space was perfect for our guest count. So many of our guests complimented us on the food. The waitstaff were also very professional and really took care of our guests. It's nice that they do the catering in-house, and they have bartenders who can make specialty and artisan cocktails.

feel like we were family. She is the best of the best! Words can't describe what an amazing feeling it is to have your guest tell you it was the best wedding they had ever been to.

wonderful. We deeply appreciated their attention to detail and their work to meet our needs/requests. Everything on the day of our wedding was on time, and the service was exceptional and the food was delicious during the reception. We highly recommend The Victorian for couples looking for a place to get married!

ith and very accommodating!!! Excellent communication throughout the year which helped planning my wedding so much easier. First of all, the Victorian reminded of me of Twilight: Breaking Dawn!! You know, the wedding scene with the lights and chandelier hanging from the trees.. LOL The venue itself is beautiful which speaks for itself. Perfect for an intimate wedding and the ambiance was incredible. It has this antique / Victorian vibe to it! All our wedding guests loved this venue and really enjoyed themselves!! Ashia and her staff are so friendly and helpful. Everyone, including ourselves, loved the food and drinks!! So if you're looking for an intimate place for your wedding in the heart of Santa Monica, I definitely recommend the Victorian!!! =)

s from our guests on this venue! We were paying for most of the wedding ourselves, and were extremely cost conscious. Although this venue is expensive, we wanted to stay close to our church where we were having our ceremony. In the Santa Monica area, we felt the Victorian was the best value we could find without going too far from the church. While everything worked out on our wedding day, dealing with the office before the wedding (when signing the contact and while finalizing the details before the wedding) was a nightmare and EXTREMELY stressful. The sales girls in the office are super sweet, but it typically took days or weeks for them to return emails, and the responses were often unclear and did not address many of our questions. The menu tasting was also UNACCEPTABLE . When spending $16,000 for a wedding reception for only 75 people (thankfully they were able to lower their Saturday min from $15K to $12K BEFORE 20% service charge and 9.5% taxes), I'd expect a proper tasting to be included and at the actual location, like shown in photos on their website. We signed our contact and paid our initial deposit in early January (which was quite the ordeal- they kept pressuring us and saying they'd give the date away- but not clearly answering all questions)but were not given an option to do a group tasting until summer. They said that their January group tasting was full and wanted to change us $500 for a private tasting, which we passed on. We wanted to do the tasting early since we needed to know which 2 entrees we’d offer to our guests before ordering our wedding invitations. The venue requires each guest has a place card with their entrée selection, so we wanted guests to select the entrée with their RSVP/ invitation response. Since almost all our guests were from out of town, I wanted to get our invitations out in early June, or 3months ahead, and I needed several weeks to order, print, and address the invitations. However, the next tasting wasn’t scheduled until mid June, and it was at 6pm on a weekday an HOUR DRIVE AWAY DEEP IN MALIBU, not at the Victorian like pictured on their website! Thankfully we were able to get off work early to make it. The real kicker was that at the tasting- THEY DIDN’T OFFER ALL THE MENU OPTIONS or let us select what we wanted to taste. There was only ONE OPTION FROM TIER 1 (the less expensive entrees ). Additionally, we had to pick 3 tray passed appetizer off a list of about 25 options and only a few appetizers were offered. I didn’t expect to be served every entrée and all 25 tray passed appetizers, BUT, I expect that I should be able to taste the options that I was actually considering serving. NOPE. While it was a fun date night, the tasting was pretty much worthless as far as actually picking our menu and I had to delay my wedding invitations for no reason. Overall, we're happy we used this venue. It had great character and was beautiful. Given the limited lower budget options in Santa Monica near the church that still offer a traditional wedding reception experience, we would pick the Victorian again if doing it all over. However, the painful process of ironing out details and the final invoice leading up to the wedding, the disastrous tasting, and the general expensiveness, lowered from 5 to 3 stars.

drawn to the Victorian yet city vibe of the place, along with the nearly all-inclusive package, that it was really a no brainer. The great thing about this venue is that all of the catering is done in house (aside from the cake, which you provide), so it's very manageable--and the food is FANTASTIC. Our guests said it was the best they had ever had at a wedding (the prime rib was a favorite). Really more than anything though, Ashia was the reason our wedding was so amazing. She should get a gold medal. We emailed her several times a day, visited constantly, had no idea how to plan a wedding or what we were doing, and she was always responsive and, most importantly, super stoked about the event. I feel like this note isn't doing her justice--she is just so good, you have to go meet her now. We decided to have our ceremony indoors upstairs rather than outside due to the size of our wedding and our desire for a more intimate ceremony (outside is beautiful, but you're right on Main Street--and our wedding was at 5 pm--though I know couples who have loved the outdoor space for their ceremonies as well). It was perfect for our vibe. The one thing that ended up being a bit tricky for us is that we had some trouble meeting the minimum price because our guest count was small (45). However, we got so much value for our buck that it was actually insane. We got to serve everyone a side of lobster with their entree, a signature cocktail custom designed by the venue's bartender, incorporate their amazing candelabras into our table centerpieces, have a five-hour full premium open bar, champagne to greet guests before the ceremony, more passed appetizers than we could try, and so much more while coming just shy of the minimum. The value couldn't be beat.

knew it was the place for us almost immediately. We loved that the place had various rooms and floors so that we could have dinner downstairs and dancing upstairs (our guests said they loved that, it felt like going up to "the party" and built anticipation during the meal). Note we did not have our ceremony at The Victorian. Another huge reason we decided on The Victorian (and were so happy with our decision!) was that although it had it's own character and beautiful fixtures/fittings - we still had LOTS of independence to put our own stamp on the venue. All the surfaces, rooms and outdoor spaces could easily be customized to match our theme and style within the context of a lovely vintage/victorian setting. We also loved that the place felt comfortable and didn't worry about kids running around which was important to us. With regards to food - our guests were very complimentary of the meals (especially that the portions were good) and also loved the nibbles at the cocktail hour. The staff surprised us by setting up an area upstairs before the party started where my new husband and I could have our own nibbles + champagne + water so that we could relax for a few minutes before spending more time with guests. It was amazing and we have since recommended all our friends getting married to do the same. We loved the pricing option to have beer/wine/cava for a fixed price per head per hour and optional cash bar - it was perfect for our budget and our guests really felt taken care of. Another huge reason we decided to go with The Victorian is because of event coordinator Ashia! She was so warm, welcoming and sweet when we were first visiting and all our communication with her was pleasant, laid back but also to the point so no time was wasted. We planned our wedding at The Victorian from abroad so only had a few chances to meet before the big day. We had lots of email communication and had quick replies which was super helpful and relieving. Ashia was very flexible with letting us store a few things at the venue before and after as well. Overall, we just felt so comfortable with her (and the other staff too) and got the feeling that she really cared and also just wanted us (and our guests) to have fun and relax and have a memorable wedding day. Our guests were a little rowdy and never once did Ashia or the staff make us feel weird about that...! I could go on and on about how great Ashia and the rest of the staff was! The only thing I wish we could change is the parking lot/cars being visible in some photos but we knew it was going to happen and I don't see how this could change! It's one small thing that we decided was not too important. Would highly recommend The Victorian to anyone wanting a non-hotel ballroom wedding, who want to be able to put a personal stamp on the venue but who also want an "all in one" place (meaning food/drinks/service all taken care of and minimum rentals needed if any!). The location is also fantastic in terms of proximity to the beach and local hotels/shops. So - clearly, we highly recommend The Victorian! We couldn't have chosen a better venue for our wedding day.

no business looking into this place at all, only I live nearby and always loved the place so we thought we'd just check into it eventhough it is clearly out of our price range. The coordinators were efficient, always got back to me promptly, and even brought down the price a lot to try to make it work for us. I really felt like they cared, not that they were just trying to book another wedding. It was a very hard decision but in the end we decided not to stress ourselves out. I still want to give it a great rating because the venue was beautiful and we would have had it there if we had a tad higher budget. Love this place!

and the place is just tired. The staircase railing felt sticky and it was dark and dingy. I saw some wierd orange mushroom growing outside on the porch area that scared me a bit.

o we needed a venue that could accommodate our budget, and would work for us with any kind of weather. I did a lot of research online and via e-mail before we actually went in person. As a result of my research, we only visited a few venues in person. From the minute we walked in, I knew it was where we had to get married. We loved the charm and beauty of this old home; but the wonderful staff was really what put us over the edge. It’s not that other places weren’t nice, but there was just something extra special and magical about The Victorian and Mia, whom we first met with. Unfortunately Mia had a personal issue that caused her to have to go on leave for several months, but Ashia quickly and easily stepped in. She was also genuinely enthusiastic and excited for us, and about helping us plan our wedding. At the rehearsal and on the day of, she was professional and able to help make sure everything went smoothly and beautifully. They have a large and comfortable bridal suite, as well as a separate area for the groom. We knew we loved the food, but have been told over and over that it was delicious—even from people who have worked in the hotel industry and have tried a lot of “wedding food”. One of my guests also said that she wanted to re-do her own wedding to have it at The Victorian because it was so beautiful. We also loved that they only do one event so you and your guests aren’t lost with multiple events. And were really happy about the fact that they had parking. They didn’t get 5 stars for a few little things. However we still recommend them. Although we were well taken care of, when our original coordinator had a personal emergency we wish we’d been contacted in advance to let us know we were being handed over to someone else. It wasn’t a huge issue as the new coordinator stepped in and took excellent care of us. It just would’ve been nice for us to know. Also, a few times it took a little longer than we wanted to get a response to an e-mail or a call back (which is the reason for 4 stars for service.) We ordered a cupcake tower. We didn’t know that we should’ve asked how the cupcakes would be served to our guests (they ended up helping themselves). So it was a little awkward when, after we cut our cake, we were sort of standing around staring at our guests. We wish that was a little more cohesive…or that we knew how that would be handled. We were on a limited budget and were told multiple times that the preferred vendors would work with us. We had to ask for the preferred list and then some were good about working with us, others seemed not to be aware that they were supposed to work with us. Not really the fault of The Victorian, but they probably shouldn't push the "they'll work with you". All of that said..if you have your wedding at The Victorian, you will have a unique and beautiful event that you and your guests will remember. You will also be well taken care of by their planners as well as the service staff on the day of. If you like cheese--get the brie appetizer...and make sure you leave some for your guests.

nt! Not only was Ashia friendly, gracious, and extremely competent, but she has a great sense of humor. The catering staff was top notch and the food was excellent. Many of our guests commented on how great the food was. The Victorian makes it easy and stress free for any couple getting married there. They provide the catering, decorate the venue for you, and provide a day of wedding coordinator. I highly recommend this venue.

t, I highly recoomend The Vic for a wedding reception and ceremony location!

able, helpful, and accomodating before-hand, then courteous and accomodating during (even to regular guests, not just bride and groom--people were impressed with the service!). Highly recommend!