Veronica was extremely professional and kept everything absolutely perfect. Our wedding turned into everything we imagined plus more! Definitely a venue you must consider!

I had my wedding ceremony and reception here. The venue is in a gorgeous older style building that has been remodeled inside. Love love love the high ceilings. Everything is on the second floor but there is a lift available for those that have a hard time with stairs. The photo booth is great and the fact that he has one on site is even better. There is also a cute little bridal room. The owner John is very helpful and answers all your questions. For everything this place offers we got a great price! Also, Friday and Sunday events are 1/2 off the hall fee. Would definitely recommend having an even here.

The food was good. The plate we got was the three pasta but two complaints about it is that the past had very very little meat and the provided with the cheapest sodas ever, "SHASTA". The decoration and table setting was nice. Owner was a little racist throws Hispanic. Why I say this, is because he told one of his co-work we Hispanic don't do nothing.

-H

We truly wish we could recommend this venue, especially because the staff who worked our actual event were kind, attentive, and hardworking. Unfortunately, our experience with the venue owner overshadowed all of that and created an enormous amount of unnecessary stress on what should have been the happiest day of our lives.

During setup, the owner was extremely rude, confrontational, and unprofessional with my wife, our bridesmaids, several guests, and even one of our vendors. He made an issue out of basic items, including an emergency kit our bridesmaids prepared, and insisted on inspecting it to make sure they “weren’t sneaking in snacks.” He spoke to our bridal party in a manner that nearly made one bridesmaid cry and criticized details while people were simply trying to set up.

We paid for an additional hour of setup specifically to avoid rushing and to allow the friends and family helping us to have enough time to set up. These guests arrived at 3 PM, three hours before our wedding started, to assist with décor. Because dinner was scheduled for 8:15 PM, we brought bottled water and light snacks for those helping. The owner immediately began raising his voice, insisting that water and snacks were not allowed because “his staff wasn’t starting until 5 PM.” My wife told him she was thirsty; I was thirsty. He asked my wife, in a confrontational tone, “Why are you getting mad?” when she simply tried to explain that we brought the water ourselves and didn’t need any staff assistance to allow thirsty people to hydrate.

We were denied our own water, despite working in a warm venue for hours. I ended up with a severe headache because I couldn’t access any drinking water before the ceremony. Our helpers had to leave the venue and eat or drink outside the venue entrance. While we understand general policies about food and beverages, this level of rigidity and lack of basic human consideration was incredibly upsetting.

Another major issue: we learned the day of that “no men were allowed in the bridal suite.” My wife and I are both women, so this rule not only made no sense but also had never been disclosed at any point—not in the contract, not in walkthroughs, and not in any in person discussions. Our bridesmaids and my mother had to haul everything upstairs, and we had to sneak in male family and friends whom we wanted in getting-ready photos. This should have been communicated ahead of time, and it placed unnecessary stress on our wedding day.

Overall, the venue staff on the day of the event were wonderful, but the owner’s attitude, inflexible policies, and lack of empathy made what should have been joyful moments feel tense and difficult. We do not want other couples to experience the same. It felt less like a celebration and more like walking on eggshells around the owner’s personal preferences.

We hope the venue reviews this experience seriously and reconsiders how couples and their loved ones are treated during one of the most important days of their lives.

We also need to share our experience with the in-house DJ service, which unfortunately fell far below professional standards and significantly impacted our reception.

From the start, DJ Lonee showed signs of being unprepared. Despite receiving our documents, playlists, and timeline well in advance—clearly labeled with our married hyphenated last name—he repeatedly mispronounced our names throughout the night and referred to us by our maiden names. Not once did he pronounce our married name correctly. It was so devastating to hear our grand entrance announcement butchered. It was clear he had not reviewed anything beforehand.

The DJ pulled me aside and asked me to listen to our first dance and surprise dance songs, to verify if the audio was distorted and if the tempo was correct. He explained that often times, when music is added to a USB, his equipment can distort the audio and beats per minute (BPM). Note, he was the one who requested the USB after saying it was “too much work” to download the audio files from the emails we had already sent. We were assured the issues were fixed, yet our surprise dance was noticeably slowed, throwing off choreography we had practiced for weeks.

We provided a detailed playlist of music we and our guests requested. Many of those songs were never played. In fact, several times throughout the night, my bridesmaids, our coordinator, and my wife approached him to ask for specific genres—especially Bachata and Salsa—and he repeatedly said “I got it” but never adjusted. Our coordinator later told us she believed he genuinely did not know what Bachata or Salsa were.

We want to highlight that he had asked for a Spotify playlist weeks beforehand, which we created and emailed. There was no follow-up from him, and on the night of the event, we discovered that he did not even have Spotify on his laptop. When we asked him to play from his phone instead, he told us he was unable to connect it.

Throughout the evening, he needed constant cueing—mixing up the order of family dances, missing announcements, creating awkward silences while he searched for songs, and struggling with transitions. At one point, he played a song that finally had everyone dancing but immediately followed it with a track so mismatched that the entire dance floor stopped. Guests literally looked toward the DJ booth and asked, “What is this?” Many guests later told us they noticed the DJ was unprepared and that his transitions were abrupt or awkward all night.

We also found out later that the DJ and bartender were spouses. During the event, the bartender was trying to help him with the timeline and expressed that “no client had ever asked for so many details,” even though our requests were standard wedding items. She also commented that the DJ was overwhelmed and made a remark about Montebello being a traditional city and “not being a city for non-conventional events,” referring to our one request for gender-neutral language during the bouquet/garter toss to make all guests feel included. We provided examples and made ourselves available for questions, but he never responded.

Communication leading up to the wedding was also very poor. We emailed, texted, and called multiple times with questions and clarifications. The few times we did speak, he had not read the materials, had no questions, or rushed the call and said he'd call the day before the wedding—which he never did.

Our coordinator did everything she could to help salvage the situation, but by that point, the DJ’s lack of preparation had already set the tone.

In summary, the DJ’s performance, professionalism, and preparation were not at the level expected for a wedding. His lack of readiness, inability to execute our music selections, and poor communication deeply affected the energy and flow of our reception. We share this so future couples can make informed decisions.