We had our wedding in late August 2018 at Brookview, and the quick review is that the day was MAGICAL. We loved the venue and Brookview team! If I could give 6 out of 5 stars, I would. We leave the venue with a very positive experience.
The venue itself is beautiful, nestled in the Agoura Mountains, with one level of the vast green lawn for the ceremony (tucked under beautiful big trees & twinkle lights), and then above the ceremony on another vast green lawn is the reception. For us, the venue was the perfect solution because they already handled many elements (wooden dance floor, twinkle lights, built in bar, built in speakers at reception, real bathrooms), so we didn't feel like we needed to do "as much" DYI as other locations required. But, we were still able to make it our own and very personalized. Another benefit of Brookview is that you can get access early in the morning (9AM) for the bridal party to do hair & make up (not all California venues allow this, surprisingly).
Working with Cheryl (for the year leading up to the wedding) was so easy and pleasant. She was gracious the entire time, and she was kind enough to allow us to tour the venue a few times with our out-of-state parents, as well as our coordinators. So, we felt that we had a very good understanding of the space, process, etc. The team was very responsive to emails throughout, and ultimately hired someone while we were planning (named Priscilla, she's great!) to oversee the day-to-day, layouts, logistics, etc. That immensely helped as we got closer to the big day.
Another great offer that Brookview has is a large golf cart for grandparents and the wedding party, driving us to/from the bridal suite and groomsmen cottage for our "first look", ceremony, family photos, etc. The golf cart also drives the couple up to the "look out point" above all the other mountain peaks for fabulous photos with your photographer. This is a must-do... Truly stunning.
The bridal suite is gorgeous (whites, grays, and pinks) with great lighting for hair and make up. We spent the entire day there listening to music and getting ready. It was very spacious and was a great home base for us. Same for the groomsmen's cottage.
Writing an honest review of course comes with some critiques, but they are minor. More so, I write this to help Brookview continue to be the great venue that they are!
- Grass at ceremony: The spot where the bride/groom stand was newly planted with grass sod, and you could see the seems from the pieces of sod, so it didn't look like clean, beautiful grass. It was also a bit muddy, so we asked them to stop watering it while we were doing our rehearsal the day before. This should be resolved if they take care of the new grass, so hopefully this was just a 2018 problem.
-Clean Up: The venue requires that all personal belongings be cleared out of the suites before the ceremony. It would be less stressful on the coordinators if we had until the end of the night to have that space cleared out (or even the next morning). We just had to be very on-top of this, when there was a lot more going on that felt more important, such as getting the ceremony/reception ready.
-Attention to detail with emails: There were moments throughout the planning process where mistakes were made in rental orders, what was included in our package, etc. So, we had to be very careful in checking the work to be sure everything was correct. Not a big deal, but worth noting. read more