The venue is STUNNING and was such a pleasure to get married in this past Sunday!
Since wedding planning almost guarantees a nervous breakdown, I feel lucky to have found MH. It's a Tuscan inspired mansion, has both outdoor & indoor spaces, and minimal restrictions. It's a little more expensive now (due to added features), but when we booked we were sold because it was affordable (in fact, I found the venue through a site called noweddingdebt, lol). MH is run by a non-profit, so it's an added bonus 100% of your payment goes to a good cause.
In the hopes of helping future engaged couples, here's my breakdown:
CATERING: Unlike other venues that have "recommended" aka "restricted" catering, MH has NO restrictions on catering, only "suggested" vendors. My fiancé and I are foodie monsters and wanted food unique to LA, so it was important we could hire any caterer we wanted. We went with Penny Ante (Chef Joef Centeno's catering arm of his restaurant group - Baco Mercat, Bar Ama, etc.). Penny Ante provided an utterly delicious family style meal (for essentially the same pricing as buffet we were quoted from other vendors). Although they weren't full service (we had to order rentals), Penny Ante was great about providing linens, water service, menus, votives, and to-go boxes (as well as directing flow and set-up & breakdown of all rentals). The guests couldn't stop raving about the food - so if you're a foodie, you can be loud and proud about hiring them.
Also, MH is "bring your own alcohol", which simply needs to be served by a certified caterer or bartender. This is a HUGE money saver (we brought in bottled cocktails from Baldoria in DTLA and wine from Costco).
RENTALS: MH helpfully suggests affordable local rental companies, and we ultimately chose MTB Event Rentals. Their customer service is top notch (it was important to view the items in person and they cheerily ad nauseum adjusted our invoice). Drop off was on time, the rentals were in good condition, & the price was right. MH lets you drop off Friday and pick-up Monday - which helps with delivery costs too.
DECOR: The venue...is...gorgeous (FYI they do a "deep cleaning" the day before your event - the place never looked better with all of the sparkling tall windows) - so you need minimal decoration. We just had floral centerpieces at dinner and altar pieces for the ceremony (all from Violette's Flowers - a fabulous affordable vendor), and framed pictures scattered. My DOC also put some greens on the mantelpiece in the reception room.
DOC: I'm very organized & thorough, but definitely needed a Day of Coordinator. I hired Amy of White Blossom and she was tremendous - running around and on top of everything always with a smile - and cute to boot.
DJ: Our DJ was DJ Mojoe - he is so friendly & affordable - hire him!
MISC.:
--The MH Coordinators are great (although they don't provide day of coordination). I mainly spoke with Nicole (so helpful in working on our contract & a hundred other questions I asked her). They just hired Reid to their team, and he's so lovely I asked him where he's been all my life. He's from an event planning background and was SO HELPFUL with last minute craziness in the final days leading up to the wedding (assisting with rentals drop-off, frame stands, rehearsal, etc.).
--MH only books 1 event a weekend, so dropping off any wedding items is so convenient. Their hours are only 9:30 - 5PM, but when our rehearsal ran long, they were so nice about keeping someone to close up for us.
--We had our ceremony on the back patio (nicely shaded, not direct sunlight, which we prefer for guests), cocktail hour half outdoor & indoors, and dinner & dancing inside. If it rained, I was planning to have the ceremony in the foyer (which still would have looked nice).
--We had 73 guests, which was perfect for the space -- I would say up to 90/100 is probably comfortable -- although full capacity is supposedly 150.
--The reception room was a little dark, so we rented 5 uplights for dinner from our DJ, which was great and gave the room a nice glow.
--For couple's photos - the Pasadena bridge is a few blocks walking distance (or the courthouse next door).
--Parking was a breeze - there's free courthouse parking on the weekend for your event, and on the day of our wedding there was so much street parking.
--The only restriction of note is no open flame or sparklers are allowed (we used LED tea lights), so no sparkler send-off I'd always envisioned - just be aware you may have to get creative if you want something similar.
My only suggestion to MH is it would be amazing if they could offer to extend their hours, even for an additional fee (they close at 10PM for guests, hard close at 11PM for vendors). It would have been nice to start our ceremony later so we could party 'til midnight.
We've received so many compliments on how beautiful this wedding venue was - thanks Maxwell House! read more