Maravilla Gardens Weddings, Where Magic Happens
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
Maravilla Gardens is a family owned and operated, Outdoor Garden Wedding Facility in Camarillo, California, located on Santa Rosa Road just a few miles from the 101 freeway and about 50 minutes from Downtown LA. I feel that it still qualifies as a Los Angeles Garden Wedding Venue, and it’s one of the best.
As one of only 2 Preferred DJ Companies at this property, I thought it only appropriate to write a review article of their facility, especially since we know it so well. I want to bring a perspective of someone who works there all the time as an outside vendor
Our DJs have had the privilege of working over 75 Weddings at Maravilla Gardens in the past 5 years and I have personally DJ’d almost 50 of them myself. I know this property and it’s owners and staff like it was my own family estate, and believe me, I wish it were! This place is truly magical, it embodies the spirit of “family” and togetherness, joy and celebration, and offers it’s guests a truly intimate and personal feel, as if you were in your own backyard having your wedding, only if your backyard was filled with beautifully manicured gardens and lawns overlooking the Santa Rosa Mountains and rustic rolling farm fields.
It’s owners are Jo & Tony Maravilla, husband and wife and owners for over 40 years. They’ve raised their children here, and their daughter Jen is now working as the on-site wedding coordinator and with other aspects of the business. Tony is the master gardener, and he gives so much love and attention to the grounds, you can feel the love he’s poured into every flower, plant, shrub and tree.
Jo is the business manager and she is currently the main contact person for the business. She’s been tireless and instrumental in the growth and success of this beautiful property since they turned their attention from their nursery business to providing their property for weddings. There really are no 2 nicer people in this entire wedding industry and I’ve been blessed to work with them as much as I have, and every client of ours says the same thing about them.
As for the property, it offers 3 distinctly separate areas for Ceremony, Cocktails, and Reception. You begin your tour by walking from the parking area to a paved path and look to your left to see the cage of doves cooing beside a great little putting green, a huge hit for the gentlemen. There are restrooms and a private Bridal Suite for the Bride and her attendants to be hidden from view and to dress in the cool air conditioning!
The ceremony site opens on a large and lush green grass seating area surrounded entirely by trees and shrubbery. The Ceremony Stage is a large concrete, step terraced alter large enough to accommodate a very sizable wedding party, yet intimate enough to support just the Bride and Groom if you have a small wedding. You can place your own chuppah, or decorate an arch with florals for the ceremony. 
In addition, the facility rents a large shade cover to protect your guests from the sun during the hotter months, and it looks great from a design standpoint as well. The musicians or DJ set up just to the right of the stage on a small raised concrete pad outfitted with electricity for your sound system, which your DJ or musicians or minister must provide. Our DJs can play all of the music you need for your ceremony, as guests arrive to be seated they are greeted with citrus flavored water and music of your choice. We’ll play all of your entrance and exit music as well as any music you want during the ceremony. We can also provide the microphone for your minister. We’ve found that the accoustics here are good enough to place 1 wireless microphone on a stand and we can hear the minister/officiant as well as your vows. If you have a reader or singer, we can provide a separate mic for them. Read the rest of this entry »
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Weddings at the LA Music Center
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
Our DJs have an opportunity to work at different Wedding Venues in Los Angeles nearly every weekend, and occasionally we like to write about some of the more interesting venues in LA. Recently, I had the opportunity to DJ a Wedding at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the LA Music Center in downtown Los Angeles and was pleasantly surprised by many aspects of this venue. As a Wedding Vendor, I have to admit, I often worry about the logistics of working events in urban areas and tend to prefer some of the Garden Wedding Venues out in the more rural parts of LA and Ventura counties. Obviously, the more commercial the venue, the more problems vendors tend to have with parking, traffic, load in, etc… However, the parking for the LA Music Center is quite easy. The Bride and Groom will need to reserve parking for their vendors and guests, but the parking attendants were very accomodating to my needs as a DJ with all my equipment to have to load in and take up to the 5th floor Ballroom where the wedding was held. The staff were all very nice and accommodating as well and I found the service, food, and atmosphere to all be really great.
And speaking of atmosphere, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is adjacent to the amazing architectural gem, the Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by Frank Gehry. The concert hall and the entire campus of the LA Music Center create endless backdrops for brilliant Wedding Photography, like these by our friend Heidi Ryder Photography. The interior of the ballroom is spacious and can be divided by air walls. You can host your both Ceremony and Reception here, and the floor to ceiling windows offer ther city scape in the background to accent the event throughout the night.
I’ve included a highlight video at the bottom of this post, that I put together for Bride and Groom Alexis and Mitch whose wedding was held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion back in March. Take a look at some of the interior footage of the ballroom to see what your wedding might look like in the space. Add Wireless LED Uplights which we are now proud to offer to help accent the room with splashes of colored lighting.
Our thanks again to the staff of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the LA Music Center, please contact them for more information about their facility and if you need DJ services, we’d love to help! Happy Planning.
Stylish outdoor wedding at Temescal Gateway Park over on Style Me Pretty
Posted by Sparkdog | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
Anyone need a little wedding idea inspiration? While stumbling around the web tonight I found a great write up on a recent wedding in Temescal Gateway Park. You can check out the full write up over on Style Me Pretty, complete with a great set of images. Kudos to “Bash, please,” the party planning outfit behind the beautiful event.
Walnut Grove Weddings, the DJ’s perspective with wedding video clips.
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
This season, our DJs have been elevated to preferred vendor status at Walnut Grove at Tierra Rejada Ranch in Moorpark, California. This is a beautiful spot for a wedding, because of the uniqueness of the Walnut Tree Grove which makes you feel 1000 miles from Los Angeles and the gorgeous surroundings of rural and pastoral settings in Moorpark. The wedding ceremony can be held among the beautiful trees and the reception area has recently been remodeled to include a huge dance floor, a large stage built of stone and brick with a fireplace as the central focal point. Otherwise, the grounds are fairly simplistic and are a blank canvas for your wedding or private event. The exclusive catering on the property is done by none other than Command Performance Catering and they always do an amazing job at all of their events. The facility sales and events coordinator is Michelle Spring with Mia Bella Weddings & Events Call Walnut Grove today at 805- 558-8279 for more information.
There is a noise ordinance at this property, since the events are held completely outdoors. Be aware that although we don’t seem to have any problems with complaints there, if you’re having an enormous wedding and want to “blow the roof off the building” this might not be the place for you, you might consider a hotel ballroom or private event facility that is indoors.
We’ve included a few videos of Weddings at Walnut Grove that we’ve shot from the DJ’s perspective, we hope you enjoy! If you need a great DJ for your Wedding in Los Angeles or Ventura County, please give us a call, we’d love to help!
A Wedding at Calamigos Ranch, from the DJs prospective.
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
So you are or are thinking about having a wedding at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, California? Well, we’ve been fortunate enough to be the Wedding DJs for at least 40 weddings at this unique and very well known venue located in the mountains of Malibu. Having been the DJ for about half of those events myself, I can tell you with confidence that Calamigos delivers excellence in all of their events. They’ve been in the event production business for a long, long time and they have a pretty well oiled machine there. Granted, there are a lot of events hosted there each and every week, so you won’t really be able to have the venue all to yourself (unless it’s the dead of winter) but this simply shows their popularity, affordability, and excellence in execution as being more than adequate for hundreds of Brides and Grooms in Southern California every year.
I’ve attached a video from a recent wedding where Elegant Event Entertainment were the Wedding DJs for Chris and LaShelle’s wedding, held at Calamigos Ranch in the Main dining room and courtyard, with a cocktail hour reception held behind the building and featuring local Aerial Circus Performers . Don’t judge the quality of our videos too much, we aren’t professional videographers, but we make the videos as a record of our events and they make a nice gift for our clients! Notice the different areas of the property and how unique each one is aesthetically and functionally.
There are at least 4 high quality locations on this enormous property in which a couple can get married, including unique ceremony and reception sites for all types of parties and sizes of guest lists. Although the majority of the events we DJ are held in the Main Building, we are also familiar with the logistics of other locations on this property. The Main Dining facility has a dance hall area which includes a beautiful fireplace for those cozy autumn and winter weddings. There’s also a gorgeous waterfall and lots of mature greenery surrounding the Ceremony Site just outside the main dining area, which makes this site very accommodating, convenient and really beautiful. There’s also a new outdoor bar/lounge area which I have attended an “after party” with my clients and I thought this was one of the coolest features of the property, so be sure to check that out as well if you take a tour of the property.
The food at Calamigos Ranch is always good, and the service is great as well. From the event coordinators to the banquet captains and servers, everyone is friendly and tries to help make your event the most important one of the day! The ranch also makes it pretty easy on your vendors in terms of load in, accommodation, vendor meals, etc. keep in mind though, all vendors must sign a release for the ranch and must have a liability insurance policy of their own.
Congratulations on your upcoming event and good luck with your search for a wedding venue, with Calamigos you might have found the perfect location. You can certainly count on a great wedding or event if you’re hosting it at Calamigos, but keep in mind, great events require great entertainment, so please consider hiring one of our experienced and fun Wedding DJs for your most special day!
“The Madison Restaurant” in Long Beach is perfect for Weddings or any occasion!
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
Located on Pine Street in Long Beach, California is a diamond in the rough, a restaurant that harkens back to a time in American history when partying in ‘high-society’ style was a standard. The Madison Restaurant says “The Jazz Age” or “Roaring 20′s” from the moment you walk in the door, but there’s so much more to this place. I was fortunate to be the Wedding DJ here on a sunday evening in March and I wanted to share the space with our readers who may not have heard of it or thought about it for their wedding reception, birthday party, corporate or other special event. The space is strikingly beautiful with it’s beautiful and very large Chandelier’s, 35 foot high ceilings, woodwork that any aficionado of fine wood working would envy, gorgeous flooring, and a terrific layout overall.
The wait and bar staff is about as beautiful and well appointed as any place I have worked a Wedding in Los Angeles, the bar men wore tuxedo’s without the jackets and most of them looked like a younger version of George Clooney, the security person wore a double breasted Zuit Suit and stood about 15 feet tall, while the young ladies could have all been models as they wore gorgeous black cocktail dresses “very well”. While looks may not be important to you, if you want your wedding to be perfect from head to toe, the staff serving your drinks and food should also look really nice and The Madison delivers with a bang! The food is really terrific as well and the presentations I saw were not over the top “fake fancy” but the flavors were far superior to most Wedding Food I’ve tasted. The wine list is immense and service on all levels was impeccable. If you add some simple but gorgeous florals, a few personal touches with photos of the newlyweds, birthday girl, or company banners, you’ll be on your way to a truly unique and spectacular event and I guarantee your guests will rave about the space you chose and what a great time they had there. But of course, don’t forget to hire a great DJ! Either myself or one of our other DJs would love to entertain there anytime!
The wedding I worked felt much more like a great cocktail/dance party than a formal event, but it had all of the elements that a wedding needed. I loved working with our friend and photographer Cheryl Ogden, she’s always a lot of fun and very professional…just click on her name to visit her website and see some of her work.
There was also a pianist that the Brides mother knew and he came in and played the gorgeous mahogany Grand Piano at the cocktail hour and I took over as DJ after that.
Although my photos don’t do it much justice, this room has an enourmous Bar with the rolling ladder to get to the Top Shelf libations, 35 foot ceilings that grab your attention immediately, and some really interesting murals that harken 1920′s cocktail parties, the atmosphere is really stunning.
Thanks to all the staff and especially to Patrick the proprietor of The Madison as well as Megan the coordinator and Makena and the two gentleman working the bar and floor all of who were very accomodating to the DJ’s needs for loading in and setting up my gear as well as helping me keep the party on schedule and running smoothly throughout the night.
By the way, the dancefloor and DJ area are centrally located and it’s easy to see and hear the DJ from any seat in the house.
The space accommodates about 300 people, and there’s a “cellar” or “vault” space below that holds parties of up to 150 guests. The Madison is available for rent on Sunday’s when the entire restaurant is closed and yours to enjoy! If you’re having a special event anywhere near Long Beach, definitely place a star beside the Madison Restaurant and go check it out.
Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve, a Magical Wedding!
Posted by Dana | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
I had the pleasure of being the Event Coordinator for Felicity and Jack on their big day. Their wedding was held at a truly beautiful location, set in the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve at the top of a mountain in the San Fernando Valley. The property once belonged to the Ahmanson Family and was known as the Ahmanson Ranch until fairly recently. So if you’re searching for Ahmanson Ranch Wedding, you’ve come to the right place, it’s just changed names.
The property caretaker Joan was also on site and played an active roll with her assistant, to insure that all the aspects of the evening were taken care of. This venue offers a gorgeous outdoor setting for the ceremony and reception. Depending on the size of your event, creating the most romantic outdoor setting can be accomplished. In addition, the 1939 fully restored Ranch House is available for use, dressing areas, restrooms, and kitchen with scullery for your catering staff’s needs. The Open Space Conservancy allows you to bring in all of your own vendors and event professionals from catering, wait and bar staff, entertainment such as DJs and live musicians, décor and coordination. From the coordination perspective, this location allows me a great opportunity to be creative, the grounds of this facility are very large and offer a 360 degree view of the San Fernando Valley, but there are gorgeous trees everywhere and placing small areas here and there for different aspects of the event, such as dinner, cocktails, ceremony, dancing, and even designated smoking areas can all be created with an interesting design aspect. Also, a huge selling point to this property: You can party until 12:00am and potentially stay until 1:00am. Very few outdoor locations in Los Angeles allow events to go beyond 11:00pm and most outdoor wedding sites in Ventura County close you down at 10:00pm. So keep that in mind, you get to hire your favorite caterer and aren’t locked into an “exclusive” company, and you can stay and play past midnight!
DJ Jason Jones from Elegant Event Entertainment and I had a terrific time with all the wedding party and guests. Bride and Groom Felicity and Jack had a great community of family and friends. I have never heard so many heartfelt and wonderful speeches. The Groom and his family were from Norway and the culture of their weddings calls for lots of toasts, which was truly a wonderful aspect of this wedding and the venue provided a perfect setting for the intimacy of speeches without feeling long and drawn out. I credit the toasters and the Toastmaster Kixx Malone, a long time friend of the groom for keeping the toasts moving and adding that special intimate touch to all of the introductions and speeches, Kixx was awesome! Read the rest of this entry »
Moorpark Country Club, a great location for a Wedding.
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
I hope my reviews of Wedding locations in Southern California aren’t all beginning to sound repetitious, but I must say, this summer our company has been working at so many great wedding and banquet facilities that I felt the need to write about each of them. I honestly can’t think of any bad things to say about these venues and while I know they are all distinctly different, I want to share with you why I like each one of them individually.
Moorpark Country Club is no exception, I really like it there. Located on a beautifully manicured golf course in the hills of Moorpark, California, this facility is a great venue for your wedding or any event. The scenery is great, the hills are beautiful, the banquet room is large but very nice. The Ceremony location is on the property and features a gorgeous and intimate gazebo with lots of mature vegetation and landscaping. The grounds and facilities are above par, no pun intended!
I was honored to be the DJ at Pamela and Eran’s wedding on August 23, 2009 and it was a perfect day for this bride and groom. I must admit, the service at the country club is stellar, the banquet manager Jarvis is one of the kindest and most accommodating people in this industry, every Bride and Groom will love him. Director of Catering Anna Padilla is also great, she has had many years of experience in the Wedding industry, having a great career at a few of the premier properties here in Ventura County, she has exhibited vast knowledge and great professionalism in her field. Anna is passionate about what she does, and so is her staff at Moorpark Country Club , which is why our company loves to work there!
This wedding was a perfect example of cohesion between great wedding vendors in Ventura county, we had Suzie of Your Neighborhood Florist working her magic with the flowers, our great friend Josh Beller of Mi Belle Photography who also provided the photos for this article, Moonlight Video Productions shot the live action, the beautiful cake was provided by For Heavens Cakes, and of course, providing the entertainment was me, DJ Jason Jones of Elegant Event Entertainment! Read the rest of this entry »
A Sherwood Country Club Wedding; from the DJ’s perspective.
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
I gotta tell ya, I honestly love my job, I love our company, and I love working with so many great people, clients and colleagues alike. On September 5th, I was the Wedding DJ at Sherwood Country Club for Toni and Maxx, and I absolutely love it there. It’s a gorgeous place that reminds me so much of many of the venues and country clubs in my home state of North Carolina, or even many parts of Virginia. The clubhouse has a Georgian or colonial style architecture, built with tens of thousands of bricks and adorned with gleaming white trim and moldings.
Sherwood CC is manicured so well, you’ll think Disney World moved to Westlake, California. One thing is certain, if you’re having a Wedding here, your photos will look amazing, because there isn’t an inch of this property that isn’t picture perfect. Although it seems annoying at first, all of the vendors like myself are required to wear dress slacks and a collared shirt to set up their gear. No shorts, t-shirts without collars or denim allowed. But, that’s fine with me, I always wear a nicely tailored suit while DJing a Wedding, so I change into that after the set-up is complete.
As pristine and ornate as Sherwood is, you still have permission to party and have lots of fun, and Maxx and Toni’s Wedding was no exception. They even had an early wedding, which ended well before evening, and it was still a blast. Unfortunately, many early weddings are not the most fun, but I honestly have to say, this one rocked! Of course, some of the credit goes to the DJ, right? But truthfully, this was a great group of guests, which always makes my job easier. The guest list included 2 other couples whose weddings I have DJ’d recently. I’m beginning to see the positive residual effects of Read the rest of this entry »
Los Robles Greens Wedding and Banquet Center
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
A few weeks ago our company was hired and I was the DJ for Justin and Casey’s Wedding at Los Robles Country Club, also known as Los Robles Greens, in Thousand Oaks, CA. This is the second time Elegant Event Entertainment, Inc. has been there this year and each event was really great. The staff at Los Robles is extremely professional and helpful to their clients and other outside vendors like ourselves. We really enjoy working at this facility.
If you’re considering a wedding at Los Robles Greens, I can certainly attest to the fact that it’s a very nice place for a wedding in Thousand Oaks. The views of the golf course and mountains in the distance can be enjoyed by all during your Ceremony and throughout the reception. The Banquet hall has floor to ceiling windows which spotlight the views.
Read the rest of this entry »
If you are an experienced wedding DJ who loves working to serve the needs of your clients, 