Grace E. Simons Lodge — Attraction in Los Angeles

We were at this place yesterday 7/1/23 for a 40 year anniversary Renewal of vows wedding reception , I had a disagreement one of staff over smoking a cigar he had asked me early to put it out and I complied he informed me that I could smoke outside the gate , later in the evening we went to do just that, we were stopped a few feet from the gate by some people that were leaving. in that time he walked down to tell me that I had to smoke outside the gate mind you this is at least 100 yards from the building. I told him I thought he was being extra because we were literally few feet from the gate , again we complied and walked a few feet beyond the gate, after a bit we walked back up and I was asked to leave, I was actually talking to the security guard Montes about this staff member when he walked up and informed Montes to walk me out , again I complied I wasn’t trying to ruin the night. We were on the road home we left with no issues , I was called and told that he had the ceremony shut down and that they were kicking everyone out, these two staff members were over heard saying that they could leave early now, this was at 9pm the ceremony was scheduled to end at midnight. The reason for ending the night was they felt threatened what they didn’t know is the people they accused of this are current & retired military , Special Ops service men , they don’t make threats they protect people they were raised to be good men I know I raised them. If you decide to have a function at this place make sure these two individuals are not part of the staff or go somewhere else, it is terrible what they did last night! Gustavo Gomes that was a cowardly thing you did last night! You lied to your supervisor your not a threatening person to merit being threatened , we had a disagreement I left when you asked me to leave it should’ve ended there but you wanted to go home early. Beware of this person again if your considering...

We had scheduled our wedding here for October 24 of this year (after rescheduling it from May 30). We knew that with COVID things would be touch and go, but our wedding planner had told us to hold off until June before we made any decisions to further postpone. We had vendors lined up, had made deposits, etc, and then, today, out of the blue, the Lodge emailed us to let us know that they were canceling all events until April 2021 for "a landscaping project." Really unsympathetic and unceremonious way to do it. In addition: you can't play music outdoors. You can't put anything in the pool (floating flowers, etc). There's a back gate that you're not allowed to open. You can't play games on the lawn. You can't hang anything from the ceiling indoors. Half of the cover for the area where the ceremony was supposed to happen fell down during the spring, and they have made no effort to repair it. There are a few other repairs that need to be made, and haven't been made during the months (and MONTHS) we have been visiting the lodge to take specs and make plans on how to decorate the space. Overall, I'm so disappointed we wasted all this time, and how unprofessionally the cancelation of events was...

We had our wedding here in July. Great venue and pretty good pricing! Beautiful water feature and bridge in the back.

You should know the venue is bare bones, so you'll need to get your own decorations to spruce the place up. We bought sun shades which were definitely necessary to keep the sun from beating down during the ceremony. There is no power source outside, so our ceremony was acoustic. It was tough to hear the singers and minister at times. I'd recommend bringing a generator and getting a sound system to mic up the speakers.

The venue does supply the white chairs for the outdoor ceremony and all the tables and chairs inside for the reception. Since it's a LA City Park, you do have to go through their specific alcohol vendors which can be a little bit pricier.

Overall great staff that's able to answer all your...