Lions Park — Hotel in Carpinteria

So let me start off by saying our wedding was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! The photos came out amazing with the help of the amazing scenery of Lions Park. It truly is a gem in Carpinteria, CA. They have a very nice gazebo you can take classy photos under. The trees, grass and the woody cabin type feel to the structure of the building also looks so nice and gives off a very warm, happy and welcoming feeling to all guests attending your wedding or whatever event you may have here. With all this being said there is a major negative about this park. The major negative happens to be the main lady running the show there. Her name is Kat. She seemed straight forward at first through E-mail and meeting face to face talking about details and schedule of the wedding. However, the day of the wedding when my wife and I were so excited and nervous, Kat seemed to do things that rubbed us the wrong way and get me personally out of my positive adrenaline I was feeling. When I say this I want you to imagine this if you will please.. All guests are seated down on the lawn waiting for the ceremony to start. You (the groom) are nervous as hell ready for one of the biggest moments of your life. All the bridesmaids and Groomsmen are with their designated partner and ready to walk down the aisle. I have my arm locked with my mother ready to lead the way and walk her to her seat and then stand and wait for the rest to follow and eventually my beautiful wife to show up as well. HOWEVER.. As my arm is locked with my mother and we are 30 seconds or less from the Violinist starting to play the live music for us to walk down, Kat then thinks it's a brilliant idea to pop her head out of her office door which just happens to be exactly where we all are standing nervously. She then screams my name, I turn around in total shock and disbelief. Like what is SO IMPORTANT to kill this moment for me? She screams again at me. I then run to her and she says to me in a very negative and angry tone, "You guys never confirmed about paying $15.00 per bottle corkage fee for the champagne on everyone's tables!" I then replied saying, "You told us it was $5 per bottle the other day. Now its $15?" She then says, "YES $15! I never said $5." As annoyed and angered as I was I tried to keep my cool knowing in the back of my head the music is now starting to play by the Violinist! I then tell her as nice as I possibly could at that moment, "Okay Kat just do whatever you gotta do. I have a wedding to get to!" It was a pretty annoying moment shall I say. Another thing that bothered me was hearing some of my guests say Kat kept looking at them hounding them whenever they would go to their car to get a jacket, phone charger, make a phone call in their car or things of that sort. It's like she was trying to catch someone doing bad in the parking lot. That wasn't a pleasant experience for a few of my guests. Finally, what REALLY bothered me the most is this.. It's the last hour of our reception, we are now having a blast dancing with many loved ones. It's about 9:15 and we had 45 minutes left to party and have fun (or at least we THOUGHT). Kat then Rudley forces everyone to leave the venue and says we had to be out the door by 9:30. My wife and I were in total shock and said, "I thought you said we had till 10 to party?" She said NO to that and that we had to be out the door by 9:30!!! Wow! As you can imagine my wife and I were infuriated at this point! What a way to end the wedding! NOT!!! Kat was very rude and unprofessional how she handled this all. I tried to reason with her and talk with her face to face in peace and she refused to talk like an adult and stay calm. Instead she got on her high horse and was being very unreasonable and rude. So my family and myself along with close friends had to clean and empty the whole venue from the inside in 15 minutes! We then left the door at 9:30. It was a total disaster! STAY AWAY! If you book here MAKE SURE YOU GET ALL DETAILS 100% STRAIGHT! Audio record what she tells you to hold her...

My husband and I absolutely loved this venue! It is absolutely stunning, with a beautiful “nature” and “woodsy” look that made decorating very simple since it didn’t really need anything extra! The indoor portion was perfect for the reception, but outdoors was gorgeous the whole time allowing guests to play Cornhole and horseshoes outside, and a ceremony that led up to the “natural arch” of the trees. Our band was also well shaded and plugged in under the gazebo. It was the perfect day for us!

The bridal suite is also stunning; our photographer raved about how perfectly set up it was for her. I loved hanging out in there with my bridesmaids.

Lions Park provides a lot of amenities too, which eased stress for us. We were able to set up practically everything the night before, making the day of nice and smooth.

100% recommend this venue! Wouldn’t change a thing about our...

Our wedding day was beyond beautiful. Lions park was always in communication with me and my husband. The park is a hidden gem. I’d like to thank our officiant Jonathan Mulford. Thank you Jonathan! It was a wonderful experience and you made our day even better! Having you as our officiant was exactly what we dreamed of. You made the ceremony fun, positive and full of love! Thank you for guiding us through the process with the marriage license. We received so many compliments on the ceremony and what a wonderful officiant you are. We will be sure to recommend you to anyone who is planning their marriage! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! ♥️ 💒 🎉...