Avila's Historic 1929 — Local services in Riverside

I do not recommend to book Avila’s Historic 1929 AT ALL. First of all, trying to get in contact with someone to answer questions is near impossible. I received a message about my first inquiry a full month after I had initially reached out. Not to mention their website doesn’t have any information pertaining pricing, services, etc. By that time I had already done detective work to get in touch with Naomi who is in charge of events at this venue. We had set up a showing for mid May of 2021 to see the venue. My parents went to see the venue on our planned viewing day (I live out of state) to find the venue was locked and no one was on site to meet with them. I frantically call Naomi who was supposed to be showing the venue and she said that we hadn’t confirmed our viewing prior to showing up. I thought this was odd as she had never reached out to confirm our scheduled viewing and never mentioned that we had to reach out to reconfirm the scheduled viewing time. This was the first red flag. Naomi ran over from setting up an event elsewhere to let my parents in to take photos. Naomi told us that we would be able to have our wedding ceremony here (as described on the Knot) and that it would be no issue, but couldn’t give us a set price. She said she would send us over a contract. A week later and still no word from her. I had reached out a week after the showing and she reassured me that she would put one together and send it over. I think I sent her my email address 3 times because she kept losing it. Week goes by and still nothing, so I call again. She said she was busy, but that she was thinking about it and could do the ceremony for $4,000 (basic chair and 3 hour space rental with a valet for parking). I said that sounded fair and requested this in writing (as we had never received anything in writing). She said she would send it over that night. Another week goes by and here we are today, a full month later and still no contract. I called again today to follow up on sending the contract over. She said she wouldn’t be able to rent us the space for a wedding as it was “too much facilitating” despite us having hired a wedding planner to run the event. I asked her what part seemed daunting and she said, “the chairs and the water.” I reiterated that we would only really need the space and the chairs that she had on hand, but she insisted it would be a lot of facilitating on her end so she wouldn’t do it for less than $7,000. I had expressed that I was confused because we had been in contacts for a month now and every time we talked I, as the client, had to reach out for more information. Sadly, she didn’t seem very empathetic to my situation and by the end of the conversation she flat out said she wouldn’t be able to do a wedding. Very confusing considering her website advertises weddings and she is listed on The Knot as a wedding venue. I lost a full month of wedding planning betting on being able to rent this venue and in the end wasn’t even able to get anything written down on paper. She changes her story every time you talk to her and never follows through on what she says she will (ie sending over documents, letting you know information about pricing, etc.) I hope this is a insightful for other brides and wedding planners who are considering this venue. I wish I hadn’t put so much energy...

To keep it short. Simply Terrible. Do NOT waste your time and money. My family Joshua serrano has review up as well that he made on the spot. This review was overdue. Now If you want to know why, here’s the long part. The place itself is beautiful undeniably. But the service is horrid. Had a wedding there in September. The owner Naomi always was so nice leading up to the wedding. But her colors showed in the end after she got her money. All lies with her, we ordered ravioli and baked veggies to be served, at the initial tasting it was spectacular; but on the day of our wedding it was nothing like we tasted the first time, raviolis were not cooked all the way nor the veggies and they lacked seasoning, awful. Couldn’t even finish our food which was a big let down since we were telling everyone how they were going to love it. On top of that It was a hot day and their A/C went out, her staff during the wedding had told us it went out 2 days prior to the wedding. It was 113 degrees, very hot, my guests and I were sweating, the girls hairdos were being undone due to the heat, and the cake started to lose its form. Obviously Naomi can’t control the weather, but she denied that her A/C was not working and swears that it was cold. She says that, yet she brought out a multiple of swamp coolers in the venue, which seemed suspicious, a little too prepared. She was walking around everywhere in cargo shorts and a t-shirt due to the heat which she had no etiquette or respect that it was a wedding where we were all in formal clothing and blamed that we were all hot and sweaty because we men were wearing suits and women were wearing long dresses. I kindly asked a few days later for some refund due to the inconveniences of the A/C going out, she refused and blamed it on our attire. We had to make her open the doors of the venue just to get some air in there since it felt like an oven and we felt suffocated. Even my guests, my family complained to her the day of the wedding. I get that she didn’t want to lose money, but not even a sorry for the inconvenience. We ended the party at the agreed time, yet just to change the conversation and make it seem like she did us a favor she made up lies stating that she was kind enough to let us stay longer and kind enough to let the guests come in before the start time which was a few hours before the agreed time, which was a lie because we were all at our ceremony at a different location. She made up lies that her husband fought with our DJ to leave because he didn’t want to stop the music. Honestly there’s more to say but I think...

I had my wedding here this last weekend, and I have to say my wedding came out beautiful! Veronica who gave us the tour and all the information was so sweet and professional. She’s very helpful. Anytime i had a question she always responded quickly. The reason I’m giving it a 4/5 is because of the owner Naomi. It seems that her communication is off re: the catering. She made a huge mistake by not including our kids plates. We had to order pizza for them and pretty much convinced her to let it in. Overall, it’s a beautiful venue and I don’t regret having my reception there. I just highly suggest that you stay on top of the communication between you and Naomi and have...