White House Beach Club — Local services in Ventura

Bride's Worst Nightmare: White House Beach Club Double-Booked Our Wedding

My husband and I were heartbroken by how our wedding turned out because of White House Beach Club. From our very first inquiry in February 2024, we clearly booked our wedding reception for June 28, 2025. Jan, the owner, confirmed this via text and later sent an invoice and credit card authorization form with the correct date. Because she promised to handle everything personally, we didn't hire a coordinator -- something we deeply regret.

Almost all communication was by text, which is wildly unprofessional for wedding planning, and she often ignored emails or responded only when she needed something. That should've been a red flag.

Jan over-promises, under-delivers, and then acts like she went above and beyond when she barely managed the basics.

Despite repeated messages with the correct date, Jan recorded our wedding as June 29. She didn't realize her mistake until the day before our wedding -- after seeing a friend's text about checking into her Airbnb. Jan admitted that's the only reason she caught it.

Instead of taking full responsibility, she said a $30,000 Quinceañera was already booked for June 28 and claimed they had booked first (despite our invoice and text records). She also told our friend the price of that event -- a wildly inappropriate move that clearly implied why our wedding wasn't prioritized.

We were told, with less than 30 hours to go, that we could either move to Sunday (when most guests were flying out) or relocate to her other restaurant, Prime Steakhouse. Jan now says it was a "mutual mistake," which is not true.

She even brought up a past reviewer (Christina G) to badmouth her and call her a "Hill Billy." After living through this, we now understand exactly how that review happened. Christina was right.

Future couples, take this seriously: Jan will likely try to discredit you, paint herself as the victim, and blame you. She calls it a "misunderstanding" -- it wasn't. This was entirely her error.

To add to the stress, we never got to meet or speak with the DJ Jan uses, despite repeated requests. We asked to see his Instagram, and she dismissed it, saying "his Instagram isn't good." This DJ ended up handling our beach ceremony -- without knowing our last names. My mother-in-law said he almost left because he wasn't sure whose wedding it was. While he did fine at the reception (aside from mispronouncing our name), he had none of our music preloaded, missed key songs, and caused long, awkward silences. I had a professional radio DJ lined up, but Jan insisted she had it handled. Her DJ also showed up without a generator -- Jan asked to use "whatever our friend had."

Jan also pressured my fiancé into renegotiating our payment the day of the wedding, then threatened legal action when we considered canceling the check. The 23% discount she offered didn't come close to covering the chaos she caused. And no, a CC authorization form is not a contract -- it's just a way to charge someone's card. Please make sure you get a real written contract if you even consider booking here.

To be fair, her staff at Prime Steakhouse was wonderful. They worked hard to salvage what they could -- none of this was their fault.

In the end, our wedding was still beautiful -- not because of Jan, but only because we refused to let all of this ruin it for us. We adapted, kept smiling, and focused on what mattered: getting married. That doesn't change the fact that it was chaotic, stressful, and entirely Jan's fault. It's devastating that when we look back, we remember scrambling to notify guests, coordinating vendors last minute, and hoping our songs would even play -- instead of simply soaking in the joy.

And since we shared our honest experience, Jan has even privately messaged my husband on Yelp telling him "you should of not done this" and warning "if this continues I will have to take action," all while claiming it was somehow a mistake made by "all of us" and asking him to take...

I had my wedding reception at this venue. The owner promised us she would provide us with a great reception and not to worry about anything, she stated she would coordinate during our whole event but instead on wedding day she did nothing, she was rude to my guests, complained to my guests about things they had nothing to do with, she sat at the bar and drank alcohol all night. She didn’t place enough chairs for my guests and kept saying we invited more people but it wasn’t true, this was a destination wedding for us as we are from Arizona and due to being from out of state we brought all of our wedding decor and she called us Beverly Hill Billy’s, she degraded us and is very disrespectful. I booked her venue in January for an August wedding and she hardly had any contact with us, I continually attempted to tie up loose ends with this lady and she kept saying she was busy. I emailed her a break down of our timeline 2 weeks before the wedding and when I met with her 2 days before the wedding she still had not seen it. I asked her for a spliced version of our song for our first dance and she laughed and said no one has ever done that here .. she finally provided the song file 4 days before the wedding and it was incorrect, so we had to wait 2 more days to get it right. We never had a chance to practice our choreographed moves. To her it’s silly but to the couple this is their one day. She never provided us with a contract and I’m warning everyone who works with this lady get a contract! She adds extra cost to your bill in the end… and expects payment without providing an itemized bill. She is not trust worthy, protect yourself. Her idea of an itemized bill was a text message, till this day I have not received anything. Her professionalism is horrible! We were seated ready to have dinner after our first dance and the food wasn’t coming, sent my maid of honor to ask about dinner. She was told by Jan dinner will not be served until bill is paid. This is the first time we were asked to pay. She didn’t bother to approach us, she just sat at the bar until we asked her what was going on. It was very bizarre behavior. She gave us a restaurant check and said this is your bill, I told her you’re doing this to us now and without an itemized bill? I told her this looks incorrect she stated this is the bill if you don’t pay it we won’t serve your guests, so we paid. We are currently in the dispute process to get the accounting corrected. It was shocking how she expected payment while we are on a timeline for our wedding, we stayed at her airbnb so we were available to her. We could have handled payment that morning or the day before. She even stopped our reception early we were supposed to be done at midnight and she changed the time on us, she was yelling at the band telling them to stop, she was saying that type of music causes headaches. Also, her DJ doesn’t say a word the only thing he said that night was our names when he introduced us…but as her staff stated she calls him stupid DJ. If you want an MC find your own DJ, he never announced speeches, the anniversary dance, my brother in law had to MC the bouquet toss and garter toss or those would have been missed as well. The list goes on & on about things she didn’t do, she didn’t put my cake where I asked her, she doesn’t get that she’s being paid for a service. She wants to do everything her way which is weird for a wedding, because every one has their diverse style and there is no wrong or right way. Oh and she was charging service fees on everyone’s bar bill so just beware and she is very unorganized. It just broke my heart to have to deal with this not just because it was my wedding but because I’ve been travel nursing in this area off and on now for 5 years and I am currently at VCMC and I love love Ventura, I’ve been taking care of the lovely people in this community and they’ve all been good to me and I’ve never had a bad experience until now. All I have to say to...

Disaster of a Wedding Experience – Do Not Trust This Venue

As a guest who was there from start to finish, here’s exactly what I experienced.

I attended a wedding that was originally supposed to take place at the White House Beach Club in Ventura, and the experience was nothing short of a nightmare. Due to a critical scheduling error on Jan’s part, the entire wedding had to be thrown together the day before at an alternate location—a dark, cramped steakhouse—completely different from the light, coastal vibe the couple had planned for.

Guests had booked hotels near the White House Beach Club based on the original location, only to be rerouted last minute to a venue that was not only off-theme but wildly unprepared to host a wedding. The venue was disjointed and awkwardly split into three separate rooms. The tables were cheap folding ones that literally tipped when someone stood up or sat down—we had to brace them with our legs. When we arrived, our chairs, plates, and tablecloths were covered in dust, leaves, and debris.

No one was there to greet guests, direct us, or provide any kind of coordination. The seating chart was shoved into a random back corner, clearly due to space issues. The fireplace in the room was blasting heat, making the already overcrowded space even more uncomfortable.

The DJ was a disaster. During the ceremony, we could barely hear a thing. At the reception, he skipped over bridal party introductions and botched the bride and groom’s grand entrance. During dinner, he played deafening party remixes—it was nearly impossible to hear the person next to you. There wasn’t a single slow song, no anniversary dance, no bouquet or garter toss—it felt more like a random club night than a wedding celebration.

The restrooms were unacceptable. There were only two women’s stalls (one of which didn’t lock), and the single men’s restroom was clogged and had a pile of poop on the floor—for most of the evening—despite repeated complaints to the staff.

The bartenders were confusing and inconsistent. They said rail drinks were included, yet I was charged $10 for a vodka soda because they “chose” to use a different vodka without even asking.

The food was mediocre at best. Appetizers were delayed, and the buffet was squeezed into a tight corner with tiny portions that barely filled a plate.

The dance floor became so unbearably hot that several guests—including myself—had to leave early because we felt physically ill.

All of this chaos was due to a major error made by the owner and staff. My best friend’s wedding—something she had poured her heart, time, and money into—was completely derailed. No apology. No accountability. No effort to make it right.

Brides: do not risk your wedding day on this venue or company. You deserve...