Camarillo Ranch Foundation

Original review:
After hearing my wife’s experience looking at The Camarillo Ranch for our daughter’s wedding, I will tell everyone I know to not go there!
Apparently, the woman that they met with was as rude as any person on the street could be, much less someone you’d trust your wedding to. Despite the fact that this property is in between two hideous industrial parks, they still wanted to take a look at it just in case it was the right vibe… And then they met the b@@ch.
So if anybody’s reading this review and considering going down there to look at it, do not. I repeat, do not. It’s location and the way it’s run make it undesirable.
Amended review starts here:
Nikki is a fine member of our community and that not withstanding, she promised corrective action. My review is amended this way:
The Ranch House is a great building, very significant to the community. If you’re considering this space, I rescind my comment to not go and herewith comment, please see for yourself and let me know.
RC

Beautifully preserved Rancho of the Camarillo family mansion. Great history and photos of the family and the families that lived and worked there, and the generosity of the Camarillo family to the community

I’ve been here for a few events and always have a great time. One of which is the Throwback Thursday food truck event. Last year I was lucky enough to win tickets to the Best of the 805 event.
My friend’s dad celebrated his 65^th birthday yesterday and the party was held here. It was a successful event and we had a grand time.
The party started outside behind the house then moved to the barn for the dinner portion. The setup and decoration was well done. The inside of the barn was awesome.
I didn’t get to interact much with their staff since it was a private event.
The ground is very spacious and well kept. Big ups to whoever does their gardening because it looks beautiful. The whole place has no bad angle. We pretty much spent a good portion of the night taking so many photos.
Big thanks to the organizer of the event. Carrie and her team did a great job. They even moved our cars that were parked on the premises to the street since none of us were in the condition to drive. You’ll get a $ 200 ticket if you leave your car parked inside.

What a truly wonderful day, it was quite gorgeous out, people were in good spirits, the music was rocking from Country to rockabilly and the Chili was smoking hot.
Sandy & I went on the Camarillo Ranch House Tour, people dressed in period gear, helped to transport you back to a different era, you could almost hear the voices of the past speaking to you through the Walls, you can see that this home was once full of a family full of love & pride.
I think if Mr. & Mrs. Camarillo were living they would be quite pleased at what the City of Camarillo and the living members of the Camarillo family have accomplished.
The tour is available with no set cost, but a request for donations you can’t get better than that especially when there is so much to see & learn.
I have always liked liked the City of Camarillo & now I have a deeper appreciation of it, now that I know how it came to be.

I absolutely love our local Camarillo Ranch house! First of all, the Camarillo Ranch property itself is a masterpiece! My family and I toured the home and the docents provided so many detail and funny antidotes. We also have enjoyed numerous events in the numerous event area the site provides including two garden areas filled with flowers and manicured paths, large events on the grand front lawn or in the rustic barn.
I highly recommend this venue for corporate and special events, and weddings.

If you are having a Wedding Event, please make sure you work with Jasmine Garcia. She is such a professional, caring, understanding. Quick to reply on email and come up with solutions. Our family wedding was a huge success, mostly on her part with clear communcation and her staff that run the place. Friendly hardworking individuals ready to assist to make the customer and the event a happy success.
Kuddos Jasmine.
Cheers!

I shot a wedding at this Ranch and it was one of my favorite wedding venues! It peeeeeeeerfect for rustic and cute weddings. They have everything from beautiful giant trees, open farm spaces, an adorable easter victorian house, and who doesn’t love that iconic red barn house?! The staff was very friendly, attentive, and professional. Wedding Photos of this Venue:
. =)

I’ve worked at the Camarillo ranch many times and I can only say good things about the property and staff. The Camarillo Ranch is a beautiful venue with lots of opportunity for any type of event. The red barn is perfect for weddings 250 people or under, and the front lawn can hold hundreds of people. The property is beautiful and has a lot of great areas for photography. It’s a great venue to hold events any time of the year because it does have indoor and outdoor options.
Every time I have worked with the Camarillo Ranch staff they have always been helpful, informative, and flexible. Their new contract is great and is very accommodating to anyone renting the property. They only host one event a day their so you really feel like you have the huge property to yourself. I would highly recommend hosting your next event at the Camarillo Ranch.

Just had my wedding on Sunday at Camarillo Ranch. I searched high and low for a place in LA or Orange County for a venue I could have all to myself, would have indoor or outdoor dependent on weather, and have Lucille’s BBQ grill on site. This was the only place I could find, and I prayed with it being pretty far from home that I wouldn’t have any regrets. I didn’t! Everything was perfect!
I started working with Marissa, then it switched to Jasmine. No big deal, both were lovely to deal with. I asked a lot of questions, and never felt ignored or that I was being an annoyance (which I sure I probably was… but hey, you only get married once.)
I made bi-​weekly payments, which must have drove them crazy, but was easier on me… the whole thing went smooth. Bringing in my own caterer and the value in the rental of Camarillo Ranch was more economical then most all-​inclusive locations. I believe some pricing has changed, but at my time, I felt it was a worthy investment… knowing now how perfect everything went, I would have paid more.
The location is stunning, the staff was lovely, and we had 0 issues.
I would recommend this place to everyone.
Everywhere you turn is a photo op. We hardly added any décor, and it was stunning.
Everything from the initial phone call to reserving, to cleaning up at the end of the night went smoothly. I loved it. and it is worth every dollar!

We got married here June ’14. I have mixed feelings about this place. So my recommendation to anyone looking to use this venue for a wedding would be to make sure you read the contract thoroughly (the new contracts are much more helpful, btw). I am hopeful that the new staff will do a great job (they were courteous), but during the time I was preparing for our wedding, the staff was going through a «transition» period and I felt like anytime I had to contact them about a simple question, it always ended with me being frustrated.
Five stars for the venue itself: gorgeous restored Victorian home, lovely West Garden, expansive grassy areas with a fig tree that I fell in love with, fun big red barn. The venue speaks for itself. I had no idea where or what type of wedding I would want, until I came across Camarillo Ranch. It had a lovely outdoor, fancy backyard gathering feel with convenient access for our guests. My fiancé and I had visited numerous outdoor venues throughout Ventura/​LA/​OC/​SD county. Most of the venues were on the small side for our guest count of 250 – 300. And the couple of places we were considering in Malibu were just too far from the freeway (we were worried about our older guests driving home at night in nearly pitch black darkness on a winding road). On the day of, no issues with the Ranch staff rep that was on-​site that day. Our guests enjoyed being able to explore the historic house during cocktail hour.
Sadly, one star for staff/​service (maybe 1.5 for effort).
If there are major changes to a policy, I feel it is the responsibility of the venue to contact their clients. The response I was given was «the changes have been posted on our website». I don’t know anyone that would peruse a venue’s website on a daily basis looking for updates! Sparklers and open flame tea lights were no longer allowed due to fire regulations (which would have been understandable). Had I not mentioned it in passing over the phone, I would not have been aware of the new regulations. If they really cared about their gorgeous venue, they could have easily sent out an email or letter re: any updates. I should give them credit, that they did send out a letter about their change in security deposit policy (they basically said they need the money up-​front now instead). =P
When we toured the venue, we were told that we could come early to set up. Then a couple days later when I went to book the venue I was told «things have changed»; but that if there was no other event that day «it should be fine» to come in the morning to set up. We had seen multiple weddings set up on other weekends when we were in the area; a couple of times, the family even let us take a look at all their lovely set up! We had even «added on» a couple hours to our 4pm start time to hopefully deter any other lunch time event from occurring that same day. My fam is pretty crafty and I was willing to DIY if I could save a little money, but I ended up purchasing even more time (so much for saving money) because they stated we could no longer come in the morning unless we purchased additional site time. (I don’t believe this should be a problem now as I believe the site rental is now by the «day»).
They semi-​double-​booked our rehearsal time. They stated there is no guarantee when you book your rehearsal time, «not until you fill out your event planner sheet 3 months prior». We thought we «booked» the rehearsal time when we signed our contract 18 months ago (the rehearsal time was written on the contract)?! Keep in mind the «event planner sheet» is due 3 months prior to your wedding, so essentially the wedding the day before ours would likely have turned in their sheet 1 day prior to us turning in ours. So if that is still the case, I recommend you turn in your «planner sheet» with your rehearsal date/​time when you book the venue.
When we booked the venue, there was no such thing as «preferred vendors» (you could basically use whoever you wanted, which I am glad will still had that option come our wedding day). I happened to contact some of the preferred vendors for quotes/​estimates and one of them stated, «oh, just double check with the Ranch to see if that is ok» and I was very disappointed when the response from the Ranch was «oh, don’t worry, they are one of our preferred vendors, so ‘they will know’». Obviously they don’t know, hence the reason why I needed to spend my time contacting you.
When I looked at their re-​vamped brochures and contract, everything looks much more organized, so hopefully both the venue and clients will all be on the same page for their future events. Otherwise, it will be such a shame for a beautiful venue and historic site.

What was once a cool and laid back venue now has its head up its ass after the management change. This is the feeling expressed by most of their preferred vendors too.

Just had my wedding here last month and it was great! I read the other reviews after I had already booked the place and I got really scared but it’s under new ownership so I think in time the ratings will get better. Actually I don’t think their past ratings are hurting them anyway since they are booked for the foreseeable future.
When I first booked the place the management had just changed so I could tell that there was a lot of change happening. This was promising since the older reviews were not good. Everyone I worked with was helpful, responsive and friendly. The venue is beautiful and really doesn’t need much decorating at all which is one of the reasons why I chose it, that, and because you can have food trucks (which I didn’t end up using in the end, sadly).
I give it 4 stars though because I really don’t like the way they make you pay for extra hours. You pay $ 3500 (depending on your package) for 8 hours but you need set up time and you need one hour for take down so you’re really only getting the bare minimum amount of time needed for the wedding so you end up paying more for the «extra» though very necessary time for your vendors. They say that once you book a day for your wedding there are no other weddings on that day, in which case, why don’t they just let you have the whole day? Why can’t the vendors just come in earlier whenever they need to if that day is set aside for only your wedding anyway? I felt they were nickel and diming us in that respect. Though, I was fully aware of these charges, I still chose this place. They were never cunning or secretive about these extra charges which I do very much appreciate. No hidden fees, just a more than I’d like. On the other hand, it’s a historical landmark so they need to make their money somehow.
All in all, I loved it, everyone that attended my wedding loved it, my now husband loved it, so it was worth it.
Other concerns I had that didn’t end up being an issue:
Would it be too hot in the barn? Nope. Camarillo is fairly temperate and it was perfect on my wedding day (late May).
Would it fit everyone? It fit 115 people for my wedding and I’m sure it can fit more than that.
They recommended a local vendor for lighting: Wendees Occasions. It’s just one older gentleman that isn’t always super fast to respond to email but he did a great job and I didn’t have to micromanage. His prices were very good too!

I photographed a wedding there a couple of months ago. The wedding coordinator, and employees were all rude. They moved my equipment without asking and lost my filters after they had moved them. They made my clients feel uncomfortable, they were lazy and were basically hiding from vendors. It was just a horrible and unprofessional. Which is a shame because the venue is stunning and I would love to photograph a wedding there again. I would give my clients a heads up about this place. My clients also complained about their services. Get someone who wants to work there and make the bride and groom’s wedding day memorable.

Checked this place out to have a wedding reception in the Big Red Barn. Very Cool place with a real neat old house built in the early 1900’s lots of great places around the property to take photos. My only problem with it is that there were a lot of commercial buildings in the area and it made it seem really out of place. To rent the Bran was really expensive too close to $ 4000 for 8 hours, not including tables or chairs. This place was a neat place to look at but that was about it, just a neat place to look at.

II’m a little hesitant to give this place three stars because I didn’t feel welcome when the Fiancé and I toured the place as a potential wedding venue.
The «Ranch» is the preserved Victorian mansion and estate of the founder of Camarillo which is really neat. We took a quick tour of the house and it’s really cool to see the dolls and clothes and kitchen. While the majority of the house is off-​limits to guests, a small hors d’oeuvres room is made available.
The ceremony is held by a small gazebo on the side lawn and the reception is held on the much wider lawn in front of the house. It’s kind of nice to have the cute Victorian house as the backdrop to the reception and people like to string market lights above the tables. Alternatively, you can choose to have your reception in the Barn (which is really a barn). It has tall ceilings but very little could disguise the fact that it’s a barn. I’ve seen photographs of barn weddings and I was finding it hard to imagine that THIS barn could be made to look nice without a lot of work on my part.
The coordinator we worked with wasn’t particularly friendly. She wasn’t rude but kind of brusque, something I wasn’t used to given that I was trying to decide whether or not to pay a rather large sum of money to have one of the most important events of my life at her venue.
For 2009/​2010, the barn reception was $ 3,500 including 5 hours of event time on a Saturday, 8 total hours of site use, choice of garden venue for the ceremony, use of grounds and mansion for photography, use of bridal room and use of the barn’s kitchen facilities for caterers.
For a lawn reception, the cost is $ 3,000 for the same inclusions as above.
The garden ceremony (with gazebo) will run you $ 850 including an hour event time, 3 hours of garden use, choice of time block between 8 – 4 and use of the bridal room.
Fridays and Sundays will cost you $ 500 less and events booked from 8am-​4 pm also receive the same discount.
Extras include a $ 500 cocktail hour in the mansion which includes one hour first floor access for guests to mingle and tour and 3 hours total use.
These prices do not reflect equipment rentals (tables, chairs, audio/​visual) or food. They have a list of preferred vendors as well.