Ridgeview Banquet Center & Gardens

I recommend that on your special day you dont book it here. My brother unfortunately not too long ago had his wedding here and it wasnt that great of a service. Below will be a list of what went wrong:
1. The food was served cold. We had tacos and let me tell you those tortillas were brittle… obviously they were not heated well… the food was just cold…
2. The Dj wasn’t that great… and my sister in law was advice by them to bring a usb or write out songs that she wanted to be played… his songs were not up to date. The English hip hop songs that he did play were out
brother in law (who was DJ) ended up giving his usb of music to play in the wedding. He was a really nice guy but he shouldnt be a DJ.
3. The bride and the groom had to pay an extra $ 200 for soda to be served. The sodas were cheap type of soda… not coke or seven up… they were those from the 99cent store… not only that but not a lot of guest knew about the complimentry soda since it was being served at the bar.
4. Their customer service was not that great… there was a situation where the Dj asked the bridal party to get up and get our food… so i never heard him say that he was going to call table by table to get their food… so as I went to get my food i started inviting my family to get up to get in line… so i got served my food and as i was getting ready to go to my table one of the servers started yelling rudely at my uncle because he was in the front of the line… ahead of the brides parents… my uncle had not noticed them in the back of the line… and i had asked him to get up… he was rudely told off by that server about how rude of him it had been to be in front of them… my uncle walked out with out his food… no one ever apologized to him… one of my family members heard the lady in charged that she would only apologize to my mom the «grooms mother» and no one else… so yes because my mom complained she was given an apology… bad bad service
5. There was only one lady with a cart serving everyone cake… this lady had a bad leg because she was limping…
6. the coffee took forever to be ready… when we got to the hall after the ceremony which was around seven p.m.guests were asking for coffee… and every time we asked about it we were told it was not ready… it wasnt ready until probably two hours later… maybe they have an old coffee machine!!!
Eventhough all this happened we made the best out of it for the bride and groom and danced the remaining of the night.

The coordinators seem nice, friendly, and cordial at first but once a problem arises, they are such a headache. They became very rude and unreasonable and blamed Obama for everything that went wrong. Lol. I suggest keeping a lawyer around in case they try to twist their interpretation of the contact. Unfortunately we could not afford one at the time when we had issues with them and our banquet went down the drain.
Venue itself is very gorgeous on the inside when decorated, but the outside needs work; grounds almost look unkempt and the parking lot was old and cracked.

Pros…
* The event coordinator/​planner, Sheila, was very helpful and willing to address all of our needs; She saw through the completion of the ceremony and beginning of the reception
* They have a large variety of décor to select from
* we used the Ridgeview site for both the wedding and the ceremony, which were both nicely decorated
* Food was okay, Chicken, veggies, potatoes, nothing to rant about
* The Rolls Royce after the reception a 1970’s model was nice, driven by one of the business owners
* Our guests were very impressed and loved the whole event, but did notice the few things listed below
Cons…
* The horse and carriage, which we paid a huge additional cost for, got stuck and the bride never made her grand entrance. «Well you certainly can’t expect a refund. That’s a beast and we couldn’t have foreseen that happening,» is what we were told. No refund, partial or full.
* The agreements for additional changes to be made at our final meeting before the wedding were not relayed to the site staff the day of for whatever reason
* Guests were asked if they wanted half a breast or a whole breast and thought it was odd, as did my wife and I. After the wedding we were told that even though my wife and I paid for the food they took all the leftovers to a shelter to feed the needed, which is fine. Considering I’m paying for the food, it might be a good idea to ask me if I want my guests asked if they want a half or whole piece of chicken.
* After the planner, Sheila, left, the photographer and the DJ ended up fumbling through the reception’s activities, bouquet toss, garter, cake cutting, etc. Rather than flowing smoothly we were being asked what we would like to have happen next, after we had already submitted an outline, at their request, prior to the event. We had to find someone to help us cut the cake!
* We paid an additional $ 400 to have two extra tables sat for our family which were not set. They guest who sat at the two empty tables were told to move and they overflowed into the two tables we had reserved for family. After several exchanges with the business owners and being told, «Well they were fed weren’t they.» They reluctantly refunded the $ 400.
* We had prepaid a bar tab only to enter the reception room after our photo session to find all of our guests were being charged for their drinks. The bartender, also the cook, told us she knew nothing of a tab and we would have to speak to the owner, also kitchen staff. Since the owner couldn’t get a hold of our planner we were told, «I believe you, and we’ll just have to take care of it if there is any difference.» The keg of beer we ordered along with our tab, $ 250, was served hot. We were told the person who dropped it off at the sight left it out and no one was able to move it inside to keep it cold so it was served it hot.
* DON’T USE THEIR DJ!!! We spoke for 30 minutes to their DJ and were reassured we’d be pleased. Long story short… One of our guests ended up lending her phone to the DJ to play the music we wanted to hear. Her date, who happened to be a real DJ, ended up walking over and telling the wedding company’s DJ what to put on his play list…
* One of the biggest upsets was receiving a notice stating our marriage license had not been received and would be canceled if not signed and returned with a certain amount of days. After angry exchanges with the owners, and, us calling the county clerk on a daily basis low and behold the county clerk told us our paperwork was in their inbox for the day’s mail just days after arguing with the owners about whether or not it was submitted.
Insult to injury, a quarter of the photos on the Ridgeview Banquet Center & Gardens Bonnie has posted are from my wedding, Note the Hispanic family in blue and white. We found out through some friends of ours about the photos being posted. We’ve recently asked that they be taken down.

The chapel was absolutely beautiful. My husband and I fell in love at first sight. We booked the chapel about a year ahead of our wedding date. I love the fact that this place breaks up everything for you and allows you to make payments for plans that are all inclusive, but every time I went in to make a payment they didn’t remember who I was. I was shelling out thousands of dollars and they couldn’t remember my name. We had over payed somehow and we weren’t allowed to apply the amount to our alcohol expense, and couldn’t be refunded the amount, instead we were forced to add on things we didn’t care for. On my wedding day, no one greeted me as I arrived. Bonnie (my coordinator) asked what I wanted done with the extra flowers (still not sure why we paid for extra flowers). I told her she could circle the cake with them and then she continued to stab them in my cake. The ceremony was beautiful besides the fact that I was running a little behind so my fiancé had to pay the chapel pianist another $ 40 just to stay. The reception was not all I was promised. Nothing was organized. The serving staff wasn’t in uniform, they just apparently wear what they want. My husband and I were served last. We had no schedule and my coordinator wasn’t coordinating, so we just did what we wanted, when we thought we should be doing it. Bonnie was behind on everything. She was never around when we needed her. If I had to do it over again, I would pay the minimum to book the venue and do everything else ourselves, it probably would have been cheaper and far less aggravating.

Their customer service seems to be very incompetent.
Called 3 separate times trying to get more information and possibly set up to tour the venue. Same guy picks up the phone every time, asks for the date/​type of event we had in mind, and says «Bonnie will call you back». NEVER got a call back.

I went to a family member’s wedding there recently and was VERY underwhelmed. First of all, most of the grounds are made up of old tennis courts that are filled with weeds, cracks and overgrown plants. The gazebo area that was staged for the ceremony area was decorated with a couple of lamps and pieces of chiffon as well as a couple of strings of christmas lights. The staff would not even clean off the cobwebs on the gazebo in order to clean the place up a bit. There were not enough chairs for guests and there were no signs saying where the ceremony was to take place (it was about 300 feet from the reception area) so that guests knew where they were supposed to go.
To my knowledge, this venue has everything included, so I am going to comment on mostly everything…
The banquet room/​reception area was decorated fairly nicely. The biggest problem with the reception area was that the air conditioning was not turned on until about an hour before guests started arriving. The temperature at around 4 o’clock was around 90 degrees. Inside the reception area it was probably about the same temp if not higher. Everyone was sweating! The tables were decorated with a simple candle center piece and the dishware/​glassware was nice. The room is very long and narrow with the bar situated in a spot that made it hard for people to move from one end of the reception to the other. The gift table was a 2′ x 4′ foot table that was not even big enough to put one gift on, so they all had to go on the floor. The cocktail hour included cheese, crackers and some poppers, but they were gone ASAP and were not really refilled. The wait staff was wonderful and worked hard on bringing tables more refreshments because of the heat.
The food was ok. There was a chicken in a mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, a vegetable medley (probably a bunch of frozen bags thrown into a big dish), bread and salad. Not something to write home about. Beer and wine were included in the price.
My favorite place was an outdoor deck area; although it was also severely overgrown, it was the coolest place in the joint. It had nice lighting and some comfortable patio furniture to rest on.
Overall, I feel like this venue could be something AWESOME, but the owners have not taken care of the place. Although almost everything is included, things should have been more organized and prepared before the event. Especially the ceremony area. If you are thinking about this place as a venue for your wedding, make sure that you have all the specifics in your contract, as my family member had a really hard time negotiating with the owners. Make sure you get them to clean up the grounds!!!

In response to Bonnie’s comments:
The food substitution was not that big of a deal. We specified garlic mashed potatoes (which are our favorite so we know we picked them) and got roasted potatoes. It was probably a simple mistake and all of the food was delicious anyway. It was irritating but I was not mad. I was never offered a tasting but again, the food is very good.
As far as the rude worker, it was more what she said to my guests and how she said it that was the problem. My cousin-​in-​laws friend got married at this location several months after me and her family had similar issues with this same person. She was not rude to me at all so it did not ruin my day but I did get about 4 complaints in the weeks following my wedding.
Like I said this is a very nice affordable place to go if you don’t have a lot of money to spend. I had a few minor complaints but I would do it all over again.

This was one of the venues my fiancée and I looked at for our wedding. The place is in Orange, in an area that was very old-​fashioned. The Banquet Center itself was big and could probably fit 200 indoors and 250 – 300 indoors+outdoors.
The biggest attraction to this place was the affordability. They provide everything packages that include everything except a dress, personal flowers, and groomsmen Tux Rentals (groom’s was included). For our party of 200, our everything package quote came to just under $ 15 000 after tip/​tax. By far the most affordable place of the ones we looked at.
We looked at both the Chapman Chapel and the Ridgeview Center + Gardens, the two locations they offered for wedding sites. The Chapel was a very traditional chapel. Wooden benches, and an old polished wood structure. We decided it was a little too old-​fashioned for us.
The Ridgeview Banquet half was a pretty large facility. The biggest knock on this place was that the main banquet room was very narrow, but long. It wasn’t the perfect reception place, but we were okay with it. The Gardens was our only other option for the ceremony after deciding not to go with Chapman Chapel. The area is situated just about a 1 minute walk from the banquet facility, with a gazebo area behind a very nice wall of trees that provide ample shading. The only problem with the gardens was that the aisle was very short, probably about 10 feet or so. This was a deal-​breaker for us, as we envisioned a nice, long walk down the aisle.
Ultimately, this place was in our top choices, but we ended up going with a different location. If you are looking for affordable weddings, I would recommend taking a look at this place. Make sure you are okay with the location, as this place will probably be one of the more affordable choices available in the OC area.