The Castaway Burbank

received confirmation, so I had to follow up. Got confirmation back immediately. We arrived a bit early to meet Arianna. We waited over 25 minutes for her to give us a tour. She apologized that someone unexpectedly stopped by and delayed her. Things happen but making someone wait for 25 minutes is truly rude. She immediately took us to the smallest most basic room which has "impressive" views of a parking lot and service mountain road. It seemed like she wanted to end the tour there, I had to ask her about the other locations for receptions and ceremonies, she informed us we couldn't tour one location because it was locked but we could look at the "virtual tour" online. I am a visual person, I wouldn't have booked an in person tour, if a "virtual tour" was sufficient. I could go on, but overall I am disappointed. I had high hopes that Castaway was the perfect location for us, but it either seemed liked Arianna just saw us and decided we weren't worth her time, or she plain and simple doesn't care about her job. Either way, not the type of person I want in charge of my wedding day. Rude and poor communication all around.

e hill to the Mountain View ballroom for the reception. The rehearsal went smoothly, the day-of was fantastic, and it was such a beautiful place to have a wedding! Our guests couldn’t stop talking about how great the food was, too! Thank you Castaway - we look forward to celebrating many anniversaries with you!

y came through for us with exactly what we wanted. She was super accommodating and would respond to e-mails at any time of day or night. She was perfect. The reason why we can't give 5 stars is because of two things. First, a month before the date of our wedding, the gazebo where our ceremony was going to be was hit by a storm, so instead of repairing it to how it originally looked, the venue decided to tear it down and rebuild it with a hideous looking gazebo from a park or someone's backyard. After it was rebuilt, they sent photos to us and tell us that's how its going to be and there's nothing we can do. If we had seen how it was going to look, we wouldn't have booked The Castaway at all. Second, our event was allowed to set-up at 2:30 pm, but upon arrival, there was a bridal show event which was still using our reception room. It was a miscommunication on their part, but totally ruined our set-up and early photos. The room where the bride was supposed to use for changing and doing make-up, was filled with equipment and the bridal party had to use the shared restroom to get ready.

place to host your wedding. In short, the Castaway ruined my wedding ceremony. In detail, they double booked two outdoor ceremonies causing someone else's event music and talking to come blaring out of their speakers as my husband read to me his vows. It was embarrassing and heartbreaking. We had ordered gazebo lights through their own vendor and the lights were not even finished being placed up when my guests started to arrive. Their staff seemed incompetent to work a wedding (mind you i only had around 60 guests). Salads were served with no dressing and when the dressing was brought out (20 minutes after everyone is staring at their dry salad) a waitress dumped salad dressing all over my maid of honors designer dress. The linens placed on our cocktail tables were not the ones I chose during the planning process. We were assured nobody else would intrude on our outdoor event and we had multiple people walking in and out of our reception taking photos with my floral arrangements and even a drunk party crasher. All these things I should not have had to worry about as a bride on her wedding day and The Castaway let us down. The Castaway did not seem the slightest bit sorry and only offered me a dinner or gift card to "fix" the problem. After spending thousands of dollars here and to be slapped in the face with a gift card? They've ruined my ceremony and added on to my stress during my reception. I can't even stomach to come back and have a dinner here with my husband. AVOID HAVING YOUR WEDDING HERE AT ALL COSTS!!! Do you research because their have been many atrocious reviews of how this venue handles weddings and if they mess up, oh well. In their own words they told me "Our company does not offer refunds."

ience has been downhill from there. For months I have tried contacting them about moving forward and I am constantly getting told they will contact me in two weeks. Last week I called to speak to the GM and I was told he would call me right back after investigating I still haven't heard back. Worst customer experience ever and the assistant manager Michelle made me feel as though my wedding day wasn't a priority. Just thought I would warn future brides. So glad I did not put a deposit down yet. he investigated thi

we found out over 1.5 weeks ago. This place is terrible and unprofessional. The Story: My finance and I decided to book our wedding at Castaway last October as this place was at our price point and all-inclusive, which was what we wanted as I live in the Bay Area and my fiance lives in Seattle. I had gone to Castaway a few times as a child for brunch with my parents and had a nice memory of the place, so we did not hesitate much to book the venue. Things were going great - we found all our vendors, did the tastings, and had everything pretty much done. We even sent out custom-made invitations that we splurged on. I got a call on June 12, 2017 (just 2.5 months before the big day in the beginning of September) that our wedding was cancelled due to renovations. They told me that they would refund the money back and also advised us to check out their sister venue. We visited and did not like that venue; more importantly, we lost our trust in the restaurant company and asked for our money back. It has been almost a week and we have tried calling multiple times and sending letters. My fiance and I are devastated that this happened to us, but what makes the situation infinitely worse is how Castaway is handling it. How are we going to put down a deposit on our new venue (which we just found after a week of stressful searching and sleepless nights) when we know Castaway is holding on to our money? In addition, we have to find new vendors, send out new invitations, hire a wedding planner, and make several more trips down to LA to re-plan our wedding. This event has affected my performance at my job as a physician and my fiance's very demanding job at a busy tech company. I still can't believe this is happening. Thanks, Castaway, for a wedding dream come true.

vation. If they were planning a renovation, why in the world would they book events during that time?! They knew they had to cancel the event. A $10mil renovation will not be planned over night so they knew what they were doing to many couple & families who not only trusted them but also paid them to make their dreams come true. A wedding is a very special day shared by many & the fact that they had absolutely no consideration for our stress, frustration, etc just shows what an unethical, unprofessional business The Castaway is, to say the least. Can't write what i really think about them on here but the fact that there was a signed contract & this facility did not honor their part & purposely lied to their customers knowing they would not fulfill their services, should be a big WARNING to those considering their events at this place. A wedding comes with stress & we know not everything goes as planned, but this is a premeditated way to screw families who do not need extra stress & should not go through anything like this.

with Susana Montes to take a tour to view their venue. We told her what day we wanted to get married and it didn't take her long to let us know that it was open. It took a week for us to decide that we wanted to hold our wedding reception at the castaway. We emailed her April 1st to let her know that we wanted to book our wedding reception here. She sent the contract and payment form and we sent them right over. A day after sending the contract Susana called to notify us that there was a problem with their system and that she didn't see that there was another event being held on the day we wanted and asked us if we could move our day. We were in total shock. Mind you, we already booked our wedding ceremony and we weren't going to change the day we wanted to get married because of her mistake. We asked if there was any thing that they could do for us, but she did not do anything. She was trying to convince us to change our day and told us that she would give us discounts if we were to move our day. She even tried to make it seem like she was doing us a favor by offering us deals and telling us that she didn't usually offer her customers. At this point we asked to speak to upper management. It took 4 days for someone to call us and tell us the same thing. No one bothered to help us. We were devastated. My fiancé and I decided that since they weren't going to help our situation. We asked Susana to put our money back into our account and she said that it would be back by the end of the day. It's been a full week since we asked her. My fiancé has called multiple times and left multiple messages. Until now we have not gotten our money back into our account and we still have not gotten a call back.

for all the bad: When we first chose them, the person helping us was very nice. Then he became short and rude. My wife was so mad, she didn't want to speak to the planner anymore. A couple months later, A new planner contacts us and lets us know he left. We met with the new planner and he seemed awesome. He even threw in some stuff for free. All the time he assured us, we do this multiple times a weekend we will do a great job. All I can say is empty promises. A week before the wedding we met with them and finalized everything. They gave us very detailed records and a spreadsheet showing what time everything was supposed to happen and and how we wanted things. The day of the wedding we were up there doing photo's before hand. It got close to our wedding time. Nothing was set up, and another wedding was still hanging out where our wedding was taking place. They had assured us that they would have them out on time. Some of my guests were arriving, and had no where to sit or relax. First our MOH went and asked when the would set up our chairs for the ceremony. They said around 3pm. At 3:15 when guests started arriving for a 4pm wedding not hing was set up. My brother in law went and asked what was going on? They said we have your wedding at 4:30. He knows I'm punctual and very detail orientated and corrected the vendor and told them it was 4pm. When my brother corrected him, he got rude and said "no it's 4:30 want to see the contract, which he smiled and said please show it to me" He goes in the office to get my contract and goes "oh shit" yup they messed up my time. Then they put the chairs in a shape we didn't want, even though we sent them a picture of how we wanted it. Then we asked when are you kicking out the other wedding they were supposed to be out at 4pm, and I was paying people to wait for them to clear out so to set up my wedding. The said, oh sorry. Wow, we hadn't even said our vows and they already had 2 strikes! We had asked numerous times for a place for me and the bride to relax before our vows so we didn't have to see guests before the big moment. He had told us, if we couldn't relax in our foyer, we could go in the office. Well since they let another wedding go late, we couldn't go in the foyer since they were cleaning. So we tried to go in their office, only to not find our planner anywhere, and the rest of the staff saying we were not allowed in there. Again more lies. My wife got to hide in the bathroom; just how she wanted to before her big day! note the sarcasm. Then we had the wedding and that was beautiful. Now remember how I said they give you a diagram of how your wedding will be. We showed where we wanted tables, heaters since it was a January wedding, etc..... Coctail hour started and most my guests had to hide inside due to the cold. My groomsmen had to move the heaters and light them. After 30 minutes they stopped serving drinks, even though I paid for an hour. We asked for the fireplaces to be lit outside and an ashtray, they forgot that. They didn't bring champage until people started the toasts, even though they had a time written on their worksheet &the DJ annouced time for a toast. I could keep going but I'm out of space to type. Basically they fail in all they deliver. Go somewhere else. Empty promises all around.

prompt in answering any of our questions. The venue is STUNNING and very reasonably priced considering everything you're getting. We held our ceremony at the gazebo and the reception outside in the courtyard behind the gazebo area. 90% of our guests were from out of town and couldn't stop talking about how gorgeous everything was. I absolutely can't wait to see pictures!

Pierre was extremely helpful throughout the whole planning process. On the day of the wedding the staff was professional, kind and very helpful. I would recommend anyone to this venue.

was very unorganized and we didn't even get some of the things we paid for. Make sure that you get a coordinator and you are confident in them right away!

website, but didn't see any information on the gardens. We emailed the office and confirmed that they did exist and scheduled a tour. The instant we saw the venue we knew it was where we wanted to get married. The Luau Gardens are a secret little Burbank oasis that is private and tucked away behind the golf course. The food was amazing too (many guests claimed it was the best wedding food they ever had). Some negatives about it... A day of coordinator is promised in your contract, but leaves after the grand entrance and isn't available to setup anything, no matter how small. The coordinator is there to help direct vendors, but ours was helping with other events that were up the hill so she wasn't fully dedicated to us. Luckily we hired our own separate day of coordinator (which I highly recommended if you book at The Castaway even though they advise against it). My mom was insistent that we start on time and even told The Castaway coordinator this at the Rehersal Dinner, and even though all the guests were seated, the ladies were ready to go, and the gentlemen were lined-up, we weren't able to start until about 20 minutes late because the drink truck arrived at the time our wedding was supposed to start and blocked the doors we were supposed to walk through. The Luau Gardens are supposed to have 2 bars opened for events, but for some reason they only opened one at our wedding. We also had 3 different points of contacts throughout the year and a half of planning who all told us slightly different things, but were very pleasant to work with. All in all, it's a great location with very flexible rules, but you have to be organized and extremely proactive because they have so many events at The Castaway every week that they don't have much time to devote to you before or during your wedding.

r gave you the most for your money. The packages included many of the things you would need for your wedding reception (like appetizers, bar, wedding cake, etc.). We were even able to throw in a couple extras because all the money we had wasn't spent just on the main package. The room looked more gorgeous on our wedding day than we ever expected, and we got compliments from our wedding guests on how good the serving staff was. There were just very minor items here and there we had to make sure they fixed/got right, but nothing serious. Also, their preferred vendor list is horrible. However, none of this is reason not to have your event here. It is overall a great way to go! Our guests keep telling us what a great time they had.

re in the main restaurant area in the private Lagoon room and the ceremony was on the patio. The patio was lovely for the smaller group, I did notice in my video that there are a couple of shots where you can see waitstaff on the other side setting up. I think, though, if we had used a "paid professional" videographer instead of a friend they might have been more willing to tell the restaurant staff to move. The planning process was a little rough at first. Steve was quite flakey (as has been mentioned in other reviews), missing meetings and not returning phone calls. But he retired and Laura took over, straightened everything out, and is a very talented event coordinator.

ng about having our special day at this location. The food was great, the drinks were incredible, and the view was amazing. The people we dealt with were very helpful and friendly leading up to the day as well as the day of. We chose the top of the line package and truly feel we got a great deal. I would definitely recommend the Castaway for any special occasion

ember 2012 on our venue scouting trip. We went to Sportsman lounge, Odyssey, Shanghai Reds, Orange Hill, but nothing could beat Castaway. The wedding packages they offered were right in our budget. Danielle (on site coordinator) was flexible, personable, and very easy to work with. She was timely with e-mails, phone calls, on site meetings, worked well with our wedding coordinators (The Double Knot,) coordinated the food tasting event, answered calls from family members and the countless other little things she made accommodations for. Danielle really made our decision easy with Castaway. The Wedding day came and went in a flash, but the ceremony and reception went flawless in our eyes. The food and service during the night was great. We had a choice of 5 appetizers, 3 Entrees (Filet Minion, Salmon, and Mushroom Ravioli), 2 hour open bar and cake. Not a complaint in the room. Castaway has a view of LA and Burbank unlike any place else that helped to seal the deal. It was a picture perfect wedding day. I highly recommend Castaway to any bride and groom. Thank you Danielle and Castaway.

ing was so beautiful. It was a dream come true!

view!

ay enough good things about it. The venue is just beautiful, and everyone at The Castaway was beyond helpful, made suggestions, helped in anyway they could, and was there every step of the way. We couldn't have been more happy with the outcome. Would highly recommend.

Coast for our wedding and they were blown away with the gorgeous view and the room set up. We had Lauren P. as our coordinator and she worked so hard to help us get all the little details. This was the first time either one of us had planned a wedding (no experience even helping out friends) and she walked us through everything. We went with Castaway's vendor for swag lighting on top... between the lighting inside and the beautiful city view outside, nothing could keep the night from being perfect. The food was very good and the staff was incredibly friendly. Definitely recommend this venue to any bride out there!

great time. Really beautiful place to have a wedding with a very reasonable price.

as exactly what we had requested. Very happy with them.

t place if you are looking to have your ceremony and reception at one location - but for a venue that specializes in events, they were not exactly helpful during the planning process and even unaccommodating at times. The information flow was poor, response time lagged, and there was just a generally low degree of service for the price we paid. Our package included the services of a Ceremony Coordinator, who did not have email, which made planning difficult and is frankly ridiculous in this day and age. The catering staff were the best though - we felt very taken care of during the reception, which was nice. The food was good. I would just say BEWARE of booking this venue!!!

I love Castaway!

wags! I wish the swags weren't so costly but I got married on a Friday to save some $$. The service was excellent. I highly recommend this venue if you're looking for an elegant, classy wedding with a beautiful view.

would be old and outdated, but with wall draping, uplighting and and amazing tables, it was beautiful. The service from Susie was outstanding. She was very helpful, caring and a ball of laughs! I was lucky to get Susie. I had originally called and worked with a man who cared more about a sale so I changed to Susie. She gave us everything we asked for, was very flexable and easy to work with. I can't say much for the others in the catering staff, but Susie was a blessing and just all around fun!!! 10 Stars for Susie! The food was also amazing. The pasta sauce had much to be desired so we brought our own in, but everything else was delicious, the presentation was dynamic. Susie and the catering staff was in one word...Amazing

setup for ceremony

ous place.

size (about 300 people). Our catering manager Steve was ok. He never remembered us every time we came in. We had to remind him, and he did not really keep on top of our file. Payments would be due or contracts needed to be signed and I would always have to contact him. In fairness though, he would return my phone calls pretty quickly and was very easy to work with. The venue itself was nice, not the most spectacular but was mediocre with a gorgeous view. As far as the food, it exceeded my expectations. We had chicken kiev & filet as our main entrees and we had quite a bit of compliments from the guests. Service was good, nobody complained! We had our own servers at our sweetheart table who even got us drinks from our open bar. They were very attentive to us, even for the cake cutting the captain walked us through what to do for the photographers. Only thing at the end of the night, they were trying to charge me an extra $500, but the captain didn't know why. He said the receipt said so, but he when we discussed further he said it would be ok and just call Steve on Monday morning to figure it out. But 10 min later, he came back and said he had gone to the office and figured it out and it was ok. I still don't know what to think about that, whether he was really nice or trying to be really sly. But overall we enjoyed our wedding reception & feel it was worth every penny.

o, bar area and restrooms. Susie made sure that all of our needs were met, up to and inluding the day of our wedding, from getting us special meals for grandparents to having my favorite flavored vodka at the bar. It was really because of Susie and the value of our package why we ended up choosing The Castaway. The food was delicious and the service was great for the most part. I just wish that there were more bartenders during the cocktail hour as the line got long. And I wish that we would have asked the bar to be in the main room as we only had 120 guests. When lots of people were at the bar, the main room felt a little empty. All in all, it was a fabulous evening and I would recommend The Castaway!

ll my aunt had to keep getting people to make the food and have stuff ready they wernt there for the rehearsle the forgot persay and the were not on top of things at all

ception and my guests were complaining.

all that we got which included a four hour open bar.;We were lucky that there was no one using the room during the day otherwise we would only have had two hours to set up which would have been really tight. It is probably good to get a DOC or wedding planner if you have a lot of stuff to set up.

as a perfect day.