Reviews
"I recently had a 50th Birthday party for my Husband at The Houdini Estate®….All I can say is that the place is magical and amazing! The grounds and gardens are spectacular. Lori Seyer was very informed and helpful and very attentive to all of our needs. Everything was exactly as planned and the party was a huge success! From the initial planning until the actual party everything was coordinated to detail.
Thank you Lori and your wonderful staff for a magical evening with our friends and family!"
— Cindy B., via Yelp
"The Houdini Mansion is beautiful. It’s HUGE and beautiful! My girlfriend rented the mansion for her birthday weekend. What a great idea!!!
I drove up the driveway…if you continue to drive past the house it leads you to the park area where you can park probably like 30 or more cars. It’s unbelievable.
The kitchen is beautiful, dining room is large, living room is very comfy, and there are lots of bedrooms. I mostly hung out in the back where my friends were DJ-ing and dancing. We were all very comfortable there. It was like someone’s rich and fancy new home. We just felt at ease. Of course later on I was reading how it’s supposedly haunted since Houdini’s wife would do seances to try to talk to her husband. I can’t remember if he haunts it or if his wife does but, oh well! It was a great time, very comfy, and lots of space. It was like a private club!
GOOD TIMES!"
— CJ J., via Yelp
"My husband and I rented The Houdini Estate® for our wedding… and it was absolutely fantastic!
We wanted to get married somewhere beautiful, but also fun and unusual…The photos of the place looked wonderful and the price was right. And…we feel in love with it! We could not have found a better place. The house itself is beautiful, but it was the expansive gardens that really sold it to me. There are many little paths throughout the gardens that give it a secret-garden type of feel. As you are walking through the gardens you come upon different flowers, many sculptures, a waterfall, little benches, etc.
We used one area of the gardens for the ceremony and dinner and another area of the gardens for appetizers and drinks. Then we had dancing and dessert up on the porch of the house and by the pool. It was fun to use so many different parts of the property throughout the event.
Since we did everything on site, we avoided transportation costs. They already had glass jars for flowers available. So, I bought flowers at Trader Joe’s the day before the wedding and made bouquets for all the tables. We didn’t decorate much or put too many bouquets together because there were already so many beautiful flowers growing all over the Estate. There is a kitchen there that our caterers were able to use…We had beautiful fires going in the fireplaces in the evening!
We really enjoyed staying here overnight and it simplified things on the wedding day! …We were also able to have our rehearsal dinner at the estate… And on the wedding day, our reception started to wind down around 8 pm, but since we were staying there overnight, close friends of ours stayed later into the evening. We kicked back in a more informal way and enjoyed each other’s company. It was a really warm, natural wind-down to the event that we never would have achieved in a venue with a set end time for the event.
Really, we couldn’t have been happier with how everything turned out!"
— Brooke T., via Yelp
"We love the place, Jose and his team. They are great. Jose is very eccentric which is why the property has some really wild decor like a couple of 2 million-year-old pieces of petrified wood, a waterfall, a beautiful well imported from France, a Mongolian yurt and the alien from the Alien movie."
— Alex S., via Yelp
"I spent a good 2 days at the Houdini Mansion.
I was shooting a music video there for a rock star…(night shoot).
Is the house beautiful? Yes, absolutely…The…grand staircase…is at the peak of the driveway, which is outdoors and goes all the way up the hill to an open grassy area.
I remember inside being more architectural, with unique placement of rooms and doorways. There are cool hand sculptures reaching out of some of the walls, which of course, adds to the fun vibe its reputation already has.
The MAZE of staircases in the garden between the house/driveway and lower yard…is *awesome*. Its a totally cool, erie place to get purposely lost in at night, just not in heels! (We filmed a cool chase scene in there!).
The land-lady/property manger was…helpful.
I could see it more for weddings than wild parties. Loved it though!
Oh, and we forgot a fake severed head in the upstairs kitchen fridge, apparently it gave the maintenance guys a good scare the next day :-p"
— Tara G., via Yelp
My husband and I visited the Houdini Estate when we were newly engaged in October 2019. A quick Google search of 'fantastic outdoor venues in Los Angeles' showed us hundreds of images of the Estate's stunning gardens, and we were instantly struck by the obvious magic of the site. We decided to book a tour -- we scheduled a couple venue visits back to back on a Saturday as we began to dip our toes in the wedding planning water.
Arriving at the Estate, we met Ella, one of the main coordinators at the venue. She was very kind, knowledgeable, patient with our unbridled excitement, and thrilled to show us the grounds on our personal tour. We fell in love with the atmosphere, the beauty of the gardens and its incredible variety of species, the daylight and fairy lights scattered throughout the site, and the charm and whimsy of the décor inside and around the guesthouse. Ella gave us the history of the Estate and its ties to legendary magician, Harry Houdini, and pointed out so many special features of the gardens, including the nearby hiking trails and secret passageways. Unreal -- it was truly magical. How could we look anywhere else? (We did, a few places, and they couldn't hold a candle! )
Alas, 2020 arrived and the whole world fell apart. Nothing went right through no fault of anyone's except the pandemic, and sadly, all of our plans for a 100-person incredible celebration with our family and friends dissolved. Unfortunately, we never got to have our dream wedding at the Houdini Estate, but we know that it would be an excellent venue for any special occasion. It ticks all of the right boxes: romance, magic, etherea, uniqueness. It's got it all!
-Ashley H., via Yelp
Lori was a great host and provided us with everything we needed to know about this jaw dropping, unbelievable location. Having stayed here with only one other person, getting lost in the vast gardens and finding all the hidden art left us in awe and we didn't want to leave. We spent an afternoon in the glassed "Monkey Room" with the walls retracted for maximum chill :) Restaurants and groceries in Westwood were just a short 6 minute Uber ride away, making it super convenient. Looking forward to staying here again!
-Wilfred, via Airbnb
Houdini Estate is one of the most unique venues in Los Angeles. As a wedding photographer, I noticed a lot of fun places for photos in the interior and exterior. It's an enchanting and mysterious setting and has a romantic ambience. I definitely recommend a visit if you're considering a unique space for your wedding or special occasion. - Heidi Garcia Photography, via Google
The Houdini Estate is truly magical (no pun intended). A one of a kind venue in the heart of the Hollywood Hills. The ground of the estate are gorgeous and truly blew our guests away. My wife and I had toured a few different venues before seeing Houdini and we were immediately blown away. It's huge and there's so much to explore and so many cool little nooks and crannies with sculpture, art pieces etc throughout.. The added bonuses of being able to stay on property and have our dogs with us (who were in the ceremony) made this place so perfect for us. It truly is breathtaking and I cannot think of a better place to have a wedding. We had so many people that told us afterward that it ruined all other weddings for them. I can't say enough good things about The Houdini Estate and Ella, who helped us along the way with our booking and made sure everything at the estate was perfect. Highly, highly recommend.
-Andrew J., via TheKnot
