Notes on the light
Westlake Village Inn sits close enough to the 101 for guests to find easily, but the grounds themselves read as a countryside estate rather than a hotel property. Mature oaks, open lawns, and fence lines run through the property in a way that gives a film texture without needing much dressing at all.
The spaces, and how they film
The Oak Lawn. Old oaks provide natural shade and a strong vertical element for portraits, with a white fence line running behind that reads beautifully in the frame without any added structure.
The Ceremony Garden. A greenery arch sits against the open lawn, simple and unfussy, which lets the property's own texture, the trees and the grass and the light, carry most of the visual weight.
The film, so far
We have made one film here so far: Alexis & Lindsay, a quiet forehead-to-forehead moment under an oak before a ceremony that leaned fully into the property’s countryside feel.
Filming here
Because the grounds read as rural rather than hotel-manicured, we shoot portraits here the way we would at a private estate, working the fence lines and oak shade rather than looking for a resort backdrop. It is one of the more understated properties we film, in a good way.
More venues we know
See every venue we have filmed, and our notes on filming across Los Angeles.
Planning notes, and a choice of gardens
Checked July 2026
The Inn gives you several separate ceremony gardens on one property, which is rarer than it sounds. It also means the site visit matters more here than usual, because the gardens do not photograph alike.
- The property
- Around fourteen thousand square feet of event space, handling groups to roughly two hundred and fifty.
- Provence Reception Room
- Two thousand eight hundred square feet, quoted for around two hundred and thirty guests. The main reception space.
- Lakeside Reception Room
- Up to one hundred and forty, the smaller of the two rooms.
- Ceremony gardens
- Several to choose between, including the Mediterraneo gazebo beside the lake, the Tuscan Garden and the Lakeside Arbor. Walk all of them before choosing, because they face different directions and that decides your ceremony time.
- The ballroom
- Bi level, under six chandeliers. Worth knowing it is on two levels when you plan a room entrance or a first dance.
- Cost and hours
- Neither is published. The Inn quotes by date, guest count and which spaces you use, and no public figure would be meaningful. Ask about the outdoor music cutoff separately, since every ceremony option here is outside.
- What a choice of gardens changes
- Three ceremony sites facing three different ways means the right start time is different for each. A garden facing west needs a later ceremony so the sun is behind us rather than behind you; one facing east can go earlier and stay soft. We pick the site and the hour together rather than choosing the prettiest garden and then discovering it faces the sun at four o’clock in July.
Event space, room capacities and the named ceremony gardens as published by Westlake Village Inn and its marketplace listings, read July 2026. The Inn publishes no pricing or end time and none is estimated here. Confirm spaces, cost and your cutoff with their events team.
