The Kellogg House gave me the most beautiful wedding ever, combined with the worst coordinating team I could ever ask for.The beauty of the Kellogg house shinning at night under the twinkle lights can only be rivaled by their terrible customer service. I could not for the life of me get ahold of anyone. If I could attach every email I sent--I would. When I say no one responded--NO ONE responded. It took me emailing the conference hotel center for me to finally get forwarded to Christina. The first thing she did was be condescending to me and make remarks about how 'obviously it wasn't hard to get ahold of someone if I am speaking to her.Almost every time we would speak, she would complain and rant about how her father didn't help with her wedding at all and how I have it so easy that my father is helping me.My coordinator, fiancé And I toured the venue a couple weeks before the wedding and we toured the entire backyard in the dark because she Didn't want to go all the way into the basement and turn on the lights.She also argued with me about the start time of my wedding, when I have it in writing what I said. She would argue with me about EVERYTHING. She even tried to short us on our 1 hour and 30 minute dinner time and I called her out for it.She also gave me attitude about my rehearsal. My rehearsal had been planned for months. So then she acts like it hasn’t already been set for months?? so I told her that the obvious that it was set for Thursday months ago so I wasn't changing it. And in response to that was, Good because it's my birthday Friday and then she later continued to complain about how I last minute I changed my rehearsalThe week of my wedding was the most stressful week of my life thanks to Christina Godoy. The weather said no rain. Christina called me saying that she was reading something saying it was going to POUR? They don't tell you that they will force you into canceling your wedding or coughing up more money. I told her I didn't want any of the options because literally everything said it would be sunny. She then proceeded to tell me that if I did not pay for a tent she would cancel our wedding because it would be a destruction of property to move forward with the wedding because we are ruining all their stuff by getting them wet... How does that make sense? All of the forecasts said Sunny and she was threatening me to cancel the wedding ( it didn't rain.) So we decided to do ONE tent… but why was okay? What happened to destruction of property and not getting their items wet? Or did it only apply half of their items??I then talked to the lighting guy and he told me a ton of stories about all the weddings he did at Kellogg where it spontaneously starting raining during the weddings. Now I ask you Kellogg house, when it spontaneously rained during those weddings, did you charge the couples for a destruction of property? Or did your property not matter then because it was too late to shell out the money from them!DAY OF MY WEDDING: The day of coordinator was arguing with me when to start MY wedding. Despite the fact I was telling her that I wasn't ready yet. SHE was arguing with me. She even went so far as to, when I told her I had one more shot (a first look with my dad) SHE WENT AND GOT MY DAD AND BROUGHT HIM IN and almost ruined my first look because it wasn't on HER schedule.And lastly, when we were all in the tent the lights I paid for ALL went out. (even when they were on a lot were out but that's not what I am talking about) My coordinator went up to her and asked her why they went out and she literally shrugged and said she didn't know. She was not going to do anything about it! The lights had been off inside the tent for 10 minutes! It took my coordinator going off on her for her to finally call the tent guy and get him to come out and fix them!Moral of the story--Kellogg house is beautiful but make sure you go with whatever they say because if you don't they will do whatever they want anyways or they might just cancel your wedding for the hell of it.

I visited during the Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day when Kellogg House (and the nearby Howe-Waffle House) were open the same hours. Although I looked on the website, I didn't see anywhere to get tickets. When I arrived, they told me they were sold out, but there were very few people around. Fortunately, they were able to fit me in within 5 minutes on a tour that wasn't full (and the docent said that there was no one scheduled for the next tour--strange). Tours that day were every 15 minutes and the docent provided no background information on the Kellogg family or the house, said a sentence or two in each room, and then urged us along. So I recommend visiting on a normal day with regular hours. I took pictures of the rooms and explanatory plaques, asked for a brochure, and got the background information that way. The grounds have other buildings, including a blacksmith area, but it is set up more for school groups than those seeking detailed history of the house.

Went for a wonderful tea at a beautiful venue. Great little museum. Old home set up for seeing how life was in the early days of Santa Ana. Wonderful venue for special events.

The docent, who spent quite a bit of time with me (it was not busy at all) made what could have been a ho hum visit much more intreresting. At its heart, this is a ramble around an (upper) middle class home furnished for 1890 or so. House design is unique in a number of ways, and you are completely free to roam. However, the second house on this property is not open, and the other attractions can be dispensed with in 7 minutes - it's the Kellogg you see. Initially the docent was not present, and I was given the option to walk through and perhaps he would be back. Eventually he was, and trained in the field too - not just a rehearsed patter. We wandered way off the immediate subject into architechture, social history, preservation and more. Still, you might not be so lucky - the lady manning the door and who initially offered to show me around would have brought this to a '2' and a drive by, so fingers crossed for your visit.

I had no idea this whole area was in Santa Ana. I had seen the day before a short piece in the paper about a lecture on surfing in Orange County to be given at 3 PM. Sounded interesting, so we went. This home is really 3 stories tall. And includes a sailing ship mast as the main support to the spiral staircase. The third floor was for children and nannies. Lower ceilings up there. It was the home of a man of wealth, some luxury furnishings for the time, we consider them necessary today. If you want to take a trip back in time, this is a wonderful place for you.