Meet Holly Daluisio of Olivia’s Dollhouse Tea Room and Prestige Princess in Lomita

Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Daluisio.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I just retired from being a preschool teacher and director because I became ill.

About a year after I retired, Angela & Jeff who were the parents of 2 of my students called me and asked if I would be interested in managing the business they were buying. They both knew I was sick but promised that they would work around my illness and I would be able to do everything at my own pace.

I agreed to go see the business they wanted to buy. At this time in 2006 there was an
Olivia’s Dollhouse Tea Room in Tustin. As soon as I walked into Olivia’s I was sold. It was like walking into a fantasy world for little girls. Before I became a teacher, I was a theatre major who concentrated on children’s theatre so this was right up my alley! It was love at first sight!

This job turned out to be my dream job. Working with children in a fantasy fun setting was more than I could ask for.

Angela & Jeff kept their promise and have always worked through the ups and downs of my illness (I have an auto immune disorder). About 3 years ago is when we decided to add princess characters into our parties at Olivia’s. Parents would hire a princess from an outside company to come in for extra entertainment but I wasn’t very impressed with them. My 17-year-old at the time, daughter Rumor who had been acting and singing professionally since she was 8 years old, she also had a theatre background asked if we could buy some costumes and allow her to perform as a princess at Olivia’s. I took this idea to Angela & she said, “Go for it!” And gave me $5000 to buy costumes and wigs. I had met one outstanding princess performer Melissa Smith from an outside company who frequented our location several times a month as a princess. I asked her to please train my daughter Rumor and one of Rumor’s friends (Sara) who she met through theatre.

She agreed and then ended up working for us as well. We only started off with 4 characters and we only provided them for Olivia’s. Word got around that we had really good performers that could not only sing beautifully, act superbly but our costumes and wigs were precise and beautiful.

I was also a costumer when I did theatre so I had a lot of experience. People started requesting our princesses to come to their houses and other venues for parties. Well 3 years later and over 50 characters and 11 more actors added to our little company which we named Prestige Princess grew and we now service all of the South Bay, LA and Orange County!

Unfortunately when the owners of both Olivia’s & Prestige decided to divorce, they had to sell. At first, I was content to just buy Prestige Princess and agreed to work with who ever bought Olivia’s. After a lot of thought I decided I didn’t want Olivia’s to go to someone who didn’t love it as much as I did. I put 11 years of blood, sweat, tears and love into it. My husband agreed and we are now in the process of buying Olivia’s Dollhouse Tea Room and Prestige Princess!!! My husband and I met in college doing children’s musical theatre, Alice in Wonderland at LA Harbor College. He was the Mad Rapping Hatter and I The Dormouse.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It really has been a pretty smooth road along the way. Me being a preschool teacher for 16 years knew tons of families with children. Most of my staff at Olivia’s were former students of mine. My daughter being a sag actress and doing community theatre had a lot of connections to talented performers and my lead princess at the time Melissa had a ton of experience (she was a former princess for theme parks) and brought her expertise and other actors as well to the table.

My illness made it hard throughout the years, I was hospitalized about 6 times and went through a lot of experimental treatments that put me out of commission but Angela, my staff and actors have always supported me and picked up the slack whenever necessary.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Olivia’s Dollhouse Tea Room and Prestige Princess – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Olivia’s Dollhouse Tea Room specializes in private dress-up tea parties. We have over 400 costumes to choose from. Parties consist of a princess make-over. We polish their nails, do light make-up and restyle their hair. Before the sit down to eat, the children do a little fashion show on our princess stage in our parlor and then sit down at our large heart shape table to have their tea party.

You can also hire a singing princess or other character to come in for extra entertainment from Prestige Princess.

We also do events open to the public like Princess Story Time, Tea Times, Pajama Parties and now Princess Summer Camp!!!

I believe we are different from others because of the attention to detail and our complete dedication to customer satisfaction. I don’t put anything out there that I wouldn’t like for my children to experience. We also reach out to the community and donate to schools, churches and other non-profits.

I’m a perfectionist so our facility, costumes and supplies are always clean and up to date.

With children, it is very important to keep things clean and fresh. If you walk into Olivia’s today, 11 years since we opened for business you would never think we had literally thousands of parties there. It’s always clean and fresh thanks to my amazing staff. My 2 daughters who are now 18 and 21 both work for both companies.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are now working on expanding Prestige Princess to serve more cities and always adding more characters. We have also linked up to other party companies and event locations to be their contracted character company.

For Olivia’s we are adding more open events to let more people experience the magic and fantasy who might not be able to have their party with us. We are planning on having open play/ tea dates, Mommy/Daddy and me events etc.

We are constantly re-decorating and adding new items into Olivia’s to keep it fresh and fun.

Pricing:

• Olivia’s parties start at $265 and go up
• Character rental from Prestige Princess start at $165 for 1 hour
• Open events at Olivia’s are $15 to $50 depending on event
• Olivia’s Party $385 for 7 children
• Princess Tea Party for 8 $550 (includes character of your choice)
• Mini Princess Tea Party for 5 $450
• Tea For 4 $265
• Story Time $15
• Princess Tea Times and Pajama Parties $35
• Princess Summer Camp $50 per day

Contact Info:

• Address: 2051 Palos Verdes Drive North
  Lomita, CA 90717
• Website: www.olivias4tea.com | www.prestigeprincess.com
• Phone: Olivia’s 310-257-1199 | Prestige 310-832-9333
• Email: [email protected] | [email protected]
• Instagram: @olivias4tea | @prestigeprincesses

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.