Getting geared up for the biggest day of your life? Luxurious nuptials are the standard in Newport Beach, where personalized service combines with breathtaking ocean views and spectacular and varied venues to create the ideal coastal locale for planning and hosting a wedding celebration.
The area also rings in as the perfect spot for all of those special wedding-related events, from pre-night dinners to showers and much more. Think treating your guests and bridal party (along with you and your spouse-to-be, of course) to a day of activities including surfing, kayaking and hiking, or try taking advantage of the area’s numerous fine-dining establishments, shops and relaxing spas.
And don’t forget the most important part of all, the venue! Whether you’re considering a casual and intimate beach affair, an over-the-top ceremony on a spellbinding yacht or a service at one of Newport Beach’s hotels or other plentiful attractions, plenty of options await to suit every taste.
Here, just some of the many potential sites to choose from if you’re considering orchestrating your destination wedding in Newport Beach. For a complete listing, check out here to view the Newport Beach Wedding Guide.
Haute Hotels
From relaxing and letting the experts take care of the details to adding special custom touches, Newport Beach’s top hotels and boutique inns offer some of the finest personalized service to be found.
Fairmont Newport Beach
At the Fairmont Newport Beach, Executive Chef Brian Doherty serves up local, fresh and farm-to-table menus in a plethora of unique venues including the secluded Garden Gazebo (for ceremonies of up to 225), signature Bamboo Garden, boasting a lovely outdoor patio with a fountain (and home to prestigious events from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Man and Woman of the Year to the American Liver Foundation’s Flavors of Orange County dinner), and the Palms Pool and Cabanas (for a one-of-a-kind reception venue under the sun or stars). You can even buy out the main dining room, Citrus, which boasts four-story ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows.
The Resort at Pelican Hill allows only one wedding at a time in its private Wedding Estate with its Bridal Suite, ocean-view Mar Vista Ballroom and iconic Rotunda Wedding Lawn. So, couples enjoy heightened exclusivity and attention on their special day. Every wedding couple also receives a complimentary wedding night accommodation in one of the resort’s bungalows or villas. Resort chefs customize wedding menus with traditional cultural cuisine, including incorporating family recipes upon request. The Spa at Pelican Hill even offers luxurious pre-wedding celebration and wedding day pampering packages designed to make everyone in the wedding party look and feel their best. A special touch? The resort recently added a wedding etiquette program open to brides and grooms, as well as their families and wedding parties.
“Newport Beach offers year-round sunshine and a gorgeous coastal setting, so every day is a wedding day at The Resort at Pelican Hill,” says Fernanda Jaime, the resort’s director of weddings and social events. “Couples choose Pelican Hill not only for the beautiful ocean-view location, but also for our five-star service and the Wedding Estate’s exclusivity. With just one wedding at a time, every Pelican Hill bride and groom feels that the day is theirs alone. ”
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Photo courtesy of Island Hotel Newport Beach
At Balboa Bay Resort, the waterfront Bay View and Commodore rooms offer stunning panoramic views of the Balboa Bay, luxurious yachts and amazing sunsets—perfect for hosting Newport Beach weddings for 80 to 150 guests. The resort’s Grand Ballroom also can hold 500. Yet other picturesque spots include the Newport Beach Marriott Bayview and the Island Hotel Newport Beach. The Marriott Bayview’s outdoor terrace overlooking the Newport Beach Back Bay Preserve is the ideal spot to capture every second of your wedding, while the Island Hotel just debuted a new coastal-inspired design, coupled with newly installed technology and curated personalized services. After the recent 18-month transformation, it now boasts Newport Beach’s largest ballroom (with seating for up to 600 guests), a newly redesigned Cabana Room (which brings the outdoors in with glass panels opening to a private, heated terrace allowing an airy space for an indoor-outdoor ceremony), and the Balboa Room (offering plush sofas, a wall-mounted television, private restrooms and a convenient storage pantry. For alfresco weddings, a lush garden features a newly covered and heated terrace for year-round celebrations). The highly professional staff also caters to the bride’s every need—from custom floral arrangements and musical accompaniment to pre- and post-activities for guests to the customized creative, contemporary menus of Executive Chef David Man.
Hyatt Regency Newport Beach
The Hyatt Regency Newport Beach is committed to making your fairy tale come true and setting the stage for your perfect “Happily Ever After” in one of its many venues, whether that’s an intimate cozy affair for 100 guests in the Garden Room complete with French doors and a fireplace, or a grand alfresco celebration in the Back Bay Amphitheater fitting for a thousand family members and friends all with a panoramic view of the bay. Your assigned wedding specialist will make sure everything is unique and tailored to your liking, from the linens to chef-inspired dining selection. Have a cultural ceremony you need to plan? Their wedding specialists will delight in planning everything to do your culture justice with each detail, flavor, family recipe, and style. Also boasting a nine-hole golf course and exclusive room block rates for your party, the Hyatt Regency offers fun activities for all to truly make your special day a dreamy, cherished memory to last a lifetime.
In addition to the Radisson Hotel Newport Beach priding itself in being cost-effective, the hotel’s friendly relaxed atmosphere is sure to only add to the blissful moments shared in its magnificent Pacific Ballroom or, if you’re dreams are captivated by an enchanting alfresco affair, in its splendid lush gardens. The Radisson comes full circle with service, providing small personal touches that will be the icing on your wedding cake such as a farewell brunch, a bride and groom’s changing room, bundled wedding packages, and elegant honeymoon suites.
Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa
With most of its guest rooms sporting ocean and golf course views and its central location near fine shopping for guests, the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa embodies the perfect coastal chic elements for your important celebration. Marriott Certified Wedding Planners will be there with you each step of the way and will make your vision come alive in their execution of detail – they’re even practiced in ethnic and military weddings! Personalization is a priority at the Marriott, and they will happily accommodate outside catering for religious and ethnic weddings. Treat you and your hubby-to-be to a time of relaxation and a couple’s massage in private cabanas at the Marriott renown spa before dancing the night away in the largest ballroom space in the city. With its central location, expansive greens, ocean views, and friendly trained staff, the Marriott will personalize your day until it becomes just what you pictured it, and after your massage, perhaps even better.
Hornblower Cruises and Events
Unique Venues
Always dreamed of getting hitched aboard a spectacular yacht at sea? No problem. Hornblower Cruises and Events has you covered. There is a range of options to fit every budget—all held on a vessel afloat in the simmering sea under the shimmering sun or a canopy of stars. Weddings range from a small brunch or dinner ceremony for up to 30 guests aboard a regularly scheduled cruise to the entirely customized Uniquely You Wedding, complete with professional events planners taking care of every detail from the decor to the menu to the cake. Hornblower also offers cruises for bachelor/bachelorette parties, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, post-wedding brunches and more.
Seeking to be surrounded by a botanical wonderland instead? Then head to Sherman Library and Gardens for foliage of all kinds—from spiny cacti to exotic tropical flowers. There’s an ideal background for both ceremonies and receptions, including the courtyards, tiled patios, greenhouse, arbor-shaded walks and fountains, and fern-covered waterfall accented with orchids.
Orange County Museum of Art
Not only does the Orange County Museum of Art offer an interesting space, but when an exhibition is on view, wedding guests also have private access to the museum’s modern and contemporary galleries during their special event. The museum offers both indoor and outdoor event spaces for parties ranging from 180 to 350, including The Orange Court (a large, lit area flanked by planters of up-lit bamboo) to The Pavilion (with a soaring 20-foot soaring, dramatic columns and large roll-up glass doors).
Newport Dunes Resort and Marina
Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort and Marina offers highly customizable weddings and pre-wedding functions in the quintessential coastal California setting. Encompassing eight unique indoor/outdoor waterfront venues, events can range from Lux Hamptons style beach weddings under the stars to a grand tented affair amid a dramatic waterfront backdrop. The resort’s culinary chefs also are on hand to create delectable dishes for your event, whether it be ceremonies and receptions or engagement parties, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners and day-after brunches.
One thing’s for sure, if you’re planning on tying the knot, Newport Beach is the place to say, “I Do!”
Written by Wendy Bowman. Wendy Bowman is a San Clemente, Calif. -based freelance journalist. She spent 15-plus years as a writer and editor for Atlanta Business Chronicle, covering nonprofit business, homes and lifestyles, the Atlanta visitors market and more. She currently writes for Riviera Orange County, Interiors California, Interiors Atlanta and The Atlantan magazines, as well as websites including womenetics.
