Whatever Your Wedding Style – Palm Springs Says “Yes!”

Palm Springs Unique Wedding Venues

 By Barbara Beckley

It’s Your Day, and you want a setting that’s uniquely you. Look to Palm Springs. More than a glamorous resort, Palm Springs offers a dazzling collection of extraordinary venues. From Bohemian sophistication and Cowboy chic to Mountain Wow! Jet Setter to sweeping lawns and fairytale romance, Palm Springs is the icing on your wedding cake. We even have a wedding chapel for spur-of-the-moment elopements and small, informal ceremonies.

Venues With Character

Korakia Pensione

Fancy a Moroccan scenario?  You don’t need to fly to Marrakech. Designed in the 1930s by an eccentric artist to resemble his beloved North Africa, Korakia Pensione is a favorite photo backdrop for Vogue, Elle, and Marie-Claire fashion magazines and unforgettable weddings.

Dramatic carved doors, candle-lit walkways, pools, fountains, antique-filled villas, and jasmine-scented air make your wedding a wedding that will live forever. Share your special moment with up to 130 guests in the lush Courtyard and Library or on the Moroccan Pool Deck and adjoining courtyard; up to 80 for cocktails or 65 for a sit-down dinner in the Front Courtyard.

Its outside Mediterranean Event space dazzles up to 150 guests for receptions or 130 seated, with a pool, three fireplaces, and a 400-square-foot platform perfect for dancing. Its 28 Mediterranean- and Moroccan-style bungalows, guesthouses, and villas welcome your overnight guests. Use the Orchard House for an intimate after-party for up to 25 seated or 30 for cocktails. And the Naish House is a groomsmen’s hub for up to 20 for cocktails or 12 seated.

Sparrows Lodge

Are you thinking Cowboy? Sparrows Lodge is over-the-top, popular with a barn-like rustic chic vibe. Built in the 1950s by a cowboy movie star and creatively restored in 2013, it wows up to 100 guests. Say your vows and welcome your guests to dinner around the large rectangular pool, with mid-century-meets-country-western architecture, blue sky, and swaying palms as your backdrop. Dinner is catered by The Barn Kitchen, the Sparrows’ noted restaurant. It has 20 fab rooms, some with genuine horse troughs as bathtubs – trust us, they’re cool.

Colony Palms Hotel and Bungalows

Once a real life Prohibition speakeasy, the newly redone Colony Palms Hotel and Bungalows hints of Spain with red tile, chic whimsy, photo-worthy balconies and 56 cottages, suites and rooms surrounded by lawns and the picturesque main pool for weddings of up 200 guests. Catering is by its onsite restaurant, The Colony Club.

Copley’s on Palm Canyon

Romance is paramount at Copley’s on Palm Canyon, one of the desert’s finest restaurants and most sought-after event venues. Beautiful flagstone patios, fountains, fire-pits, and stylish interiors framed by mountain views make the former estate of movie A-lister Cary Grant a wedding fairytale come true. A customized menu by acclaimed Chef-owner Andrew Copley and event details orchestrated by Co-owner Juliana Copley, a veteran event planner, ensure success. Inside accommodates 20 to 55 guests. The patio welcomes up to 150. Buy out the entire restaurant, and your guest list soars to 200.

Better Than Vegas

The Palm Springs Wedding Chapel

You’re in love with each other – not the fuss of planning. The Palm Springs Wedding Chapel is your go-to for micro, same-day, and even drive-up (in your vehicle) weddings and elopements. The chapel is the only authorized essential wedding service in the Coachella Valley. Fully licensed, it can issue legal marriage licenses and has licensed wedding officiants specializing in non-denominational, non-discriminating wedding services. It’s also picturesque, with a floral archway backed by the San Jacinto Mountains and a beautiful indoor-outdoor patio for up to 20 guests.

Endless Vistas For Endless Love 

Escena Golf Course

 Your vows are backed by sweeping views across the Escena Golf Course, the Palm Springs low-rise cityscape, and the San Jacinto Mountains jutting into the blue sky. One word – monumental. A fitting beginning of your future together at the Escena Golf Club’s Escena Lounge & Grill. Choose from a variety of indoor and outdoor at this Palm Springs wedding venue.  View-filled spaces for up to 40 guests include the combined Private Dining Room and Event Patio. Plus, onsite event coordination and a customized menu by the culinary team.

Palm Springs O’Donnell Club House

Hidden at the mountain’s base, yet in the heart of town, the historic Palm Springs O’Donnell Club House at the O’ Donnell Golf Club (Palm Springs’ first) is an “insider’s” favorite for wedding memories to last a lifetime. Choose outdoors beneath twinkly lights in the trees and white linen-clothed tables or inside the Mediterranean-style, French-doored dining rooms. Up to 125 guests seated or standing, onsite planners, and your choice of fine to casually elegant cuisine.

Indian Canyons Golf Resort

Love modernism? Mountain views, sweeping greens, lakes, fountains, palms, and 1962 mid-century clubhouses by master architect Donald Wexler let you have it all at the Indian Canyons Golf Resort. Originally a private golf course for Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and other stars exchange vows outside amid the gorgeous views. Then, enjoy dinner and dancing for up to 300 guests in the Wexler-designed North Clubhouse. Or a reception and dinner for up to 60 in the South Clubhouse. Event planners and the culinary team are at the ready.

Note: The water fountain was a gift from Walt Disney.

Smoke Tree Ranch

You don’t have to horseback ride, but if you do, Smoke Tree Ranch , hidden in Palm Springs’ foothills, is perfect. Encompassing 400 unspoiled desert acres, this quasi-private haven offers genteel hospitality (Walt Disney had a bungalow here) and impeccable service as you work with the chef and event planner to customize your Palm Springs wedding weekend from rehearsal dinner to games and activities for your guests. Sweeping lawns and vistas create memorable ceremonies, receptions, and dinners for up to 300. Rustic inside spaces host from 20 to 125 guests. And 49 cottages provide rustic luxury.

Tell the world, “We’re married!!”   Wed at a Palm Springs’ famed Attraction

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

Take your vows at the Top of the World two-and-a-half miles up the mountain to the alpine forests and incredible views atop San Jacinto Peak via the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Floor-to-ceiling windows add to picture-perfect receptions of up to 136 guests in the newly remodeled Francis Crocker Room. Peaks Restaurant – also newly renovated –with sweeping views of the Coachella Valley, is ideal for rehearsal dinners and gatherings of up to 80 guests. The all-new Lookout Lounge wows up to 40 of your besties with spectacular alpine and city views – ideal for bachelor and bachelorette parties. If you decide to hike the 50 miles of mountain trails, the Tram is happy to prepare box lunches. Weddings are scheduled from May through September.

The Palm Springs Air Museum

Perhaps you have an airplane connection. Or simply love the heroic vibe of big, brave warbirds. Take off on your biggest adventure at the world-acclaimed Palm Springs Air Museum. Whether your ceremony and dinner are for 50 or a reception for several thousand, choose from 86,000 square feet of space surrounded by flyable WWII, Korean, and Vietnam aircraft. Onsite planners will help with everything – including a theme. Maybe a USO show, a MASH (the TV series) Canteen, a moon-lite South Pacific night, or Black Tie.

PS Air

Love airplanes – and creativity – but your guest list is 50 or less. Well, Fly Me to the Moon!!! On PS Air. Palm Springs,’ and arguably the world’s first bar/restaurant inside a real plane. With genuine airplane seats (business and economy) inside a darkened 747 fuselage amid airline memorabilia and whimsy from the Pan Am heydays, it’s your ticket to unforgettable pre- and post-wedding parties and rehearsal cocktails.

Moorten Botanical Garden

Are you a garden aficionado? Celebrate your ceremony and reception amid the lush beauty of Moorten Botanical Garden, Palm Springs’ beloved privately-owned garden. Begun by movie star “Cactus Slim” Moorten, one of the original movie Keystone Cops, his son now welcomes weddings from 2 to 200 guests in the beautiful Palm Grove Oasis on the family estate from November 1 through May 31. Filled with thousands of desert plants, from delicate Palo Fierro to succulents and towering cacti from around the world,. on a single shady acre, it’s like being married inside your wedding bouquet.

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