What to know about selecting a Monterey/Carmel wedding venue

Venue: Holman Ranch | Photos: Carlie Statsky

Let’s dive into Monterey and Carmel wedding venues and their unique differentiations in booking considerations from other California wedding venues.

The gorgeous coastlines in Monterey and Carmel, south of San Francisco by about 120 miles, offer a beautiful natural landscape palette of muted blues, tans and whites, accented with green coastal trees to create a really romantic, intimate seaside wedding setting.  

Our Northern California beaches are not the sunny, palm tree lined beaches popularized in movies (those are Southern California!).  Northern California beaches are colder, breezier, and definitely foggier.  While some golden sand beaches can be found, it’s also not unusual to find rocky coastlines dotted with crooked Cypress trees as well.  

The weather is never really hot, although there are warmer days more often in the September and October months.  More than likely, the days will be in the 60’s, and if right on the coastline, with fog and a cool breeze too.  

The Monterey and Carmel communities are smaller, especially Carmel, and so some resources might not be as readily available and hotels might not have as many rooms available to reserve for your wedding group.  

The weekends bring in a lot of day-trippers and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row are huge draws, particularly during the high tourist and wedding season of May through October.   Book ahead and plan accordingly for traffic, crowds, and parking.  

La Playa Hotel in Carmel and the Intercontinental in Monterey are both seaside hotels that offer stunning ocean views from their gorgeous wedding reception spaces.
Both Holman Ranch and The Barns at Cooper Olera can offer a more casual, rustic, vibe. Plus, there is an eclectic array of architecture styles in Carmel along Scenic Drive, from fairytale cottages to modern mansions, all ready to be the backdrop from some amazing wedding photography.

Once you’ve narrowed down where you want to be married, be sure to read our Step By Step Guide to Picking the Perfect Wedding Venue  to help you focus and narrow down your wedding venue search.  It also includes an extremely helpful Venue Question Guide to bring along when you start touring wedding sites.  

Once you have your perfect wedding venue secured, you can start booking the rest of the wedding professionals you’ll need for a dream wedding.  How much time you have before your date will determine the timeframe for when you need to book whom.

For a good guide on what other wedding vendors to book and when to book them, just add your wedding date and location on Event Hollow and it will automatically recommend by date when each service should be booked.   

Key Considerations

High season: May-Oct.,  (most busy and requested dates)

Low season: Nov.-Feb

Things to keep in mind: Carmel is a small town and finding some services can be tricky. Being coastal towns Monterey and Carmel can be foggy year-round. The Monterey Bay Aquarium brings large numbers of tourists so make sure to book your room blocks early — particularly during the peak summer months June-September.

Trends for the area: Monterey and Carmel still capture that quiet, romantic, seaside vibe once you get away from the main drag in Monterey. Most of the venues offering ocean views are hotels. Check out La Playa in Carmel or the Incontental in Monterey. Holman Ranch captures a beautiful rustic Italian feel or The Barns at Cooper Molera.

Congrats and have fun planning!

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected] We’re always happy to help!





Expert Advice, VenuesJennifer EdmonComment