Wedding venues and practical help across Los Angeles and Orange County

The Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo lists weddings among bookable uses, with the James Irvine Japanese Garden for smaller outdoor gatherings and the Toshizo Watanabe Culinary Cultural Center for indoor receptions.

Official capacity guidance is 70 for the garden and 190 for the culinary center. For weddings, JACCC recommends limiting indoor capacity to about 140 to 150 guests depending on layout, which is the comfort number to use when relatives keep adding names.

Request pricing through JACCC Book a Space when you want a cultural-center setting that can split an intimate outdoor ceremony from an indoor reception.

City of Beverly Hills rents Greystone Mansion and Gardens as a location-only wedding venue. Couples hire their own vendors, including catering, and a wedding coordinator is required. Ceremony-only events can host up to 300 guests, with a small-ceremony option for up to 30 people.

Reception booking opens 11 months ahead for Beverly Hills residents and 10 months for non-residents. Ceremony-only windows open earlier still (8 months for residents, 6 for non-residents on the city schedule). The FY26 brochure is clear that the reservation covers the location only.

Choose Greystone when you want estate architecture and outside catering freedom, and you already have a planner ready to assemble the vendor stack.

Malibu Hindu Temple publishes bookable wedding and engagement ceremony services, including a wedding ceremony at the Shiva complex with priest services and cultural-hall wedding rentals for weekday or weekend blocks.

The temple services page lists engagement and wedding ceremony packages plus cultural-hall use for wedding receptions, with cleanup responsibility on the booking party. Some prices are discussed directly rather than posted as a flat public menu.

Confirm ritual details, open-flame needs, guest limits, and current pricing with the temple before you print invitations. Use this for a faith ceremony path first, then decide whether the cultural hall or another site holds the meal.

Descanso Gardens hosts garden weddings with published Rose Garden and Boddy House capacities and seasonal evening windows from mid-March through mid-September. Flora Events is the exclusive onsite caterer, and outside food is not allowed.

The venue sheet lists a Rose Garden wedding-plus-reception path for up to 170 guests at a published $8,000 venue fee, ceremony-only options from $4,800, plus micro-wedding and small-wedding formats. Boddy House capacity is listed at 100. Catering costs sit on top of venue fees.

Book Descanso when the garden setting is the priority and you are comfortable working inside a single caterer's menu and package structure.

The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden offers multiple ceremony and reception gardens plus indoor Ayres Hall in Arcadia. Capacities range from about 120 at the Peacock Café to 300 in Ayres Hall, with outdoor lawns listed at 150 to 200-plus guests.

Catering is exclusive through The Fresh Gourmet, which also bundles furniture and place settings into planning. Named outdoor options include the Waterfall and Queen Anne Lawn for larger parties, and the Rose Garden and Celebration Garden for mid-size guest lists.

Ask for current location packages and per-guest catering before you promise relatives a lawn ceremony. The exclusive caterer is the food path, not a blank slate for outside cuisine.

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens offers tiered wedding packages for cocktail reception and dinner up to 50, 120, or 250 guests, plus a custom Rose Tier. Ceremony-only weddings are not available, regardless of size or duration.

Food, entertainment, rentals, and a required planner are separate from venue pricing, so the published tier is a space and guest-count starting point rather than an all-in quote. Named large spaces include the Chinese Garden Celebration Court and mansion South Terrace, with the Shakespeare Room listed for smaller reception seating.

Tour only if your guest count and budget already fit a full reception package. Couples who only need a short outdoor vow exchange should look elsewhere.

South Coast Botanic Garden offers mixed ceremony and reception sites across 87 acres for celebrations from about 20 to 400 guests. Site options range from the Rose Garden and Garden Amphitheater (about 150) to meadows that can scale much larger depending on setup.

Unlike many garden venues, the Garden lets couples select from a preferred caterer list or bring their own vendor, with pricing beginning at $3,000 for the venue side. That outside-catering path matters if you need a specific cultural menu.

Start with guest count and catering rules before you fall for a meadow photo. Confirm which site matches your headcount and whether your preferred caterer is already on the list.

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk issues marriage licenses and performs civil ceremonies by appointment at RR/CC offices. Couples apply online, appear together with ID to purchase the license, then schedule a prepaid civil or express ceremony.

Published fees include a public license at $91, a confidential license at $85, a civil ceremony at $35, and an RR/CC-provided witness at $20. Express Marriage License and Express Ceremony appointments are available at all seven branch locations, which helps if Norwalk is not the easiest drive.

Treat the license purchase and the ceremony booking as two steps. Confirm appointment openings and ID rules on the RR/CC marriage site before you invite guests to a civil morning.

Aquarium of the Pacific hosts wedding ceremonies and receptions after public hours on the Long Beach waterfront, generally from 7:00 p.m. to midnight, with catering by Savor. Couples inquire through the official special-events booking form for ceremony-and-reception or reception-only dates.

Private use is generally available seven days a week in that evening window, and setup does not begin before 6:00 p.m. The venue is distinctive because guests move among exhibits rather than a blank ballroom.

Plan for an evening timeline and harbor logistics. Confirm current Savor packages and exhibit access rules before you promise grandparents an afternoon ceremony.

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda hosts weddings with First Lady's Rose Garden ceremonies for up to about 400 guests and receptions in the White House East Room replica. On-site event staff and catering are part of the venue offering.

White House Catering describes the East Room replica for receptions with capacity up to 500, which gives North OC couples a large indoor-outdoor sequence without splitting the party across two cities. Package pricing comes by inquiry through the events team.

Use Nixon when you need scale, parking, and a museum campus that can hold both vows and dinner. Call events@nixonfoundation.org or 657.258.0138 for current wedding packages.

Orange County Clerk-Recorder issues public and confidential marriage licenses after an online application, then offers civil ceremonies performed only by County Deputy Clerks. Ceremony rooms sit in Anaheim, Laguna Hills, and the Old County Courthouse in Santa Ana.

Published fees are $61 for a public license, $66 for a confidential license, and $28 for the civil ceremony. Licenses are valid for 90 days. Guest maximum for public or confidential license ceremonies is 20, and ceremonies currently require an OC-issued license.

Use this when you want a short legal ceremony with a small witness circle, then host a larger dinner elsewhere if family expects a banquet.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa rents lobby, terrace, and performance spaces for private events and points wedding packages to exclusive caterer Patina Restaurant Group. The arts campus sits near hotels and South Coast Plaza, which helps out-of-town guests.

Events must end by midnight. For weddings, a deposit of 50% of the facility package price plus a damage deposit is required upon signing and is non-refundable. Availability generally runs from 7 a.m. to midnight.

Choose Segerstrom when you want a central OC arts venue with in-house catering already attached. Budget for the deposit rules early so the facility package does not surprise the family spreadsheet.