Harlyne J Norris Pavilion

Very Nice Venue. The parking is a bit trying, but with the free lot across the street it wasn’t a bad option at all.

We had our wedding and reception here in August 2015 and it was great! We got a ton of compliments about the venue and everyone had a great time. Paige was very helpful and answered any questions I had in a timely manner. The ability to bring in your own alcohol was a huge plus for us, and they also provided the tables/​chairs/​etc. so it saved us on rental fees. The only reason I gave them 4 stars instead of 5 is I think their add-​ons are quite pricey. They have a beautiful room with a lighting grid all set up, but adding any extra lighting features or projections on the wall was quite pricey. Also, the chairs for the ceremony were really nice, but the chairs in the actual venue aren’t the best. I’d definitely recommend the venue to anyone who is looking for a place to hold a reception or event.

I had my wedding reception at the Norris Pavilion this past July and could not have been happier with the way everything turned out. Paige, the event coordinator, was extremely helpful, responsive, flexible, and organized throughout every step of the planning and execution, even when our guest count went up from 200 to 270! We had a beautiful cocktail hour out on the front lobby and a buffet dinner outside on the back terrace, which looked lovely at night with the twinkly lights. The indoor reception area was spacious enough for all the tables and a large dance floor, and had a variety of lighting options to choose from. Everything went super smoothly, and we got so many compliments on how beautiful the venue looked! There is a free parking lot across the street for guests, plenty of restrooms, and two options for a bar (indoor and outdoor). The price is extremely reasonable considering all the included amenities such as tables, chairs, plate settings and glassware, and a dance floor, with options to rent their speakers/​extra lighting/​projector screen etc so you don’t have to bring in your own (which makes things so much easier). Also, there is the option to bring in your own caterer for a fee and I really appreciated that we could bring our own alcohol as well. I highly recommend the Norris Pavilion!

A pretty place to hold a wedding reception. We walked in to a stunning array of lights, classy décor and an intimate environment. The outdoor area is a little sparse but I know there are pictures where the couple has bedazzled and decorated it beautifully. The waitstaff were a little rude when I asked them for a plate so I could give my husband some of my food, but I think they were also busy and understaffed. I love that they congratulated my friends on their marquee!

This was the wedding reception venue for us 6÷20÷15 and it was awesome. Let me start by saying that Paige and Jeff are great people who helped make this day special for us. Paige was the contact person who helped with all the coordinating prior to the event. She helped us tour the venue, book the venue and create a layout for the venue. Jeff was the day of person, he was there during the event to make sure everything happened according to the itinerary that Paige help create. Now to talk about the actual venue, its perfect! There is ample room we had 278 guest, the venue was very spacious. All of our guest complemented us on such a beautiful venue. The design of the venue allows for one to tailor it to there personal preference. We had a buffet style reception which the Norris along with Lisa’s Bön Appetite pulled off seamlessly. We had a cocktail hour at the entrance where the main bar is located at. The main bar is large enough to quench the thirst of 278 guest no problem. For dinner we had the catering staff staged in the outdoor patio which allowed a nice flow. In the main hall we were able to have the largest dance floor along with a stage for our live music. My wife and I highly recommend this place!!!

This is a great place to have a wedding ceremony AND reception! We first visited the Norris Pavilion on April 10 of 2014, a full year before the wedding date. From then on, every step of the planning process has been smooth, and I have to thank Paige Baumann, the on-​site coordinator, for being so responsive and organized.
The venue itself is beautiful, spacious, and perfect for large party; there is an outdoor ceremony space that can easily seat 150 guests and takes very little decoration because it is already so elegantly designed. The indoor reception area comes with a lovely, big dance floor, uplighting in the color of your choice, all the tables and chairs, as well as a bar in the cocktail area outside. The bathrooms are clean and the parking is free. There is a fountain that lends to the romantic nature of the front entrance. Best of all, however, they are there with you every step of the way.
I was able to trust in Paige because her emails were so clear and detailed, she was always able to answer every one of my questions, and she met me for multiple meetings where I was able to tour the venue with my family, my day-​of-​coordinator, and various others to show them what I was envisioning. In addition, they were super flexible and helpful in allowing us to create centerpieces with *live* goldfish in them, a feat that would not have been possible if they hadn’t let us bring a giant bucket to fill with water the night before. If I had to do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing about the venue. It was worth every penny.

We held our REALTOR® Education Fair at the Norris Pavilion, and they were fantastic to work with! They were very accommodating of our needs and we would definitely recommend them for any type of event venue. — Melinda Flynn, Palos Verdes Association of REALTORS®, Education Chair 2014

After a long and exhaustive search of SoCal wedding venues, we selected the Harlyne J Norris Pavillion as our venue for both the ceremony and reception, and our guests have commented over and over that it was one of the best weddings that they have ever attended. The Norris Center is a performing arts center, so you have all of the advantages of lighting, sound, acoustics, bathrooms, bar areas, tables, chairs, etc that would normally be found in a place like this. If you want to get creative here, you have really unlimited options, and that is a lot of fun. Much of the success of your wedding, like any other wedding will be attributed to the quality of your caterer, service staff, DJ, decorations, etc. But as far as being a unique and modular space, the Norris Center is absolutely awesome. Our wedding ceremony was outside on the terrace area, which was then expertly converted from a and altar, aisle and chairs into an outdoor lounge with open bar, fire pits, padded sofas and cocktail tables and desert bar immediately after our ceremony, while our guests were having cocktails in another area. The cocktail hour itself was in the main foyer where guests had access to a bar, restrooms and the scenery of the fountain in front of the building. The reception was held in the main ballroom where you can use the gobo lights, custom lighting, disco balls, and a full theater sound system to do whatever you like. Possibly the best attribute of the Norris Center is the ability to bring in your own caterer and your own alcohol (depending on the caterer that you select). We hired Critics Choice Catering, and they were amazing. They supply a bartender, and allow you to bring in your own alcohol. Norris Center provides all tables chairs, cocktail tables, wine glasses, flatware, etc — another big advantage. The only downside is that you need to use their contracted furniture vendor, not a big problem because Choura was fantastic — it’s just a bit of a flexibility issue. Paige the event coordinator is excellent to work with. She really makes the place easy to work with.

We had our wedding here at the end of July and it was just perfect!
When my husband and I started looking for venues, we knew we did not want something at a hotel or a country club and we needed a venue that would let us bring our own caterer because the catering would be provided by a long time family friend/​restaurant owner. Just when it seemed impossible to find the right venue, my sister attended a sweet 16 here and suggested we take a look at it.
Right away, my husband and I got in contact with Nancy. She was great at responding to emails and working with our busy schedule. We set up a visit where she explained the ins and outs and we left out of there having already made our choice.
The rental fee includes so much– tables, chairs, certain lighting, dinnerware, set-​up and tear-​down and amazing staff!
The entire pavilion is gorgeous. From the street entrance to the terrace in the back, it was just beautiful and perfect. I especially loved the chandeliers in the main ballroom and the cherry wood walls!
So, we did have to pay a fee for bringing our own caterer, but was not much when compared to other venues. We also were allowed to bring our own alcohol, which made for a great night for our guests given the open bar all night. We purchased all of our alcohol from Costco and were able to return what we were left with. For bartending, we hired 2 bartenders from Choura who helped make the bar a huge hit!
We also hired 4 servers to help with the buffet, toast, cake cutting, etc… They were absolutely amazing!!!
Last but not least, the coordinator at the pavilion, Paige, was outstanding! She recently got married herself and is extremely helpful in every way– she even provided some advice and support when I started feeling overwhelmed! I wanted to surprise my husband with a gobo light on the day at the venue and she was great at keeping the secret! On the wedding day, she was there to make sure everything was done and executed exactly how we had planned!
Needless to say, thanks to all the employees at the pavilion, especially Paige and the ones provided by Choura, our wedding reception was magical and perfect in every way!

We just had our wedding at the Norris Pavilion this past weekend, and it was perfect in every way!
First a little bit of background: we don’t exactly live nearby (about 40 minutes north), as a matter of fact we considered using the club house across the street from us when first scouting for venues, so this place wasn’t exactly the first we had in mind. My wife plays French horn in the Peninsula Symphonic Winds, which used to play the Norris Pavilion as a performing venue pretty frequently. It worked very well for them, though they no longer perform there. As a musician myself, I even performed with them at this very venue (together with my wife) a couple of times. In retrospect, this made it an even more obvious choice as it was one of the places where our musical minds melded, so to speak.
When we finally remembered that they also doubled as a wedding venue, we contacted them to get more information and it became a very serious contender. We definitely wanted to have a strong musical element at our wedding, and this venue would be perfect for that. Despite their location in the heart of the upscale Palos Verdes peninsula, their fee was actually very reasonable. The $ 5K basic fee to get the venue for the day (8 hours) included almost everything: tables, chairs, lighting, setup, security staff, full use of the kitchen and bar facilities, they even had their own silverware to easily accommodate hundreds of people. On top of it, we could even rent their grand piano for just $ 50, a real steal!
When comparing prices to other rooms, we’d end up spending a lot of money just renting all the items to be brought in. This by itself made it a lot easier. Plus for an extra $ 750, we could get the wedding ceremony done on the patio in the back of the venue, which even included access for a rehearsal a couple of days earlier. We ended up doing that as it made our logistics considerably easier — here they also provided the white chairs for the ceremony, set up and teardown, etc. In retrospect, considering we ended up getting pretty bad weather (even a bit of rain!) on our wedding day in freaking July, this was definitely a good choice.
We first met with Nancy a few months ago to get the ball rolling. After picking a date in the summer that would work for us, we put down a deposit and started planning our event. The first order of business was to pick vendors, starting with the caterer (we went through their approved list as we didn’t really know any). For the few extra items that the Norris didn’t have available, we went through Choura Events — basically the only choice for this kind of stuff there. We ended up only needing a few items to put on the back patio during the reception (couches and fire pit), as well as a corner bar. The Norris provided everything else, and our caterer (Critic’s Choice) provided linens, centerpieces and so on.
For the following months, we were in close contact with the Norris staff (particularly Paige, our event manager) to set up all the details of our wedding. We had several meetings in person while we gathered our list of guests and determined the exact layout and setup of the place. Our guest list ended up reaching about 100 guests, which is rather small, but we also needed a pretty large stage for the 6-​piece rock band that provided the entertainment throughout the evening. They have a modular stage setup that can be tweaked by setting heights and adding more pieces as needed (up to 20, I believe — most bands would need just 3, we needed 8!). With the dance floor, we had room for 13 round tables to accommodate all our guests without being too crowded.
Since the Norris doubles as a performance arts venue, they were fully equipped to accommodate the elaborate setup for our band. For an extra fee, we could even rent their full house system and lights, though we didn’t end up needing that ourselves. It is all very reasonably priced for what you get. But this made it an ideal venue for a wedding like ours with a strong musical component. The feedback we got from our band reflected that: they had the freedom they needed to bring our vision to life and get set up, with no interference from nosy hotel staff. Plus, did I mention that they have their own grand piano?
Besides the gorgeous main hall that can be tweaked to your exact specifications, the rest of the venue is also beautiful. The lobby entrance with its own bar, along with the front entrance with its fountain were great places for our guests to wait. For the ceremony, the little foyer in the back was also ideal, and we even got to use the dance studio on the side to get ready to make our entrance. There was even a conference room we used to get paperwork done after the ceremony was over.
All in all, this was the perfect venue for our wedding. It allowed us the flexibility to design the reception the way we wanted, it included many things we didn’t have to worry about, and their staff made the process very easy! Awesome!

I just got married on Sunday 5÷25÷14! Our guest list went from 100 to 250 (ended up with 150) QUICK so we needed to find venues that could accommodate. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many places other than country clubs and hotels… which isn’t really our scene.
I’m very happy with the way things turned out though! After some thorough research and sight visits, we decided to have our ceremony at the South Coast Botanic Garden and the reception at the Norris Pavilion. We would’ve had our ceremony at the Pavilion as well if we wanted convenience (nice back patio), but my (now) husband and I are outdoors people and really wanted to have photos in either a garden or at the beach. The price for the ceremony was comparable too (I think $ 500 – 700 which isn’t much in the whole wedding scheme of things) so we decided the 7 min drive was worth it for better photos. Thank goodness we had PERFECT weather!
The Pavilion is located next to a fire station which could be annoying, but I don’t think there were any emergencies during the reception so it didn’t make a difference for us. Parking is across the street which was confusing for some guests, BUT at least it was PLENTIFUL and FREE. The places we originally looked at charged for valet… which was pretty much all they had *thumbs down*.
The Pavilion is BEAUTIFUL inside the main area as previous posts have mentioned (see photo). The lighting and décor is great and they provided up lighting in our wedding colors. They even had a dressing room so I could change into my Chinese dress mid reception too. I loved that they provide tables, chairs, and dish/​glassware. I wish that the chairs were nicer so that we didn’t have to rent seat covers, but luckily my caterer knew a company and handled that as well as linen rentals for me. Speaking of caterers… you HAVE to go off of the Pavilion’s preferred catered list or you have to pay a fee ($ 1k+). Since we were already paying $ 5k to just rent the place we decided to go with one of their recommendations to save us some $. We went with Lisa’s Bön Appetit because of their Unilocal reviews and because they’ve catered numerous events at the Pavilion so knew their way around. The food was received well and there were no surprises… good with me!
They let you bring your own alcohol! This was a MUST for us because my husband is the owner of King Harbor Brewing Company (new brewery in north Redondo Beach) so of course we wanted to bring our own beer. We purchased all other drinks from Costco and returned the unopened stuff (gotta love em). Lisa’s provided the bartenders for us.
Originally I was coordinating with June who was such a sweet lady in person, but she wasn’t the most responsive via email. Come time for me to confirm our meeting with her and our vendors… turns out she had retired and nobody had contacted me to let me know! Luckily, a few weeks later I was able to meet with their new coordinator (Paige) after she was settled in. Paige just got married too and was super nice to work with! I was impressed by how on top of things she was and I felt more at ease come wedding day. She emailed me to check in after the wedding too to say congrats =)
Overall, everyone had a blast! There was plenty of space to move around tables and the dance floor was great. I received a good number of comments from people that thought the Pavilion looked like a classy hotel.
SO if you are a lazy bride, I wouldn’t recommend having your wedding here. But if you’re willing to make it YOUR wedding where you can choose every detail, THIS IS YOUR PLACE. I guess I could’ve hired a wedding planner, but I suppose I’m addicted to stress =P

We had both our wedding ceremony and reception here in April of 2013-​and we couldn’t be happier at the way everything turned out! This venue is not your traditional wedding venue, as it’s a performing arts center. They hold weddings, galas, bar mitzvahs, parties, etc, here, but they can’t advertise due to their non-​profit status (or something like that) which is why you won’t find this venue on your typical wedding websites like weddingwire, projectwedding, and theknot. I happened to stumble across this venue’s website while googling «event halls» and let me tell you, it was well worth the weeks of research online to find this place!
We were looking for a venue that would allow us to bring in our own caterer and alcohol, and not surprisingly, there are few, if any, venues that will allow you to do both without charging you an exhorbitant fee making it financially ridiculous to go with an outside caterer/​bring your own booze. The Norris Pavilion does allow you to bring in both, but with some caveats-​keep in mind that you CAN bring your own caterer in, but if it’s not off their «preferred vendor» list, they will charge you $ 750. Trust me, this is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, and you get the caterer/​food YOU want. As for booze, you can BYOB but it has to be served by an insured bartender. So no, you cannot have your cousin’s friend’s brother bartend at your wedding unless he’s insured!
As for rentals, the upside to having your wedding here is that they have all of their own place settings, silverware and drinkware, which, of course, you have to rent if you want to use them. However, it’s pretty darn cheap to use their stuff, so do it. They also have basic round tables and some rather not-​so-​cute-​but-​comfy standard chairs you can use if you’d like.
The downside: despite the fact that they have all of the above-​mentioned items, you MUST take coordinate your own linen rentals to cover said tables. We had to rent our own table linens for the round tables and rectangle tables, and opted to rent chiavari chairs through our caterer who got a BOMB deal on them. I’d recommend Designer Specialty LInens (in San PEdro) for your linen rentals-​they are so great and easy to work with!
The ceremony was held outside in the terrace which is a long and narrow space which is just perfect for a wedding ceremony with approximately 130 – 50 guests. We had our DJ bring his sound system so that the folks in the back could hear everything, and it worked out great.
This place is great if you are type-​a like me and crazy organized, or have a wedding coordinator you’ve hired to deal with the nitty gritty details. This place is NOT great for you to have your wedding if you are expecting the venue to do everything. You will not be disappointed if you have your wedding here, though-​we absolutely loved it!

I just had my wedding here in April of 2013. I could not be happier with the venue we chose in the Norris Pavilion.
The best part is that you can choose from a list of caterers or bring an outside one. We wanted a place that was beautiful and could allow us to bring our own food and booze. This was the perfect place. The inside is beautiful. It is a performing arts center so you have a real theater in your venue. i.e. they have an endless amount of lighting colors to choose from and also a disco ball. The price included all tables, chairs, dishes, glasses, huge ice machine, and it is very classy inside… even granite bathrooms.
If you need a venue for anything from a party to a wedding… DO NOT cheat yourself by failing to consider the Norris Pavilion. They are unheard of because they are a non-​profit and cannot advertise.

I came here for a wedding ceremony and reception. The inside of the place looks a lot better than the outside. One downside to this place is it is next to a fire station. In my case, the sirens went off during the ceremony and made it pretty hard to hear what was going on. The lobby area is pretty small with very limited seating. While I was waiting for a reception, there were only 4 tables in the lobby. The lobby was also filled with people in line for horderves and cocktails.
The main reception was pretty nice. It was pretty spacious and fit over 250 people.
One inconvenience of this place is the parking. There is very limited parking in their lot and it was mainly for the important people. Everyone else had to park in the structure across the street. But the positive to this is there was plenty of parking.

I actually DID have my wedding reception here in 2003. I’ve told friends that it reminded me of a Ritz-​Carlton ballroom… minus the hotel! :)
Tricia mentioned that you «have to» find a caterer. We were specifically looking at places where you «got to» bring your own caterer, so that was the exact sort of «hassle» that we were looking for! The Norris allowed us to pick one from their list of 6. We went with Critic’s Choice, and they were great. In fact, we just hired bartenders through them and supplied all of our own booze. No bullshit $ 6 per drink charge for us! Best of all, we got to keep all the leftovers! Over calculated on the gin a bit… I think we’re still working on the Tanqueray!
I will admit that parking across the street is a valid, but not insurmountable inconvenience considering all of the other pluses. I’ve also been here for other events. It’s really a great community resource.