Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center-Beach Weddings Special Occasions

I always dreamed of a beach side wedding and Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center and Leslie Lund made this possible. I had my my wedding here back in September and my guests couldn’t stop raving about how gorgeous the place was with big windows over looking the Pacific Ocean. Before I found this venue I had searched all along the Southern California Coast and could not find anything within our price point, until we found Cabrillo Pavilion. From the very beginning Leslie was very nice and extremely helpful answering all my questions, and believe me there were a lot! I can never thank her and Cindy for their help. My wedding was absolutely gorgeous! I wish I could give this venue and its team a higher rating! Thank you! Best Regards, One HAPPY BRIDE!

This was a wonderful place to host a wedding reception. Very accommodating of our caterer and DJ. Beautiful space — huge windows with dramatic views of the ocean/​Channel Islands, lovely outdoor seating areas, beautiful art on the walls (which we chose to leave uncovered, although some people, for some reason, cover it up with sheets). They also provide many useful resources as part of the rental — tables, chairs, a dance floor, a projector screen (but not a projector, we rented locally), and a bar.
We actually did our ceremony at SBCC, just a few miles down the beach. Most people get married on the beach right in front of the center, but this is actually a separate rental with the city, so the cost wasn’t that different doing it at SBCC — better views, more privacy (the beach is rather full, especially during the summer). I think we might have even saved money because the space at SBCC didn’t require chair rental.
Note on booking: we booked 18 months out because it is a city property, thus an affordable place to get married right by the beach in Santa Barbara, thus highly in demand. Plan ahead! Even 18 months out we got our second choice in weekends.

Great venue and wonderful staff. The views are amazing. Room is nicely laid out. I will caution that it seems reasonably priced to have your wedding here (and it is compared to lots of other spots), but the extra hours add up if you are on a weekend rate. Only other warning, there is no air conditioner. We had no idea and it was very, very hot for our September wedding. Shouldn’t be an issue at all other than summer months. Finally, if you are interested in buying my wedding linen for this venue (dusty rose color), please message me! Thanks.

From the moment my husband and I walked into this venue, we knew it would be perfect for our wedding reception. Located right on the East Cabrillo Beach, it was very convenient for us since our ceremony would be right there on the beach as well! What I loved about this venue was the old Californian architectural style and charm, the fact that our wedding was the only wedding in the venue (I’ve always disliked the idea of sharing the venue on my big day with another couple :), and the way you can transform the place to make it look however you want! It is spacious, bright, with beautiful details all throughout the venue and it’s location is very central.

The Cabrillo Arts Pavilion was the site that we held our 2015 wedding. The staff there is friendly, courteous, and professional. We booked them over a year in advance and from the get go they made sure our day went perfectly.
Their provided literature clearly lays out the ground rules, prices, and details of renting out the space. The day of they had someone on site to make sure everything happened smoothly and the space was available from the minute we booked it. All of the details we wanted (chairs, dance floor, tables) were provided to our exacting detail. Prices were about as low as you can go for Santa Barbara… yet all of our guests couldn’t stop talking about how perfect the venue was! It is literally right on the beach. My wife and I even had a few minutes to slip onto the beach and get amazing sunset photographs.
This is one of the easiest reviews for us to write because of how perfect is was. Good staff. Good venue. Good overall experience. I highly recommend it for a Santa Barbara wedding.

We just had our wedding here and we’re very happy with the experience. We chose the venue because of the location and also the price. We had around 150 guests and the venue was a good size to hold our reception. At the Cabrillo Arts Center, you bring in all your own vendors, so it really helped that we could manage specific parts of our budget. It’s a popular wedding venue, so most of our vendors were familiar with the space.
All our guests loved the ocean view and the layout. Leslie was super easy to work with and extremely accommodating.
One downside is that the venue does not include parking with the rental fee. If you don’t want your guests to pay for parking, you do need to pre-​purchase parking from the Waterfront.

Came here for my boyfriend’s friend’s wedding a few weeks ago. The venue was really nice and had a beautiful ocean view. The perfect size for a wedding from 150 – 200 people. The beach is right there as well which is nice for those who want to take some wedding photos out on the sand.
I don’t know if Cabrillo catered the food we ate at the reception or not…
It was delicious! The only problem is that no one at my table was able to finish their plate or were nowhere near to finishing since our plates were quickly taken away when we got up for a dance. Great venue though.

Loved every second of this venue for our wedding in August! Beautiful ocean view with two patios outside that had an amazing ocean breeze for the cocktail hour. Plenty of room for our 150 guests and not much extra decorations needed because the ocean was in view and just feet away. Leslie was fantastic at fielding our questions and providing information about the venue because we live in Orange County. The deposit was returned In about a week after the event (great surprise while we were on our honeymoon!) We also had a band and the place provided great acoustics for the live music. I really can’t say enough about this venue, we feel so fortunate to have been married in SB by the beach! Thanks CPAC!

My husband and I chose to have our July 2011 wedding ceremony on the beach directly behind the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center and our reception in the Arts Center. The ceremony on the beach was perfect and we had no issue accommodating 130 guests. Although the beach is public, people were very respectful of the fact a ceremony was underway and we had no issues with noise or people randomly walking by the ceremony location. Our cocktail hour was held upstairs in the Arts Center in the back section with all the windows overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean, as well as on the amazing balconies. We had so many compliments on the venue. The word «amazing» was commonly used by our guests. The main room used for the reception comfortably fit all our guests, the dance floor and buffet tables. We opted to drape the walls with fabric to soften the room and that really transformed it. It really was very beautiful. This location is very reasonably priced for the space, location and amazing views. Our guests have commented on the Cabrillo months after our wedding. I worked primarily with Leslie Lund who was so great to work with in the months leading up to our big event. I highly recommend this hidden gem if you are considering a Santa Barbara wedding and want a view that will amaze your guests.
Other vendors that we used that we also loved and would highly recommend include: Grass Roots Florist, LBPS (lighting & fabric design), Gavin Roy (DJ), Robert Boyd (guitarist for ceremony) and Blue Horizon Studios (photography).

We had our wedding reception at the Pavilion Arts Center on July 16, 2011. Our guests enjoyed the beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean from the venue as well as the beautiful Spanish style décor. We received many compliments from our guests. The venue is great for any occassion but was defintitely great for our wedding. Leslie Lund was a pleasure to deal with at the Pavilion Arts Center.

There is a beautiful view from the ballroom. I enjoyed it while at a meeting here recently. I imagine it’d be nice for weddings (smaller ones) or receptions or graduation parties. Alcohol is allowed, but no kegs. A very nice venue, inside and out.

This is a lovely wedding reception location. I have attended two weddings here and both were beautiful. It is one of the only buildings on the beach side of Cabrillo and has a gorgeous view of the ocean. The most recent wedding I went to was this past weekend and there were over 150 people seated comfortable for dinner with a large dance floor in the middle.
My only issue with the space is that the bathrooms are right off the main room so some of the tables end up right in front of them, meaning that everyone had to squeeze past us to use the restroom. At least it meant that we didn’t have to get up to speak to most of our friends — they came to us!
There are parking lots nearby and a number of hotels located conveniently within walking distance.

I know from personal experience that finding a venue large enough for 150 people to attend a rehearsal dinner can be tough. My friend chose this Art Pavilion as the venue for her rehearsal last weekend and it was perfect. It was spacious (their website says they can seat up to 200 people) with an absolutely gorgeous view of the water. One of those views that made me think «why do I live in Chicago?»
The Spanish style of the venue was just perfect for the mexican fiesta theme of this rehearsal dinner, but really any type of theme would work in this type of space. The groom’s parents had the event catered with one of their favorite Santa Barbara Mexican restaurants so bringing in food is definitely an option, although not sure if it’s the only option. The mexican restaurant was busy cooking away on grills outside.
Surrounded by good friends this would have been a special night no matter where we are, but a cool venue like the Cabrillo Arts Pavilion made it extra special.