Our experience with the Black Pearl on the Columbia was fabulous. We loved the venue and the staff is excellent. We highly recommend this venue for a superb wedding!
We used both floors (ceremony downstairs and reception upstairs) which was so convenient to have everyone in one place and not to have to flip the room. The views of course are superb!

We loved Black Pearl on the Columbia. First of all, the venue is stunning, with an incredible view of the water and of Mt. Hood on a clear day. The space was big enough to hold both our ceremony and reception, one on each floor, for 235 guests. The huge windows are beautiful, and make you feel like you are outdoors. The staff was extremely accessible and responsive to our questions leading up to the big day, and they gave us a very affordable price, since at the time when we booked them, they had only held three weddings there so far. Sommer was very kind, meeting me there once on her own time just so that my mom, who was visiting from California, could see the space before the big day. Although there was no bridal suite, we used the 3rd level mezzanine as a makeshift suite of sorts by using the venue's screens, and that worked really well for us. Black Pearl is also on allseated.com, which was very helpful for seating charts. They have all the tables and chairs you need, which saves money on rentals. Be aware that you will need all of your setup and cleanup to occur on the day of your wedding. We did our rehearsal in the park nearby, and had friends and family set up all chairs and tables the morning of our wedding. We also had to pay an extra fee to our dinnerware/flatware/linens rental company, since they had to pick up the rentals the night of the wedding instead of the next morning. Would highly recommend for anyone looking for a venue close to nature, but protected from the often-unpredictable weather!

We were a little worried about booking Black Pearl for our wedding after some of the scary reviews, and honestly a bit concerned by their rigid and restrictive contract process, but we are SO glad we ended up hosting our special day there! The staff are incredibly kind and helpful, our wedding went off without a hitch, and we received our full deposit back with zero issues. The one hiccup we experienced was a no-show the day of our walk-through (we ended up waiting around outside the locked space for about an hour until someone showed up, which wasn't great since we had vendors and family with us).

The vibe is absolutely spectacular if (like us) you like a mix of natural splendor and modern industrial design. We fell in love with the views and the airy look and feel of the space when we went to visit one of their open houses, and our guests could not stop raving about how beautiful it was—they were so busy admiring the views that we had trouble getting them off the massive second-floor deck to enjoy their food and dancing =)

Couples and vendors should note that there's no kitchen on-site and no grills allowed outside, but our caterer (Pearl Catering, no relation to BPOC) had worked there before and our food was cooked perfectly and served fresh despite being prepped off-site. You should also plan on larger-scale decor, since small decorative objects tend to get swallowed up by the ultra-high ceilings and abundance of windows.

I absolutely recommend this venue to any couple who wants a venue with incredible views and a blank canvas to create their perfect wedding.

Black Peral is a nice facility but book it only if you are OK with unwarranted stress just before the event and ready to shell out extra and unplanned thousands of dollars after the event.
1. We booked the upper floor and they agreed months in advance to let us use outside patio during the event for friends get together. Just a day before the event, they told us that they can’t let us use the patio unless we book the main floor as well. They asked us to make alternate arrangements otherwise. They did it on purpose knowing that we have no other choice at the last moment to find another place.
2. Their contract is totally one-sided, and they are ABSOLUTELY INFLEXIBLE. They will use every clause to make extra money from you. We booked the venue from 8am till midnight. We had to assign one person as a day of the coordinator. They charged us $750 just because this person left the venue for a coffee break. It didn’t matter that he had his back up onsite while he was away. By the way their form doesn’t allow you to assign more than one “day of the coordinator” for the whole 16-hour duration.
3. We vacated the venue before mid-night, but they charged us $2,500 for staying beyond midnight. According to them their video recording shows that we didn’t vacate the venue on time. I challenged them and cited many proofs that we handed over the venue before time. I sent them several emails, but they always came back with the same reply using video recording as the evidence. I requested them to either show me the recoding or watch with me, as I was 100% sure we left the venue before time. They never agreed to share or let me watch the recording.
4. The contract states that even of you are late by 1 minute you will forfeit 100% of your $2,500 deposit, which is totally one-sided and legally not valid. However, you would need a lawyer to have it reversed. They will try their best to misuse this clause to forfeit your deposit.
I would strongly advise you to seriously think before booking this venue. They will be nice and responsive until a day before the event. They will show their true self and rudeness when you have no option to back out. Their management is very unprofessional. They care least about your happy moments or your guest experience. They are out there to extract every penny that they can.